“Greg Abbott is a good man who wants to serve for the right reasons…Greg Abbott is our choice for DuPage  County Board District 3,” the e-mail states.

Abbott is one of three candidates seeking to represent the GOP in the November election. The others are former mayor Brian Krajewski and Dennis Brennan, president of the Hinsdale Township High School District board.

Abbott, a Woodridge attorney and political newcomer who previously worked in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, also has been endorsed by Commissioner Sean P. Durkin, the Daily Herald and the Clarendon Hills Doings. The Herald also ran a Q-and-A with the candidates, here. Abbott’s answers are notable for their brevity.

Krajewski, meanwhile, has picked up numerous endorsements including those of State Sen. Christine Radogno, state representatives Patti Bellock, Sandy Pihos and Jim Durkin, DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett and current District 3 board members Michael McMahon and Tom Bennington.

Bennington, a Downers Grove resident, was appointed to the seat last fall following the resignation of Kyle Gilgis, also of Downers Grove. The district includes parts of Downers Grove, Westmont, Clarendon Hills, Hinsdale, Willowbrook, Darien, Burr Ridge, Lemont, Bolingbrook and Woodridge.

Sandack, Barnett and Russ also used the most recent e-mail to reiterate their support of  State Sen. Dan Cronin, a candidate for DuPage County Board chairman who is also endorsed by Durkin. The Tribune has posted footage of its interview with Cronin and fellow GOP candidates Gary Grasso, Debra Olson and Carole Pankau here.

Cronin chairs the DuPage County Republican Party, while Krajewski is chairman of the GOP township organization.

On the Democratic side of the ticket, environmental consultant Karol Sole of Westmont is running unopposed for the District 3 seat, while Carole A. Cheney, an Aurora attorney, also is unopposed in her bid for chairman of the DuPage County Board. The election is set for Feb. 2. Early voting continues through Jan. 28 at Village Hall.

The program, which is administered through the DuPage Senior Citizens Council, has been hard hit by budget cuts at state and federal levels and faces further cuts next year, including the loss of a $36,000 Downers Grove  grant, which village commissioners have indicated will be suspended.

Meals on Wheels serves 330,000 meals a year at a cost of more than $2 million.  At $8 per meal, the program costs more than $300,000 in Downers Grove alone. Major funding sources cover about half the cost of each meal, leaving the DuPage County Senior Citizens Council to raise the rest. Clients are asked to contribute as much as they are able.

District 3 County Board member Tom Bennington said he voted in favor of the emergency funding, calling Meals on Wheels “a good and important program.”

The program allows seniors to live independently and also provides what is for many clients their only daily social contact, he said, adding that many more would be forced into institutional living arrangements without the service.

As to the future of the Meals on Wheels program, Bennington suggested revisiting the issue once the state’s budget situation is clearer.

“My view is you try and put something in place in order to hang on and see what happens,” he said. “When it runs out, you have to re-evaluate what the program’s other funding sources are.”

Commissioner Bruce Beckman had offered a similar perspective at the council’s Nov. 3 budget hearing. While he supported suspending the grant,  Beckman said he “could be convinced to support a vastly reduced contribution for one year to serve as a transition to 2011 when we will phase that out because the program, I understand, is in financial peril.”

The appointment is  subject to the county board’s approval at its Tuesday, Oct. 13 meeting.

Bennington, a Downers Grove resident, served as one of the chairman’s chief lieutenants on the board and subsequently was named by Schillerstrom to the DuPage Water Commission following his 2008 primary defeat.

Bennington reportedly will fill the seat on an interim basis only, leaving the other willing candidates to fight it out in the February 2010 primary. Of the applicants, only former Mayor Brian Krajewski has announced his intention to run for the seat regardless of who Schillerstrom appointed.

In addition to Krajewski,  six other Downers Grove residents had applied for the seat: Laurel Bowen,  Commissioner Sean P. Durkin, Michael Flynn, Bill Haider, Peggy McCracken and former Commissioner Martin Tully.

Other applicants for the seat were Attorney Greg Abbott,  Woodridge, retired DuPage County Court judge Kenneth Abraham, Darien; District 86 School Board President Dennis Brennan, Hinsdale; attorney Matt Caruso, Hinsdale; Joe Craig, Hinsdale;  environmental consultant Karol Sole, Westmont; and risk management consultant Anibal Taboas, Woodridge. Sole was the only Democrat to apply.