Appointed Sangamon County Sheriff Paula Crouch won the Republican primary for
sheriff on March 17, fending off an enthusiastic challenge from retired deputy David Timm, while incumbent County Board member Sam Cahnman was defeated in the Democratic primary by political newcomer Miguel Valente.
Paula Crouch, 52, a retired former Springfield Police Department lieutenant, credited the
support of the Sangamon County Republican Party and the credibility that comes with
incumbency for her 8.4-percentage-point win over Timm, 51.
Crouch received 9,256 votes, or 54.2%, to Timm’s 7,829 votes, or 45.8%, in unofficial
results.
“I was confident going into tonight that we would prevail,” Crouch told Illinois Times
about 10:45 p.m. March 17 as election returns indicated her likely victory.
Crouch said campaign contributions she received from the local GOP, as well as
endorsements from many local Republican officeholders and former GOP sheriffs Jack
Campbell and Neil Williamson, appeared to help her prevail in the primary.
Crouch, who is seeking elected office for the first time, wrote on her campaign’s
Facebook page: “Running for public office is not a solo effort. I am grateful to my family and the many supporters who stood with me throughout this campaign. So many people across our community stepped forward because they believe in the work we are doing and know they can trust me to lead the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office.”
Valente, 25, a budget analyst in Gov. JB Pritzker’s Office of Management and Budget,
beat out Cahnman, 71, a private attorney, in the Democratic primary for the District 18 seat on the GOP-controlled County Board.
Valente received 271 votes, or 62.6%, to Cahnman’s 162 votes, or 37.4%, in unofficial
vote totals. There was no candidate for the seat in the Republican primary.
District 18 covers parts of Springfield’s downtown, north side and east side.
Valente, a retired Illinois Army National Guard member, said he was “very humbled and
very thankful” for his victory.
“I’m a self-made candidate,” he said. “I put myself on the ballot. Nobody asked me to
run.”
Valente told the newspaper he considers himself a fiscally minded candidate forced on
affordability, transparency and government efficiency. He said he wants to advocate for the
needs of a district with high poverty rates and aging housing stock, and he supports making
Sangamon County a home-rule county, which would require voter approval.
Cahnman was first elected to the County Board in 2002 and later served on the
Springfield City Council as the Ward 5 alderperson from 2007 to 2015 before being defeated by Republican Andrew Proctor for a spot on the officially nonpartisan City Council.
Cahnman returned to the County Board in 2022. He had no Republican challenger in the
general election and defeated Democratic incumbent Rose Ruzic in the 2022 primary.
In regard to his March 17 primary loss, Cahnman said in an email that Valente “is a very
nice young man, and I wish him well. If I can help him in any way on the County Board, I gladly will. It has been an honor to represent the good people of District 18 in my two terms on the County Board. I will now concentrate on getting the remaining signatures needed to put the binding referendum on Recall for our county sheriff and other county elected officials on the November ballot.”
In the only other contested County Board primary contest, incumbent Republican District 3 representative David Mendenhall easily defeated challenger Samantha Auby. Mendenhall received 708 votes, or 76%, to Auby’s 224 votes, or 24%, in unofficial totals.
District 3 is a largely rural district in the eastern part of the county. There is no
Democratic candidate.
Timm said he was disappointed by the results in the GOP primary for sheriff. He
attributed Crouch’s victory to a well-organized and well-financed Republican “machine” in Sangamon County and a torrent of campaign ads attacking his character and 25½-year career at the sheriff’s office.
“I wasn’t doing this for me,” he said. “I was doing it for the employees and the people of
the county, and I feel like I let them down. We gave it a shot, but the machine still won.”
Crouch was appointed in September 2024 to serve the remainder of Republican Jack
Campbell’s four-year term when Campbell retired amid criticism of his hiring of former deputy Sean Grayson. Grayson was convicted of murder last year in the July 2024 fatal shooting of Sonya Massey in her Woodside Township home.
So far, Crouch doesn’t have a Democratic opponent for the Nov. 3 general election.
Democratic candidate Marc Bell, a retired Illinois State Police master sergeant, announced Feb. 9 that he was withdrawing from the race because of a lack of financial support from the
Democratic Party.
The local Democratic Party, through a vote of precinct committeepersons, still can select
a Democratic nominee for the Nov. 3 general election by June 1, Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray said.
Timm’s campaign focused on restoring trust in the department in the wake of Grayson’s
hiring and Massey’s death, as well as beefing up officer training and the number of deputies on the street.
Timm was endorsed by several police unions, including the Fraternal Order of Police
lodge representing deputies, correctional officers and court security personnel.
Crouch portrayed herself as an outsider not beholden to the unions and with more
education and a bigger range of experience than Timm. Crouch said she is working to improve training, outreach to the community and operations at the county jail in the wake of several deaths of inmates in recent years.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at
dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.
