McHenry County Blog

The McHenry County Young Democrats are meeting at Algonquin’s Eastgate Library from 7 until 8:30 tonight.

Speaker for the evening will be Thomas Castillo, one of the many candidates for the Democratic Party nomination for Lt. Governor.

As State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) explained Wednesday night, people have seen what happened to former Lt. Governor Pat Quinn and think it might happen to them.

At the Democratic Party Central Committee meeting at the Farm Bureau building last night, Ed Rotchford announced that all are welcome to attend.

The YD’s will also be electing officers.

Another lieutenant governor candidate, Justin Oberman, will speak the the Young Democrats on September 17th.

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At the Wednesday meeting you see, from left to right, you see Marti Swanson in the foreground, Ed Riley, who ran for Greenwood Township Supervisor, former District 6 McHenry County Board candidate Robert Ludwig, District 5 McHenry County Board member Paula Yensen, Ed Rotchford, Bob Kaempfe, candidate for state representative against Mike Tryon, Nunda Township Trustee candidate Meredith Reid Sarkees, District 5 McHenry County Board member Jim Kennedy and Mike Bisset.

The photo of Thomas Castillo is from his web site.

Crystal Lake’s Patrick Murfin writes the blog

He also ran for Nunda Township Trustee this past spring with running mate Meredith Reid Sarkees.

Even though the Dems knocked on doors, they lost.

Murfin, Secretary of the McHenry County Democratic Party offered an analysis of the election.

Murfin’s comments on my township pork article and focuses on his township, Nunda, which Murfin says is

“a wholly owned subsidiary of Brent Smith Empire Builders Inc.”

More analysis, focusing on Republican Precinct Committeeman Brent Smith, a member of Local 150 of the Operating Engineers, suggesting Smith would take over from Nunda Township Road Commissioner Don Kopsel and

He has this intriguing sentence, among others:

“Smith clearly is aiming to seize leadership in the County party at the head of resurgent conservative purists out to purge ‘trimmers’ and suspected moderates like Tryon.”

Part of the article is based on my incorrect information that Nunda Township only received $75,000, as the least populated townships did. That proved incorrect, as I learned on a new Southeastern McHenry County information source, the First Electric Newspaper, written by Columbia Journalism School grad Pete Gonigam. My correction is here:

The Devil Made Me Do It

In the very few partisan elections—all townships—Republican Party candidates brushed aside the challenge from Obama-energized Algonquin and Nunda Township Democrats.

In McHenry and Dorr Townships no Democrats filed.

Dorr Township Green Party candidate Frank Wedig was competitive, running 158 votes behind the lowest Republican, Joseph Evanoff. Wedig had 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 this election.)

Running enough candidates to take control of the Algonquin Township Board, the highest Democrat, Robert Frank, was behind the lowest Republican, Joe Powalowski, by 770 votes prior to adding in the absentee and early votes.

Frank had just over 77% of the votes received by Powalowski.

In Nunda Township, before folding in the absentee and early votes, the highest Democratic Party candidate, Meridith Sarkees, was trailing the bottom Republican, Kelvin Jennings by 473 votes.

The ratio was a bit less than 4-3 in the Republicans’ favor.

The reason might be that the Democrats’ township candidates could not muster the enthusiasm that Barack Obama did.

The disparity in national popularity poll results may have also helped motivate local Republicans. Pew Survey results release yesterday show that 88% of Democrats are pleased with their new president’s performance, but only 27% of Republicans agree. The disparity is 61 percentage points—“the most polarized in modern times.”

That polarization may have helped motivated Republicans to the polls locally as a way to push back at November’s national Democratic victory.

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That’s Powalowski in my driveway holding his and Neils Sorensen’s sign on top. Nunda Township Democratic Party Trustee candidate Patrick Murfin can be seen asking for a vote below.

Thanks to the campaign web site of the two Nunda Township candidates for township trustee—Meridith Reid Sarkees and Patrick Murfin—Republicans are forewarned that 16 radio ads will run on Star 105.5 Saturday and Sunday.

The man who ran against State Rep. Mike Tryon—Bob Kaempfe—is popping for them.

He had $1,200 left after the campaign.

The ads will promote the candidacy of five running as Democrats for township trustee in Nunda and Algonquin Township.

The three Democrats in Algonquin Township are Frank Hyden, Robert Franks, and James McTague.

Democrats on township ballots who are identified as such are more interesting.

Two are obvious because they ran for partisan county office last fall.

The Democratic Party candidate for county auditor, Kerry Julian, is running for Greenwood Township Clerk.

District 3 county board candidate Jeff Thirtyacre is running for Burton Township Road Commissioner.

Julian and Thirtyacre are running in non-partisan elections, as are two other candidates for Greenwood Township office.

Ed Riley is running for Greenwood Township Supervisor and Tom Ganka is running for Greenwood Township Road Commissioner. Democratic Party State Representative Jack Franks sent an endorsement letter for Riley.

All races are contested.

Two Democratic Party candidates for the Nunda Township Board have a post card being delivered today.

Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees, candidates for Nunda Township Trustee, are following in the footsteps of their Algonquin Township Democratic Party candidates for the same office.

The main difference is that if the Nunda Township challengers win, they won’t take control of the Nunda Township Board.

It the three Algonquin Township Democrats are victorious, they will control the township board.

The Algonquin Township postcard urges readers to “vote the three at the top, then stop.”

In much smaller print, the Nunda Township mailing says,

No more business as usual.
No more closed club.
The People’s business first.

Click to enlarge the images.

