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McHenry Township GOP Holding Caucus to Select Candidates — 14 Comments

  1. Only the McHenry Township Precinct Committeemen can vote and are invited to the event?

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    McHenry VFW, 3002 IL-120, McHenry, IL.

    Illinois Route 120 is Elm Street in McHenry.

    The VFW is on the north side of Route 120, a few blocks west of the Fox River, and a block east of Culver’s.

    December 6th is a Tuesday.

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    There are 17 townships in McHenry County.

    The townships form a grid, with Richmond and Burton Townships making up once of the cells in the grid.

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    Some of the Township Republican Parties in McHenry County have a web or social media presence.

  2. The caucus is open to all voters except those who voted Democratic in the March 2016 primary.

    Attendees will sign an affadavit — all requiredments are quite extensively detailed in the Township Caucus Guide 2017 available on the IL State Board of Elections website.

  3. All Republican voters can attend any Township GOP caucus, take it over, and directly control their own party.

    The caucus also saves the taxpayers from having to pay for two elections (Party Primary Election followed by the REAL Election) in order to accomplish anything…

  4. Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE)

    Township Caucus Guide for 2017

    (amended July 14, 2016)

    http://www.elections.il.gov/publications.aspx > Election Guides > 2017 Township Caucus Guide

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    From the guide:

    “For the 2017 Consolidated Election, the township caucuses will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2016.”

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    February 28, 2017 – Primary Election

    April 4, 2017 – General Election

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    Offices up for election in 2017:

    – City and Village: Clerk, President or Mayor, Trustees or Alderman

    – Community College Trustees

    – Fire Protection District Trustees

    – Public Library District Trustees

    – Park District Trustees

    – Referendums

    – Regional Board of Trustees (aka Regional Office of Education aka ROE aka Regional Board of School Trustees)

    – School District: Board Members

    – Township: Assessor, Clerk, Highway Commissioner, Supervisor, Trustees

    – Water Service District: Chairman, Director.

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    There is a Fox Waterway Agency in McHenry / Lake Counties.

    It is a Water Service District in Fox Lake.

  5. This is great the voters can all have their say rather than a few of the good old boys having their way.

    Democracy at its finest.

    Lets see if they can get it right there is alot of work that is required.

    Who are they trying to keep out that is the question of the day.

    Usually this is used so that people dont understand and they dont show up and then the group that is planning the caucus gets their people in without an election of the popular vote.

  6. Caucuses are an incredibly undemocratic way to choose candidates.

    It greatly reduces turnout and typically ends up being only the hardcore party activists choosing their candidates.

  7. People are elected to the Fox Waterway Agency up and down the Fox River from the Algonquin dam to the Wisconsin border from both McHenry and Lake Counties.

  8. The Fox Waterway offices are in Fox Lake.

    There are 7 board members elected from McHenry and Lake County.

    In the words of Lake County, it is responsible for dredging, debris removal, shoreline protection, flood control, flood warning for Chain O’Lakes area; has staff to do site visits.

    And its jurisdiction includes 30 miles of the Fox River.

    “All boarts on the Chain O’Lakes must display a Fox Waterway Agency sticker.”

    “Besides the Fox Waterway Agency sticker, all boats must display a current Illinois Department of Natural Resources sticker.”

    http://www.FoxWaterway.com

  9. To correct the record…McHenry Township Republican Central Committee did not actively “choose” to hold a caucus.

    We did however hold meetings on October 15 and 25 to finalize other election activities and discussed whether to hold a Primary Election or a Caucus.

    12 committeemen attended with a unanimous straw poll taken…HOLD A PRIMARY.

    However 13 is a quorum, therefore no vote could be official. Our incumbent officials

    (Craig Adams, appointed Township Supervisor and Township Clerk Marsha Nelson) were definitive in their assertion that in the absence of a vote, the default position is a primary.

    Our Republican Chairman Steve Verr and myself accepted the assertion of our sitting officials without due diligence.

    We have since been alerted by Erik Sivertsen, (our Republican Treasurer) that the default position is indeed a CAUCUS.

    Unfortunate.

    Steve Rooney
    Republican Vice-Chairman
    (815) 236-6087

  10. There are pros and cons to a caucus vs a primary.

    A caucus isn’t undemocratic if you accept the idea that we have political parties that stand for different ideas, and as long as you have alternative parties to caucus with.

    If you do find it undemocratic, one could extend that logic and just say abolish political parties.

    Having “hardcore party activists” is exactly the point of it.

    If Democrats had more caucuses they would have probably picked Bernie, who would be President Elect, instead they lost bigly.

    And Republicans may have picked someone who is more in line with their party platform rather than Donald Trump.

    I’m pretty sure candidates can skip the whole primary/caucus and get directly on the ballot pretty easily, at least in this election. And come the time of the consolidated election, anybody can vote for anybody which is very democratic.

    People are going to find something to complain about either way; if it weren’t a caucus some of the people commenting here would be complaining that primaries cost money.

    I think it’s goofy we even have primaries or caucuses in odd numbered years.

    One last thing, elections like these often get single digit turnout.

    One could say that’s not democratic.

  11. Heh, heh ….is Adams that same loser who got canned from Pioneer Ctr for missing some kind of deadline on a huge block grant? ….. wasn’t he ‘anointed/appointed’ by the old Township supervisor, any way?

    Is Adams so dumb he didn’t even know how to keep his fatcat/do-nothing job?

  12. How about eliminating all odd-year elections?

    Consolidate all elections for even numbered years.

    How much could we reduce taxes?

  13. It would be very difficult to understand all the issues if odd year elections were eliminated.

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