Results on Champaign County Contested Races in Tuesday’s Primary Election

There was an upset Tuesday in the only contested Republican county board primary race in Champaign County.

Stephanie Holderfield of Mahomet received 1,349 votes, or 52 percent of Republican ballots cast in District One, to defeat the incumbent, fellow Mahomet resident Chris Doenitz in the GOP primary. Doenitz received 1,231 votes.

Holderfield is a Realtor who's running for office for the first time. She says one of her concerns is the rural land use plan that's been in the works in Champaign County for the past three years.

Holderfield says she wants the plan to be flexible enough so that owners of farmland can sell it for development.

"If you own it, you ought to be able to do what you want with it, within reason", says Holderfield. "Imposing so many restrictions on your land goes against all of your property rights, and I am a property rights advocate."

Holderfield will be running against Democrat Eric Thorsland in November.

In County Board District Six, Michael Richards of Champaign will be running for re-election in November. Richards won the Democratic primary in District Six --- beating out Debby Auble and Joshua Hartke.

But Richards, with 434 votes, came in second to a newcomer. Pattsi Petrie received 523 votes, and will join Richards in running for two available county board seats in District Six. Petrie ran unsuccessfully for the county board in 2008, and says her political platform remains "the macro-issue of sustainability", in its economic, environmental and social dimensions.

Petrie says that includes discouraging urban sprawl in Champaign County. She says she opposes the extension of Olympia Drive through the north end of Urbana, because it would take healthy farmland out of commission.

Andrew Timms won the Republican primary for District 6 without opposition. Republicans could name a 2nd candidate later.

In County Board District 6, which covers parts of Urbana and Urbana Township, James Quisenberry and Christopher Alix won the Democratic primary. Quisenberry led the primary with 810 votes, followed by Alix with 644 votes. They'll face Republican Robert Brunner --- and perhaps a 2nd Republican to be named later.

Also in Tuesday's balloting in Champaign County, voters in Mahomet came out in favor of legalized leaf burning in the village.

Voters approved an advisory referendum in favor of lifting the leaf-burning ban, with 740 "yes" votes --- or 62 percent of the total --- compared to 447 "no" votes.

Two other referenda were defeated in Champaign County.

Voters in the Compromise-Kerr-Harwood multi township assessment district in the northeastern Champaign County rejected a tax increase by a two to one margin ---- 273 "no" votes to 145 "yes" votes..

And nearly 61 percent of voters in Sidney turned down a bond issue request to build a sewage treatment plant. The referendum received 165 "yes" votes and 257 "no" votes.