McHenry County Blog

The leadership team of the McHenry County Republican Central Committee will be the same as it has been the last two years.

State Rep. Mike Tryon of Crystal Lake continues as Chairman.

Vice Chairwoman will be McHenry’s Kathy Kuchta.

Harvard’s Glenda Miller will be Secretary.

Fred Wickham, who won a contest two years ago will again be Treasurer.

Likewise there was no contest for 8th Congressional District State Central Committeeman. All present voted for Barrington Township’s Gene Dawson.

With the empty precincts added in, pursuant to passage of a motion earlier in the night, Dawson received 10,134 votes in his attempt to turn back a challenge by the Schaumburg Township Committeeman, Michael Adelizzi.

In the race for the 16th Congressional District Committeemanship, the race was more interesting.

Cal Skinner made a pitch for Joe Wiegand, pointing out that he had never seen incumbent Dave Syverson during the past two years since he had joined the Central Committee for the third time. He said that Wiegand’s lack of a public office gave him the time to do much more than a state senator could.

Jack Schaffer spoke for Syverson, explaining that he was a respected leader on the Republican State Central Committee.  He added that Syverson had been in Congressman Don Manzullo’s Sunday School class.

After Schaffer, Tom Zanck asked if he could second Wiegand’s nomination and was granted that wish.

“I don’t agree with Cal Skinner on anything, but I agree with him on Joe Wiegand,” he said. Zanck said he had worked with Wiegand in the campaign to defeat the establishment of a Kishwaukee Water Authority and praised his imagination, thoroughness and initiative.

A not-so-secret ballot was taken instead of a roll call, resulting in Syverson getting 4,054 votes and Wiegand 2,554.  (Because each precinct committee had the number of Republican votes cast in his precinct, the way people voted had to be known to the canvass team.)

After the vote Chairman Tryon asked if anyone wanted to switch to the winner and Dan Shea and Patrick Collins did, leaving the tally at 4,347 to 2,261.

Adding in the precinct totals of precincts where no vote was cast, Syverson ended up with a margin of 11,428. The total vote of precincts not represented because the elected committeeman did not show up or because no one ran for precinct committeeman was 9,342 votes.

15,950 people voted in the GOP primary in Congressman Don Manzullo’s part of McHenry County, but only 6,608 of them had elected precinct committeemen present at the meeting.

That means there is plenty of room for volunteers. If you would like your name passed on, you can email McHenry County Blog. The email is on the upper left hand side of this page.

Schaffer, who chaired Bill Brady’s McHenry County campaign, told the party representatives that Brady was leading Kirk Dillard by 246 votes by Brady’s count.

“We think Brady will be the winner,” the former Central Committee Chairman said.

Brady is expected to be in Chicago shaking hands at the Union Pacific train station Friday morning and do a fly-around on Monday. The closest landing will be in Rockford.

Extolling the virtues of his candidate, Schaffer said, “His family is from Central Casting.”

Describing his principles, his spokesman described them as “solid.”

Schaffer also said that he his answers frustrate the media.

When asked a question about social values, he says,

”I am who I am.“

Then, he starts talking about the problems of the day.

“We stand at the brink,” Schaffer said. “The demographics are running against us. We have a chance. The Democrats have done everything for us but raise money…and Blagojevich is still working for us.

“If we can’t prevail this year, I don’t know when we ever will again.

“I won’t say, ‘It’s now or never,’  but you guys will all be as old as I am when we get the next chance.”

Tryon then introduced the county board candidates in attendance and let state representative candidate John O’Neill make a pitch for his March 15th corn beef and cabbage fund raiser at the Bull Valley Country Club.

McHenry County Young Republican President Bryan Javor took the opportunity to announce he was not running for re-election, but, pointing to the county board candidates,  instead “would work to get these guys elected.”

Then, Tryon headed back to Springfield for session on Thursday.

He had left 1 PM Wednesday afternoon to drive up to Woodstock.

When McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman Bill LeFew decided to abandon the chairmanship after embarrassing himself and the Republican Party with his unsuccessful attempts to keep secret his efforts to oust McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi, LeFew did his best to surround consensus choice for chairman Mike Tryon with LeFew loyalists.

