McHenry County Blog

Polls have shown that Illinois residents don’t want expanded gambling, yet passage of the bill being considered by legislators in Springfield would make Illinois the gambling capital of the country.

Nevada would end up in second place.

Now comes a midday email from the Chicago Tribune, an advertisement, the heading says.

It urges recipients to contact their legislators and ask them to vote against the gambling expansion bill, Senate Bill 1739.

You can see the ad from the Coalition for Responsible Gambling below:

The ad has a place to click that takes one to where one can send an email to one’s legislator.

50% for challenger Tammy Duckworth and 40% for incumbent Congressman Joe Walsh.

9% undecided.

Margin of error is +/-4%.

That’s what the Chicago Tribune poll found.

The results or some other reason caused Missouri-based Now or Never PAC to pull over $2 million worth of ads.

Freedom Works Free PAC has closed about half that gap.

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Reading the SuperPAC story on page 3 of the Chicago Sun-Times today, I see the source of the money coming from Freedom Works Free PAC is the Duckworth campaign, so perhaps it is not accurate.

There has been a lot of contention on the comment boards about how Dee Beaubien used the word “fair” with regard to the 67% state income tax that Mike Madigan pushed through the Illinois House.

Both I and reader Dave contacted Editorial Page Editor Bruce Dold.  Dave’s email was a follow-up to my own question.

You can read answers to both of our emails in this article.

Because the Tribune addresses the use of the word in its endorsement of David McSweeney over Dee Beaubien, I am publishing the entire endorsement below:

52nd District: One of the most expensive House races is unfolding between Dee Beaubien, running as an independent, and Republican David McSweeney.

They’re both from Barrington Hills. Beaubien’s husband, Mark, represented the district until his death in June 2011.

Beaubien jumped into the race after McSweeney beat an ally of her late husband in the GOP primary.

“The Republican Party is in danger of being left behind. There’s no room for moderates anymore in Illinois. I’m sorry I feel I have to run against you,” Beaubien told McSweeney during their Tribune endorsement interview.

Beaubien says she’ll be bipartisan, but her campaign is being bankrolled by House Speaker Michael Madigan, the state Democratic Party chairman.

Madigan must think he can win this one and count on her support.

“People don’t tell me what to do,” she says.

Come, now.

There is no Democratic candidate in the race.

Beaubien is Madigan’s hope for a steal here.

McSweeney and Beaubien don’t seem far apart on fiscal issues, but McSweeney is much more specific about his plans for pension reform, spending reductions and tax cuts.

McSweeney would immediately repeal the 67 percent individual income tax hike of 2011; Beaubien told us the 5 percent tax rate is “fair” compared with other states, but she would allow it to expire on schedule.

McSweeney is endorsed.

First promoted over ten years ago in my Libertarian Party campaign for Illinois Governor against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan, my proposal for Term Limits for Legislative Leaders made the Chicago Tribune editorial endorsementof State Senator Dan Duffy.

Here’s the part about him:

26th District: Republican Sen. Dan Duffy, of Lake Barrington, has been calling out his colleagues since the first time he rose to speak on the Senate floor, when he accused leaders in both parties of enabling the crimes of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Duffy says Senate leadership has “punished” him — moving his parking space, shutting off his microphone while he’s speaking, that sort of thing — but he won’t muzzle himself. Duffy says a lot of the right things: about pension reform, school choice, workers’ comp, the need to repair the state’s business climate and ethics reforms — including, not surprisingly, term limits on legislative leaders. He might make more friends (and pass more bills) if he toned it down a bit, but he is who he is, and taxpayers are lucky to have him on their side [emphasis added].

A press release from Congressman Joe Walsh:

Rep. Walsh Comments on Chicago Tribune and Daily Herald Endorsement Decisions

The Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald announced their endorsements for the 8th congressional district race with both choosing Democrat Tammy Duckworth. Following the endorsements, Congressman Joe Walsh released the following statement:

“I’m not at all surprised by the decisions of the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald to endorse Tammy Duckworth.

“Ms. Duckworth has always been the preferred candidate of the elite Chicago liberal media.

“The day I care what the Chicago media thinks about me or this race will be the same day that I leave the political arena.

“I am running for Congress to serve the people of the 8th district, who are struggling to find work, stay in their homes, and are fighting to make sure that their kids and grandkids have the same opportunities that they did.

“For years, the Chicago media has been out of touch with families like those in the 8th district.

“It is no surprise that these papers lose readership almost every single year and have essentially become irrelevant and bankrupt.

“It is because the elite media does not understand that American families are fed up.

“They are sick of the same old politicians making promises to get endorsements.

“As the Tribune said of my opponent, she is a ‘more-practiced politician. Practiced, that is, in not offering her opposition targets by getting to specific on solutions.’

“I can not and will not go down that same road.

“We are at a crucial point in America, and this country needs leaders who will stand up and say no to Washington’s back room go along to get along deals.

“Now more than ever we must move past the talking points and come up with real solutions.

“The elite Chicago media will never understand that, but the American people do.

“Let us remember that if the good people of Illinois cared about what these irrelevant papers had to say, Tammy Duckworth would now be serving her third term in Congress, as both the Herald and Tribune enthusiastically endorsed her 6 years ago, against Peter Roskam.”

Now don’t go pretending you are surprised anyone?

I don’t remember getting endorsed by the Chicago Tribune in any election in which an endorsement might have made any difference.

The Tribune’s just not comfortable with any elected official who can articulate the conservative point of view.

In any event, the nod has gone to Tammy Duckworth, even though the paper, noting he has alienated people (though not mentioning the people he has alienated most are hyper-partisan Democrats), says,

“It’s too bad, because the Joe Walsh who showed up for our endorsement interview had a lot more to offer than the Joe Walsh whose antics are splashed all over YouTube. In a face-to-face meeting with Duckworth, he was direct, specific, and even charming.”

The editorial goes on to point out that “Duckworth, by contrast, was noncommittal on some key issues, and largely drew from the Democratic playbook.”

So, 8th District voters have someone whose stands are well know but are urged to vote for someone who will be in the back pocket of Nancy Pelosi.

“Where he offered solutions, Duckworth too often offered only a promise to search for one,” the Tribune says.

But, not to worry.

Just as in 2006, when she was beaten by Algonquin Township’s probable future Congressmen Peter Roskam, the nod goes to Duckworth.

She’s “become a more-practiced politician. Practiced, that is, in not offering her opposition targets by getting too specific on solutions,” the Editorial Board opines.

The seems enchanted by “her character and moxie” and “capacity to inspire.”

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The Tribune suggests:

Watch Tammy Duckworth and Joe Walsh debate before the editorial board at chicagotribune.com/8thcongress. Read their questionnaires and learn more about them and other candidates at chicagotribune.com/endorsements.

It’s a good thing I subscribe to both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Tribune.

Take a look at the front page of the Sun-Times:

Now, if I had only subscribed to the Tribune, here’s all I would have seen on the front page:

The Sun-Times also devotes pages 2 & 3 to the jihadist plot.

The Sun-Times put four reporters on the story, Natasha Kore4cki (who graduated from Jacobs High School in Algonquin), Lisa Donovan, Michael Sneed and Matt Hanley.

Clearly, some editor thought this was an important story.

Interviews with family members of Adel Daoud resulted in expressions of disbelief.

But consider this statement by the teen contained in the affidavit o FBI Special Agent Barbara J. Harner:

“[T]hey have to know it’s a terrorist attack.

“Because if the people just say oh, how like, like the thing that just happened, the, the, the Joker thing okay . . . [The FBI Agent suggested this was a reference to the mass murders at the Aurora movie theater playing the latest Batman movie.]

Oh, the person was crazy.

“Oh, that’s so sad . . .

“That’s it, okay, they forget about it after a week . . .

“You know what I mean?

“And, and if he could get away that’s good.

“Because they’ll think oh, terrorism . . . it’ll be like frantic.”

No where in any headline above the Tribune’s story on page 4 is there an indication that an Islamist-motivated jihadist was involved.

