D86 Election: All 3 'Friends' Challengers In, Brennan and Gorgol Out

District 86 voters have decided to make a change. Three of them, actually.

Victor Casini, Ed Corcoran and Claudia Manley—the three challengers who made up the "Friends for District 86" slate—won three of four open seats on the Hinsdale Township High School District 86 Board of Education Tuesday, with all precincts reporting.

Incumbent Kay Gallo also won a seat, according to unofficial results. 

Manley, the leading vote-getter with 4,196, called her slate's three-win performance was "unbelievable."

"We thought we were swimming upstream the whole race," she said.

Corcoran finished second in the voting with 4,044. Gallo was a close third at more than 4,005 and Casini was fourth with more than 3,879.

Manley said the results show that the district's voters are demanding transparency and accountability from their board, and she said to expect a "new brand of collaboration."

"I’m so happy to be elected and along with Victor and Ed, we’re going to work collaboratively with anyone and everyone on the board," Manley said.

Individually, Corcoran said he gave himself "at best" a 50 percent chance of winning a seat and was "elated" with Tuesday's results.

"We had a bunch of people in different geographic areas supporting us," Corcoran said. "There’s no one person that made this happen."

Casini and Gallo did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Gallo was the only candidate from the incumbent-heavy "Building on Excellence" slate to win a spot. Current Board President Dennis Brennan (3,772 votes), would-be newcomer Roseanne Rosenthal (3,529), and current board member DeeDee Gorgol (3,332) finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

Brennan told The Doings that he believed the Downers Grove Republicans' endorsement of the "Friends" slate helped it succeed Tuesday.

The outgoing board president said that the organization should not make endorsements in nonpartisan elections, The Doings reports, and that he is "embarrassed" to be a member.

Roger Kempa was the only candidate who was not part of a slate. He finished eighth Tuesday with 2,688 votes.

See all of Tuesday's results: Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills | Burr Ridge | Darien