Another Bean Challenger Surfaces – Jonathan Farnick

Someone I have not heard of before is passing petitions to challenge United States Representative Melissa Bean in the 8th congressional district. He needs 869 valid signatures to get on the ballot, unless no one challenges his petition.

On the 10th of October, he wrote he had half of the signatures he needed. Last Sunday he announced he would be out collecting signatures at coffee houses in Woodstock, Palatine and Grayslake.

His name is Jonathan Farnick and he is 39 years old. He lives in Woodstock with wife Melissa and high school son Dylan in a home the couple bought their first home in 2002

In 2006, he ran a write-in campaign, calling Bean “a Republican rubber-stamp.”

“I’ve been told to hold my nose and vote for Ms. Bean because we need to keep a Democrat in office,” he wrote. “If we had one I would, but we don’t.”

Sounds a lot like Bean’s other Democratic Primary opponent, Randi Scheurer.

He doesn’t mention Scheurer’s primary challenge of Bean, but describes her husband:

“the anti-choice moderate Bill Scheurer.”

I haven’t a clue whether Bill’s wife shares his view on abortion, but Farnich maybe thinks she does.

This year, instead of running as a write-in, the 38-year old native of upstate New York in 1991 is trying to get on the ballot.

If he makes it on the ballot, Farnick surely will get more than the six write-in McHenry County votes he received in the fall, 2006, congressional race. He received 7 votes district wide.

The other 2006 write-in candidate to run for congress in a McHenry County district was Rockford’s John Borling. He ran against Don Manzullo in the 16th congressional district. He did pretty well in Rockford, which has its own competing television stations, but barely scratched in McHenry County, winning only 76 votes here.

Farnick’s 2006 information reveals he was a consultant with Spherion Corporation working in the IT departments of area companies.

“My political activity has been to vote in every mid-term since 1986,” he writes, “and presidential election since 1988.

“I’ve been to Washington, DC one cold day in 2005 to protest President Bush’s second inauguration, the last two of Chicago’s Anti-War marches, and October’s World Can’t Wait march;

  • I’ve participated in various democratic and independent meet-ups and support groups in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs;
  • I’ve been critical of Democrats, extremely critical of the GOP, and unfairly critical of others in various online discussions.
  • I have never before run for any public office.”

Concerning his 2006 campaign, Farnick revealed,

“I will not be campaigning in the normal sense… I will not be campaigning in the normal sense, so please let your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers know about me.”

He has a list of 2005-6 bills on which he disagreed with Bean’s votes on a 2006 post on his web site.

Recapping some and, maybe adding some new ones, he wrote last week:

“…we cannot decry the loss of habeas corpus; warrantless wiretapping; illegal, unnecessary, and treasury-draining wars, then support a democrat who has voted for these and other bills while in office.”

Tomorrow, an interview with Jonathan Farnick.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *