Vic Narusis holds up sign in front of Thursday's meeting place. Crystal Lake Tea Party head Mary Alger displayed it in Harvard Tuesday.
Neighbor Vic Narusis held up the sign Crystal Lake Tea Party leader Mary Alger displayed at the Heritage Inn in Harvard Tuesday.
In an interview with the Daily Herald, Sun City McHenry County Board member Dan Ryan blamed his refusal to disclose personal financial information requested by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water and low turnout in his retirement community.
“It infringed on individual privacy too much,” was what he told a reporter.
Regrets?
“Absolutely not,” he told the Daily Herald. “I don’t care if it cost me my office. I have principles.”
District 6 incumbent Daniel Ryan, sitting second from the right of the photo was the only candidate who either has not filed the ALAW conflict of interest form or committing to doing so. From left to right you see Richard Draper, Diane Evertsen, Victor Narusis, Dan Ryan and Mary McCann,
At the Patriots United County Board Candidates’ Forum, Ryan received decidedly tepid applause when he said he was not going to fill out the ALAW form.
Ryan was similarly resistive when the Illinois Family Institute, in conjunction with Patriots United made phone calls to him, among others, seeking people to call Ryan in favor of a ban on video gambling. When he figured out who had stimulated the 50-some calls, Ryan called IFI, telling the person who answered the phone that he would call them every time someone called him.
Ryan voted to allow video poker in rural bars and restaurants.
The conflict of interest form, which asks for property ownership and business relationships, was completed by 20 of 27 candidates in the February 2nd primary election.
Ryan was the only incumbent who lost who failed to fill out the form.
District 1′s Yvonne Barnes and District 2′s Lyn Orphal, both of whom sent ALAW the answers to the financial questions asked, also lost.
The other four Republican candidates in Ryan’s District 6 voluntarily turned in their questionnaires. (Those who did not volunteer for the financial exposure can be found here.)
With regard to the Sun City turnout question, the precinct voting returns for Ryan’s Grafton Township Precinct 15 showed these returns:
These totals are not the final precinct totals. The finals will show more votes, perhaps many more because lots of folks in Sun City are out of town this time of year and Ryan made a determined effort to solicit absentee votes.
It should be noted, however, that the McHenry County Clerk’s web site shows Ryan receiving 272 votes for precinct committeeman.
It will be interesting to see the final totals to compare his precinct committeeman total with those votes he received to retain his county board seat.
Here’s what happened to those county board candidates who did not send in a completed ALAW ethics form.
Yvonne Barnes from Cary and Dan Ryan from Huntley’s Sun City are the two McHenry County Board members who are far enough behind before the early and absentee votes are added to the totals for me to conclude have lost.
I’m having a hard time finding a common thread.
Robert Nowak sits along next to empty seats set aside for incumbent District 1 candidates Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes. Nowak beat both incumbents in the primary election.
In District 1, Robert Nowak is leading both Anna May Miller by almost 100 votes. Miller is leading Barnes by 200 votes.
| Precincts Reporting | 35/35 | 100.00% | |
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| YVONNE M. BARNES | REP | 1645 | 30.30% |
| ANNA MAY MILLER | REP | 1845 | 33.98% |
| ROBERT NOWAK | REP | 1939 | 35.72% |
I think it unlikely that adding the early and absentee ballots will allow Barnes to pick up almost 300 votes.
I am searching for reasons for Nowak’s victory. Can anyone help me out?
Nowak was the only District 1 candidate to come to the Patriots United County Board Candidate Forum.
But, since the paper of record in McHenry County, the Northwest Herald couldn’t spare a reporter than Friday night, the only story on the event appeared on McHenry County Blog.
Although those interested in politics certainly read this publication, I hardly think Miller’s and Barnes’ missing the event caused them to run behind the challenger who did.
In District 6, it’s time to play “The Girls Are Back in Town.”
Mary McCann led the race. She asked supporters to vote for her exclusively.
Second, running 375 votes behind before the County Clerk’s Office folded in the early and absentee ballots, is newcomer Diane Evertsen.
| Precincts Reporting | 31/31 | 100.00% | |
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| VICTOR J. NARUSIS | REP | 1381 | 18.10% |
| RICHARD C. DRAPER | REP | 912 | 11.96% |
| DIANE EVERTSEN | REP | 1817 | 23.82% |
| DANIEL P. RYAN | REP | 1318 | 17.28% |
| MARY T. McCANN | REP | 2192 | 28.74% |
Fellow newcomer Victor Narusis is 436 votes behind.
