McHenry County Blog

Dan, Shea, Lowell Cutsforth, Neils Kruse and Bill Bligh share sign space in the Algonquin Township GOP primary election contest for four Trustee spots.

The long-rumored slate of

• Dan Shea
• Lowell Cutsforth
• Neils Kruse
• Bill Bligh

popped up on some lawns recently.

Shea and Cutsforth are currently on the Algonquin Township Board.

Both voted to raise township salaries and, with the help of a third Trustee, Linda Lance, carried the day.  (Lance is now running for Township Clerk against Chuck Lutzow.)

Township Supervisor Dianne Klemm and appointed Trustee Russ Cardelli voted against the higher salaries.

There are seven people running for the four Township Trustee slots.  The others are

• Larry Emery
• Melissa Sanchez
• Russ Cardelli

Right down from Joseph’s Market in the Crystal Lake Plaza, you’ll see a building without a sign on top, but with lots of politic signs in the windows. That’s the fall campaign headquarters for the McHenry County Republican Party.

The McHenry County Republican Party invites folks to view the Paul Ryan-Joe Biden television debate at the fall campaign headquarters in the Crystal Lake Plaza.

“You are invited to our second in a series of debate watching parties this Thursday, October 11th, from 7:00 – 10:00 PM at the Republican Campaign Headquarters,” an email advises.

“For those of you that joined us to watch the ‘smack down”‘at The Cottage, you know what a fun and enthusiastic crowd we had.

“The Campaign Headquarters is a much larger venue and should be able to accommodate a much larger crowd with seating and room to maneuver.”

“he party will be held Thursday, October 11 from  7:00 – 10:00 PM.

“The address is 22 Crystal Lake Plaza, but it can best be found by finding Joseph’s Market.  It is a couple of stores west.

“Food and beverages will be provided; donations accepted.

“We will have seating for 150+, so come on out and join other Romney-Ryan supporters for what promises to be an entertaining evening,” an announcement said.

The debate starts at 8:00 and will be shown on a large screen.

“Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the next debate party which will be held on Tuesday, October 16th at the Corkscrew Bistro in McHenry,” an email advised.

Mark Widhalm, a Delegate candidate for Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign, ran for Republican Precinct Committeeman in McHenry 3 as a write-in.

He didn’t win, but was appointed to the spot.

Now he has resigned.

His resignation letter appears below:

Mike Tryon
County Chairman
McHenry County Republican Central Committee
PO Box 723
McHenry, IL 60051

Mr. Tryon and members of the Central Committee,

Mark Widhalm

The actions of the Republican Party at the local, state and national level leave me quite dismayed.

I have witnessed the party partake in the character assassinations of good, honest people.

It seems that unethical, last minute rule changes in order to keep the party power structure in place have become the norm.

I have watched as the party bosses ignore and refuse to seat delegations because they don’t tow the party line.

The Republican Party leadership has become an immoral, unethical group of thugs who seek to crush any dissent within the party and I now realize that attempting to use an irreparable system to fix an irreparable system is entirely futile.

The harder folks try to bring a shred of sanity to the party, the greater the corruption from the party leadership as they struggle to retain power.

I can no longer associate myself with the constant immoral actions of the Republican Party and therefore, I am resigning from my position as McHenry Township Precinct 3 Committeeman, effective immediately.

Please remove me from any party listserv and future mailings.

Sincerely,

Mark C Widhalm

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.

These numbers tell the tale:

2008 – 63%

2010 – 61%

2012 – 49%

The percentages represent the proportions of McHenry County’s precincts where people filed for Republican Precinct Committeeman during the last three election cycles.

Sounds like evidence for the story that was in Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, which you see below:

The headline in the Chicago Sun-Times reads, "U.S. needs a third party.

This map shows the locations of McHenry County's townships and municipalities.

As I start formatting this information from the McHenry County Clerk’s Office about who filed for Republican Precinct Committeeman in what parts of the county, my first impression is that “No candidate filed” will control the GOP Central Committee after the March 20, 2012, primary election.

After doing the count, I see that I was correct…barely.

108 of 212 precincts have no GOP candidate.  51% empty.

Only 49% of the county’s precincts have enough people wanting to serve as precinct committeemen that they passed a petition and presumably got the required ten signatures.  Nothing must be at stake, since no petitions were challenge.   With no challenges, people could have filed a petition with just their own signature and made the ballot and, hence, membership on the Republican Central Committee.

Here’s a summary of the percentages of precincts in which Committeeman candidates filed in each Township:

McHenry County Board Districts 5 and 6. Click to enlarge.

Alden – 100% (1 of 1)

Dunham – 100% (1 of 1)

Hartland – 100% (2 of 2)

Hebron – 100% (2 of 2)

Riley – 100% (1 of 1)

Seneca – 100% (2 of 2)

Richmond – 75% (3 of 4)

Greenwood – 71% (5 of 7)

McHenry – 57% (20 of 35)

Dorr – 50% (7 of 14)

Algonquin – 43% (29 of 68)

Nunda – 41% (12 of 29)

Chemung – 40% (2 of 5)

Grafton – 34% (11 of 31)

Burton – 33% (1 of 3)

Coral – 33% (1 of 3)

Marengo – 25% (1 of 4)

There exceptions in Marengo, Coral and Chemung Townships, but the numbers are so small in each of those townships that one more candidate would have put them above the county average of 49%.