He pushed his Chief Deputy Treasurer Glenda Miller for party secretary to replace Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley and Brent Smith, who was active in the LeFew-backed Dan Regna for state’s attorney campaign for treasurer.

Long-time Crystal Lake precinct committeeman decided to run against Miller, pledging to open the central committee’s financial books.
Wickham won by a 2-1 margin, ushering in a new era of financial transparency.

When I was looking at State Rep. Mike Tryon’s six-month report, I noticed a $500 June 16th contribution to the McHenry County Chairman’s Circle.

I had heard rumors about it, but this was the first hard evidence that it existed.

No campaign disclosure had been filed for the committee when I looked, but a friend of McHenry County Blog found an announcement of the committee’s formation on July 23rd.

Mike Tryon is listed as chairman, Ken Koehler as treasurer and Blake Hobson as secretary. Tryon named Hobson, incidentally, as vice chairman in charge of finance for the central committee.

Tryon listed the committee’s address as Box 723 in McHenry, the same address listed for the foundation committee, the central committee and the Republican Women’s Club of McHenry County.

Interestingly, when the paperwork was filed for the Chairman’s Circle, it listed Ken Koehler’s home address, rather than the McHenry post office box.

I figure Tryon is soliciting $500 checks to be spent…well, we won’t know until sometime in January.

We will be able to find out who contributes, however, in the pre-election report before the general election.

I figure that every dollar the Chairman’s Circle gets is one less dollar the Central Committee receives.

When McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman Bill LeFew decided to abandon the chairmanship after embarrassing himself and the Republican Party with his unsuccessful attempts to keep secret his efforts to oust McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi, LeFew did his best to surround consensus choice for chairman Mike Tryon with LeFew loyalists.

He pushed his Chief Deputy Treasurer Glenda Miller for party secretary to replace Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley and Brent Smith, who was active in the LeFew-backed Dan Regna for state’s attorney campaign for treasurer.

Long-time Crystal Lake precinct committeeman decided to run against Miller, pledging to open the central committee’s financial books.
Wickham won by a 2-1 margin, ushering in a new era of financial transparency.

When I was looking at State Rep. Mike Tryon’s six-month report, I noticed a $500 June 16th contribution to the McHenry County Chairman’s Circle.

I had heard rumors about it, but this was the first hard evidence that it existed.

No campaign disclosure had been filed for the committee when I looked, but a friend of McHenry County Blog found an announcement of the committee’s formation on July 23rd.

Mike Tryon is listed as chairman, Ken Koehler as treasurer and Blake Hobson as secretary. Tryon named Hobson, incidentally, as vice chairman in charge of finance for the central committee.

Tryon listed the committee’s address as Box 723 in McHenry, the same address listed for the foundation committee, the central committee and the Republican Women’s Club of McHenry County.

Interestingly, when the paperwork was filed for the Chairman’s Circle, it listed Ken Koehler’s home address, rather than the McHenry post office box.

I figure Tryon is soliciting $500 checks to be spent…well, we won’t know until sometime in January.

We will be able to find out who contributes, however, in the pre-election report before the general election.

I figure that every dollar the Chairman’s Circle gets is one less dollar the Central Committee receives.

It was a foregone conclusion that State Rep. Mike Tryon would replace McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew as chairman of the McHenry County Republican Central Committee.

And he did.

By acclamation.

McHenry Township’s Kathy Kuchta was, too. As was Chemung’s Glenda Miller.

But in the only contested race, 16-year conservative Crystal Lake precinct committeeman Fred Wickham won out over newcomer Brent Smith by a 2-1 margin.

The weighted vote of the committeeman came out 10,801 for Wickham to 5,087 for Smith.

“We are a new central committee and are in control of our own destiny,” Tryon stated in his acceptance speech.

“They’ll be Republicans in leadership come November,” he stressed.

He also recognized long-time committeeman Joyce Story for offering to donate her liver for a transplant.

He thanked his supportive business partner Preston Rae, who also serves as Alden Township Supervisor and its precinct committeeman and his wife.

He then asked for the meeting to be closed.

It was a full house. Only 43 elected committee were absent.

Two other officers were elected without opposition:

Kathleen Kuchta to replace Rich Mack as Vice Chairman. Mack nominated her.

Glenda Miller as Secretary. Miller is Bill LeFew’s Chief Deputy Treasurer.

