McHenry County Blog

Barbara Wheeler

Diane Evertson

Donna Kurtz

Endorsements from the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water has endorsed folks for the McHenry County Board.

Here is the group’s press release:

John Jung

Mary McCann

The Alliance for Land Agriculture and Water (ALAW) is pleased to recommend the following candidates for McHenry County Board and asks for your vote in their respective districts.

• Donna Kurtz (R) District Two
• Barb Wheeler (R) District 3
• John Jung, Jr. (R) District 5
• Frank Wedig, (Green Party) District 5
• Diane Evertsen (R) District 6
• Mary McCann (R) District 6

Frank Wedig

Each of these candidates has pledged to work for preservation of our natural resources, our fresh water supply and our prime farmland.

These goals are critical to maintaining our quality of life and economic viability in the county.

Survey results are available here.

We would like to remind voters that “vote for two” on your ballot is not a command, but a choice.

There are 27 people running for the McHenry County Board.

As of now, over half the candidates have filled out questionnaires aimed at identifying potential conflicts of interest–14 in all.

Might this be an indicator that those wanting to serve on the board have discovered voters don’t trust their public officials.

The latest two to submit the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water are

• Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller, running as a Republican in District 2
• Former McHenry County Board member and Vice Chairman John Jung, running in District 5

Ellen Brady Mueller

Brady Mueller becomes the second candidate to submit the form to the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water. The first was fellow challenger Donna Kurtz.

County Board Chairman Ken Koehler and fellow incumbent Lyn Orphal have thus far ignored the ethics questionnaire, which ALAW asked the county board to enact before the February 2nd primary election.  Challenger Sandra DePaul has, as well.

John Jung

In District 5, former county board member John Jung has now filled out and sent in the form. The only incumbent in the district, Tina Hill, did so earlier. Challenger Dave Frederick has not.

The Management Services Committee referred the ALAW-suggested language to the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office. Here is the story about the State’s Attorney’s reply.

There will be a candidates’ night Friday at 7 at McHenry County College sponsored by Patriots United.  Candidates will start arriving about 6:30, if you want to talk to them ahead of the forum.

Illinois Citizens for Life, a statewide pro-life group, has endorsed Zane Seipler for McHenry County Sheriff.

Seipler is challenging incumbent Sheriff Keith Nygren in the February 2nd Republican primary election.

The organization is also endorsing candidates for county board.

In District 1, ICF is endorsing the only man and only non-incumbent running for one of the two spots. His name is Robert Nowak. He is a Cary resident, as are the two incumbents he is challenging—Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes.

In District 2, McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler and challenger Sandra DePaul are the two getting the group’s nod. Both are from Crystal Lake. Other candidates are incumbent Lyn Orphal and challengers Donna Kurtz, a McHenry County College board member and Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller.

In District 3 the only incumbent running for re-election, Barbara Wheeler is endorsed. Former county board member Nick Provenzano also won the group’s support. The opponents are Karen J Tynis, Veronica Armstrong and Craig Steagall.

In District 5, newcomer Dave Frederick and former county board member John Jung received the pro-life endorsement. Also running is incumbent Tina Hill.

There is no endorsement in District 4, where there is no GOP primary election, or in District 6, where five candidates are vying for the two places on the fall ballot.

State legislative candidates are ranked as well.

Mike Tryon (R-Crystsl Lake) is deemed to be “Fully Pro-Life.” His Democratic Part opponent Bob Kaempfe merited an “Unknown (Did not answer or complete survey).” State Reps. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) and Mark Beaubien (R-Barrington Hills) are rated the same as Kaempfe.

Franks’ Republican opponent, on the other hand, was characterized as “Fully Pro-Life.”

The only other state candidate endorsed is for the 2nd Appellate Court. Mary S. Schostok is endorsed for the Barbara Gilleran-Johnson vacancy.

Maybe it was the $20,000 salary, plus full and generous health coverage, but whatever the motivation, all the incumbents but District 4 incumbents Sandy Salgado and Pete Merkel, both from McHenry, drew challengers.

Twenty-three people are vying for twelve spots on the fall ballot.

Thirteen are women; ten men.

In District 1, incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes are being challenged by Cary’s Bob Nowak.

In District 2, incumbents Ken Koehler and Lyn Orphal will face not only MCC Board member Donna Kurtz, but Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller, but also Sandra DePaul.

Mueller likes to be last on the ballot, but she didn’t wait long enough this afternoon. DePaul gets the coveted spot, worth an extra 5% in a six-person race, probably less in this five-person race.

