McHenry County Blog

The fractured Republican Party in Grafton Township manged to elect its Chairman Tom Poznanski Road Commissioner and Al Zielinski Assessor, but failed to get enough votes to put three-way GOP primary winner Pam Fender in office.

Independent Jim Kearns got 67 more votes than Fender. There are absentee and early votes outstanding, so this margin could narrow, but will be unlikely to be overcome.

The food fight in Grafton Township ended with Jim Kearns sitting at the head of the table.

For Township Assessor, Independent Terra Jensen gave Republican nominee Al Zielinski a run for his money, but, with the same caveat about additional votes that will show up, the Lakewood resident beat the Restore Grafton Township candidate by 224.

Al Zielinski won the office of Grafton Township Assessor. He takes office as of January 1st.

Independent Tim Hoeft was trailing by 213 votes prior to the addition of early and absentee ballots.

Grafton Township Republican Central Committee Chairman Tom Poznanski claimed the job of Highway Commissioner.

And finally, for Grafton Township Trustee, newly-elected Supervisor Kearns obtained a working majority.

Winning were

• former Crystal Lake Mayor Bob Wagner
• incumbent Trustee Betty Zirk (the only incumbent to run for re-election)
• Dan Ziller, Jr., in his second attempt (the last one being a write-in); a member of the Restore Grafton Township slate
• Joe Holtorf, member of the Restore Grafton Township slate

Republicans won only two of the four seats up for grabs.

Frank Wedig

When I asked who was running for what in Dorr Township, I failed to ask if all the Trustee candidates were running as Republicans.

My mind was so fixated on the Republican primaries in the townships with over 15,000 population that I forgot that the Green Party could hold a primary, too.

That’s because it is an “Established Party” as a result of having received over 5% of the vote when Gus Philpott ran as its candidate for McHenry County Sheriff two years ago.

And, that is exactly what is happening.

Former County Board candidate and Dorr Township Trustee candidate Frank Wedig is running in the Green Party primary for Trustee.

My manual addition of Wedig’s 2012 County Board results shows his getting 2,192 Dorr Township votes.

That’s a lot more than the 837 he received for Township Trustee in 2009.

He lost that race to Joe Evanoff by 158 votes, as you can see lower in this article.

Frank Wedig’s votes for a District 5 County Board seat in November of 2012. He ran as the Green Party candidate.

Compare his support in the high-turnout Presidential Election with the 2009 low-turnout local election. Below are the 2009 results for Dorr Township Trustee:

The results in 2009 when Green Party candidate Frank Wedig ran against four Republicans for Dorr Township Trustee. Click to enlarge.

To put Wedig’s potential regional strength in perspective, you can see the final District 5 County Board results for 2012 below:

The final election results for McHenry County Board in District 5 shows that the Green Party will have “Established Party” status in the next election.

Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bissett has informed me that Democrats will caucus candidates in Dorr Township.

John Heisler

Lee Jennings

Bridgett Provenzano

I have given up trying to understand Nunda Township Republican politics.

Township Supervisor John Heisler, a former McHenry County Board member, is being challenged by three people.

Heisler, whose family’s name has been associated with Crystal Lake since his grandfather started a shoe repair shop across from the railroad station in 1908, won his first election in 2001 with a write-in campaign running against Mike Walkup.

So, beating him will be a real challenge.

Usually, the more opponents, the better for the incumbent in a primary election.

Even so, three have lined for the opportunity:

• Bridgett Provenzano (current Township Clerk and wife of County Board member Nick Provenzano)
• Kelvin Lee Jennings (current Trustee)
• Kerry Leigh (Oakwood Hills Trustee)

Don Kopsell

Running for Highway Commissioner are

• Incumbent Don Kopsell
• Robert Parrish (Crystal Lake, Supervisor, Geske & Sons Asphalt Paving)
• Mike Lesperance (Lakemoor, owner of Iron Mike’s Excavating)

For Assessor, no one is challenging incumbent Dennis Jagla.

Two are running for the Clerk’s position, which Provenzano is vacating to run for Supervisor:

• Angela Koscavage (Community Care Assistant to the Director of Community Care and Equipping with Crystal Lake Willow Creek Community Church)
• Susan Jennings

For Trustee there are only four candidates for the four positions:

• Tom Palmer (Crystal Lake, incumbent)
• Ed Dvorak (Crystal Lake, former Road Commissioner and County Board member)
• Eddie Gil (Holiday Hills, husband of County Board member-elect Mary McClellan, retired trucking company owner, property investor)
• Mike Shorten (Crystal Lake,Vice Chairman of the Nunda Township Republican Party)

Bowing out as Trustees are Joni Smith and Jim Schlader.

McHenry Township Precinct Map

With no competition for the Republican nominations for McHenry Township Office, taxpayers will forego the cost of a primary election.

Here’s who filed for what:

• Supervisor – Donna Schaefer
• Road Commissioner – Leon VanEvery
• Assessor – Carol L. Perschke
• Clerk – Bruce Novak
• Trustee (4 to be elected):

• Craig Adams
• Marsha Nelson
• Doug Carlile
• Neal Schepler

Only Township Assessor Bob Kunz and Road Commissioner Bob Miller managed to avoid a challenge in the late February Republican Party Primary Election.

Everyone seated at the November Algonquin Township Meeting except for attorney Jim Kelly is running in next February’s Republican Primary Election.

Township Supervisor Dianne Klemm is being challenged by Township Clerk Marc Munaretto.

Two are running for the Clerk

• current Trustee Linda Lantz and
• former Trustee Chuck Lutzow

For Trustee there are seven candidates.