You may note that the most sparely populated townships, those in County Board District 6 generally have the highest interest in the Republican Party’s Central Committee infrastructure.

Of the four largest townships, Algonquin, McHenry, Grafton and Nunda, only McHenry Township has more than half of the precincts filled with those willing to be on the ballot.

The headline is boring, but the change being considered could take away your right to vote for the delegates of your choice for the Republican Presidential Nominating Convention.

Thanks to Illinois Review for pointing the way, and as its Editor Fran Eaton writes, “Thanks to the cooperation and sharing of Pubius Forum‘s Warner Todd Huston, Illinois Review has obtained copies of the proposal before the IL GOP State Central Committee.”

Pat Brady, the Chairman of the Illinois State Republican Central Committee, will be at the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee meeting at Prairie Isle Golf Course on Route 17 east of Route 31 in Prairie Grove at 7 tonight.  See the previous story for a map.

First a chart showing what happened in the past and what is proposed. Click to enlarge the chart or any other image.

Next for your “enjoyment” is a list of “Pros” and “Cons” provided by the State Central Committee:

For hard core folks who want to read the draft resolution, the two-pager is below:

It is highly unlikely that the Senate House Republican reapportionment map that you see below will be enacted into law by the Democratic Party-dominated Illinois General Assembly, but it could end up getting consideration in the Federal courts.

Illinois House Republicans have advanced this map.

Compare the “Iowa-style” approach of letter a computer draw mainly rectangles while respecting county lines with what the Democrats have proposed, which is below:

Illinois Democrats proposed this redistricting map.

The press release that the House Republicans released follows:

Republicans release a Fair Map

Encourages the General Assembly to consider the Fair Map for the residents of Illinois

(Springfield) After years of pushing for a Fair Map for the residents of Illinois, House and Senate Republicans released a legislative map today that includes new districts that

• are equal in population,
• comply with the United States Constitution, the Federal Voting Rights Act, the Illinois Voting Rights Act and the Illinois Constitution in terms of compactness and contiguity, and
• maintain county and municipal boundaries without first considering politicians’ addresses or election data.

“This should be a very simple, transparent process,” said Illinois House Republican Leader Cross.

“We should take the census data every ten years and draw a Fair Map that is indeed fair to the minority groups in Illinois as well as compact, contiguous, and equal in population taking into account, whenever possible municipal and county lines. We kept the politics out of it. We only used election data at the end of the process to test the effectiveness of the majority-minority districts.”

“Our goal throughout this process has been a Fair Map that complies with the Illinois Constitution and the applicable laws, including the federal Voting Rights Act,” Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno said. “Community organizations and citizens throughout the state have joined us in demanding a legislative district map that complies with the principles of Fair Map – which would lead to fair representation, competitive elections and greater accountability. We are providing that Fair Map.”

Rep. Mike Fortner gave input on the drawing of the Fair Map after attending numerous hearings and listening to hours of testimony from residents around the state.

It does not take into account political data such as constituent voting records or the addresses of current politicians, except when complying with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

State Rep. Mike Fortner

“We took into consideration as much as we could the public’s requests and observations while complying with all of the rules,” said Rep. Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago).

“We worked closely with minority groups such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) to give Latinos in our state a better opportunity to elect candidates of their choice than what was proposed by the democrats. The Latino population grew the most in the last ten years and that should be reflected in the map.”

The Fair Map does creates nine Latino districts with voting age populations (VAP) of 60 percent or more.

That’s in sharp contrast to the Democrat map that created only four districts with VAPs of 60 percent or more.

Compared to the Democrat map, the Fair Map plan also creates an additional majority Latino district and enhances and equalizes Latino voters in other districts.

At the same time, it does not retrogress African-American districts. In fact, it creates two more majority African-American districts than the proposed Democrat map.

“It became clear in analyzing the Democrat map that partisan political advantage was given a higher priority than the rights of Latinos and African-Americans,” said Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon).

“In the Fair Map, as you can see, neither party was spared from the pairings. This is an indication that we did not take into account incumbency when drawing the lines,” said Fortner.

In the Fair Map, 17 incumbent Republicans were paired in the House and 17 Democrats were paired.

The Democrat proposal pairs 19 House Republicans and only 6 House Democrats despite the fact the majority of the population loss occurred in Democrat areas.

In addition, at many of the hearings—community members asked the legislators to respect county and municipal boundaries whenever possible when drawing districts.

The Fair Map maintains the integrity of more counties. The House Democrat plan splits 36% more counties than does the Fair Map.

The map is available for the public on www.ilhousegop.org/themapand www.redistricting.senategop.net which includes accompanying data.

If you are not at Easter Services at 9:30 Sunday morning, You might want to tune in CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.”

Freshman Joe Walsh, probably the best-spoken, self-identified Tea Party Republican has been invited to appear on Bob Schieffer’s interview program.

The tone of voice and demeanor of Joe Walsh on Christine Armapour's ABC's "This Week" on April 16, 2011, was mild.

Last Sunday Walsh acquitted himself well on Christine Armapour’s ABC show “This Week.”

Got the link and see for yourself how reasonably Walsh presents his positions, not to mention how mildly he calls the media to task for not exposing how President Barack Obama was a johnny-come-lately to entitlement reform.