Belleville write-in candidate expects to be appointed to post won by deceased candidate

Rick Schmidt, whose late wife, Janet Schmidt, won the Belleville Precinct 7 Democratic committeeman race Tuesday night, said he believes many of the people who voted for her had not heard she had died.

“This proves how popular she was,” Rick Schmidt said Wednesday.

Janet Schmidt, who died Nov. 30, was a Ward 2 alderwoman and Precinct 7 committeeman at the time of her death.

She had 66 votes, Dave Pusa, the write-in candidate, had 58 votes and Ward 2 Alderman Mike Buettner had 42 votes, according to complete but unofficial results released Wednesday.

St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook said after the vote totals are certified and Janet Schmidt is declared the winner, he will notify Bob Sprague, chairman of the St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee, and ask him appoint someone to fill her position.

Sprague could not be reached for comment.

Pusa noted he received the second-most votes and he expects Sprague to appoint him to the volunteer party position.

Pusa said his daughter was a poll worker at Precinct 7 and she noted that many voters did not know that Janet Schmidt had died.

“Maybe some of them who knew it might have thought, ‘Well we’ll vote for her anyway,’” said Pusa, whose wife Jane Pusa was appointed to fill Janet Schmidt’s position as Ward 2 alderwoman on the City Council.

Rick Schmidt said he wants the party to appoint Dave Pusa to be precinct committeeman and criticized Buettner’s candidacy.

“He’s a Democrat in name only,” Schmidt said of Buettner. Schmidt added that he believes Buettner would not support the slate of Democratic candidates in St. Clair County.

Buettner said he found it unusual for the Democratic Party to spend money to send out fliers against him.

“I wasn’t going to be a bobblehead for the party and that’s what they didn’t like,” Buettner said. “I’m not beholden to the party. I’m going to stand on my own and do what I think is right.”

Janet Schmidt and Buettner both filed to run for the post on Nov. 23. County officials have said state law prevented them from taking a deceased precinct committeeman’s name off the ballot. After Schmidt’s death, Pusa declared to run as a write-in candidate.

The rare race featuring a deceased candidate as well as a write-in candidate drew 166 voters, up from the 57 who voted in the 2014 Precinct 7 committeeman Democratic race.

“Precinct committeeman isn’t a paying position so it’s unusual to have three people in a race,” Pusa said.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Belleville write-in candidate expects to be appointed to post won by deceased candidate."