McHenry County Blog

Like sharks smelling blood in the water, candidates are surfacing hoping to kill re-election chances of Blue Dog Democrats.

The thought first came to me when 8th congressional district Barrington native Joe Walsh announced he would seek the GOP nomination against Melissa Bean.

Now State Senator Randy Hultgren is running for Congress in the 14th district south of the Kane County line against Democrat Bill Foster.

What both candidates have in common is that they have run campaigns before. Hultgren for DuPage County Board, state representative and state senator; Walsh for Congress against Sid Yates and for state rep. Hultgren won, Walsh didn’t, but it gave them both experience in the type of race that someone who wants to be a congressman would find helpful.

I don’t see lots of money that Hultgren has raised, but his campaigning skills are honed.

Walsh obviously did not defeat the long-term Chicago Democrat in the 1996, but that race and one for state rep. would have developed campaign skills. He probably accurately reports that his fund raising skills will be quite helpful in what will probably develop into a multi-million campaign (at least on Bean’s part and necessary on Walsh’s part, if he is to win.)

Others seeking the 14th District nomination are Jeff Danklefsen of Geneva, Elburn’s Ethan Hastert, Mark Vargas of St. Charles and Bill Cross, from Shabbona. It should be noted that Hultgren is from the eastern edge of the district, which may not be an advantage.

Those announced in the 8th District are Maria Rodriguez the Long Grove village president, John Dawson of Barrington and Greg Jacobs of Mundelein

The demonstration is planned for Randall Road from 11-1 on Saturday.

It will stretch from Crystal Lake to North Aurora.

Since most of Randall Road runs through 14th District Congressman Bill Foster’s district (from the McHenry-Kane County line south), my guess is that the protest is aimed at convincing this Blue Dog Democrat not to vote for the most radical health care changes that have been proposed by President Barack Obama.

Below are the groups and locations down Randall Road to the Algonquin Commons:

GROUP LOCATIONS ALONG LIBERTY TRAIL

Ackeman Rd. to Angela Lane, Crystal Lake

• We the People group(Crystal Lake) JeffTipps,jam@paragonmicro.net
• Cary Americans Care group, Debbie Asprooth

Miller Road to Acorn Lane, LITH

• McHenry County Campaign for Liberty, Chris Jenner
• Fox Valley Campaign for Liberty, Laura Jenner

Acorn Lane to W. Algonquin Rd., LITH

• Patriots United, Karen Ulrich, 630-967-8784, www.patriotsunited.com
• Lake Zurich 9-12 Patriots
• Dorian Cindy and a group of friends
• Carla & Friends–Lake Zurich

W. Algonquin Rd. to County Line Rd., Algonquin

• Algonquin Tea Party, Gail Covenah

County Line Rd. to Corporate Pkwy., Algonquin

• United We Stand, Kim Brown
• Palatine Tea Party Group Gail Linn 312-590-8336

Huntley Rd. to Binnie Rd., Carpentersville

• Carpentersville Tea Party, Martin Miller
• Minutemen Midwest, Diane Evertsen
• Chicago Minuteman Project, Ev Evertsen

This is article number 6 that McHenry County Blog has published about the people who attended Paul Caprio’s August Family PAC cruise.

In the first, U.S. Senator and Dr. Tom Coburn’s take on the health care debate.

The rest are full of pictures of participants:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Near the end of the cruise 14th congressional district GOP aspirant Jeff Danklefsen approached me. You see him handing me his card. He seeks to replace Democrat Bill Foster, who replaced former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The boat was docked and emptying out when I saw Dan Sugrue. He is running for the second time in Lake County against Democrat Kathy Ryg. He tells me she voted for Governor Pat Quinn’s 50% income tax hike bill. Since the cruise Ryg has announced that she is taking another job. That certainly to increase his chances of gaining the seat.

GOP gubernatorial nomination seeker Adam Andrzejewski was also downstairs near the end of the cruise. Sugrue’s wife Margo was talking with him.

As I left the boat, GOP gubernatorial aspirant Kirk Dillard was chatting with Family PAC Executive Director Paul Capiro.

Thus endeth the 2009 Family PAC cruise photos. This fundraiser is the one I enjoy the most. You don’t get a view of the Sears, oops, Willis Tower from the South Branch of the Chicago River like this on an expressway.

Join us next year.

Taxpayers for Common Sense made it relatively painless to find the projects that Illinois congressmen claimed credit for in this year’s budget.

We have looked at Melissa Bean’s, Jerry Costello’s, Danny Davis’ and Dick Durbin’s previously.

Today we see ex-Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel’s, Kane County’s Bill Foster’s, Chicago’s Luis Gutierrez’ and the Quad Cities’ Phil Hare’s.

