McHenry County Blog

The following press release from congressional candidate Joe Walsh is presented for your information:

Lake Zurich, IL, January 12, 2010. Joe Walsh Candidate for Congress in the IL  8th District is announcing support and endorsements.

Walsh continues to receive endorsements and support in his race for Congress.  The following is an initial list of endorsements, further endorsements will be forthcoming:

The following organizations have endorsed Joe Walsh:

• Illinois Federation For Right to Life
• Tea Party Palatine
• Lake County Tea Party
• Illinois Conservatives on Facebook
• National Taxpayers United of Illinois
• Republican Assembly of Illinois

The following individuals and elected officials have endorsed Joe Walsh:

• Bryan Javor, Chairman McHenry CountyYoung Republicans
• Don Castella, Chairman, Vernon Township Republicans
• Nick Provenzano, Candidate for McHenry County board, District 3
• Tom Roeser, Conservative Catholic Activist
• Louis Rofrano, Mc Henry County Right to Carry Association
• John E. Vincent, Former Wauconda Township Committeeman
• John O’Neill, Candidate for State Representative, 63rd District
• Glenn Garamoni, Precinct Committeeman, Fremont Township 121
• Bill Parrot, Chairman, Patriots United
• Peter S. Karlovics, Precinct Committeeman, Warren Township 308
• Joyce Story, Precinct Committeeman McHenry 14

Walsh has garnered lots of support from numerous committeemen throughout the district as well.

“Once again I am honored to have received the support of these organizations and these individuals.  Their support is providing crucial momentum to my campaign and has raised the energy level going into the final weeks of this election,” said Walsh.
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I would observe that not all of these endorsements are exclusive. The Illinois Federation Right to Life, I know, endorsed more than one candidate.  Maria Rodriguez was also endorsed.

With the primary election coming up in about five weeks, active citizens are starting to think more seriously about narrowing down their choices for contested offices.

At Zane Seipler’s fund raiser Wednesday night, for example, one person concluded that Andy McKenna was the most likely to be able to win the November election. Not a perfect candidate, but considering one needs three elements to win a campaign—issues, money and a candidate—his opponents don’t seem likely to put it together as well.

Now, National Taxpayers United of Illinois’ campaign arm, Tax Accountability, has put out its recommendations, I listed the ones that will be on area ballots.

U.S. Senate

• John Arrington – R
• Robert Marshall – D

U.S. Congress

• 8th District (McHenry, Lake and Cook) – Joe Walsh
• 14th District (Kane, DuPage and points west) – Randy Hultgren

Governor

• Adam Andrzejewski

Lt. Governor

• Dennis Cook – R
• Jason Plummer – R
• Randy White – R

State Senate

• Chris Lauzen – R (Northern Kane County)

State Representative

• Tim Schmirtz – R (Northern Kane County)
• John O’Neill – R (Jack Franks’ district)

McHenry County State Rep. Jack Franks is the only Democrat who made the “Taxpayer Friends” list of National Taxpayers United of Illinois.

He scored 69% on NTU’s Tax Survey, tying with Republicans Sandy Cole, Bill Mitchell,  Ruth Munson, Dennis Reboletti, David Reis, Keith Sommer and Jill Tracy.

The rankings were based on 2007-2008 legislative votes.

Two GOP state senators got the same score:  Gary Dahl and John O. Jones.

The brainchild of founder Jim Tobin, who used to give Governor Jim Thompson fits, the rating of legislators is regularly used in political campaigns.  And, in the interest of full disclosure, Tobin was my lieutenant governor candidate when I ran for governor on the Libertarian Party ticket against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002.  We also worked together to kill Lee Daniels’ and Pate Philip’s 1993 bill to allow tax districts to sell bonds without a referendum.  We won in the first time, but lost when Daniels became House Speaker.

[Trivia question:  What 2002 gubernatorial candidate's fund raiser(s) has still not been convicted--or even charged--with a Federal felony?

[Hint:  It's not one of the power party candidate's.]

This year, National Taxpayers United of Illinois has selected thirteen bills on which to judge state senators.  I’ll list below, just in case you want to look them up here (the descriptions provided are from NTU; if not provided, you’ll have to look up the bill for yourself):

• House Bill 664, a property tax cut increasing tax exemptions for seniors, vets, the disabled, etc.
• SJR Constitutional Amendment 92, graduated income tax



• House Bill 656, doubling CTA (I usually call it the RTA) sales tax hike, but as the Sun-Times headline clearly shows, Tobin is correct
• House Bill 656 with amendatory veto to provide free rides for seniors
• House Bill 405, allowing increase in park district taxes for aquarium, park and museum maintenance with referendum
• Senate Bill 345 allows counties to raise sales taxes for public safety and roads (Senate sponsor Bill Peterson)
• House Bill 1562 allows school boards to raise taxes without a referendum to pay lawyers
• House Bill 1921 imposes a 25 cent tax on every disposable lighter (Jack Franks co-sponsor)
• House Bill 556 increases the cigarette tax by 75 cents a pack
• Senate Bill 837 doubles Chicago’s 911 tax
• Senate Bill 835 allows 101 counties to raise local sales taxes to pay for school construction and maintenance, referendum required
• Senate Bill 835, veto override vote
• House Bill 3866, legislative pay raise

In the House, the legislation used to judge state representatives was the same as the senate with these two exceptions:

• HJR Constitutional Amendment 42, a 100% income tax hike that would have doubled the personal income tax on those with over $250,000 in income
• House Resolution 402, which condemned the Gross Receipts Tax

So,if Franks received a 69% rating, how did the other local legislators stack up?

State Senator Pam Althoff got a 54% score.

Senate colleague Dan Duffy is not ranked because the ratings only considered 2007-2008 bills, but the man he replaced Republican Bill Peterson came out with 46%.

State Rep. Mike Tryon received a 54% rating, the same as his state senator.

State Rep. Mark Beaubien got 31%.

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Local legislators ranked are seen above.  Jack Franks is on the top of the story.

Grouped together at the bottom are State Senator Pam Althoff, State Rep. Mark Beaubien and State Rep. Mike Tryon.

I’m pretty amazed that the issue I stressed when I ran for governor against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002 is getting attention during this year when the media is pushing reform:

When my Libertarian Party running mate Jim Tobin and I kicked off our campaign in his National Taxpayers United of Illinois office in the South Loop, the sign we held up is the one you see below.

The sign went everywhere in the campaign and might have gotten some real play had Blagojevich and Ryan not conspired to skip the Illinois League of Women Voters gubernatorial debate after I managed to reach the 5% threshold in the Daily Southtown’s 1,000 person survey. (That was the largest in the entire campaign, by the way.)

It seemed perfectly obvious to me that legislative leaders should not be leaders for life.

Except for two years after Republican Lee Daniels managed to elect a Republican majority in 1994—the year that the GOP’s Contract with America clicked on the national level—Mike Madigan has been speaker since George Ryan held the office in the early 1980’s.

Pate Philip stopped all sorts of bad legislation in his leadership of the state senate during the 1990’s, but it still seems to me that there ought to be turnover.

While the old guy/gal may pick the new guy/gal, at least the newbies would have different friends.

When Daniels got deposed during a staff-campaign-work-on-state-time scandal initiated by Rich Means–part of which took place in McHenry County–successor Tom Cross won votes by promising not to try to follow Daniels’ example of being Republican leader as long as he could.

Cross promised term limits.

In 2008, that 2002 promise went bye-bye.

And, of course, nothing will happen on the issue because Madigan is not willing to see an end to his regime…even if it were ten years from now.

The Daily Herald has polled suburban legislators on how they stand on various reform proposals and how the term limits for leaders issue shakes out can be seen below.

