McHenry County Blog

The patriotic decor of Crystal Lake’s 1776 restaurant was an ideal setting for Wednesday night’s meeting of the McHenry County Young Republicans.

It was so much more appropriate that the little room in the Pizza Hut basement outside the men’s and women’s restrooms where I remember the YR’s once met back in the 1970’s.

The main speaker was U.S. Senate candidate Ed Varga, a resident of Richmond and a ten-year member of the McHenry County Board of Health.

Varga was upbeat, having just been invited yesterday to give a five minute talk in Springfield to the Illinois Republican County Chairman’s Association at 10 today.

He previewed the speech on the YR’s.

Varga described himself as a 42 year old engineer who was a single parent of an 11-year old son who had lost his health insurance last year. His father emigrated from Europe.

He described his greatest achievement in his pubic service as

“Our leaders in Washington, D.C., have forgotten how to listen,” he continued.

“People are speaking, but people in in Washington aren’t listening.”

Varga outlined his “core values:”

• Pro-life
• 2nd Amendment supporter
• In favor of state’s rights
• Opposed to national health insurance
• Favors a strong, well-equipped military
• Opposed to cap and trade
• Supports the military’s patrolling our borders
• Opposed to devaluation of the dollar caused by the Stimulus Package
• Opposed to global environmental standards

From his hand out, I see Varga is [Mistake originally published follows: "also opposed to." Correction has been inserted following this parenthesis.] in favor of same sex unions. (Click to enlarge the image.)

After Varga’s short speech, YR President Bryan Javor announced the group now has 726 members and the goal of activating 10% of that number.

One of the on-going projects is to notify Young Republicans who live in a precinct which now had no elected GOP precinct committeeman and encourage them to run for the office.

Javor then called on heads of committees for reports.

While the McHenry County Young Republicans met Sunday in Crystal Lake’s Veterans Acres for a Petition Party, they will meet tonight at 7 PM at the upscale 1776 Restaurant on Route 14 in Crystal Lake.

The YR weekly newsletter reports that the following candidates attended their Petition Party:

• Congressman Don Manzullo
• State Senator/Gubernatorial Candidate Matt Murphy from Palatine
• United State Senate Candidate Ed Varga from Richmond
• McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren
• McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew
• McHenry County Board Members/Candidates

= = = = =
Gubernatorial candidate State Senator Matt Murphy can be seen in the red shirt to the left of the top photo and on the left hand side facing right in the bottom picture. Sheriff Keith Nygren is sitting at the picnic table in the top shot looking right. His wife Marge is sitting across from him. Standing behind Nygren in that same picture is County Treasurer Bill LeFew. STAR 105 FM radio newsman Stew Cohen is standing next to LeFew, facing the end of the table. YR Jon Heideman, who is running for Republican precinct committeeman in Nunda 19, is in the foreground right looking away from the camera. He was the grill master.

In the bottom photo, McHenry County Board candidate John Jung is center right facing right next to Brent Smith. Again, you can see YR Jon Heideman’s back in the foreground left.