McHenry County Blog

16th District Congressman Don Manzullo is leading his Democratic Party challenge George Gaulrapp by 2.5 to 1.

Green Party candidate Terry Campbell is picking up a bit over four percentage points.

McHenry County Democrats working in Western Lake in the Hills were not only working to re-elect County Board member Jim Kennedy.

They were also passing out literature for Lisa Madigan and 16th Congressional District candidate George Gaulrapp.

Gaulrapp, Mayor of Freeport, where “The Stephenson Blumdoggle” regularly lambasts him and incumbent Donald Manzullo, presents a comparison between himself and Manzullo.

You can read it below. First you see the Gaulrapp side of the comparison. Below is the Manzullo side. Click to enlarge any image.

The front of the piece is below.  You can see it will be turned into a mailer, if postage money is available:

Below the address side is the back of the handout/mailer.

Also included is a tear-off volunteer card that’s pretty good.  You can see it below:

What you see is the side of the agenda for the McHenry County Concealed Carry rally held Thursday night at the Operating Engineers Lakemoor Banquet Hall.

I see four candidates for Congress were present or representated.

From the 16th District, incumbent Republican Don Manzullo had a statement read by McHenry Right to Carry Association President Lou Rofrano.  Challenging Democrat George Galrapp spoke for himself.

In the 8th District, incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean was a no-show.  Republican Joe Walsh came in person and Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer had a statement read.

Democratic Party candidate for McHenry County Sheriff Mike Mahon spoke early on.  Green Party candidate for Sheriff Gus Philpott was slotted in the middle.

Incumbent Republican Sheriff Keith Nygren is not listed on the agenda.  Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran had a statement read on his behalf, as did his Demcoratic Party opponent Doug Roberts.

For state representative, the southern McHenry County district now represented by Republican Mike Tryon saw him speaking for himself.  Challenging Democrat Robert Kaempfe sent a statement to read.

Incumbent Democrat Jack Franks was apparently a no-show, but his Republican opponent John O’Neill spoke.

Lake County’s State Senator Michael Bond is listed on the agenda.  His opponent, Suzi Schmidt, had a statement read.

The only statewide candidate on the agenda was Republican gubernatorial aspirant Bill Brady.  A statement was read on his behalf.

Nick Provenzano, seeking to return to the McHenry County Board, also spoke to the crowd.

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If you would like some facts about the effectiveness of the proposal after which the association is named, I would suggest reading the third edition of “More Guns, Less Crime” by John Lott.

For my review of the book, click here.

Here’s a map with a link to all 435 congressional districts. Click on a district and you will see what odds statistician Nate Silver gives each candidate for victory.

Let’s look at those in Northern and Central Illinois.

McHenry County first.

Don Manzullo is giving a 100% chance of winning reelection over George Gaulrapp. The predicted result is 65% to 33%.

In the 8^th congressional district, incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean is given a 96.6% of beating Republican Joe Walsh and Green Bill Scheurer. Silver thinks the vote will be 55% to 42%. Presumably, he thinks Scheurer will get 3%.

In the 14^th District, which starts at the McHenry-Kane County line and goes south, Silver gives Randy Hultgren a 62.6% chance of unseating incumbent Democrat Bill Foster. The final percentages will be 50-48, according to his computer model.

In the North Shore district Mark Kirk is vacating to run for the U.S. Senate, Democrat Dan Seals has a 52.7% chance of winning. The vote total is projected to be 49% to 49%.

In the 17^th District, south of Don Manzullo’s, one of the most gerrymandered in Illinois, Silver thinks incumbent Democrat Phil Hare has a 73,4% chance of victory. The vote total will be 52% for Hare to 43% for Bobby Schilling, his projections goes.

Republican challenger Adam Kinzinger is estimated to have an 87.5% chance of capturing the 11^th District from incumbent Debbie Halvorson. The tally will be 53% to 45%, Silver projects.

Never heard of Lena?

It’s the start of scenic Lena-Galena Road to, well, Galena.

It’s in Stephenson County.

What used to be called the Freeport Journal-Standard reported on the affair attended by 150 people.

The sheriff’s race features a Republican incumbent (David Snyders) and an Independent challenger (Tim Clay). Sort of like the 22nd Judicial District between Associate Judge Gordon Graham and Independent Sally Wiggins.

The challenger pledged not to enforce the seat belt law, claiming it violated the U.S. Constitution.

The next candidates up were those running for Congress in the 16th District, which includes much of McHenry County.

Democrat Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp is challenging long-time incumbent Don Manzullo.

“Gaulrapp and Manzullo were both in favor of extending President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, and were against Cap and Trade legislation that would limit carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Also, they both supported the creation of a border fence and making English the official language of America,” the article reports.

It then points out some differences between the incumbent and the Barack Obama Democratic National Convention Alternate Delegate.

Manzullo wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Gaulrapp thinks national leadership is needed.

Should United Nations laws supersede U.S. Law?

