McHenry County Blog

Mike Tryon

Happened upon the endorsement of State Senator Kirk Dillard by Crystal Lake’s State Rep. Mike Tryon.

If anything has been made of it, except listing it on Dillard’s web site in a press release announcing that the Sangamon County Republican Party (can’t get much more Establishment than that) was endorsing Kirk, I’ve missed it.

Also listed there is Family PAC right next to the Illinois Education Association. That’s the first time I’ve seen those ideological opponents on the same page.

Found Irene Napier of McHenry County Right to Life, as well. She attended State Senator Pam Althoff’s breakfast at 1776 for Dillard.

McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew has signed up, too.

Jack Franks

And, on Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper, I discovered that Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks supports State Comptroller Dan Hynes for governor.

No big surprise there.

Franks was willing to hold hearings on Governor Pat Quinn’s “Catch and Release” prisoner program.

Some call it by the “Revolving Door.”

$1,304,382.79 is invested Certificates of Deposit in local banks.

$28,579.93 is presumably in a checking account.

He spent $505,000 over the last six months of 2009. But $400,000 of that doesn’t really count, because it was going into a CD at the First National Bank of Marengo.

So, in reality about $105,000 was spent during the time of the quest.

Much of that time he was trying to position himself to run for governor.

Lots on paying staff and buying meals.

And, $9,000 to McKoen & Associates of Joliet on July 30th.

Guess the results weren’t as favorable as hoped.

One item popped out. $2,889 to Celtic Tours.

I guess it was campaign related. Franks went to Ireland with House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and State Rep. Dan Burke (all D-Chicago). This is probably where the idea of Franks running for Congress after reapportionment came up.

Never let it be said that McHenry County’s State Representative Jack Franks (D-Marengo) doesn’t have a good eye for what will attract media attention.

Think of his four-year fight to get cheaper prescription drugs for seniors.

Think of his many attacks on and early call for Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment after Franks’ initial attempt to get relatives and supporters appointed to various positions and Blagojevich’s release thereafter of that memo and a letter of support for licensing the Crystal Lake Mercy Hospital when the Stuart Levine scandal broke.

Now Franks has decided to take on another story with “legs,” as the media folks would say:

Pat Quinn’s botching of early release of prisoners

How many legs?

I think it dooms Quinn’s election chances in the fall, if not the primary.

Here are a week’s Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune editorials on the subject (click to enlarge).

And, take a look at what is on page 2 of the Chicago Sun-Times today.  Obviously there is plenty of potential publicity out there.

Jack doesn’t talk to me anymore at anything but public events, so let me offer my advice here.

Mruder-Related Convicts Released Early

Call Bill Bradly as your first witness.According to a WBBM-Radio story yesterday, the Republican state senator and candidate for the Republican Party nomination for governor has first-hand information from the Department of Corrections Director that Quinn made the decision about early release.

By putting Brady first, you would be providing some cover to what might be the real reason for your interest in this issue, getting State Comptroller Dan Hynes. (Pardon me if I think you are supporting him based on nothing more than the signs for Hynes that appear heavily in the Marengo area in his previous runs for office. If you are supporting Quinn, I would be happy to relay that information to McHenry County Blog readers.)

From the photos of “murder-related convicts released early” found on page 3 of today’s Sun-Times, there is a lot of potential.

At some point, someone might also want to look at sex offenders who were nnot released early under Governor George Ryan. Sometime after the Democrats took control, they started getting to use their “good time” to get out earlier.

Already Hynes is running his version of the Willie Horton ad on TV.

Hostile hearings chaired by Franks would have a re-enforcing effect.

Joe Walsh participating in the Patriots United-McHenry County Young Republican 8th Congressional District Debate.

The Daily Herald blog by Joe Ryan and John Patterson reports that 8th District Republican congressional candidate Joe Walsh has replaced campaign manager Keith Liscio with McHenry County resident Jim Thacker and Sheila Morgan.

Thacker made his reputation managing 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo’s 1992 campaign and the primary victory of State Rep. Al Salvi (R-Mundelein) over Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra in 1996.

More recently, he has managed Rockford’s independent mayor’s successful campaigns.

Although I did not get a chance to attend the 8th District candidates night the Friday before Thanksgiving, jointly sponsored by Patriots United and the McHenry County Young Republicans, reports were that Walsh did quite well.

Other GOP candidates are Dirk Beveridge, John Dawson, Chris Geissler, Greg Jacobs, and Maria Rodriguez.

Besides the acclaimed Manzullo and Salvi campaigns, Thacker managed a less than successful campaign covering a good part of the district. Back in 2002, he managed the campaign of Pete Michling (R-Woodstock) , who ran against incumbent State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Barrington Hills) in the Republican primary. It was a reapportionment year and State Rep. Jack Franks (D-then Bull Valley) made sure the Michling’s part of McHenry was not in his district.

