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.
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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.
