McHenry County Blog

If those who got petitions from the McHenry County Clerk’s office follow through by getting signatures and filing for the GOP nomination for the McHenry County Board in the most rural district, there will be a four-way race.

It’s a pretty good gig, although nothing like as good as in DuPage County:

• FY 07 $48,620 (0%)
• FY 08 $50,079 (3%)
• FY 09 $51,581 (3%)
• FY 10 $53,645 (4%)

with $3,000 more for each committee chairman and a $1,000 bonus for vice chairmen.  (Undoubtedly, the DuPage County Board chairman uses the extra money to build the strength of his coalition.)

Lake County Board members will take home $44,074 by 2012.

In McHenry County, the salary is approaching $20,000, plus full health insurance, if a member wants it.

The exact figure this year is $19,327.10.  And unlike DuPage County, the McHenry County Board members will see salary increases proportional to the increase in the Consumer Price Index.

Assuming the CPI increases 1/10 of 1%, members will receive a $19.33 raise next term.

Anyway, you can see why folks might want to run for the office.

As I have written previously, Ray Humphreys, a wise Republican campaign school elder (former West Virginia state representative and congressional candidate) outlined three motives for seeking office way back in 1967:

• Power
• Prestige
• Pecuniary

Now, I’m not saying that people don’t run because they want to “make a difference,” etc.  But I would observe that one can make more of a difference if one gains the power of public office.  And the money isn’t bad for a very part-time job.

The two incumbents are running for re-election.

They are Dan Ryan and Mary McCann.

Joining the fray are Mark Shepherd and Nick Carroccia.

Shepherd ran in 2006, coming in fourth of seven candidates.  That’s the election that

• Mary McCann received 2,189 votes
• Dan Ryan – 1,718
• Ersel Schuster – 1,706
• Harry Alten, Jr. – 1,555
• Mark Shepherd  – 1,512
• Former Regional Supt. of School Don Englert – 1,512
• Michael Cederlund – 807

Schuster was elected to the board in 2008.

Shepherd is a Hebron village trustee and a Republican precinct committeeman.  I saw him at McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s fund raiser.  Too bad I didn’t take a photo I could share with you.

I understand Carroccia is close to former McHenry County Circuit Clerk Bill Kays, whose sister Mary Lou Zeier retired last year.  Carroccia is identified as Integrated Justice Project Manager in the April 6, 2009, minutes of the Joint Law and Justice Committee and Finance and Audit Committee.

In my Associate Minister’s sermon a couple of weeks ago, entitled, “Wrestling with the Devil,” Pastor Darneather Heath spoke of the temptation of Jesus in his 40 days in the wilderness.

Read to the end of this story and you will imagine my surprise when this slide popped up on the screen as she talked of the Devil having tempted Jesus with ruling the kingdoms of the world.

Look at those promises:

• Wealth




• Prestige




• Power

Those were three things the Devil was promising Jesus.

Jump back forty years and I was attending a campaign school at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, while I was McHenry County Treasurer

An old pro from the Republican National Committee named Ray Humphries was talking about political motivations.

It is a talk I have given to numerous potential candidates since then.

His lesson was something like this:

“People say they are running for office to make the world better.

“But, there are three underlying motivations. I call them ‘The Three P’s:’

• Power,

• Prestige
  

• Pecuniary

They are e-x-a-c-t-l-y the same.

Never thought I would have heard a Biblically-based message in a campaign management school.

At that same school I listened to future federal judge Harlington Wood, Jr., talk about campaign laws. He was certainly a gentle man. He died the end of last year.