Guess I didn’t read Eric Peterson’s Daily Herald article about Kent Gaffney’s replacing State Rep. Mark Beaubien carefully enough.
In my article on the House Appropriations Committee Budget Director’s advancement from staff member to state legislator, I missed the apparent fact that he is a social moderate.
Kent Gaffney
The Daily Herald reports Gaffney “does believe government should stay out of what ought to be citizens’ personal choices about their lives.”
Beabien’s wife Dee said Kent was “a moderate like Mark.” The reported said Beaubien believed “some in the Lake County Republican contingent were hoping for someone more conservative on social issues.’
Beaubian was a consistent opponent of restrictions on abortion and voted for the civil union bill that just became effective June 1st.
In McHenry County, about twenty-five couples filed civil union paperwork with the McHenry County Clerk in June.
The article also says Gaffney moved from Springfield, where he was born, “only a few years ago.”
Although the vote among the three pro-life Republican Party leaders was not taken in public, it was McHenry County Republican Chairman and State Rep. Mike Tryon’s almost 50% vote combined with the tiny weighted vote of Barrington Township and 8th Congressional District State Central Committeeman Gene Dawson that created the necessary majority to appoint Gaffney.
Assuming that Gaffney is as pro-choice as Beaubien was, he will have the support of Personal PAC. Personal PAC specializes in hiring phone banks to call every woman in a legislative district asking if they are “pro-choice.” Turning out that “base” consists of the guts of the political action committee’s campaign.
That strategy can work in suburban districts when more than two social conservatives run for the same legislative office.
I speculated early on that a female pro-choice candidate from Crystal Lake could win the primary election to replace Beaubien.
Besides having the support of Personal PAC, she would, of course, have had the five percentage point advantage. Research over my political career has led me to believe that a woman has a five percentage point advantage over a man in the Northwest suburbs.
Gaffney, of course, will not have that advantage.
The conventional wisdom was that an appointment from the Party would have to be socially conservative. A moderate elected State Rep is one thing, but an appointed one by the Local Republican leadership is another story all together.
But, that was not the case because of Tom Cross’ influence.
Personally, I don’t think government should be sticking its nose into most social affairs of the body politic, but I realize and respect the views of both positions.
With unemployment at an all-time high, foreclosures up, taxes up and people feeling real pain and distress, making social issues the crown jewel of the party is tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs as the ship slips beneath the water.
I still think that Pam Pedersen from Wauconda would have been a good choice. She is a nurse who is pro-life, and an advocate for seniors. She’s also done a lot for the community. She served on the LakeViewVillaBeach board for over ten years, served on the WHS Booster Board, was a cub scout leader, and is a sandhill crane counter for the Lake County Forest Preserve.
She has a daugher who teaches in the McHenry part of this district.
One of her efforts in Springfield would be to enact legislation to protect the elderly and disabled from predatory guardianships and financial exploitation. Another effort would be to eliminate “Medicaid Planning”, a loophole in the Medicaid system which allows people to hide their money and live on public aid. Unethical guardians also use these accounts to deplete the elderly’s estate with guardian fees and legal fees.
This use of Medicaid is enriching unethical people, while the taxpayers foot the nursing home bill for the ward.
Pam Pedersen has real ideas for reform in government and the elimination of fraud and corruption. She should be urged to run in the next election.
This has very little to do with “moderate” vs. “conservative” vs. “liberal” or whatever.
Gaffney got this gig because Tom Cross, Mike Tryon, Gene Dawson and those other losers know that Gaffney will keep his mouth shut and go along with anything. He’s proven himself as a go along to get along guy already.
Just another freeloader going from failure in one state job to a bigger state job where he can be a bigger failure and pick our pockets for more of our tax dollars.
The primary challengers are already circling for this Gaffney’s political scalp. He’s gotta go.