Both agreed they shouldn’t, but Manzullo went further.

“We need to get out of the United Nations, it’s a worthless organization, let’s get out of it,” the article quotes Manzullo.

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I have heard of no candidates’ nights scheduled in McHenry County for the fall election. During the spring Patriots United sponsored two, one for the Republican congressional primary candidates and another for county board candidates. The McHenry County Young Republicans also sponsored one.

I arrived a bit late, not having figured out that the Cosman Cultural Center was in the Huntley Park District building where Grafton Township regularly meets.

What appeared to be a candidates’ night was underway.

A man I later learned was Robert Zadek was speaking about immigration laws not being enforced when I arrived at the meeting. I looked him up on the Illinois State Board of Elections web site and couldn’t find his name on the list of U.S. Senate candidates,  the way he is identified on his palm card.

His web site says he’s a write-in candidate from Loves Park, north of Rockford. His position on illegal immigrants was one of enforcing the law.

Incumbent Don Manzullo’s Democratic Party opponent George Gaulrapp got off a good anti-incumbent line:

“Where could they work if they don’t get elected?”

Manzullo, of course, is an attorney, but I’ve always thought he’d make a good minister, if he weren’t a politician.

State Senator Chris Lauzen, who represents the Kane County portion of Sun City and other parts Northern and Western Kane County picked up on Zadek’s immigration comments. He pointed out his being the only vote against giving illegal immigrants a two-thirds tuition discount. He explained that State Senator Randy Hultgren, the GOP candidate for Congress against incumbent Democrat Bill Foster, who was sitting two seats away, was not in the state senate at the time of the vote.

“They should not get the benefits of citizens when they’re breaking the law,” Lauzen asserted.

“The way that we get respect is we all follow the laws together.”

A questioner thanked Lauzen for the help provided on House Bill 750 and asked how important it was to get a Republican elected governor.

A softball question, if there ever was one.

“If we don’t get a Republican governor, I’m convinced Illinois collapses,” Lauzen replied.

Another man asked Gaulrapp a question:

“I understand that you were an Obama delegate. Is that right? How do we know that you won’t get down to Washington and hunker down with Durbin and the other Democrats?”

Gaulrapp admitted he was an alternate delegate for Barack Obama, but urged listeners to “look at what I did in Freeport.”

He is mayor of that town west of Rockford. He admitted to raising the sales tax a quarter and three-quarters of a percent. I don’t know if that means his administration raised the sales tax 75%, as Mayor Aaron Shepley led his Republicans on the Crystal Lake City Council to do.

The Illinois Revenue Department says the city’s Home Rule Sales Tax went up 25% to a total of 7.25% as of January 1, 2004. It went up to a total of 8% on January 1, 2010. Gaulrapp was elected mayor in 2005. I don’t know if was on the city council prior to that, which might explain his mention of the quarter of a percent increase.

Increasing the sales tax to 8% puts it higher than any municipality in McHenry County.

Someone from the audience interrupted him.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Bye-bye,” was what I heard.

“The part doesn’t make the man,” the Democrat replied. “I can pick and choose what issue I go with. As far as I know Congressman Manzullo has been in Washington, lived there ten years.”

Gaulrapp said he would live in Freeport and commute to Washington, if elected.

The Democrat got a chance to answer another question while I was there. It was about welfare. The person asking was disturbed that welfare benefits were increasing more than Social Security.

“Why don’t we stop giving extra benefits for welfare recipients that have more babies?”

Gaulrapp argued for cutting “off benefits after the first child.” He would give first-time mothers educational assistance.

A member of the audience advocated attaching drug tests to welfare benefits. One of the two state senators on the dais pointed out such a bill had been voted upon but was “voted down.”

Somehow I didn’t get any notes on State Senator Hultgren’s comments.

Thursday, as I was driving to the Post Office, I noticed a political tee shirted Terry Kappel walking west on Route 14.

You know I had to ask him why he was so attired in Crystal Lake.

Was he going door-to-door for a Democratic Party candidate?

I drove around the block, stopped in a parking lot and asked him.

He was on the way to his chiropractor.

But, our encounter wasn’t a complete washout.

He was wearing the a 16th District “Gaulrapp for Congress” tee shirt with buttons and stickers.

He told me that Independent (that’s what will appear over her name on the ballot in her race against Republican Associate Judge Gordon Graham) judicial candidate Sally Wiggins had found someone going through her garbage.

Now, that was interesting.

I’ve heard of one party’s operatives going through the garbage of campaign offices locally, but never a home. Took me back to J. Edgar Hoover garbage gathering efforts I’d read about.

Wiggins showed up at McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s fund raiser last night.

She was working the crowd and even had a young man writing names and phone numbers in a spiral notebook.

I asked to speak with her and she shoehorned me in.

“Tell me about the garbage guy,” I said.

She told me that Saturday morning she saw a man going through the garbage in her can at the end of her driveway.

When she asked him what he was doing, he reply,

“I’m re-cycling.”

