Former Democratic Party McHenry County Board member Paula Yensen lost her bid for re-election to a third term, but she has resurfaced as a candidate for her original office–Lake in the Hills Village Trustee.

She served there before running for County Board.

While she lost the County Board race by about 800 votes in last year’s General Election, she did fairly well in Lake in the Hills, running first in one and second in three.  (She lost her home precinct by one vote to Republican John Jung.)

But only four of her County Board District 5 precincts are in Lake in the Hills.

She ran first in Grafton 19 and second in Grafton 12, 20 & 25.

In 2013’s election for Lake in the Hills Village President only 1,261 people voted out of 16,792 registered voters.

Literally, anyone could win an election with the turnout that low.

So why is Yensen running for the village board?

I have emailed her asking the question but received no reply.

One hypothesis is that the Democrats are looking for a candidate to run in the at-large election for County Board Chairman in 2016 and Jack Franks is telling the truth that he doesn’t want to run.

There are some of us who remember that Franks promised in 1998 to limit the number of terms he would serve in Springfield to three (six years).  We know that pledge was not fulfilled and wonder why his saying he would not run for County Board Chairman in 2016 would carry any more weight.

In any event, if Franks were telling the truth about not running for County Board Chairman, who could the Democrats run?

They currently have no one on the County Board, but Yensen does has six years of experience.

So Yensen is a possibility because of her service on the County Board, but also because her husband, Mike Bissett, is Chairman of the Democratic Party’s Central Committee.

Being on the Lake in the Hills Village Board would be an additional credential.

And her candidacy against Mike Tryon for State Representative in 2004 shows that Yensen has higher ambitions.

She got 35.3% of the vote with Tryon receiving 60.8% and Libertarian Jim Young 4%.

Yensen will be running against three incumbents and two other challengers, one of who ran a losing race for Village President two years ago:

• Russ Ruzansk (Incumbent)
• Frank Covone (Incumbent)
• Bill Dustin (ran for Village President in 2016)
• Ray Bogdanowski (Incumbent)
• Tyna Zarecky

Yensen will be last on the ballot, which will give her an advantage. Incument Bogdanowski has the worst ballot position, next to last.

= = = = =
Below are the number of votes cast, first in the 2013 Lake in the Hills Village President election, next in the number of votes that Yensen won in her 2014 County Board run (put in boldface type).

You can see that most Lake in the Hills precincts were not in her County Board district.

GRAFTON 4 – 0, Not D5
GRAFTON 6 – 0, Dot D5
GRAFTON 12 – 103, 266
GRAFTON 13 – 113, Not D5
GRAFTON 14 – 0, Not D5
GRAFTON 16 – 5, Not D5
GRAFTON 17 – 0, Not D5
GRAFTON 18 – 135, Not D5
GRAFTON 19 – 69, 217
GRAFTON 20 – 72, 255
GRAFTON 25 – 31, 225
GRAFTON 28 – 63, Not D5
GRAFTON 30 – 36, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 11 – 105, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 15 – 74, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 28 – 104, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 35 – 0, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 39 – 56, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 41 – 0, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 48 – 0, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 53 – 0, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 55 – 0,Not Df
ALGONQUIN 57 – 68, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 58 – 77, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 59 – 72, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 61 – 58, Not D5
ALGONQUIN 63 – 0, Not D5