McHenry County Blog

While the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee organization meeting was going on, I was calculating the percentages of Republican turnout in the 68 precincts.

I was stimulated to do so by the abysmally low turnout in my Algonquin Township Precinct 7. Before I was beaten by a Personal PAC candidate in 2000, the Republican turnout was above 45%, sometimes approaching 50%.

This year it was only 24.2%.

Just horrible, despite having knocked on virtually every door the weekend before the election and candidates having signs throughout the neighborhood.

Still it was the highest percentage GOP turnout in Algonquin Township.

Note that in only three precincts was the Republican turnout over 20%. Lots of room for improvement in every precinct.

Here’s what I found. If the precincts had committeemen running, I have listed their names.

If you see a precinct without a name behind it, that means no one ran for Republican precinct committeeman. People who would be willing to be a precinct committeeman who live in an empty precinct can send me an email and I’ll be happy to give you my take on what one needs to do.

Where precincts are in Algonquin Township. Click to enlarge.

If someone is already precinct committeeman, but you would like to take on a precinct, send me an email, too. People do not have to live in a precinct to be appointed its precinct committeeman.

Algonquin 1 – 10.9% (Mark Gerhardt)
Algonquin 2 – 16.0% (Ken Koehler)
Algonquin 3 – 15.1% (Mickey Barnas)
Algonquin 4 – 10.5%
Algonquin 5 – 12.3% (Chuck Lutzow)
Algonquin 6 – 13.5% (Joe Stafani)
Algonquin 7 – 24.2% (Cal Skinner)
Algonquin 8 – 12.9%
Algonquin 9 – 16.3%
Algonquin 10 – 14.1% (Aaron Shepley)
Algonquin 11 – 8.2% (Douglas Blansinski)
Algonquin 12 – 13.4% (Ray Chisholm)
Algonquin 13 – 10.3% (Rita Heuel)
Algonquin 14 – 10.6% (Andrew Kovari)
Algonquin 15 – 7.8%
Algonquin 16 – 22.2% (Lou Anne Majewski)
Algonquin 17 – 15.6% (David Miller)
Algonquin 18 – 13.7% (Jerome Majewski)
Algonquin 19 – 16.7% (Joseph Stecker)
Algonquin 20 – 10.8% (Ellen Brady Mueller)
Algonquin 21 – 9.0% (Mark Guerra)
Algonquin 22 – 11.1% (Lowell Cutsforth)
Algonquin 23 – 18.8%
Algonquin 24 – 10.5% (Donald Franz)
Algonquin 25 – 14.9% (Thomas McDermott)
Algonquin 26 – 11.7%
Algonquin 27 – 12.6% (Elaine Mulligan)
Algonquin 28 – 12.6%
Algonquin 29 – 11.2%
Algonquin 30 – 14.2% (Marc Munaretto)
Algonquin 31 – 9.1%
Algonquin 32 – 8.0%
Algonquin 33 – 13.6% (Sean Murphy)
Algonquin 34 – 9.6% (Kay Stanish beat Donald King in the only contested township primary)
Algonquin 35 – 9.2%
Algonquin 36 – 20.1% (Mike Tryon)
Algonquin 37 – 5.6% (Jacob Justin)
Algonquin 38 – 13.1%
Algonquin 39 – 5.6%
Algonquin 40 – 8.3% (Mallory Rosencrans)
Algonquin 41 – 11.7%
Algonquin 42 – 16.9%
Algonquin 43 – 9.6%
Algonquin 44 – 11.6% (Patrick Cocernian)
Algonquin 45 – 17.2% (Robert Bless)
Algonquin 46 – 14.8% (Kathy DeRaedt)
Algonquin 47 – 10.9% (Rebecca Lee)
Algonquin 48 – 13.2%
Algonquin 49 – 15.7% (Demetrios Tsilimigras)
Algonquin 50 – 17.1% (Lyn Orphal)
Algonquin 51 – 13.5% ((Eileen Marhoefer)
Algonquin 52 – 8.1% (Robert Lee)
Algonquin 53 – 5.1% (Brian Hain)
Algonquin 54 – 13.7%
Algonquin 55 – 12.3%
Algonquin 56 – 10.0% (Eugene Sittinger)
Algonquin 57 – 7.8%
Algonquin 58 – 14.8%
Algonquin 59 – 7.3%
Algonquin 60 – 12.8%
Algonquin 61 – 10.3%
Algonquin 62 – 12.3%
Algonquin 63 – 8.4%
Algonquin 64 – 13.7%
Algonquin 65 – 15.9%
Algonquin 66 – 8.3%
Algonquin 67 – 13.4%
Algonquin 68 – 10.0%

Again, if you want to learn how to have a real impact on an election, send me an email. A link is on the upper left hand side of this page.

Map of Algonquin Township showing precincts. Algonquin Township has more people than any of the sixteen other townships in McHenry County.

The fourth generation of a Cary political family has stepped to the fore to lead the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee.

Rebecca Lee, daughter of Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller and County Board member Anna May Miller, was elected to head the organization. Her grandfather and great-grandfather also serve as township highway commissioner.

Vice Chairman will continue to be Tom McDermott of Crystal Lake.

Mark Gerhardt from Downtown Algonquin will serve as secretary.

Rounding out the leadership team is McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Demetrios Tsilimigras.

Lee, Gerhardt and Tsilimigras are all attorneys. All have worked at one time or another as assistant state’s attorneys in McHenry County. Gerhardt has also served in Cook County’s office. Tsilimigras worked for the Kane County State’s Attorney before coming to work for Lou Bianchi.

Both Gerhardt and Tsilimigras were elected precinct committeeman for the first time February 2nd.

McHenry County Republican Party Chairman Mike Tryon, a precinct committeeman in Algonquin Township, but in Springfield for mid-week, asked for an indication committeemen support for 16th Congressional District State Central Committeeman candidates. Tryon said he would support whomever the majority supported at the annual convention, according to Karla Dobbeck, the woman who was head of the township central committee until stepping down last night.

Incumbent State Senator Dave Syverson is facing off against challenger Joe Wiegand.

With 27 committeemen present, only seven indicated a preference.

The vote was six for Wiegand and one for Syverson.

Cal Skinner spoke in favor of Wiegand. Dobbeck said she was Syverson’s chairwoman and represented him in McHenry County, while the state senator covered the Rockford area and points west.

Skinner said he had not seen Syverson in McHenry County since he had rejoined the central committee two years ago. He pointed out that Wiegand was familiar with the political arena having run unsuccessfully for state representative twice, having served on the DeKalb County Board and, while there, having spearheaded the referendum to impose the Property Tax Cap over the strong objections of local governments and school districts.

Today is the day township supervisors get sworn in.

These jobs are plums in the suburbs.

You can see why by clicking on the chart and looking at what township supervisors get paid in the five largest McHenry County Townships, plus Dundee Township in Kane County.

My thanks to former Algonquin village Trustee Marc Avelar for preparing the data.

And, for those interested in why people really run for office, please take a look at this story.

There are three reasons besides the motherhood, apple pie, American flag, and public service pitches you hear during the campaign. Financial remuneration is only one of them.

All three are visible in the link above and here.

And, just to make the salaries searchable, I’ll list what the township supervisors salaries start at for this term:

Algonquin – $61,119
Dorr – $36,454
Dundee – $40,000
Grafton – $54,476
McHenry – $68,667
Nunda $66,900

Here’s what they will be in 2012:

Algonquin – $67,764
Dorr – $39,834
Dundee – $40,000
Grafton – $60,703
McHenry – $73,417
Nunda $75,253

All of these salaries were set before the people now taking office were elected.

Democratic Party candidate for Nunda Township Trustee Patrick Murfin writes some thoughts about the local election results in his “Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout” blog.

In Nunda Township, where he and running mate Meredith Reid Sarkees lost to the Republican candidates for township trustee, the Democrats went down about 60-40. Maybe a bit less.

Still a pretty hefty Republican victory.

What did the Democrats accomplish?

“By not ceding local races to the Republicans, Democrats forced them to spend large amounts of cash. We keep our campaign organizations intact and in practice between even-year general elections. And we develop experienced candidates who learn the ropes and can go on to bigger things. First time candidate Sarkees, who outdrew old timer Murfin (by only 29 votes) has all of the credentials to go on to other races.”

Murfin suggests that the GOP was highly motivated to reassert its dominance after November’s presidential and county board losses.

That certainly might be the case in Nunda Township. It surely did not look that way to me from an Algonquin Township perspective.

In Nunda, Murfin notes a close correlation between the number of people voting Democrat and the number voting for the Nunda Township Open Space tax hike—1,705 for the tax hike and 1,656-85 for the Democratic Party Nunda Township trustee candidates.

Good point, it seems to me, especially since the Dems on the ballot endorsed the measure and the contested trustee candidates did not.

The problem?

“The much larger number of folks who now vote Democratic in state and national elections, but traditionally pay no attention to local races, could not be turned out despite a concerted effort,”

Murfin wrote.

“And the sad fact is that in Nunda Township the Republicans can still turn out a bigger base than the Democrats.”

A couple of weeks ago I let the four candidates for Algonquin Township Trustee know that I was going to knock on doors in my Algonquin 7 precinct.

I asked for literature to distribute.

Only Linda Lance supplied me with something. You can see it below.

Lance was kind enough to include the names of her running mates at the bottom of her piece. And she points out that none of the Democratic Party challengers has attended a township meeting.

Boy, that’s something I would have stressed in a pamphlet.

I don’t know whether the failure to provide literature by the township candidates is an indication they thought too few GOP precinct committeemen would do anything with it to make it worthwhile to produce it or what.

After working about half of my precinct, I came home for more literature and discovered this post card in the mail box:

It was paid for by candidate Lowell Cutsforth.

So, pushing myself to finish the 225-home CCAPOA precinct Saturday, so I could avoid what I expected to be a rain and show-filled Sunday, I got to all but a handful of homes on by block.

And, I got to meet some new people, too. It’s my experience that, knocking on doors pretty much every election, I can meet someone from every household over about a five-year cycle. After yesterday’s experience, I would conclude that Saturday is the best day this century.

On Sunday, I opened the Northwest Herald, which finally started arriving 12 days after I signed up at the Crystal Lake Expo.

And, there, as if coordinated with the Saturday postcard was an eighth-page ad, which you can see below:

The Democrats started early, popping up signs in Algonquin 25, a precinct between McHenry Avenue and my precinct, which votes at Lundahl Junior High.

Its Democratic Party precinct committeeman, Maurice Hill, has to be the most energetic one in Crystal Lake, perhaps in the whole county. This could be Hill’s precinct letter, but maybe it’s just addressed to fellow Democrats.

Next, in mid-March. came the first direct mail of the campaign.

The campaign claimed to be making at least a thousand phone calls.

The Dems say they are going door-to-door and being greeted “with enthusiasm.” The post does not indicate whether the canvassers are talking to just Democrats or knocking on doors or independents and Republicans as well.

The Republican candidates for township trustee have signs, too.

But there are two of them.

Linda Lance and Lowell Cutsforth share a sign. One name is on one side and the other on the other.

Running mates Joe Powalowski and Neils Sorensen share another one. Both of their names are on each side, but in smaller print.

I wonder why the four do not have had joint yard signs.

I do remember that hard-working Democrat Lake in the Hills Trustee Paula Jensen beat out John Jung in a campaign in which Jung and running mate Virginia Peschke did not run a joint campaign.

Will history repeat itself, as the Democrats hope.

And, it looks like I’m wrong.

There is a joint sign for the “A” Team on McHenry Avenue near Route 14.

This is the only one I have seen.

There’s even a yard sign for unopposed Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Bob Miller.

Maybe there are more “A” Team signs for the Republican township trustees in Cary, where there is a huge Working Cash bond referendum.

The following statement was received from Democratic Party candidate for Algonquin Township Trustee. The election will be April 7th.

“My name is Frank Hyden.

“I moved to Crystal Lake with my wife (deceased last year) and son in 1966. We moved into our present home in 1967.

“I worked at Oak Switch Systems in the Industrial Engineering department until my job was sent overseas.

“After that I started my own business as an Designer Craftsman, designing, making and selling silver and gold jewelry.

“After a few years at that, and as a sideline, I signed on as a school bus driver with Crystal lake school districts 47 and 155, where I soon became known as the grouchy bus driver who insisted on everyone being seated when the bus was in motion.

“I retired from my jewelry business about 5 years ago and from bus driving last year.

“I am running for a Trustee position, as a Democrat, in the April 7th, Algonquin Township election.

“One of my reasons for running for this office is that citizens of Algonquin Township have forever had only Republican representation, which I am certain was not the intentions of the writers of our Constitution.

“Electing Democrats to township offices will help bring an end to single party rule, a situation that needs to be corrected.

“I have had many years experience working with budgets and cost cutting. Skills that can be useful to any organization.

“Become part of McHenry County’s historic revolution. Help us vote some Democrats into public office.”

Algonquin Township Democrats are putting on their first campaign for Algonquin Township Office.

They have yard signs for their three candidates.

They made a catchy postcard mailing urging voters to “Vote for 3 on top, then stop.” That refers to the Democrats having top ballot position for the election.

They are also making telephone calls, probably to identified Democrats.

“Traditional” might be the best way to describe literature being rolled out by the Algonquin Township candidates at the Crystal Lake Expo this weekend.

It’s pretty much a straight name ID piece with a group photo of all the candidates on the front and head shots and names on the back.