While the eventual target was in Chicago, a two-hour meeting took place in Villa Park on July 17, 2012, and again on August 6th, this time at Prairie Path Park.

The FBI Agent’s affidavit said Daoud gave him a list of”approximately twenty-nine potential targets and/or addresses, which Daoud provided to the UCE. The targets included military recruiting centers, bars, malls, and other tourist attractions in and around the Chicago area.”

His intention was to cause Americans to become afraid in ordinary places.

He talked about ordinary folks like this:

“[Y]ou can’t really take these people as regular people.

“They’re like, more like robots.”

How I wish the guy from Skokie who wrote “The Chicago Journalism Review” was still around. The Chicago Tribune’s coverage of this story surely demonstrates that a watchdog is needed.

In a joint Chicago Tribune interview with Democratic Party opponent Tammy Duckworth, Congressman Joe Walsh admitted the need for balance.

That’s what the subhead says in the top story in the Chicago Tribune today.

The direct quote was “that more than once he has gotten ‘a little ahead of myself with my language’ during public meetings with constituents.”

In other news I picked up this past week, the Democrats started reapportionment for Congress by drawing the 8th District for Tammy Duckworth.

That means the Democrats think he is the biggest threat.

That was borne out by Governor Pat Quinn’s criticism of Walsh as “the worst congressman in America.”

In response, according to AP, “Walsh’s campaign says Quinn is the nation’s worst governor and should focus on the state’s budget problems.”

The Tribune did have enough sense of balance to include Walsh’s contention there is media bias against him. It’s at the end of the article.

Maybe Quinn has figured out the Walsh may run against himfor Governor.

Listen to the speech Walsh gaveto the Illinois Republican Party Convention to standing applause.

A left-leaning poll, Public Policy Polling, shows Duckworth leading Walsh 51-39-10.

Tonight I encountered a blocking device the Chicago Tribune has put on its web page.

As with other politicians, I have a Google search for Dee Beaubien.

Up popped notice that the Tribune had published an article.

I’ve already written mine for tomorrow, but thought there might be something of interest, so I clicked on the link.

Below you can see what appeared first:

But, quite soon an overlay asking me to become a digital member showed up. It blocked the article.

I filled in the form and what you see below was the result:

After registering, I again tried to get to the article.

No luck.

Maybe I didn’t follow the directions.

Later I managed to access the article.

One of the explanatory pages in the sign-up process indicates that the Tribune may charge for the service in the future.

Obviously producing more revenue for the Tribune is what this is all about.

I found the following information on the Chicago Tribune’s Real Estate page on the internet.

It has an interative map of McHenry County (and all other parts of the six-county Chicago metropolitan area) that tells what has happened to real estate values in municipalies with enough sales from which to pull statistics.

In McHenry County, I was surprised that homes in my village of Lakewood (a suburb of Crystal Lake) have held their value better than anywhere else.

• Lakewood: +17.65% with current median value at $353,250. (Our home is a bit below average.)
• Crystal Lake: -32.98% with median value at $157,500
• Huntley: -39.59%, median at $193,000
• Lake in the Hill: -34.08%, median at $147,000
• Algonquin: -25%, median at $147,000
• Cary: -39.77%, median at $156,000
• Fox River Grove: -42.609%, median at $154,750
• Oakwood Hills: -18&%, median at $164,000
• Island Lake: -30.06, median at $114,000
• Holiday Hills: -100%, but median given at $0, so obviously there is a glitch in the data
• Woodstock: -42.14$, median at $136,000
• McHenry: -31%, median $138,000
• Lakemoor: -29.37%, median $117,250
• Johnsburg: -48.38, median $175,000
• Wonder Lake: -27.13%, median $119,500
• Ringwood: -19,2%, median $201,000
• Richmond: -36.45%, median $197,000
• Spring Grove: -33.52, median $232,500
• Marengo: -42.65%, median $117,000
• Union: -1.59%, median $310,000 (something seems a bit wonky with the median average number)
• Harvard: -50.5%, median $99,000
• Hebron: -31.03%, median $130,000

Other communities have no information.