A mother and a fighter
A Politically Blonde Exclusive: In the midst of a campaign, Republican candidate for State Representative Darlene Senger doesn’t lose sight of what really matters.
When Darlene Senger gave premature birth to her daughter Michelle, she weighed just over a single pound. Three hospital-bound months later, the doctor hit Senger with more chilling news: Michelle, glued to a respirator and suffering repeated bouts of pneumonia, may not survive. It all came down to one final lasix treatment, one last hope, to permanently drain the little girl’s lungs of the excess water which was making her so ill. To this day, Senger remembers the colossal relief that washed over her like a waterfall as she walked into the hospital room to be told the last treatment succeeded.
“Once you go through something like that, you realize that nothing else matters unless you have your family’s health,” Senger said in a sit-down interview last week.
With Michelle now healthy and almost 16 years old, pulling through the stress of uncertainty seems to be a pattern for Senger. The Republican candidate running to replace retiring Rep. Joe Dunn (R-96) experienced her share of nail-biters in politics too. After losing her first campaign for Naperville City Council in 2001, she reluctantly returned to life as a broker at A.G. Edwards.
“When you lose something like that, it’s tough,” Senger said. “You really have to pick yourself up and get going again.”
She got a lucky break in the spring of 2002. Word whispered through town that Kevin Gallaher was resigning, leaving an immediate vacancy on the eight-person City Council. A shortlist of two candidates was announced. Senger was one of them.
Over the next six weeks, a contentious battle brewed within the Council over who should replace Gallaher. It boiled down to preservation, one of Senger’s key causes, versus development, which was strongly supported by the other candidate Judy Broadhead. Dominating local headlines, the debate stirred the greatest political drama Naperville had seen in years. While Senger and Broadhead nervously waited in the lobby on July 3, members of the City Council paced back and forth behind closed doors trying to reach a decision. By a one-vote margin at 1 a.m., Senger was sworn as the Council’s newest member.
“It was definitely nerve-racking but she was the perfect match for the job,” recalled Jeanette Clark, a member of the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education and former colleague of Senger. “She is so active and in touch with the wants and needs of those in her community.”
Easily winning re-election in 2003 and 2007, Senger became somewhat of a fixture in the Naperville community as she continued her involvement in the Waubonsie Valley High School PTA and as a member of the Naperville Financial Advisory. Senger was also a key force in helping the city of Naperville earn and maintain a “AAA” bond rating. Holding a MBA in Finance from DePaul University, she believes her financial and pension background will prove beneficial to the state’s budgeting problems.
Like most Illinois residents, Senger says she is frustrated with the endless gridlock in Springfield.
“There are certain things a government must do that require working together with people,” she said.
According to Naperville City Manager Bob Marshall, that shouldn’t be a problem for Senger.
“One of the things that really stands out about Darlene, is her ability to work in partnership with other groups,” Marshall said. “She really believes in that.”
This particular Saturday afternoon, Senger has just returned to her riverside campaign office after shopping the sidewalk sales with her once too-tiny daughter. Michelle’s history teachers are rooting for Senger, in hopes they will be able to arrange a special field trip to Springfield should she be elected.
“I’ve been working in this community for 13 years,” she said. “Going to Springfield will really just be an extension of what I’ve been doing for a long time.”
Senger recently stepped down from GCG Financial, where she was working as a financial advisor, to campaign full time. So far, she’s knocked on over 2,000 doors throughout the community.
However, with less than four months until the election and a tough, well-funded Democrat opponent in Dianne McGuire, there is more work to be done.
“It can definitely get stressful and challenging,” Senger said with a smile. “But being able to work with people towards a common goal really keeps you going.”
Stressful and challenging? Call it the story of her life.