No reason offered to vote for the candidates unless the words

• Experience
• Integrity
  
• Dedication

and the phrase

Local Government Service at the Lowest Possible Cost

motivates you to vote Republican.

Two of the candidates, Linda Lance and Lowell Cutsforth were manning the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee’s booth at the Crystal Lake Expo.

Each of them had signs.

The other two candidates, Joe Powalowski and Neils Sorensen, did not.

All are incumbent Algonquin Township Trustees.

Click to enlarge the images.

= = = = =
For those of you who don’t know much about townships, they perform three basic functions: assessing, road maintenance in unincorporated areas and hand out local welfare, called General Assistance. Crystal Lake is in four townships. The two major ones are Algonquin and Nunda. The horizontal dividing line is Crystal Lake Avenue. The western part of Crystal Lake (west of our home in Lakewood on Meridian Street, in fact, is Grafton Township. The far Northwestern corner is in Woodstock-dominated Dorr Township.)

First the yard signs appeared.

Then a postcard from

was delivered in some parts of the township.

Now, looking at the web site for the candidates, I see they claimed on March 2nd to have made 1,000 phone calls.

I wonder if Algonquin Township Republicans are making phone calls.

If all three Democrats win, then the five-member Algonquin Township Board will be controlled by the Democrats.

= = = = =
The photo is from the web site’s article on making 1,000 phone calls. Bob Frank, one of the three candidates for Algonquin Township Trustee, can be seen sitting. On the left is District 2 Democratic Party Chair Caroline Quinn.

You’d think there was a hot primary election in Grafton Township today.

There were mailing from both incumbent John Rossi and challenger Linda Moore.

Both distributed literature door-to-door.

Moore had made phone calls on Wednesday, Friday, Monday and today.

I’d post a picture of the Chezak Elementary School polling place for three precincts at 11:45 this morning, but I have uploaded so many photos onto Google’s Blogger that now I must pay an annual fee.

I paid it yesterday afternoon, but, apparently, it has not been processed yet, so please imagine a big room that is empty, except for bored judges from three big precincts.

Grafton Township Precinct 12 had 24 voters, Grafton 19 a mere 5 voters and Grafton 20 – 10 voters.

39 in all.

My own precinct is numbered Algonquin Township 7. I was the fifth voter at 3:30 this afternoon before picking up my son. I think Algonquin 19 had twelve.

And, coincidence of coincidences, both Algonquin 19’s GOP committeeman Joe Stecker and I were voting at the same time. Both of our polling places are at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House.

The judges couldn’t get past the front gate until 6:30 AM. It was cold standing outside trying to find someone with a key.

And the one they found?

The park district employee with the snow blower.

The judges didn’t indicate that anyone was disappointed in not being able to vote that early.

And, why are there township primaries?

In a sentence, incumbent Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare’s overwhelming write-in defeat of the winner of the 1973 Republican Township caucus in 1973. Details are in these stories:

Democrats in Nunda and Algonquin Township selected their candidates in caucuses on pretty much the coldest night of the year. Don’t know how many people showed up at each, but I’ll bet it was not many.

You’d think there was a hot primary election in Grafton Township today.

There were mailing from both incumbent John Rossi and challenger Linda Moore.

Both distributed literature door-to-door.

Moore had made phone calls on Wednesday, Friday, Monday and today.

I’d post a picture of the Chezak Elementary School polling place for three precincts at 11:45 this morning, but I have uploaded so many photos onto Google’s Blogger that now I must pay an annual fee.

I paid it yesterday afternoon, but, apparently, it has not been processed yet, so please imagine a big room that is empty, except for bored judges from three big precincts.

Grafton Township Precinct 12 had 24 voters, Grafton 19 a mere 5 voters and Grafton 20 – 10 voters.

39 in all.

My own precinct is numbered Algonquin Township 7. I was the fifth voter at 3:30 this afternoon before picking up my son. I think Algonquin 19 had twelve.

And, coincidence of coincidences, both Algonquin 19’s GOP committeeman Joe Stecker and I were voting at the same time. Both of our polling places are at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House.

The judges couldn’t get past the front gate until 6:30 AM. It was cold standing outside trying to find someone with a key.

And the one they found?

The park district employee with the snow blower.

The judges didn’t indicate that anyone was disappointed in not being able to vote that early.

And, why are there township primaries?

In a sentence, incumbent Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare’s overwhelming write-in defeat of the winner of the 1973 Republican Township caucus in 1973. Details are in these stories:

Democrats in Nunda and Algonquin Township selected their candidates in caucuses on pretty much the coldest night of the year. Don’t know how many people showed up at each, but I’ll bet it was not many.