Sometimes source documents are worth reading. Yesterday, I published McHenry County State’s Attorney challenger Dan Regna’s letter demanding that various individuals be fired because they also play political roles.

Today, you can read McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s letter of reply. The small pages on the right hand side are the letter that his opponent Dan Regna wrote in support of Glenn Gable for state’s attorney in 2004, plus evidence that one of Gary Pack’s employees was his campaign treasurer.

August 9, 2007

Mr. Daniel Regna
550 West Woodstock Street
Crystal Lake, Illinois 60014

Dear Mr. Regna,

I have received your “demand letter” and “Pledge to Separate Politics and Prosecution.” Suffice it to say, I marvel at your hypocrisy.

To thoroughly refute your most recent stance regarding the participation of State’s Attorney’s Office employees in local politics, you need to look no further than your own words in the last election. I direct your attention to the enclosed letters of support for former State’s Attorney candidate Glenn Gable, bearing your signature, in which you expressly touted your position as an assistant state’s attorney for the sole purpose of procuring support for Mr. Gable’s candidacy. Your “demand” that I terminate the employment of those who are members of my campaign committee is particularly hypocritical in light of your own membership to Mr. Gable’s campaign committee while employed by the very office that Mr.Gable pursued.

In fact, you explicitly identified yourself both as a prosecutor and a campaign committeeman for Mr. Gable in your enclosed letters of support for his candidacy. It is clear that your self-righteous indignation is of recent vintage.

Also worthy of noting is that you “demand” that I terminate the employment of my office manager, Karen Rhodes, because of her membership to my campaign committee yet you supported a candidate who allowed a former office manager of the State’s Attorney’s Office to serve as his treasurer. I direct your attention to the enclosure citing Barbara Nease as Mr. Gable’s treasurer. As you know, Barbara Nease simultaneously was employed by Gary Pack’s administration as office manager of the State’s Attorney’s Office.

To the extent that you are interested in creating new campaign ethics rules for others, perhaps they should be rules that you have not already breached by your own conduct.

Furthermore, I would expect that as a lawyer, you would have a better appreciation for the First Amendment rights of individuals to freely participate in local politics for the betterment of their communities. The right of any citizen to participate in the election process is one of the cornerstones of democracy. This is a right that I hold dear to my heart. To so cavalierly suggest that anyone should infringe upon another person’s rights to take part in the political process is un-American. As State’s Attorney, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and certainly not to violate it as you apparently would do.

For the above stated reasons, in no uncertain terms, I refuse to honor your “demand” that I either terminate particular employees of my office or, in the alternative, forbid them from participating in local elections.
Likewise, I view your proposed “Pledge to Separate Politics and Prosecution” as nothing more than a disingenuous and desperate attempt to undermine the successes of my administration.

Sincerely,

______________________________
Louis A. Bianchi
McHenry County States Attorney

Attached was Regna’s 2004 endorsement letter of Bianchi challenger Glenn Gable, plus a screen from the State Board of Elections.

You can read them by clicking on their images to enlarge them.