In District 3, newly energized entrepreneur Craig Steagall, who lives just north of Crystal Lake will take on incumbent Barb Wheeler, former county board member Nick Provenzano and newcomers Veronica Armstrong and Karen Tynis.

Steagall is known for his full-page ads in the Northwest Herald in opposition to Metra’s purchase of 17 acres next to the old 84 Lumber (new Alexander’s Lumber) on Country Club Road.

Those ads have attacked McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler. Less well known is that he put together the people who built Prairie Ridge High School’s soccer field.

In District 5, Dave Frederick filed his nominating papers. The veterinarian will be running against incumbent Tina Hill and former county board member John Jung. The announced candidacy of John Vrett did not materialize.

In District 6, incumbent Mary McCann filed her petitions Monday. She joins incumbent Dan Ryan and challengers Richard Draper of Wonder Lake, Dianne Evertsen of Hartland Township and Victor Naursis of Woodstock.

The candidacy of veteran Cook County Deputy Sheriff Mike Mahon for the Democratic Party nominee for McHenry County Sheriff started my thinking about how Lake in the Hills village government and politics is an incubator for Democratic Party partisan campaigns.

If you ever wonder the importance of village office, consider the upward mobility of those involved in McHenry County Democratic Party politics from Lake in the Hills.

One could consider it the powerhouse of McHenry County Democratic Party politics.

And, it’s all “non-partisan.”

First Paula Yensen ran for state representative against Republican Mike Tryon in 2004.

Then, Jim Kennedy ran for county board against Tina Hill and Perry Moy, unseating Moy.

Next, Paula Yensen ran for county board against Virginia Peschke and John Jung.  She beat Jung (or is up for a re-match this year, if he wins what could be a four-way GOP primary).

And even prospective Democratic Party sheriff’s candidate Mahon gained his electoral baptism by fire by running for village trustee.  He lost but it looks like he is running for something much bigger, where, if victorious, Democrats would be in control of one of the most powerful courthouse offices.

Confirmation has been received that Woodstock’s Frank Wedig will again run for the McHenry County Board in District 5.

That district covers Dorr Township, which covers most of Woodstock and Bull Valley, plus the eastern part of Grafton Township, including parts of Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Lakewood and Crystal Lake.

Wedig ran two years ago. You can find out how well he did here.He then ran for Dorr Township Trustee.

Wedig was competitive, running 158 votes behind the lowest Republican, Joseph Evanoff.

Wedig received 84% of the votes of the lowest Republican vote getter. (That is the margin prior to adding in absentee and early voting results, which were not tremendous in this election.)

Most recently,. the Green Party came out against the Woodstock baseball stadium’s being allocated $15 million in Federal Stimulus Recovery Zone Bonds.

There are four Republicans who have taken out primary petitions in District 5:

• Tina Hill (incumbent)
• John Jung (who lost to Democrat Paula Yensen last year)
• Dave Frederick
• John Vrett

The winners will face Democrat Jim Kennedy and Wedig.

Not only may the most rural McHenry County Board district, District 6, have a four-way Republican primary, but District 5 (the one covering most of Woodstock, Huntley and a lot of Lake in the Hills and some of the southwestern part of Crystal Lake) may also.
This is the district in which all four Republicans holding office during most of the first decade of this century had Woodstock zip codes and lived in Dorr Township, while the population center of the district was south in Grafton Township.

With all the new residents in western Lake in the Hills and Huntley, Democrats saw an opening four years ago, running Lake in the Hills Trustee Jim Kennedy.

In a slash and burn campaign, combined with lots of shoe leather, I learned later, incumbent Perry Moy was defeated.

Two years later Lake in the Hills Trustee Paula Yensen ran an extensive door-to-door campaign and unseated Republican incumbent John Jung.

Now, Kennedy is up for re-election, looking apprehensively at the upcoming reapportionment by his GOP county board colleagues.

District 5 Democratic Precinct committee met after the August Democratic Party Central Committee meeting.

With the Barack Obama phenomenon wearing off and groups like Patriots United, while not a participant in partisan politics, drawing over 500 people to a hot button meeting on the Democrats health care reform program, you can imagine that District 5 Democrats are wondering if they can re-elect Kennedy.

Republicans apparently don’t understand that Kennedy’s seat is a “Democratic” one.

Besides incumbent Tina Hill, three others have picked up nominating petitions at the county clerk’s office.

You know about John Jung.  He lost to Yensen, but is running again.

Two others are apparently gathering signatures:

• John Vrett
• Dave Frederick

I hope each will send me a bio, but let me tell you what I know about them.