Michling lost the primary to Beaubien by a vote of 9448 to 4285, even losing McHenry County 3-2.

When I wrote the story about the Citizens for Life pro-life endorsements yesterday, there was an omission that deserves noting.

Instead of taking a dive this year, the Republican Party has put up a candidate to challenge veteran Democratic Party State Representative Jack Franks.

His name is John O’Neill and he holds three elective offices in the McHenry area.  I left him out of the original (but now modified) post.

He is on the grade school board, the library board and is a GOP precinct committeeman.

I left him out of the article.

So you can see the differences on the abortion issue among those in legislative office and those running in McHenry County, a summary of the local ratings follows:

“Fully Pro-Life”

• Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake)
• John O’Neill (R-McHenry)

“Unknown (Did not answer or complete survey)”

• Jack Franks (D-Marengo)
• Bob Kaempfe (R-Crystal Lake)
• Mark Beaubien (R-Barrington Hills)

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John O’Neill is top left. On the right is Mike Tryon. From left to right on the bottom are Bob Kaempfe, Mark Beaubien and Jack Franks.

Tucked at the bottom of the Associated Press article published in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune entitled,

“Concessions made to gain Senate votes,”

is a paragraph ready made for State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo).

For those of you who don’t remember, Franks announced to the Northwest Herald that he was thinking about running for Congress after the re-districting for 2012.

So what besides his favorable name ID would Franks offer to prospective constituents?

Read this last paragraph in the AP article first:

“Drugmakers fended off proprosals to allow importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries, and to let the government negotiate drug prices for Medicare recipients.”

Remember, these concessions were not made to the big, bad Republicans. They were made to buy votes from Democrats.

But, back to Jack Franks.

As recently as November 10th Franks was on Dennis Miller’s WIND Radio show talking about his “Sam’s Club for Seniors.”

The suggestion that government buy drugs in bulk, the same way virtually every product is purchased, is eminently logical. When I ran for Governor as a Libertarian in 2002, I made the same type of proposals to save money on medical purchases made by state government.

So, if the House Democrats don’t beat some sense into the Senate Democrats, expect Franks to have a pre-tested plank in his platform for Congress.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the McHenry County Board bucked Chairman Ken Koehler, State Senator Pam Althoff, State Rep. Mike Tryon and those who stand to gain financially from placement of video poker machines in local taverns and restaurants.

It’s time to tell the tale of how McHenry County Establishment got narrowly beaten in that fight.

The vote was close (13-10-1) and my guess is that video poker proponents will try to reverse that vote after new county board members are sworn in, if the people they back defeat anti-gambling incumbents like District 2’s Barbara Wheeler.

Video gambling was the first local issue taken on by Patriots United, the folks who coordinated the Independence Day TEA Party, picketed State Rep. Jack Franks’ office on a cold spring day about his sponsorship of a bill considered pro-abortion and gun control, held a well-attended forum on the Democrats’ health care reform, and co-sponsored with the McHenry County Young Republicans a candidates’ night for 8th congressional district GOP aspirants.

Members attended John Hammerand’s License and Liquor Committee meetings and sponsored a debate between proponents and opponents.

Here are Patriots United video slot machine debate panels, ban proponents on the right, opponents on the left. Opponents, from left to right, are Tom Grey, David Smith and James Blue.

Then, Patriots United had a forum in Woodstock during which video poker machine salesmen debated three social conservatives:

• Tom Grey, the nationally- known Methodist minister who started out in Galena during the time the county board decided to site a riverboat in Jo Davies County and now Field Coordinator and National Spokesman for Stop Predatory Gambling
• Jim Blue, representing Illinois Church Action on Alcoholism and Addiction Problems
• David Smith, Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute

They urged their members to contact county board members, but that was not what did the trick.

They used this robo call technique I first saw tobacco companies us in lobbying against cigarette tax hikes maybe ten years ago.

Call people, explain the issue and ask if they would like to speak to their county board member.

Since there are four county board members per district, how would that work?

The Illinois Family Institute selected six county board members considered to be approachable on the issue.

They were

• Yvonne Barnes in District 1
• Jim Heisler in District 2
• Ed Dvorak in District 3
• Sue Draffkorn in District 4
• Jim Kennedy in District 5
• Dan Ryan in District 6

From 1,334 to 1,453 calls were made in each district.

From to 649 to 774 of the calls were answered by voters. After the recorded pitch, voters were asked to push a phone button if they wished to be transferred to their county board member.

There were over fifty transfers for all but one district.