Incumbent Dan Ryan trails Narusis by 63 votes at this point in the vote counting. Ryan failed to complete the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water conflict of interest form. He was the only candidate running in District 6 who did not voluntarily fill out the ethics questionniare.
Running last is Wonder Lake’s Richard Draper.
The District 6 Patriots United panel. Incumbent Daniel Ryan, sitting second from the right of the photo is the only candidate who did not filed the ALAW conflict of interest form.
Incumbent McHenry County Board member Dan Ryan is going down to defeat, while, Mary McCann, the other incumbent up for election is running second with 13 of 31 precincts reporting.
Leading the pack is newcomer Dianne Evertsen from Hartland Township. She was encouraged to run by opponents to the county board’s Alden Road widening project.
Ryan is running third, 195 votes behind McCann.
Newcomer Vic Narusis is coming in fourth with a little under one-third of the precincts counted.
Last is Wonder Lake resident Richard Draper.
Here are the results at 9 PM:
| Precincts Reporting | 13/31 | 41.94% | |
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| VICTOR J. NARUSIS | REP | 568 | 16.82% |
| RICHARD C. DRAPER | REP | 375 | 11.11% |
| DIANE EVERTSEN | REP | 904 | 26.78% |
| DANIEL P. RYAN | REP | 648 | 19.19% |
| MARY T. McCANN | REP | 879 | 26.04% |
This is a wildly diverse district, which includes the McHenry County portion of Sun City, where Ryan lives.
Before calling anyone a victor, people should wait for the electronic, early and absentee votes to be counted.
= = = = =
Now (9:20) two-thirds of the votes have been counted.
| Precincts Reporting | 23/31 | 74.19% | |
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| VICTOR J. NARUSIS | REP | 993 | 17.82% |
| RICHARD C. DRAPER | REP | 647 | 11.61% |
| DIANE EVERTSEN | REP | 1407 | 25.26% |
| DANIEL P. RYAN | REP | 1008 | 18.09% |
| MARY T. McCANN | REP | 1512 | 27.14% |
The second placed woman is now 500 votes ahead. Maybe the crystal ball is becoming clearer.
Remember hearing about how forest fires sometimes jump fire breaks that are intended to contain them.
That may have happened late last week with the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest ordinance.
Originally presented to the McHenry County Board in December, the draft ordinance was shipped off to the State’s Attorney’s Office for review.
The review came back with some good points, along with some trivial ones.
And the number of county board candidates voluntarily filing the form kept increasing. Here’s who have filed so far:
Since there is no deadline, candidates or public officials can still download the conflict of interest form, fill it out and send it in.
Indeed ALAW did not even ask candidates to fill out the ethics form; it did have a questionnaire on issued of interest, however, the results of which can be found here for the twelve county board candidates who completed it.
As you can see more candidates filled out the ethics statement than filled out the issue questionnaire.
Along the way, every candidate for sheriff has answered the conflict of interest questionnaire.
And, two incumbent county board members not up for election have completed it. One, Republican Virginia Peschke, the other, Democrat Paula Yensen.
Crystal Lake Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield
Late last week, however, the first municipal official sent in answers.
She is Crystal Lake City Councilwoman Carolyn Schofield.
What’s that all about?
She just got elected.
Does this portend an issue in the Crystal Lake city elections next spring?
Will Schofield introduce an ordinance to make completing the conflict of interest form a requirement for elected and appointed city officials, as well as city consultants?
Unlike the County of McHenry, the City of Crystal Lake is a Home Rule unit of government.
What’s that mean?
It means the Crystal Lake City Council and other Home Rule cities have more power than county government.
The standard explanation of what a Home Rule government can do is anything the General Assembly doesn’t say it can’t do.
If Schofield, the newest member of the city council, follows decides to make a variation of the ALAW ordinance mandatory in Crystal Lake, the debate could turn quite interesting.
Since city Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller is running for county board in District 2, she might get elected. She certainly is in the top three in the sign war.
If elected, I imagine she would resign from the council. If so, a replacement would have to be selected.