Rahm Emanuel

• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $190,000 Emanuel – Advocate Health Care, Chicago, IL, for Facilities and Equipment
• Labor Employment & Training Administration $95,000 Emanuel, Schakowsky – Kohl’s Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago, Glenview, IL, for Educational Programs

Bill Foster

• HHS CDC $24,000 Foster – Kendall County Health Department, Yorkville, IL, for a Program to Reduce Childhood Obesity
• HHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration $95,000 Foster – Henry/Stark County Health Department, Kewanee, IL, to Start a Mental Health Services Program in Henry County

Luis Gutierrez

• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $285,000 Gutierrez – Erie Family Health Center, Chicago, IL, for Facilities and Equipment

Phil Hare

• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $238,000 Hare – Macoupin County Health Department, Carlinville, IL, for Facilities and Equipment
• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $666,000 Hare, LaHood – Memorial Medical Center, Springfield, IL, for the Intelligent Pharmacy Program and Automated Drug Management Electronic Medical Records Initiative
• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $95,000 Hare, LaHood – OSF Healthcare System, Peoria, IL, for an Electronic Medical Records Initiative
• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $285,000 Hare – Rock Island County Care Center, East Moline, IL, for Facilities and Equipment
• HHS Health Resources and Services Administration $95,000 Hare – Mercer County Hospital, Aledo, IL, for Facilities and Equipment

= = = = =
Now that President Barack Obama has signed the pork bill, there’s something important to remember about politicians.

It’s not what they say. It’s what they do that counts.

Taxpayers for Common Sense have totaled up the congressional earmarks in the budget bill being voted on this week.

I was reminded of that when I read an editorial cartoon sent to me by my Joplin, Missouri, brother-in-law. It was in the Saganaw News.

Scene: Husband and wife sitting at the breakfast table.

Husband: “Sez here they arrested a D.C. Madam for running a house of ill repute…”

Wife: “They arrested Polisi?”

Below is the list of who got what in this year’s budget, which is due to be passed only about six months after the beginning of the fiscal year. They are listed in descending order from highest to lowest dollar amount of pork projects

• Ray LaHood, 23 earmarks totaling $8,774,250
• Rahm Emanuel, 10 earmarks totaling $6,523,000
• Jerry Costello, 12 earmarks totaling $5,425,175
• Dan Lipinski, 12 projects totaling $4,451,172
• Melissa Bean, 10 earmarks totaling $3,687,314 (one in McHenry County)
• Bill Foster, 12 earmarks totaling $3,095,000
• Danny Davis, 10 earmarks totaling $3,066,014
• Tim Johnson, 8 earmarks totaling $2,806,100
• Jesse Jackson, Jr., 15 earmarks totaling $2,783,500
• Peter Roskam, 12 earmarks totaling $2,655,330
• John Shimkus, 13 earmarks totaling $2,421,750
• Bobby Rush, 8 earmarks totaling $2,073,375
• Don Manzullo, 6 earmarks totaling $2,070,500 (one in McHenry County)
• Phil Hare, 7 earmarks totaling $2,031,000
• Jan Schakowsky, 8 earmarks totaling $1,644,000
• Luis Gutierrez, 2 earmarks totaling $760,000
• Jerry Weller, 7 earmarks totaling $1,243,250

$47.8 million in total.

Eschewing pork were Republicans Judy Biggert and Mark Kirk.

Three retired members, Rahm Emanuel, Ray LaHood and Jerry Weller get credit for projects anyway.

Newly elected Congress folks Debbie Halvorson and Aaron Shock were not listed.

Tomorrow, the bacon our United States Senators brought home.

With Bill Foster, the man who beat him in a special election to replace former House Speaker Denny Hastert having voted for the financial bailout, Jim Oberweis, who has a background in investments, as well as milk, has issued the following statement. The congressional district being contested, the 14th, lies just south of the McHenry County line in Kane County.

OBERWEIS OFFERS ALTERNATIVES TO
WALL STREET BAILOUT

Jim Oberweis – reacting to turmoil in the financial markets and related Congressional action – today released the following statement:

Two days ago, the House of Representatives rejected a flawed bailout plan – a plan that would have put taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion to buy bad assets from Wall Street investors. We should all be glad that 228 Members of Congress from both parties had the courage to stand up to their party leaders and instead do what they believed was right for their constituents. THAT, in my view, is REAL bipartisanship, and real LEADERSHIP. As a result of their courage, Congress now has an opportunity to revisit the issue and get it right. I’m hopeful that they will do just that.

First, I would raise the limits on federal deposit insurance. The current limit is $100,000 for individual accounts and $250,000 for IRAs. The $100,000 limit hasn’t been changed since 1980, almost 30 years ago. Since then, according to the Consumer Price Index maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation has risen significantly — $100,000 in 1980 would be equivalent to $265,000 today. So I would raise those limits to at least $250,000.

Second, I would temporarily suspend an accounting standard known as “mark to market.” While mark to market offers investors a clear look at a company’s balance sheets, it can also have a significantly negative effect in an illiquid market such as the one we’re currently experiencing – it artificially and arbitrarily forces companies to downgrade the value of certain assets, and that can lead to market distortions.

Third, in an effort to infuse new capital into the economy, I would support legislation that would allow for the issuance of a new class of stock that was capital gains tax-free – that is, companies could issue new stock that wouldn’t be subject to the capital gains tax when it was sold later. This could unlock tens of billions of dollars of private equity capital and provide a real shot in the arm to the economy.

Over the longer term, of course, we’re going to need more fundamental reform to make sure we don’t go through this again.

What we’re seeing in Washington right now is disturbing. For five years, we’ve heard from the President’s political opponents that the nation was “rushed” into a war we didn’t need to get into. That so-called “rush” to war took place over a period of about nine or ten months, as I recall. And at the time, every intelligence agency in the world agreed on the data. Even the President’s political opponents agreed on the need for action. It was only AFTER the fact that we learned the data was wrong, and we did not have to take that action.

Compare that situation to today, where there isn’t even agreement over the data, and yet Congress is being asked to rush to action in nine or ten DAYS. This rush to action is worse than what happened with the rush to war five years ago. It should be a matter of concern to all of us that in its determination to act quickly, Congress could act unwisely.

Einstein famously remarked that the definition of insanity is the repetition of the same action with an expectation of different results. Apparently, he never visited the Congress, where the repetition of the same action with the expectation of different results is called “Wednesday.”

To read the entire statement, click here.

With Bill Foster, the man who beat him in a special election to replace former House Speaker Denny Hastert having voted for the financial bailout, Jim Oberweis, who has a background in investments, as well as milk, has issued the following statement. The congressional district being contested, the 14th, lies just south of the McHenry County line in Kane County.

OBERWEIS OFFERS ALTERNATIVES TO
WALL STREET BAILOUT

Jim Oberweis – reacting to turmoil in the financial markets and related Congressional action – today released the following statement:

Two days ago, the House of Representatives rejected a flawed bailout plan – a plan that would have put taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion to buy bad assets from Wall Street investors. We should all be glad that 228 Members of Congress from both parties had the courage to stand up to their party leaders and instead do what they believed was right for their constituents. THAT, in my view, is REAL bipartisanship, and real LEADERSHIP. As a result of their courage, Congress now has an opportunity to revisit the issue and get it right. I’m hopeful that they will do just that.

First, I would raise the limits on federal deposit insurance. The current limit is $100,000 for individual accounts and $250,000 for IRAs. The $100,000 limit hasn’t been changed since 1980, almost 30 years ago. Since then, according to the Consumer Price Index maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation has risen significantly — $100,000 in 1980 would be equivalent to $265,000 today. So I would raise those limits to at least $250,000.

Second, I would temporarily suspend an accounting standard known as “mark to market.” While mark to market offers investors a clear look at a company’s balance sheets, it can also have a significantly negative effect in an illiquid market such as the one we’re currently experiencing – it artificially and arbitrarily forces companies to downgrade the value of certain assets, and that can lead to market distortions.

Third, in an effort to infuse new capital into the economy, I would support legislation that would allow for the issuance of a new class of stock that was capital gains tax-free – that is, companies could issue new stock that wouldn’t be subject to the capital gains tax when it was sold later. This could unlock tens of billions of dollars of private equity capital and provide a real shot in the arm to the economy.

Over the longer term, of course, we’re going to need more fundamental reform to make sure we don’t go through this again.

What we’re seeing in Washington right now is disturbing. For five years, we’ve heard from the President’s political opponents that the nation was “rushed” into a war we didn’t need to get into. That so-called “rush” to war took place over a period of about nine or ten months, as I recall. And at the time, every intelligence agency in the world agreed on the data. Even the President’s political opponents agreed on the need for action. It was only AFTER the fact that we learned the data was wrong, and we did not have to take that action.

Compare that situation to today, where there isn’t even agreement over the data, and yet Congress is being asked to rush to action in nine or ten DAYS. This rush to action is worse than what happened with the rush to war five years ago. It should be a matter of concern to all of us that in its determination to act quickly, Congress could act unwisely.

Einstein famously remarked that the definition of insanity is the repetition of the same action with an expectation of different results. Apparently, he never visited the Congress, where the repetition of the same action with the expectation of different results is called “Wednesday.”

To read the entire statement, click here.