Three are currently Trustees:

• Dan Shea of Fox River Grove
• Lowell Cutsforth of Fox River Grove
• Russ Cardell1 of Algonquin

Four are not:

• Neils Kruse of Cary
• Melissa Sanchez of Lake in the Hills
• Larry Emmery of Crystal Lake
• Bill Bligh of Crystal Lake

Of the Trustee candidates, Shea, Cutsforth, Kurse, Sanchez and Emery are Republican Precinct Committeemen.

Bligh applied to be Associate Judge in 2011.

I found this T-shirt at Disney World.

What do you think it means?

With the symbol of the Republican elephant and Democrat donkey, this tee shirt has two words in between: “Party Crasher.”

“Come and help our group of 35 precincts, which has been meeting to organize our efforts to educate and
promote our Republican candidates,” says the fund raiser.

The cost is $20 and it is being held at All Seasons Apply Orchard on Route 176 between Route 47 and Franklinville Road. 6-8:30 PM.

Other details are below:

The invitation for the newly-renamed group of less populated townships in McHenry County. Click to enlarge.

A meeting has been called of the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee on September 6, 2012.

The Agenda will include committeemen appointments, a September 26th steak fry, getting out the vote and other matters.

There are no Republican Precinct Committeemen in the following Algonquin Township precincts:

Click to enlarge this map to see if you live in an Algonquin Township precinct without a Precinct Committeeman. If you are interested, drop me an email. The address is on the left hand side of the blog.

• Algonquin 1
• Algonquin 11
• Algonquin 14
• Algonquin 20
• Algonquin 21
• Algonquin 26
• Algonquin 27
• Algonquin 29
• Algonquin 31
• Algonquin 32
• Algonquin 35
• Algonquin 38
• Algonquin 39
• Algonquin 41
• Algonquin 43
• Algonquin 54
• Algonquin 58
• Algonquin 59
• Algonquin 60
• Algonquin 61
• Algonquin 62
• Algonquin 63
• Algonquin 64
• Algonquin 66
• Algonquin 68

If you live in one of the empty precincts and would like to serve as a representative of the GOP to your neighbors, send me an email and I’ll forward it. If you would like to help make sure that Mike Madigan’s candidate does not represent most of Algonquin Township, email me, too. Obviously, if there is no Republican Precinct Committeeman, State Rep. candidate David McSweeney will need volunteers. That’s not to say that candidate volunteers are not need where there are Precinct Committeemen. They are.

To see which precincts are in the part of Algonquin Township where McSweeney is facing off against Mike Madigan-supported Dee Beaubien, click here.

On the way to look for politics at the McHenry County Fair, I walked past this water fan. In the 90 degree heat, it was appreciated by all but those of use who wear glasses.

There were three political party booths at the McHenry County Fair:

• Republicans
• Democrats
• Libertarians

McHenry County Board member Ersel Schuster was at the Republican Party booth Wednesday afternoon. Andrew Gasser stopped by.

Sometimes the Republican Party booth was manned (or womaned, as is the case above).

Sometimes it wasn’t.

When a friend of McHenry County Blog took this photo on another day, the GOP booth was empty, except for posters and pamphlets.

No indication that there is a Presidential election this year in the GOP booth.

Libertarian Party stalwart Jim Young, who ran for State Rep. once against Rosemary Kurtz, was at the booth.

Libertarians had a booth again, too, even though the party has no candidates on the ballot this year.

While the GOP booth had not indication that Mitt Romney was running for office, neither does the Democratic Party have a poster for President Obama. Perhaps someone will be kind enough to identify who is at the table.

The final party was the Democratic Party of McHenry County.

It appears that the GOP is not the only part with insufficient county fair resources.

Sometimes it was unmanned, too.

David McSweeney

Exhibit A in the case that Precinct Committeemen can make a difference for the candidates they endorse is Fox River Grove’s Andrew Gasser. Turnout was up substantially.

The high space expert (see Tea Party in Space) was elected Republican Precinct Committeeman in Fox River Grove.

Compare the results in Gasser’s Algonquin Township Precinct 4 with the countywide results:

• Gaffney – 35 vs. 35% in McHenry County
• McSweeney – 34% vs. 40% in McHenry County
• Rowe – 31% vs 25% in McHenry County

Now Gasser has strongly endorsed McSweeney over expected Independent candidate Dee Beaubien.

“At the time of this post I cannot find an official website for Mrs. Beaubien, but this is what I do know: Mrs. Beaubien is not a conservative like Mr. McSweeney.

“There have been several blog posts about Mrs. Beaubien that are quite revealing about who she really is and what she really stands for.”

Gasser thinks this article on McHenry County Blog is significant.

He adds,

“When you have allies of President Obama supporting a candidate, that is a giant red flag for me personally.

“We simply cannot have weak conservatives in Springfield.

Joe Walsh and Andrew Gasser after Walsh's audition to be the Scott Walker of Illinois.

“It is my humble opinion that Mrs. Beaubien does not represent our values here in our 4th precinct in Algonquin Township, or Fox River Grove.”

Gasser has another article about the State Convention. I like the part about “the star of the convention,” Joe Walsh. It says, “…perhaps Congressman Bobby Schilling said it best, ‘What, I have to follow Joe?’”

He describes Walsh’s 2010 victory over Melissa Bean:

“It is important to note that Congressman Joe Walsh was elected to congress without ANY help from the national or state Republican organizations.

“He defeated Melissa Bean utilizing the Illinois Tea Party grassroots organization and conservatives who were just sick and tired of Bean.”

At the state convention, Party Chairman Pat Brady admitted that Walsh received no party help in his introduction of Walsh. Walsh got a standing ovation as he entered.