The Better Government Association includes a short article on McHenry County Board member Bob Bless in its half page report in the Chicago Sun-Times today.

You can find the story on the BGA web site here.

Reprinted with permission, it’s entitled,

A heaping mess for Mr. Bless

These days, McHenry County Board member Robert Bless must feel cursed.

An attorney and cop in addition to being a Republican politician, consider the trouble he’s in:

• The agency that regulates lawyers is investigating Bless over misconduct allegations including, among other things, money scammed from a client who also was his mistress, according to court records.
• The woman is suing him in Cook County Circuit Court.
• Prosecutors have questioned people in front of a grand jury about some of the same things.
• And the Cook County sheriff’s office, where Bless works as an officer, is trying to fire him for, among other things, allegedly not reporting that he has outside employment.

As one person familiar with the situation relayed, “You have a guy who basically had an unblemished record . . . and all of a sudden it’s fire and brimstone raining hell and fury.”

It’s a convoluted situation, and it’s still unfolding. Details continue to emerge, including revelations the ex-mistress pleaded guilty years ago in an insurance fraud scheme.

Voters might be the final jury.

Bless is up for re-election this fall.

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Four Republicans and one Democrat are contesting for four seats on the McHenry County Board in District 1.  The Democrat is Nick Chirikos.

Here’s how the GOP primary in which four candidates–Yvonne Barnes, Robert Bless, Anna May Miller and Robert Nowak–turned out:

Chirikos received 876 votes.

District 1’s boundaries have spread west into Lake in the Hills, as you can see below: