McHenry County Blog

2008 was the first year since the Republican Party was formed that a Democrat carried McHenry County.

Barack Obama got 51.8% of the ballots cast to John McCains’s 44.5%.

This year, the Republicans took McHenry County.

Mitt Romney won 53.3% of the vote, while Obama took 44.5%.

In raw numbers, 131,179 voted for either Obama or McCain in 2012.

That compares to 137,133 casting ballots for one of the two major parties in 2008.

Almost 6,000 fewer votes were cast this year than four years ago.

In 2008. it was

• Obama – 72,288
• McCain – 64,845

In 2012, the totals were

• Obama – 59,691
• Romney – 71,488

Total turnout can be seen below:

• 2008 – 140,002 or 70.22% of those registered to vote
• 2012 – 134,323 so far or 66.1% of registered voters

I mentioned earlier that my neighbor kitty-cornered across the street had his Obama and Jim Roden signs stolen and I think I mentioned that my Romney sign had been knocked down five times before it disappeared.

This morning as I was driving my son to school I noticed that both my and my neighbor’s Romney signs had disappeared.

So, when I got back home, I replaced them.  I even put my Romney sign in a more prominent place.

And added another sign saying “Vote No.”

That’s a follow up to the four by four sign against the “County Czar” on the other side of the mail box.

Not favoring concentration of power, I shall be voting against Jack Franks’ County Executive referendum.

A press release from the polling firm We Ask America:

Favorite Son

There’s been a surprising amount of conjecture coming our way lately about the possibility of Mitt Romney inching closer to Barack Obama in Illinois.

We’ve not paid much attention that that conjecture until it started to be uttered in some national circles and a handful of reporters we respect called to ask if there was anything to it.

There isn’t.

We polled 1,198 Illinois likely voters last night. Following are the weighted head-to-head results and a regional breakdown:

Poll type: Automated Date: October 30, 2012 – Participants: 1,198 Likely Voters – Margin of Error: ± 2.95%

Poll type: Automated Date: October 30, 2012 – Participants: 1,198 Likely Voters – Margin of Error: ± 2.95%

	Barack Obama	Mitt Romney	3rd Party
ALL VOTERS	57%	41%	2%
Chicago	82%	16%	2%
Sub. Cook	66%	31%	3%
Collar Counties	44%	55%	1%
Downstate	46%	51%	3%

For those of you uninitiated in the Illinois political scene — outside of following the hijinks of our politicians in Popular Prison Monthly — Chicago and Suburban Cook County each account for about 20% of the vote in the Land of Lincoln.

No matter how well Romney does in the five suburban “collar counties” or downstate (the rest of Illinois outside of Chicago, Suburban Cook & the Collars), the huge hunk of burning love that his home base provides the president simply cannot be toppled.

Some of our projections include turnout scenarios that put Romney as close as 10 points from the lead, but there is no way that Chicagoland is going to abandon it’s Favorite Son.

Obama even carried McHenry County four years ago.

Meanwhile, a political mailing from Peter Roskam, the man who beat Tammy Duckworth the last time she ran for Congress, surfaced.

It urges people to vote early.

While Roskam recommends voting early at the Crystal Lake City Hall, there are plenty of other early voting locations throughout McHenry County. You can find a list here.

Republican Campaign Headquarters in Crystal Lake will get the last 300 Romney signs scheduled for deliver Tuesday afternoon between 4 and 5.

The national Romney campaign is not supplying them.

The McHenry County Republican Party is buying them and, needless to say, contributions to help pay for them are welcomed.

Five hundred yard signs were delivered last Thursday afternoon.

They were gone by the end of the day Saturday.

Before today, 4,500 Romney signs had been distributed. When the new 300 are gone, 4,800 will be on the street in McHenry County.

GOP Headquarters in Crystal Lake is a few stores to the left of Joseph’s Market in the Crystal Lake Plaza.

Scott Rasmussen is a pollster best known for doing a daily poll on Presidential approval and disapproval.

Yesterday he published an article that points to Wisconsin as the key for a Mitt Romney over Barack Obama.

Will Illinois activists on both sides of the aisle now head to Wisconsin, as they did in the Scott Walker Recall Election?

Rasmussen says that Wisconsin is a toss-up.

What do you do when someone steals six Romney signs from your front yard?

I had mine knocked down six times, run over the first time, I think.

Then, it was stolen this weekend,

A fellow in McHenry is the one from whose front yard a Romney sign has been stolen six times.

He got disturbed enough to wait with a camera.

As the thief was pulling the sign out of the grass, he got the photo you see below:

I guess the sign thieves don’t believe the poll numbers that say Obama will soundly defeat Romney in Illinois.

A friend of McHenry County Blog has forwarded an invitation to Democrat State Rep. Jack Franks’ September 29th fundraising breakfast at Donley’s Wild West Town.

The Jesse White Tumblers will perform.

As usual Franks provides a list of those who have agreed to be on his Host Committee.

Unlike last year, GOP Sheriff Keith Nygren is not on the list.

But Woodstock Mayor Brain Sager still is.

He’s there with Chicago Democratic Party Ward Committeeman and Alderman Ed Burke.

Last year, such sponsorship was less significant than this year.

Then, Sager was only a minor cog in the McHenry County Republican Party, a Precinct Committeeman from Greenwood Township Precinct 6.

The mayoral post is non-partisan.

Sure, I’ve written that I believe he wishes to run for Franks’ seat when Franks runs for something else, but his official role is that a GOP Precinct Committeeman.

This year, Sager

• was recruited to run as an Alternative Delegate by State Treasurer Dan Rutherford,
• was elected and
• is just returning from the National Republican Convention.

Looking for Republican County Board member candidates, I see far fewer than last year.

Randy Donley, who is retiring this year is listed.

There is a listing for “Bob & Judi Martens.”  I do not know if that is the District 4 candidate listed on the ballot as “Robert Martens Sr.”

Want to see who was on the Host Committee last year? Click away below:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8
• Part 9
• Part 10
• Part 11

McHenry County Republican Party Chairman made robo-calls (I got two, one right after another) to invite people to Crystal Lake’s d’Andrea’s for a free Mitt Romney yard sign and to watch the final night of the Republican National Committee.

The floating crowd totaled 150, according to McHenry County Romney Chairman John McCrory’s count.

Here we were in a banquet hall and people were applauding.

There were only a couple of signs left when I went home.

If you were inspired by the Republican National Convention and would like a Romney for President sign, the McHenry County Republican Party will be giving them away at D’Andrea’s at the southeast corner of Route 14 and 31 Thursday night.

The faithful will gather to hear Mitt Romney give his acceptance speech.

There’s a rally for GOP Presidential candidate (well, not nominated, but de facto) Mitt Romney.

If you would like tickets, you can obtain the right to ask for them by going to State Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s web site and “voting” for Romney. Do it before 5 on Monday and you will get a link to apply for tickets, which are free.

This is in association with State Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s web site.

Seems a bit strange, but he’s obviously running for Governor and is trying to get as many email addresses as possible.