From the time my father served on the county board, I can tell you that he never got that many calls on any subject. On some zoning matters, especially the landfill ones, he might have gotten fifty letters. One phone call on a subject was a big number back in the 1980’s.

Getting dozens of calls must have sounded like a tidal wave.

And it was. You can’t find an issue where that many constituents have contacted county board members by phone. Undoubtedly, some of them were friends and supporters of each member.

A little over half of the calls were answered in person; the rest went to answering machines.

Of the six county board members receiving calls, only Huntley’s Ryan, a Sun City resident, voted in favor of allowing video slot machines in establishments serving liquor in unincorporated McHenry County.

Barnes, Kennedy and Ryan are up for election this year. District 6’s Ryan is the only one with GOP primary opposition.

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Check out possible targets for the pro-gambling forces in this post.

Saw this sign on State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) well placed sign in front of his office on Route 47 in Woodstock today.

OK. I was wrong.

I predicted last night that the McHenry County Board would approved what proponents insist on calling video poker.

But, this morning social conservatives on the board pulled off a 13-10-1 victory.

That was with the help of all three Democrats on the county board. (Counting only Republicans, the vote would have been tied 10-10.)

Lake in the Hills member Paula Yensen has personal knowledge of how devastating gambling can be to a family.

Patriots United video slot machine debate panels, ban proponents on the right, opponents on the left.

Perhaps also influencing the vote was the leadership that Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks has taken on the issue. He attended a Patriots United debate on the subject after returning from one of this fall’s veto sessions.

All Republicans representing McHenry County in the Illinois General Assembly except State Senator Dan Duffy, that is, State Representatives Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien, plus State Senator Pam Althoff, voted supported video slot machines.

Voting in favor of a ban of the video gambling machines in unincorporated areas were the following, who are grouped by county board district (those up for election this year are show in bold face type):

District 1

• Yvonne Barnes

District 2

• Jim Heisler

District 3

• Ed Dvorak (retiring)
• Kathy Bergan Schmidt
• Barbara Wheeler

District 4

• Sue Draffkorn
• John Hammerand
• Sandy Salgado

District 5

• Paula Yensen
• Jim Kennedy
• Virginia Peschke

District 6

• Mary McCann
• Ersel Schuster

Voting against the ban, thus in favor of expanding gambling were the following:

District 1

• Anna May Miller
• Bob Bless
• Marc Munaretto

District 2

• Scott Breeden
• Ken Koehler
• Lyn Orphal

District 3

• Mary Donner

District 4

• Pete Merkel

District 5

• Tina Hill

District 6

• Dan Ryan

Abstaining from the vote was District 6 Republican Randy Donley.

A month ago the board voted against holding an advisory referendum on the issue. The vote was 13-11-1.

The thirteen board members who voted against allowing their constituents to vote on the issue follow:

• Yvonne Barnes (R-Cary)

• Sue Draffkorn (R-Wonder Lake)

• Paula Yensen (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Ed Dvorak (R-Crystal Lake)

• Jim Heisler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Ken Koehler (R-Crystal Lake)

• Mary McCann (R-Woodstock)

• Pete Merkel (R-McHenry)

• Virginia Peschke (R-Bull Valley)

• Sandy Salgado (R-McHenry)

• Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D-Crystal Lake)

• Barb Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake)

Voting in favor of an advisory referendum were

• Bob Bless (R-Fox River Grove)

• Scott Breeden (R-Lakewood)

• Mary Donner (R-Crystal Lake)

• John Hammerand (R-Wonder Lake)

• Tina Hill (R-Woodstock)

• Jim Kennedy (D-Lake in the Hills)

• Anna May Miller (R-Cary)

• Marc Munaretto (R-Algonquin)

• Lyn Orphal (R-Crystal Lake)

• Dan Ryan (R-Huntley)

Members of the Operating Engineers Local 150 lobbied vigorously against the gambling ban, arguing for the jobs its proceeds would finance.

Jeremiah Silas O’Neill was born at Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington on November 10.

The big boy was 10 pounds, 10 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long.

His mother Basia accompanies her children to McHenry West High School for Marlin Swim team practice and mentioned she was a bit past due date, but that was not abnormal for her.

And what shows up but a big baby boy.

“Coincidentally enough, he was born while Senator Pam Althoff, Senator Dan Duffy, State Rep Mike Tryon, and State Rep Mark Beaubien were meeting with the Nursing staff at Good Shepherd to discuss how the Health Care bill, now headed to the Senate, may affect them,’ father John O’Neill reports.

“So really, all of McHenry County’s Republican lawmakers from Springfield were there along with the Republican hopeful; I was just busy holding my wife’s hand while she was giving birth.”

O’Neill, a member of both the McHenry Elementary School Board and the McHenry Library Board is the first Republican to challenge incumbent Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks in two election cycles.