Vrett served on the Woodstock Unit School District 200 school board. Although he taught in the Marengo Grade School District and Carpentersville’s District 300, his school board service reflected a “protect the taxpayer” point of view. He is an avid hunter and lives on Bull Valley Road just east of Woodstock. Vrett is now retired.

Frederick has served on the McHenry County Regional Board of School Trustees.  He has also run for the District 200 Board. He lives on Mt. Tabor Road about halfway between Route 176 and Lucas Road. He is a veterinarian, specializing in horses.

Both can accurately be described as conservatives.

It should be noted that all of the Republican candidates live in the Woodstock zip code, although Frederick’s children have attended St. Thomas School in Crystal Lake and he lives right on the edge of the Crystal Lake-Woodstock zip code.

= = = = =
Facing the camera in the photo of District 5 Democratic Party activists at their party’s last Central Committee meeting are McHenry County Board members Jim Kennedy and Paula Yensen.

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.

Former McHenry County Board member John Jung is gearing up for another try.

Jung was defeated by Lake in the Hills Village Trustee Paula Yensen last fall. She won by 1,223 in the hard-fought battle.

I have long contended that women running for office in our area have a five percentage point advantage. Five percent of the 38,673 votes cast is 1,933.

That’s not to minimize Yensen’s hard door-to-door campaigning, but her gender certainly was an advantage.

Yensen also had the advantage of Barack Obama’s carrying McHenry County by 5.3 percentage points.

Jung also campaigned vigorously door-to-door.

“I worked my head off,” Jung told me after the election.

With the Democratic Party incumbent being a male, Jim Kennedy won’t have the same advantage Yensen had.

But, then again, Kennedy did defeat a man, Perry Moy. Kennedy’s direct mail campaign can only be described as vicious.

If you don’t remember, take a look at the extremely negative campaigning by Democrats in District 5 four years ago. See

Picking of Perry – Part 1,
Picking on Perry – Part 2,
Picking on Perry – Part 3,
Perry Takes Another Hit, and
Negative Campaigning Apparently Works.

And, somehow I don’t think the Democratic Party candidate for governor will carry McHenry County, especially, if Democratic legislators hike the income tax on the relatively high income McHenry County residents.

Yensen spent $9,141; Jung spend $6,666.

Perhaps significantly, neither Jung nor District 2 Republican Nick Provenzano ran coordinated campaigns with their female GOP running mates. Both lost to Democratic Party women, Jung to Yensen and Provenzano to Democratic Party Chair Cathy Bergan Schmidt.

In fact, Jung’s running mate, Virginia Peschke, who ran first by 96 votes, did not start campaigning until the end of October. It consisted mainly of yard signs.

Provenzano is also seeking to regain his seat on the McHenry County Board.

= = = = =
The head shot is of Democratic Party McHenry County Board member Jim Kennedy. The photo of John Jung and his wife Josie is from last year’s campaign pamphlet.

First is was a post card in support of Republican candidate for Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

She was challenging incumbent Township Supervisor John Rossi and won by 31 votes. Undoubtedly one could say that without the pro-life endorsement post card, Moore would have lost. (And, of course, that can be said about every other element of the campaign. That’s the way it is with close elections.)

Pro-Lifers have a political action committee in McHenry County. You may remember that I attended a pig roast at Resurrection Center last June that the PAC sponsored.

In any event, Rossi supported Democrat Paula Yensen in her successful McHenry County Board challenge of pro-life candidate John Jung. No one has ever suggested Yensen is pro-life.

Now, a post card (sorry about the poor quality of the faxed copy) has been sent out from Right to Life McHenry County in support of Spring Grove village trustee candidate Pat Mazzanti.

It says,

“I’d like to introduce myself, Pat Mazzanti, as a pro-life candidate for Spring Grove Village Trustee. I have been married for 27 years to my wife, Peggy, and have two fantastic children, Rocco and Lily. I have been involved in Village (planning and zoning – 6 yrs.), local activities (4th of July and RBBA over 10 yrs., live in the community longer than any other candidate (16 yrs.) and have only the intersts of our pristine community at heart. I welcome your calls at 815-353-?268 to discuss any questions you might have. I kindly ask you to support me with your BULLET VOTE (vote for ONLY one) at the polls on April 7th. Pro-life officials are important at every level of government. I look forward to my continued service to the community of Spring Grove.

“Pat and Peggy Mazzanti
“Endorsed by Sue and Dan Serdar, Right to Life, McHenry County”

Sue Serdar is head of the chairwoman of the Pro Life Victory Committee.

Here’s a photo of Serdar with presidential candidate John McCain. You can see former U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald in the background.