As insiders speculated that Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence J. O'Brien won't run again, Barbara Moore, wife of 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, was out in the rain Sunday drumming up support for her candidacy for the water board. She's officially announcing her candidacy at 6:30 p.m. today at Chicago's Heartland Cafe.
The terms of three members of the nine-person board are up. Incumbents Debra Shore and Patricia Horton, both first elected to the board in 2006, are running again.
But O'Brien, first elected in 1988, hasn't said he's running, and he is said to have missed the deadline for asking for the county Democratic endorsement, though whether there is wiggle room in that deadline remains a question.
If O'Brien doesn't run, that could open up a position on the Democratic slate for Moore.
Kari K. Steele, a Chicago resident who worked as a water chemist for six years at the city's Jardine Water Filtration Plant, also may file as a Democratic candidate. Former candidate Stella Black, who ran in 2010, might run again.
As for the Green Party, two-time MWRD candidate Jack Alley says he's not going to run again. But the party has four candidates planning to circulate petitions and might have a contested primary, Alley said.
Among the candidates is Michael Smith, who ran in 2010 on the Green slate for Cook County Board commissioner from the second district.
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Whoever runs, they need to get behind disinfecting the Chicago River, which has already been ordered by federal and state authorities.