This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Dennis Reboletti Willing to Move Out of His House to Stay in the State House

If he wins, the Elmhurst resident will have to move into a new legislative district.

Dennis Reboletti will have to do more than just represent a new slate of voters if he wins a seat in a new House district. He will have to move from his longtime home in Elmhurst.

Reboletti, a Republican, currently represents House District 46, which includes a portion of Elmhurst. However, during the legislative redistricting process, Reboletti was drawn into a district with fellow House Republicans Chris Nybo (R-41st, Elmhurst) and Patti Bellock (R-47th, Westmont).

To avoid running against his colleagues in the March primary, Reboletti opted to seek the vacant seat in the 45th District, which includes part of Addison, Wooddale, Itasca, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream and Hannover Park. State law requires legislators to live within the boundary of their districts.

Find out what's happening in Elmhurstwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“This district really wasn’t on my radar, but I didn’t want to run against my friends,” he said.

If Reboletti wins the seat, he will have six months to find a new home within the 45th District. He said he did not want to move out of Addison Township if possible. Reboletti said he and his wife weighed the options before gearing up for the new campaign—even up until the day he announced his candidacy.

Find out what's happening in Elmhurstwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“They’ve been so supportive and know that in many professions sometimes you have to move,” he said.

Every 10 years the legislative political lines must be redrawn to account for population shifts recorded in the U.S. Census. Each House district requires a population of 108,734 and Senate districts require a population of 217,438.

Reboletti will begin collecting signatures and meeting with mayors and voters in the new district.

“I’ve been fortunate that I’ve already worked with many of the people in the new district so I’m not having to introduce myself to them as a new person,” Reboletti said. “But it is a different perspective because I’m not dealing with the same folks I have over the past five years.”

As for the voters and party officials he’s not yet had the chance to meet, Reboletti said he’s looking forward to building new relationships. He will tout some legislative successes including creating the nation’s first murderer registry database available on the Internet through Andrea’s Law and expanding property tax exemptions for veterans.

As Reboletti makes his way around the new district, he said the chief concerns of voters and local leaders are jobs and municipal share of state collected income taxes. Earlier this year there was talk of withholding those funds from municipalities to balance state accounts. Mayors and city managers from across the state stopped the action, but there is still fear future funds will be withheld.

“That’s a concern I’m hearing from all the mayors in the area,” Reboletti said.

He said other concerns facing voters in the new municipalities include highway and flooding issues.  

Prior to serving in the Illinois House, Reboletti served as assistant attorney general under then Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan. He also served eight years as an assistant state’s attorney.  

No other Republican candidates have declared for the new district, but Reboletti said he will assume some sort of opposition will be mounted.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?