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For those of you who don’t know much about townships, they perform three basic functions: assessing, road maintenance in unincorporated areas and hand out local welfare, called General Assistance. Crystal Lake is in four townships. The two major ones are Algonquin and Nunda. The horizontal dividing line is Crystal Lake Avenue. The western part of Crystal Lake (west of our home in Lakewood on Meridian Street, in fact, is Grafton Township. The far Northwestern corner is in Woodstock-dominated Dorr Township.)

It’s not just Algonquin Township Democrats who are feeling their oats after having seen a Democratic Party candidate carry McHenry County for the first time since the formation of the Republican Party.

Two candidates are running for Nunda Township trustee.

With only two on the ballot, the Nunda Dems cannot take control of the township board as the Algonquin ones can.

They two are endorsing the township open space referendum today. Besides the press release below, they are promoting it on their web site.

CRYSTAL LAKE—Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees, candidates for Nunda Township Trustee, announced their endorsement of the Nunda Open Space Referendum on Tuesday.

Democrats Murfin and Sarkees are running together as the “Change for Nunda” ticket and are opposed by four Republican “Team Nunda” candidates.

Both Sarkees and Murfin supported the last Open Space Referenda in which the authorization to establish the program was passed, but the funding mechanism was narrowly defeated. Both, however, wanted to take a careful look at the new proposal.

“One of our main campaign issues,” Murfin said, “has been ‘how can we best preserve our threatened ground water resources and preserve open space as citizens buffeted by the economy while tax revenues stagnate or fall?’”

He said a close examination of the referendum question in its present form convinced the candidates that it was the best option for preserving ground water and maintaining open and undeveloped land in a responsible and affordable manner.

Responding to critics of the referendum Murfin noted that intense development with its roads and rooftops really is a demonsratable threat to scarce ground water recourses. Land purchases under the program will insure that more rain water and snow melt will recharge the aquifer.

The program, which will save smaller and isolated parcels, does not in anyway duplicate or compete with the McHenry County Conservation District’s land acquisition program, which the MCCD itself has acknowledged.

The total bonding authority being requested has been reduced to 15 million dollars from the measure as it last appeared on the ballot. Yet currently falling land prices means that the same amount—or even more—land will be able to be acquired for preservation.

The twenty year level tax rate to repay the bonds means that costs to individual homeowners are reasonable and predictable—they will not rise. An average 250,000 home, for example, would see only a $44 yearly cost. “And open space is proven to enhance property values in the long run,” Murfin said, “many homeowners could find their costs offset by the rise in the value of their property.”

Murfin and Sarkees join elected officials from both parties in supporting the referendum including Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler, State Senator Pam Althoff, and County Board District 3 members Kathy Bergan Schmidt and Barb Wheeler.

The measure is also endorsed by virtually every environmental organization in the county including the McHenry County Conservation Foundation, the Land Conservancy, Boone Creek Watershed Alliance, USDA Natural Resources Conservation District, The Sierra Club, McHenry County Audubon Society, Friends of the Fox, Environmental Defenders of McHenry County, and the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District Open Lands Project.

Agricultural and land owning interests including the McHenry County Farm Bureau and the Bull Valley Association are also on board.

“We feel we are in good company joining this broad support for the public good,” Murfin said.

Since Democratic Party candidates running for township office in Algonquin and Nunda Townships were already selected in caucuses, Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt advises Democrats to skip the Republican primary elections next Tuesday.

Below is her press release:

DEMOCRATIC CHAIR ADDRESSES VOTER CONFUSION

CRYSTAL LAKE—McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Bergan Schmidt addressed confusion over the upcoming Republican Party primary elections in Algonquin and Nunda Townships in a statement released today.

“The only way voters can support Democratic candidates in these townships is to cast their ballots in the April 7th Consolidated Elections,” Bergan Schmidt said.

Republicans chose to select their candidates in a primary election scheduled for Tuesday, February 24. Democrats elected to choose their candidates by caucus, which Bergan Schmidt noted was a considerable savings to tax payers.

Winners of the Republican primaries will square off against Democrats for trustee seats in both townships. Frank Hyden, Robert Frank, and James McTague are the party nominees in Algonquin Township. Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees will be on the ballot in Nunda Township.

“If a voter chooses to participate in the Republican primary, however, he or she can still vote for Democratic candidates in the April election,” Bergan Schmidt pointed out.

Voters with questions should contact the party at 815 788-9540 or e-mail

info@mchenrydems.com.

Since Democratic Party candidates running for township office in Algonquin and Nunda Townships were already selected in caucuses, Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt advises Democrats to skip the Republican primary elections next Tuesday.

Below is her press release:

DEMOCRATIC CHAIR ADDRESSES VOTER CONFUSION

CRYSTAL LAKE—McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Bergan Schmidt addressed confusion over the upcoming Republican Party primary elections in Algonquin and Nunda Townships in a statement released today.

“The only way voters can support Democratic candidates in these townships is to cast their ballots in the April 7th Consolidated Elections,” Bergan Schmidt said.

Republicans chose to select their candidates in a primary election scheduled for Tuesday, February 24. Democrats elected to choose their candidates by caucus, which Bergan Schmidt noted was a considerable savings to tax payers.

Winners of the Republican primaries will square off against Democrats for trustee seats in both townships. Frank Hyden, Robert Frank, and James McTague are the party nominees in Algonquin Township. Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees will be on the ballot in Nunda Township.

“If a voter chooses to participate in the Republican primary, however, he or she can still vote for Democratic candidates in the April election,” Bergan Schmidt pointed out.

Voters with questions should contact the party at 815 788-9540 or e-mail

info@mchenrydems.com.