Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Former Springfield Alderman, City Clerk and Park Board member Frank Lesko — the current Sangamon County Recorder — says he wants the seat in the Illinois Senate currently occupied by former city colleague and Democrat, Doris Turner.
Lesko says there are some things Turner hasn’t done to help her constituents.
“I’m stepping forward because I believe the people of the 48th District deserve a Senator who will fight for them,” said Lesko, Tuesday morning, outside United Contractors Midwest. “This campaign is about you, the people. It’s about making Illinois affordable again. It’s about putting families first — seniors, veterans, and small businesses — ahead of politics.”
Lesko will be out of a job at the end of next year after voters approved by referendum combining the office with that of county clerk. After December of 2026, Lesko says he needs something else to do.
“I’ll be honest. Many people reached out upset, not because they oppose saving money, but because they didn’t want my public service to end,” said Lesko. “I told them then, and I’m telling you now, my service is not ending. I’m not going away.”
Lesko says he was in favor of the office being eliminated, and that he campaigned on it. Democrats claim he’s not being completely truthful about that.
“Frank Lesko did nothing to support early elimination of the Recorder’s Office until a bipartisan majority of the County Board held his feet to the fire and voted to put it to the voters ASAP,” said Tony DelGiorno, Sangamon County Board Member, who introduced the original resolution to put the office’s elimination on an election ballot at the next available opportunity. “We made him keep his campaign pledge. Now he wants to be rewarded for something he didn’t initially support? I don’t think so. The voters of the 48th Senate District aren’t going to be fooled by his nonsense when they know the results that have been achieved for them by Senator Doris Turner.”
At issue, DelGiorno claims in a news release sent to CapitolCityNow, is that Lesko allegedly wanted at first to eliminate the office at the end of his term in 2028. Lesko defeated incumbent Josh Langfelder in the 2024 election.
Meanwhile, Republicans standing behind Lesko at his news conference Tuesday claim Governor JB Pritzker is looking closely at the potential Turner-Lesko matchup.
“I can tell you that the Governor is worried about this race,” said State Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield). “How do I know this? Late yesterday (Monday), he scheduled a press conference 45 minutes away from here that starts at the same time at this event. Governor Pritzker hopes he can distract the media and the public’s attention away from the obvious: that we need to fire Sen. Doris Turner so we can hire Frank Lesko.”
Governor Pritzker’s public events are usually announced in the late afternoon or early evening, and his office likely didn’t factor the conflict of timing with Lesko’s announcement — both of which were Tuesday at 11 a.m. Other politicians were also at the Farm Progress Show Tuesday.
The Governor’s allegedly last-minute announcement? A $2 billion fertilizer plant being built in Tuscola.
Members of the media covered both events Tuesday.
