McHenry County Blog

For several election cycles, McHenry County’s Democratic State Representative Jack Franks has been given a pass by local Republicans. One time ex-Republican County Chairman, Bill LeFew, even attended his fund raiser.

Now McHenry Grade School Board and Library Board member John O’Neill has stepped forward. O’Neill won the District 15 school board race, even though his family home schools.  The family has lots of photogenic children.

Many might consider him a sacrificial lamb.

Others might think that he is staking out the territory in anticipation for Franks’ abandoning the State House for a candidacy for Congress in a newly-drawn 2012 district.

O’Neill has been active in the Republican Party, being elected a precinct committeeman the year all statewide Republicans lost. In 2008, he was recruiting walkers for McHenry’s Fiesta Days Parade.  He attended the state GOP convention. 

O’Neill also was one of the organizers of the demonstration on Route 47 in Woodstock in front of Jack Franks’ legislative office in March. Protesters objected to Franks’ position on abortion and gun control.

O’Neill wrote Franks “had given me the tired old line that,

‘I personally oppose abortion but I support a woman’s right to choose.’”

The ad below appeared in the Northwest Herald:

After the demonstration and ad, both legislators retreated.

While always having described himself as “pro-choice,” Franks had a fairly conservative voting record on the issue in his early days. He infuriated pro-lifers statewide, however, by blocking the advancement of a “CHOOSE Life” license plate in the committee he chairs.

To understand why pro-lifers were enraged, take a look at the specialty license plates Illinois allows on the right hand side of the Sun-Times article above:

• Illinois & Michigan Canal
• Sheet Metal Workers
• Agriculture in the Classroom
• Illinois Route 66
• Master Mason

Previously, it appeared that Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager was preparing to run for the office. He, however, is a strong enough supporter of Franks that he was listed as a sponsor on Franks’ 12th Annual Breakfast Fundraiser October 3rd. Sager also would qualify as a liberal Republican, while O’Neill fits into the conservative mold.  Sager retired in July from McHenry County College, his last position being Interim President after Walt Packard was forced from the post, albeit with the biggest governmental golden parachute that has been seen locally.

Below is the email that popped into my computer:

Dear Friends,

For the past couple of election cycles here in McHenry County as well as our Nation, we have seen our political opponents gaining momentum. In some cases we have not even fielded a conservative candidate for office. I would like to reverse that trend.

I will be seeking the Republican nomination for Representative in the General Assembly for the 63rd District.

Since this is an 11th hour decision, based in part on the fact that nobody else in McHenry has stepped-up, I am seeking your help. Attached is a copy of the primary petition, we need to have a minimum of 500 signatures collected which need to be submitted to the Illinois Board of Elections during the week of of October 26.

I am asking you to get involved and help me collect these signatures. I have also included an instructional sheet explaining the general requirements for both the petition Circulator and Signer.

The petition sheets may be printed in multiple or copied and the Circulator needs to have them notarized in order to be valid. Please do not number the sheets; we will do that once they have all been returned.

I would like to have all of the petiton sheets returned by Monday, October 26 so I may prepare the packets for submission. Petition sheets without the full 10 signature lines completed are valid as long as they are notarized.

Please call or email if you have any questions.

I sincerely appreciate your help.

Thank you,
John O’Neill
(815) 276-2507

At last year’s Pro-Life Pork Roast at Resurrection Center, I met Dan Sugrue. He was running for state representative against Kathy Ryg.

You see him giving his 2008 pitch.

That’s his daughter Vivian by his side. (Had I been quicker, I would have gotten a shot of a great leg hug.)

His was a pretty hopeless quest in the Year of Obama, I thought.

He ran the race and told me, when I met him and his wife Margo on Paul Caprio’s Family PAC cruise last Tuesday, he told me he was challenging Ryg again.

Sugrue told me that Ryg’s voting record would give her big time trouble this year.

In one of Illinois most wealthy counties, you see, Ryg voted for Governor Pat Quinn’s 50% income tax increase. There were other instances of poor representation that I didn’t jot down.

The boat was docked and emptying out when I saw Dan Sugrue. Usually, you can’t get me to take a posed photo, but it was late and dark. Here’s what Sugrue looks like now.

Had he known that Ryg was going to “retire,” as she announced today, his smile would have been broader.

She says she’s stepping down to head up Voices for Illinois Children.

I figure she’s quitting early because she knows she couldn’t get re-elected.

Since there is an open seat and next year looks like a Republican year, I would expect Sugrue to have GOP primary challengers. But, he will have a head start because of his campaign last year.

State Senator Pam Althoff (R-McHenry) praised Ryg in a Tribune article.

“Are you running for state rep. again?” I asked.

“Yes, I am,” Crystal Lake’s Robert Kaempfe replied.

“I’m going to start gathering signatures at the County Fair.”

For the second election in a row, Kaempfe will be challenging Republican incumbent Mike Tryon, also of Crystal Lake.

Even though Kaempfe drew more votes in the Democratic Party primary election than Tryon did in the GOP contest, he did not in the fall, losing 61%-39%.

“If somebody is running unopposed, you do not have a choice. At the very least I’m giving the constituents in the 64th district a choice.

“Whether they take or not is up to them, but I’m giving them a choice.”

“What issues are you going to stress?” was my next question.

“First of all, I don’t like lobbyists. Exelon Corporation, Tryon’s got money from Exelon a couple of different times. Is Exelon Corporation really, really looking out for the interests of the common citizen?

“No.”

“So you’re not going to take money from lobbyists?” I asked.

“I would take money from unions.”

“Why?”

“Because they are, in fact, representing the working families. They are trying to keep good paying jobs for the average workers,” Kaempfe replied.

“The big money lobbyists have one thing in mind, money, greed, that’s their bottom line.”

“Other issues?”

“Green energy. That’s where the entire planet has to go. One of the ideas I had and Mike kind of pooh-poohed it last time around, was to pass a bill that with any new construction in the state, estimate the energy it would use and the bill would be that the new house has to produce about 30% of its own green energy–solar, wind, geothermal or a combination of them.”

Last year Kaempfe used his installation of solar panels to lead by example.

“With geothermal you only have to go down about eight feet. You dig the foundation level a little deeper and out a little more to put the grid down.

“Another idea I had, at the end of Coventry Lane, there’s a waste water treatment plant.

“Every notice that standpipe they out there? It has a flame on top. It’s burning off methane, a natural byproduct of the process.

“This is real simple. If absolutely nothing else, compress the methane into tanks all spring, summer and fall and you use it to heat the waste water treatment plant during the winter.”

“How is that a state issue?” I asked.

“It is for Crystal Lake.

“Every city, no matter where it is, has methane that could be used to help heat the waste water treatment plant. It would save money.

“The bill there would be, if you have a waste water treatment plant, you save the methane and use it to heat your waste water treatment plant.

“All the state legislators get earmarks. Instead of making massive cuts on community services, how about hold off the earmarks?

“Didn’t Algonquin Township get almost a half a million dollars?

“I think that money could have been better spent, if he had to have earmarks, on PADs or Pioneer Center, where people really, really need it.

“I’m just trying to look out for the average person.

“How about all the elected state officials? To show we’re on the side of the people, we’ll take a voluntary ten percent pay cut.

“Why not? They’re making good money.

“Why not take a pay cut?”

= = = = =
State Rep. candidate Bob Kaempfe is seen addressing the crowd at Stage Left in Woodstock in the top photo. He poses with State Rep. Mike Tryon at McHenry County College’s Shaw Center at State Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) health care hearing last summer below.

In his contested race for state representative, Crystal Lake’s Mike Tryon starts the final half of 2008 with $26,680.

It’s about the money he raised during the first half of the year.

He spent $31,900 during that period.

Tryon’s Democratic Party opponent Robert Kaempfe did not file a campaign disclosure report, probably because he did not raise the amount which would meet the threshold for required reporting.

In his contested race for state representative, Crystal Lake’s Mike Tryon starts the final half of 2008 with $26,680.

It’s about the money he raised during the first half of the year.

He spent $31,900 during that period.

Tryon’s Democratic Party opponent Robert Kaempfe did not file a campaign disclosure report, probably because he did not raise the amount which would meet the threshold for required reporting.