McHenry County Board members Nick Provenzano and John Jung lost their seats two years ago in District 3 and District 5.
Joint sign for Mary Donner and Nick Provenzano for county board showed up for the first time the night before the election around polling places. Provenzano lost the election to Democratic Party challenger, now central committee chair, Kathy Bergan Schmidt.
It wasn’t that Provenzano and Jung didn’t have signs up supporting their re-election.
In retrospect, I believe it was because they did not run joint campaigns with their Republican running mates.
There was nothing but being next to each other on the Republican Party ballot to encourage supporters of their running mates to vote for them as well.
This causation factor hit me the night before the election when I saw this joint yard sign for Mary Donner and Provenzano.
It turned out to be too little, too late,
Provenzano lost to Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Paula Yensen beat Jung.
Yard signs for John Jung running mate Virginia Peschke began showing up two weekends before the election in which Democrat Paula Yensen picked off Jung. Peschke ran first.
Jung’s running mate, Virginia Peschke, put on no discernible campaign until yard signs appeared about two weekends before the fall election.
So, here’s my unsolicited advice to Republican county board candidates.
Convince your running mates to have joint yard signs.
Even if you don’t like them and they don’t like you.
Consider it a self-preservation move.
Right now, most GOP candidates don’t have Democratic Party opponents.
It is legal for the Democratic Party to slate candidates. They’ve done it before.
Certainly, it is difficult to find candidates like Yensen and Schmidt, people who will put shoe leather into a campaign.
Campaigning is boring work.
But, there are personal benefits. Candidates who are serious tend to miss meals and, because of that and the energy required going door-to-door, lose weight.
Nevertheless, odds are good that the Democrats won’t find vigorous candidates and, without “fire in the belly” opponents, Republican ballot holders probably aren’t in much trouble in this year of the backlash to corruption so evident among the Democrats’ high profile politicians.
But, it’s always better to do more, rather than less, in an election campaign.
If I were running for county board, I’d want a joint sign campaign.
And joint literature.
Especially, if I came in second in the primary election.