The petals seem to have already wilted on newly appointed GOP 26th State Senate hopeful Darby Hills’ Valentine’s Day roses.

Darby Hills (Village of Barrington Hills photo)

Hills, the Barrington Hills village trustee who on Feb. 14 was selected to replace Dan McConchie after his Feb. 2 resignation, has still not been sworn in as of Feb. 19. A lawsuit filed Feb. 18 in McHenry County Circuit Court argues her appointment was illegal under Illinois law.

The lawsuit, filed by southern Illinois attorney Thomas DeVore, with Algonquin resident Brittany Colatorti as plaintiff, names the Republican legislative committee for the 26th Senate District and Hills as defendants. It seeks a declaratory judgment voiding Hills’ selection.

In a nutshell, DeVore and Colatorti argue that, Hills has not shown herself to be an actual Republican, as required by law, and that the committee that selected her did not legally exist and did not inform the public of its intentions as legally required.

DeVore and Colatorti argued that the law exists to protect Republicans “from having their party infiltrated by a pseudo-Republican,” and that Hills “has never engaged in any behavior which would have put the public on notice that she is a Republican.

Thomas DeVore (Facebook photo)

Hills was selected from a four-person field that also included current 52nd District State Rep. Martin McLaughlin of Barrington Hills, Ela Township Trustee Tosi Ufodike of Hawthorn Woods; and Long Grove Trustee Chris Borawski.

The selection committee, which interviewed candidates at the Palatine Township Republican Organization offices Feb. 14, included Lake County GOP Chair Keith Brin, McHenry County GOP Chair Jeff Thorsen; Kane County GOP Chair Andro Lerario; Palatine Township Supervisor Andy-John Kalkounos; and Barrington Township GOP Chair Peter Kopsaftis.

Selection committee members did not interview attorney Joe Salvi, who withdrew his name from consideration Feb. 2 in the wake of pushback over his being the son of Kathy Salvi, the Illinois Republican Party chairperson.

DeVore foreshadowed his legal actions on Feb. 16 in a Facebook post, in which he stated, “As of today, I’ve not seen anything which suggests Mrs. Darby Hills meets the legal requirements of 10 ILCS 5/25-6(c).”

Under that law, the person who replaces McConchie, a Republican, must be a Republican. Hills, DeVore and Colatorti contend, “is not qualified under the law to replace Sen. Dan McConchie as she is not from the same political party of Sen. Dan McConchie as defined in the statute.”

To support that claim, they enumerated several purported facts, including alleging that, in the past 23-month period prior to her appointment, Hills:

• Has not run for office as a Republican.
• Has not signed any petition for a Republican candidate.
• Has not voted in a Republican primary.
• Has not served as a Republican precinct committeeperson.

While Hills is an elected Barrington Hills village trustee, that office is nonpartisan.

The lawsuit also argued that not only did the selection committee not notify the public of its meeting the afternoon of Feb. 14, it did not even legally exist for any purpose, as members never took the required steps to legally form the committee until just before the selection interviews.

“It is worth noting it was an impossibility for the legislative committee to have made the required notice for Feb. 14, 2025, as the committee didn’t even exist,” DeVore said in a footnote. The candidate interviews “were behind closed doors and not open to the public.”

Saying “rules are rules,” DeVore expressed astonishment in his Facebook post that no one involved in the selection process had read the law, and took a slap at local GOP leadership.

“It took me all of about 5 minutes to educate myself on the legal standard,” he said in his post. “It’s a good thing I did, or we could have possibly lost our ability to make the appointment and it could have been placed in the hands of Governor (J.B.) Pritzker.”

DeVore’s post also alluded to the ongoing internecine battles that are roiling the GOP ranks in Illinois, a situation particularly fraught for the GOP in the 26th Senate District, which has been trending Democratic.

“I can’t comprehend how on earth anyone in our Republican Party would have thought it prudent to appoint any person to the Senate who for all intents and purposes could just as easily be a Democrat as a Republican,” DeVore posted. “The whole purpose of this law is to avoid a party being infiltrated by the other party.”

“I guess the Republican electorate, all of you, were just supposed to trust these “leaders” in our party knew what they were doing?”

DeVore told the Daily Herald on Tuesday that Colatorti’s goal in filing the lawsuit was to force the selection committee to appoint a different candidate “who is qualified under the law.”