McHenry County Blog

Well, glory be.

The Chicago Tribune has decided to include third party and independent candidates in its political poll.

Rick Pearson, power party acolyte called “reporter” by the Tribune, wouldn’t even mention my name when I ran as the Libertarian Party candidate against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan in 2002…not even the Sunday before the election.

How things have changed.

In Sunday’s edition, he writes,

“(Bill) Brady collected 37 percent to (Pat) Quinn’s 32 percent support, while another 19 percent were undecided in the poll of 600 likely registered voters conducted Aug. 28 through Wednesday.

“Former Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen, who’s now running as an independent for the top post, had 4 percent, and Green Party candidate Rich Whitney and Libertarian Party contender Lex Green each had 2 percent. The survey’s error margin was plus or minus 4 percentage points.”

I heard my first radio ads for Scott Lee Cohen today on WBBM-Radio. They were focused on jobs, the same strategy he used when he won the Democratic Party primary election. Next time around, I precinct Cohen will have more that 4%.

Jim Tobin, the 1998 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor, whom Secretary of State George Ryan sent government employees on state time to keep off the ballot, has endorsed Scott Lee Cohen for Governor. Cohen won the Democratic Party nomination for Lieutenant Governor, but party leaders forced him off the ballot.

In a letter to his Tax Accountability mailing list, Tobin writes that Cohen has “signed our Taxpayer Protection Pledge” in which he promises to “oppose any and all efforts to increase state or local taxes.”

Tobin points out that Democrat Pat Quinn and Republican Bill Brady “have refused to sign.”

Tobin goes on to describe Quinn and Brady as “the tax-raising twins.”

Tobin was also the Libertarian Party candidate for Lt. Gov. when I ran for Governor in 2002.

A phone number of 312-441-0300 is listed in the letter for those who would like Cohen to speak in their communities.

Click to enlarge the images.

It worked for Scott Cohen when he ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Lieutenant Governor.

Will it work for John O’Neill in his campaign against State Rep. Jack Franks?

At the McHenry County Fair, the Republican candidate was handing out black and white versions of the leaflet you see below.

This time the job fair will be at the McHenry Township Hall in Johnsburg on August 24th from 10 until 1.

In this email comment to one of my articles, District 4 Democratic Party Board member Jeff Thirtyacre demonstrates the problem that Pat Quinn has winning the election this year:

Jeff Thirtyacre says:
08/18/2010 at 5:43 am (Edit)
Between Quinn and Brady, I believe the only clear choice for Governor Is Scott Lee Cohen.

He was targeted from the people who wanted they elite people.

He was voted in by the people and that was tampered with by those who see him as an outsider and were afraid of what he might do once in office. They were afraid their empire would crumble.

Brady has had a long list of programs that he took away from IL taxpayers and residents to protect his special programs and he has not voted for one program to help the people of Illinois.

He has stood by and allowed the corruption to continue knowing what was going on.

When I saw this, I remember thinking, “It worked for Democratic Party candidate for lieutenant governor Scott Lee Cohen, why not for John O’Neill?”

O’Neill is running against veteran Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks.

So, if you are looking for a job, The Bell Tower Place at the Church of Holy Apostles is the place to be from 10 to 3.

Here is O’Neill’s press release:

With 1 in 10 McHenry County residents unemployed we are reminded of President Reagan’s words,

“A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose your job.”

Government bureaucrats spend a whole lot of time paying lip service to the plight of the unemployed but one area resident is actually doing something about it.

John O’Neill is running for State Representative, however, he is not waiting until he is elected to start working for the people of McHenry County. John has organized a Job Fair to help match local residents with local jobs.

“After having been unemployed for several months during 2009, I know what people are going through.” John says, “McHenry County has offered so much to my family and me, it is a pleasure to give something back and I can’t think of a better way to help people right now.”

The job fair will feature numerous businesses and entrepreneurs that can help local residents who are unemployed or under-employed replace the incomes lost during this time of economic troubles.

If you or someone you care about is out-of-work or struggling to pay their bills, please plan to attend the Job Fair sponsored by the John O’Neill for State Representative campaign.

The unions decided to keep their benefits. That was more important than letting the commuters ride the CTA.

And the personal grief of Democratic Party Lieutenant Governor Scott Lee Cohen’s son was more important that the doomsday for CTA strap holders who read the Sun-Times.

There was a  CTA bailout in the spinrg of 2008.  It probably cost State Senator Kirk Dillard the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

You remember.

The tripling of our RTA sales tax the week before the Crystal Lake City Council decided to play pile on by hiking its city sales tax by 75%.

Dillard voted for it and Andy McKenna blasted away on radio, TV and in direct mail about Kirk Dillard having voted for a regional states tax as evidence that he was not rock solid on opposing an income tax hike.

That doomsday was on the front page of the Chicago Tribune right before the vote.

But, today, another so-called “doomsday,” the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times featured Democratic Party Lt. Gov. nominee Scott Lee Cohen announcing he will not accept the nomination. Cohen, by the way, carried the Democratic Party primary in McHenry County.

Take a look:

State Senator Terry Link, chairman of the turnaround Democratic Party in Lake County, came to Woodstock to ask for support of McHenry County Democrats, but that doesn’t seem to have done him much good, as he placed fourth behind State Representatives Art Turner (Chicago) and Mike Boland (East Moline).

Making a pitch to the Young Democrats of McHenry County was Thomas Castillo.
= = = = =

Turned over the Tribune that was delivered to my driveway and discovered it did have something about the CTA cuts…below the fold. The snippet directing people to pages 6-8 had a photo of a family who had to wait 30 minutes for a bus while on the way to a party.

And, inside–wouldn’t you know it?–the word “Doomsday” turns up in a headline:

Eventually, the Democrats lust for patronage and the other benefits of controlling state government will result in slotting State Comptroller Dan Hynes in Scott Lee Cohen’s place as the running mate for Pat Quinn and the media can concentrate on how “unqualified” the Republican’s Lieutenant Governor candidate Jason Plummer is.

And, if you don’t believe they will, read this paragraph from Friday’s column by the Tribune’s Eric Zorn:

“Democratic and Republican primary voters Tuesday nominated inexperienced, unknown rich guys to be the running mates for their gubernatorial candidates, touching off memories of 1986, when another unknown slipped his way onto a major-party ticket.

This time, lumber company heir Jason Plummer, 27, spent more than $1.3 million in family money to get 34 percent of the GOP primary vote, enough to prevail in a six-candidate field.

“…the outrage was obvious: Neither man is remotely qualified to be one heartbeat or one federal indictment away from becoming governor of Illinois.”