“Do you have a re-cycling can?” I asked.

She said she did, but

“He was in by regular garbage.”

Wasn’t it the Laugh-In Naze who said, “Ver-r-r-r-r-y in-ter-r-r-r-r-es-s-s-ting.”

It should be noted that Judge Graham is the one who named a special prosecutor at Bianchi’s GOP primary opponent Dan Regna’s request to investigate whether Bianchi used tax dollars for political purposes.

In related news, the hearing to decide whether a similar prosecutor should be named to investigate whether McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren used tax dollars for political purposes has been postponed. That effort was initiated by Nygren’s primary opponent Zane Seipler.

McHenry County Democrats had a healthy contingent in Crystal Lake’s 4th of July Parade.

They plan a repeat performance Sunday in McHenry’s Fiesta Days Parade.

Somehow, I don’t think they will draw their U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias again.

But, they will have a sitting Member of Congress in Melissa Bean.

The State Treasurer’s chief assistant, who is running to succeed him, Robin Kelly, was also in Crystal Lake. I didn’t know it at the time, but I did get this photo of her marching right behind the Democrats’ banner.

In Crystal Lake, I saw Woodstock’s Mark Freund, the Democrats candidate for County Clerk walking with a cart containing what appeared to be water.

McHenry County Board member Kathleen Bergan Schmidt was riding on a float with several other people. Sitting next to her was Elizabeth Puchmelter, Grafton 3 Democratic Precinct Committeeman.

The Democrats have sent out this press release about Sunday’s parade participation:

Democrats Highlight Parades Participation

The Democratic Party of McHenry County back this week on the parades and the solemn community ceremonies they have already seen and forward to the festivals and parades in McHenry and Algonquin.

Coming up are the McHenry Fiesta Days and Algonquin Founders Days parades on July 18 and 24.

U.S. Representative Melissa Bean and state representative Jack Franks, and sheriff candidate Mike Mahon will be among those participating in the McHenry parade.

Parade efforts are seen by the party as a great way to show support for the party brand and to breed enthusiasm for the fall elections.

Democrats, as a party and on behalf of individual candidates, have already joined in the activities for Memorial Day and marched in parades in

• Harvard
• Wonder Lake
• Spring Grove and
• Crystal Lake

Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias, state comptroller candidate David Miller, and state treasurer candidate Robin Kelly have been among the state candidates marching, along with Rep. Bean and 16th district congressional nominee George Gaulrapp.

The McHenry Fiesta Days parade will kick off on Sunday, July 18th, at 1:30 PM, and the Algonquin Founders Day parade on Saturday, July 24th, at 11 AM.

Enthusiastic marchers are welcome.

I figured out who the Democratic Party’s candidate for Congress is in the 16th congressional district at the 4th of July Parade on Monday.

When I saw a tee shirt advertising Gaulrapp for Congress, I asked the man wearing it where the candidate was on the ballot.

To my surprise, I learned it’s right where I live.

That shows, I guess, the uphill battle that Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp has against incumbent Republican Don Manzullo, who was first elected in 1992, when he defeated McHenry County’s State Senator Jack Schaffer in the mainly Rockford media market district.

Manzullo and his wife Freda were in the parade riding in a convertible.

The man said that Gaulrapp was up ahead.  I had missed him.

Figuring this was the best chance to get a photo, I hurried to catch up.

I spotted the candidate, but he was making good time.

He was right behind the McHenry County Democrats’ float throwing candy at the crowd from the bag over his shoulder.

Perhaps Freeport and the rest of the congressional district has rules that are less nanny-like than Crystal Lake’s.

I did manage to get a decent close-up and, unlike Mark Kirk, he wasn’t wearing a hat.

Accepting the candy, one man sitting in the shade said, “I like your candy, but not your politics.”

Gaulrapp tried to offer a rebuttal, handing him his piece of literature.

He suggested the man did not know where he stood on the issues.

But the pace of a parade is not conducive to such conversations.

Especially as the Jesse White Tumblers packed up its mats and mini-trampolines and started moving toward his fast disappearing float.

After I got home, I looked at his handout and found the following issue statements:

• We need to concentrate on keeping companies here and to provide them with the tools for expansion.
• Every citizen deserves affordable access to quality health care.  We must look to fix the problems that inflate cost.
• We live in the renewable energy corridor.  Wind power, ethanol, bio diesel and nuclear power are clear and they work.
• We need to reduce the corporate tax rate and allow companies to hire and expand.
• We need to enforce our current trade laws and restrictions.  Job loss is wrecking our economy.
• I believe people have the right to bear arms.  However, gun ownership comes with responsibility and accountability.

Whether reading his platform would convert the skeptical Crystal Lake man I don’t know.

The other side stress he was running to “put America back to work.”

His web site address–www.gaulrapp4congress.com–was also given.

And, Gaulrapp didn’t have time to stand around and find out if his positions would convince the spectator.

He was off giving away more candy.