John O’Neill is the Republican candidate running for state representative against ten-years-in-Springfield Democrat Jack Franks.

Franks cheered in the election of Rod Blagojevich and his era of Democrat politics, even asking him for appointments for friends and family.  You certainly can’t find any “Don’t vote for Blago” public campaign statements by Franks.

Once Blago took on a public relations stench, Franks tried to position himself as being for “reform.”

He promoted a recall constitutional amendment, for instance.

Originally, it included the ability of citizens to recall of statewide elected officials, state lawmakers, judges in local circuit courts and justices on the appellate and supreme court benches.

As it ended up on the ballot, only a governor like Rod Blagojevich could be recalled.

But it is so complicated that it won’t won’t ever be used unless we have another Rod Blagojevich and a U.S. Attorney like Patrick Fitzgerald.

So, you’ll understand why I say being a Democrat for “reform” in statewide Illinois politics is like pretending French fries aren’t made from potatoes.  And, although you might order French fries, you’ll get mashed potatoes, probably moldy ones.

Everyone in politics knows the largest amount of campaign money and campaign workers comes from the unions with teacher unions leading the pack.

Franks, like many I’m-entitled-to-keep-this-job politicians, has a nose for which way the political wind is blowing and where the political money is.

His opponent, John O’Neill, is on the McHenry grade school board of education, as well as its library board, and is running as a common sense conservative.

He is the kind of people-should-get-involved candidate that newspapers write about, but I’m betting the Northwest Herald will give a negative slant to O’Neill and won’t endorse him.  I’m also betting they will ignore Franks’ liberal positions in an effort to keep him in office.

Franks is an insider lawyer-politician (probably up in Canada fishing with the Democratic Party power elite right now) who has vigorously defended teachers unions’ right to strike in Illinois.

In lawyerly fashion he defends driving up costs for taxpayers, in union lawyer fashion, as a good thing.

In liberal Massachusetts teachers are not allowed to strike and it is one of the most unionized states in the nation.  Massachusetts is generally regarded as having one of the best public education systems in the country.

What got me thinking about this is the photo I took.  It was of Huntley teachers on strike.  One of the teachers was holding up a union sign with

“Good Teachers Deserve Good Benefits”

It begs the question:

“What about the really lousy, go-through-the-motions, can’t-get-rid-of and way-overpaid-for-what-they-are-‘teaching’ teachers?”

It’s in the extreme liberal category to demand teacher unions keep their right to strike.

Driving up costs to taxpayers is anything but fiscally conservative or fiscally responsible.

Although, if you are a lawyer, as Franks is, anything black can be labeled white and puffed up and sold to voters as “conservative.”

Liberals puffed up and sold Barack Obama to voters as mainstream and moderate.

Right.

There’s nothing conservative about being an automatic vote in Springfield for the teachers unions whenever they need one, as Franks is. It’s called liberal Democrat politics and Franks is into the teachers unions as much as any politician in Illinois.  He tries to hide or disguise it, because he has to answer to the voters in McHenry County every two years.

Illinois right-to-strike teacher unionism allows kindergarten physical education teachers to get paid the same as high school English teachers who have to correct and grade essays.

It also allows for pay schemes where they and middle school gym teachers, for example, can get paid $100,000 a year for less than nine months of work days.

The union’s threat of a strike prevents common sense from prevailing.

It makes it difficult for boards of education to say, “No,” to every teacher being paid the same way regardless of what grade or subject they are teaching.

About ten percent of public school teachers are physical education (gym) teachers.  If P.E. teachers have been teaching “health” to students, the push against childhood obesity is one indication their efforts overall on a national level haven’t been successful.

Jack Franks’ liberalism isn’t based on compassion, at least not for students stuck in failing schools.

Liberal Democrat politics can be downright mean to the needy in Illinois.

More tomorrow on how liberal union politics hurt the most vulnerable and needy students.  And how Jack Franks voted to put money ahead of what’s good for students and parents.  It proves how one can be a lawyer and leader, while being a bad leader preventing real reform in Illinois.