Entering the VFW in Woodstock committeemen were greeted by Young Republicans passing out an appeal to support Smith for central committee treasurer.

The balloting for the treasurer spot was by paper ballot, instead of an oral roll call.

Committeemen had to write their precinct number, their name and the name of their candidate on little slips of paper.

Each candidate gave short talks.

Smith went first, admitting he was a little tongue tied.

He wasn’t alone.

Wickham said giving speeches “still scares me.”

Smith recounted the volunteer work he had done for all sorts of local candidates as far back as Dick Klemm.

Wickham told of having been a treasurer for a political action committee and his desire to “work with Mike to heal the Republican Party.

“We need to bring people together.”

He said that the “financial records should be open. You should be able to get that information anytime you want it.”

He promised that expenses and revenue would be reported for each event.

Both candidates had watchers, so the candidates could get some idea if those who had pledged their support had kept their commitments.

The two doing the tallies were using electronic calculators with no paper trail.

Counting the votes took longer than it would have had the two people doing it had tapes to compare.

After the meeting, Smith congratulated Wickham.

Otherwise the meeting ran smoothly with the exception that moderator Bernie Narusis put me in a “penalty box,” as Nick Provenzano observed.

He named me parliamentarian and made me sit on the stage.

I told Bernie, who ran for state’s attorney in 1964 while my father was running for county auditor, I wanted to take pictures.

Bernie said I would have a good view from the stage.

He was correct.

Outgoing GOP Chairman Bill LeFew made what turned out to be virtually a cameo appearance.

“It’s been a pleasure, I’ve enjoyed,” he said and apparently left the meeting. He certainly was not in the room when Wickham told of it having been a pleasure to work with him.

After the meeting, it was learned that new by-laws were adopted.

Power, which had been concentrated, was dispersed.

There will henceforth be regular meetings.

= = = = =
Newly elected McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman State Rep. Mike Tryon can be seen in the sights of a newspaper camera woman standing next to his newly elected Vice Chairwoman Kathy Kuchta. Next is a head shot of the new treasurer, Fred Wickham.

An audience picture shows how full the room was. Newly elected secretary, Glenda Miller and vice chairwoman, Kathy Kuchta are seen in head shots. Below you can see Young Republicans handing out a leaflet supporting Brent Smith for committee treasurer. Underneath you can see Brett Smith on the left with Wickham next to him. The vote counting committee and watchers for Smith and Wickham are in the next shot.

You can see Smith congratulating Wickham below. That’s me holding up Robert’s Rules of Order. Moderator Bernie Narusis congratulates Mike Tryon down on the left. Finally, a head shot of outgoing GOP Committee Chairman Bill LeFew.

Since there is some more space, I’ll add a picture of Steve Verr of McCullom Lake getting his ballot. That’s outgoing Vice Chairman Rich Mack next to Verr. Mack chaired the bylaw revision committee. Lou Anne Majewski can be seen at the bottom delivering her nominating speech for Fred Wickham.

There were non-committeemen county officials present. I wanted to take a photo of Phyllis Walters, but she didn’t want me to. McHenry County State’s Attorney had no objection as he talked to Algonquin precinct committeeman Patrick Colcernian before the meeting.

Central committee endorsements will take a super-majority vote.

It was a foregone conclusion that State Rep. Mike Tryon would replace McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew as chairman of the McHenry County Republican Central Committee.

And he did.

By acclamation.

McHenry Township’s Kathy Kuchta was, too. As was Chemung’s Glenda Miller.

But in the only contested race, 16-year conservative Crystal Lake precinct committeeman Fred Wickham won out over newcomer Brent Smith by a 2-1 margin.

The weighted vote of the committeeman came out 10,801 for Wickham to 5,087 for Smith.

“We are a new central committee and are in control of our own destiny,” Tryon stated in his acceptance speech.

“They’ll be Republicans in leadership come November,” he stressed.

He also recognized long-time committeeman Joyce Story for offering to donate her liver for a transplant.

He thanked his supportive business partner Preston Rae, who also serves as Alden Township Supervisor and its precinct committeeman and his wife.

He then asked for the meeting to be closed.

It was a full house. Only 43 elected committee were absent.

Two other officers were elected without opposition:

Kathleen Kuchta to replace Rich Mack as Vice Chairman. Mack nominated her.