First House members:

• Susanne Bassi – Favors
• Mark Beaubien (Republican representing eastern part of McHenry County) – Favors
• Bob Biggins – Favors
• Linda Chapa-LaVia – Favors
• Franco Coladipietro – Favors
• Sandy Cole – Favors
• Michael Connelly – Favors
• Tom Cross – Opposed (Big surprise there.)
• Keith Farnham – Opposes
• Mike Fortner – Favors
• Jack Franks – (Democrat representing northern & western McHenry County) Favors
• Paul Froehlich – Opposes
• Kay Hatcher – Favors
• Emily Klunk-McAsey – Did not respond to Daily Herald
• Sidney Mathias – Favors
• Rosemary Mulligan – Favors
• Elaine Nekritz – Favors
• JoAnn Osmond – Favors
• Sandra Pihos – Favors



• Randy Ramey – Opposes (Step-father is Pate Philip.)
• Dennis Reboletti – Favors
• Kathleen Ryg – Favors
• Skip Saviano – Favors
• Tim Schmitz – Favors
• Darlene Senger – Favors
• Ed Sullivan – Favors
• Mike Tryon – (Representing southeastern McHenry County) Opposes
• Mark Walker – Opposes
• Eddie Washington – Favors

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The top sign is the one used in the 2002 campaign. The bottom one was the first version. I concluded that 8 years as leader was better than 6, hence the change in toll free phone numbers.

National Taxpayers United of Illinois has issued a laudatory press release about U.S. congressional candidate Chris Lauzen. It follows:

NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNITED OF ILLINOIS NAMES STATE SENATOR CHRIS LAUZEN, CANDIDATE FOR THE 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT BEST “TAXPAYERS’ FRIEND” IN THE STATE SENATE

(CHICAGO) — National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTU) recently released its 12th non-partisan Tax Survey of the Illinois General Assembly. “The Survey details the tax and spending records of every member of the 94th General Assembly from January 2005 to January 2007…Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-25, Aurora), for the third time, has been rated one of the best Taxpayers’ Friends,” said NTU President Jim Tobin.

“I am proud of my record of holding the line on spending people’s hard-earned tax dollars, especially during a time when Democrats control every level of government in the State Capitol.

“While some candidates for office may make attractive promises on tax issues, I have demonstrated through 15 years of votes, legislation, and battle scars, that I keep my commitments. I’m grateful for NTU’s award and pledge to continue my “friendship” with Illinois’ taxpayers if I am elected to Congress next year,” said Lauzen.

Established in 1976, National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTU) is the largest taxpayer organization in Illinois with over 10,000 members and affiliation with more than 200 local taxpayer organizations.

To read the entire NTU’s 12th non-partisan Tax Survey of the 94th General Assembly, visit their website at: www.ntui.org.

National Taxpayers United of Illinois has issued a laudatory press release about U.S. congressional candidate Chris Lauzen. It follows:

NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNITED OF ILLINOIS NAMES STATE SENATOR CHRIS LAUZEN, CANDIDATE FOR THE 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT BEST “TAXPAYERS’ FRIEND” IN THE STATE SENATE

(CHICAGO) — National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTU) recently released its 12th non-partisan Tax Survey of the Illinois General Assembly. “The Survey details the tax and spending records of every member of the 94th General Assembly from January 2005 to January 2007…Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-25, Aurora), for the third time, has been rated one of the best Taxpayers’ Friends,” said NTU President Jim Tobin.

“I am proud of my record of holding the line on spending people’s hard-earned tax dollars, especially during a time when Democrats control every level of government in the State Capitol.

“While some candidates for office may make attractive promises on tax issues, I have demonstrated through 15 years of votes, legislation, and battle scars, that I keep my commitments. I’m grateful for NTU’s award and pledge to continue my “friendship” with Illinois’ taxpayers if I am elected to Congress next year,” said Lauzen.

Established in 1976, National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTU) is the largest taxpayer organization in Illinois with over 10,000 members and affiliation with more than 200 local taxpayer organizations.

To read the entire NTU’s 12th non-partisan Tax Survey of the 94th General Assembly, visit their website at: www.ntui.org.