Glenda Miller as Secretary. Miller is Bill LeFew’s Chief Deputy Treasurer.

Entering the VFW in Woodstock committeemen were greeted by Young Republicans passing out an appeal to support Smith for central committee treasurer.

The balloting for the treasurer spot was by paper ballot, instead of an oral roll call.

Committeemen had to write their precinct number, their name and the name of their candidate on little slips of paper.

Each candidate gave short talks.

Smith went first, admitting he was a little tongue tied.

He wasn’t alone.

Wickham said giving speeches “still scares me.”

Smith recounted the volunteer work he had done for all sorts of local candidates as far back as Dick Klemm.

Wickham told of having been a treasurer for a political action committee and his desire to “work with Mike to heal the Republican Party.

“We need to bring people together.”

He said that the “financial records should be open. You should be able to get that information anytime you want it.”

He promised that expenses and revenue would be reported for each event.

Both candidates had watchers, so the candidates could get some idea if those who had pledged their support had kept their commitments.

The two doing the tallies were using electronic calculators with no paper trail.

Counting the votes took longer than it would have had the two people doing it had tapes to compare.

After the meeting, Smith congratulated Wickham.

Otherwise the meeting ran smoothly with the exception that moderator Bernie Narusis put me in a “penalty box,” as Nick Provenzano observed.

He named me parliamentarian and made me sit on the stage.

I told Bernie, who ran for state’s attorney in 1964 while my father was running for county auditor, I wanted to take pictures.

Bernie said I would have a good view from the stage.

He was correct.

Outgoing GOP Chairman Bill LeFew made what turned out to be virtually a cameo appearance.

“It’s been a pleasure, I’ve enjoyed,” he said and apparently left the meeting. He certainly was not in the room when Wickham told of it having been a pleasure to work with him.

After the meeting, it was learned that new by-laws were adopted.

Power, which had been concentrated, was dispersed.

There will henceforth be regular meetings.

= = = = =
Newly elected McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman State Rep. Mike Tryon can be seen in the sights of a newspaper camera woman standing next to his newly elected Vice Chairwoman Kathy Kuchta. Next is a head shot of the new treasurer, Fred Wickham.

An audience picture shows how full the room was. Newly elected secretary, Glenda Miller and vice chairwoman, Kathy Kuchta are seen in head shots. Below you can see Young Republicans handing out a leaflet supporting Brent Smith for committee treasurer. Underneath you can see Brett Smith on the left with Wickham next to him. The vote counting committee and watchers for Smith and Wickham are in the next shot.

You can see Smith congratulating Wickham below. That’s me holding up Robert’s Rules of Order. Moderator Bernie Narusis congratulates Mike Tryon down on the left. Finally, a head shot of outgoing GOP Committee Chairman Bill LeFew.

Since there is some more space, I’ll add a picture of Steve Verr of McCullom Lake getting his ballot. That’s outgoing Vice Chairman Rich Mack next to Verr. Mack chaired the bylaw revision committee. Lou Anne Majewski can be seen at the bottom delivering her nominating speech for Fred Wickham.

There were non-committeemen county officials present. I wanted to take a photo of Phyllis Walters, but she didn’t want me to. McHenry County State’s Attorney had no objection as he talked to Algonquin precinct committeeman Patrick Colcernian before the meeting.

Central committee endorsements will take a super-majority vote.

Bill LeFew has just sent another signal that he plans to retire as McHenry County Republican Central Committee chairman.

He didn’t file for re-election for precinct committeeman in Chemung Township Precinct 1. Glenda Miller did.

She could withdraw and LeFew could run as a write-in, but, barring that, LeFew would not have standing to remain as chairman of McHenry County Republicans.

No one who is not an elected precinct committee can serve as chairman of the central committee—at least that was the law the last time I looked.

Bill LeFew has just sent another signal that he plans to retire as McHenry County Republican Central Committee chairman.

He didn’t file for re-election for precinct committeeman in Chemung Township Precinct 1. Glenda Miller did.

She could withdraw and LeFew could run as a write-in, but, barring that, LeFew would not have standing to remain as chairman of McHenry County Republicans.

No one who is not an elected precinct committee can serve as chairman of the central committee—at least that was the law the last time I looked.