Might the council require applicants for the possible vacancy to answer the conflict of interest questions first?
Whether or not the city council passed such a requirement, any council member could let it be known that he or she would not support a candidate who did not fill out the form.
Yes, ALAW has started something that could get very, very interesting.
Paula Yensen
First there was District 5′s Republican Virginia Peschke filling out the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest form.
Now her District 2 colleague Democrat Paula Yensen has done so, too.
Neither had to do so anymore than the 17 of 27 county board candidates who have done so.
Both women are incumbents who are not on the ballot.
Revealing such potential conflicts of interest to the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water for posting on its web site is strictly voluntary…unless the county board passes an ordinance to make it mandatory.
But there’s something in the political air this year that convinced this overwhelming majority of county board candidates to lay out more of their political finances than in past years. ALAW has capitalized on it.
It’s probably the stench of political corruption coming out of Springfield and Chicago.
Certainly, no indictments have popped up in McHenry County.
My theory is that the level of corruption out here is so small compared to that in Chicago and Springfield that it doesn’t make the cut at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
And, yes, I have verified that Federal agents have interviewed people in McHenry County.
Even I got interviewed by a Postal Inspector concerning a House Republican Campaign Committee—financed mailing put out by the HRCC’s mail house owner Roger Stanley. He wanted a copy of a mailing from an obscure political action committee created just to attack my candidacy.
I didn’t remember the committee, but when he described the mailing, I did remember it, found a copy and faxed it to him.
It is my understanding that one of the mail fraud counts Stanley pled to concerned that mailing. Certainly, the Chicago Tribune reporter who called me the afternoon of the plea agreement thought so.
Even though the wrong doing in McHenry County doesn’t reach the indictment stage, the reporting of the indictments and convictions in Chicago does reach McHenry County, angering that part of the electorate who think government ought to be “on the square.”
That includes me. My 1990′s legislative seat mate Tom Johnson once told me, probably after some outraged speech,
“The problem with you, Skinner, is that you think this is on the square.”
So, let me list below the candidates for McHenry County Board who are willing to take ALAW’s step toward convincing local voters that county government is “on the square.” I’ll list them alphabetically by district. All the candidates are Republican, unless indicated otherwise.
Victor Narusis
Karen Tynis
Tynis and Narusis have filed most recently.
In addition, all the candidates for sheriff, except incumbent Keith Nygren, have voluntarily submitted their conflict of interest forms.
The three willing to “bare all” are (in order of filing)
Here is where you can find the statements.
Patriots United held its Town Hall Candidates’ Forum last night at McHenry County College.
Panels of county board candidates introduced themselves and answered questions.
All were asked if they had filled out the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water’s conflict of interest questionnaire.
Audience applause was greatest for those who had done so and downright tepid for incumbent Dan Ryan of District 6 when he said he was waiting for the State’s Attorney’s Office to review the ordinance proposed by ALAW.
An initial review, of course, has already been completed and whether or not one will voluntarily complete a questionnaire for a private organization has no relevance to the answer Ryan gave.
The District 6 panel. Incumbent Daniel Ryan, sitting second from the right of the photo is the only candidate who either has not filed the ALAW conflict of interest form or committing to doing so.
All the other candidates in District 6 have already submitted the form or, in the case of Victor Narusis, is working on it.
Another candidate, Robert Nowak, a non-incumbent and the only one of three attending from District 1–incumbents Anna May Miller and Yvonne Barnes being absent–seemed to mix up the income disclosure form already mandatory (what I call the “None, None, None form”) and ALAW’s.
District 2′s panel, however, brought the differences between those willing to reveal to reveal their property and business holdings—or lack thereof.
The empty seat in the middle was reserved for McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, who failed to attend the Patriots United county board candidates forum. He is the only one in District 2 not to have completed ALAW's conflict of interest form.
With his name placard smack dab in the middle of the table and chair empty, McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler’s seat was empty.
On both sides sat two women, all of whom had filled out ALAW’s ethics form.
Koehler, so far, has not.
Having just seen Jersey Boys, all I could think of was a take-off of the son in the musical entitled, “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
What came to mind was “The Girls Are Back in Town.” I didn’t want to wake up the three “sleep over boys,” who inexplicably decided to sleep in the room with my computer to listen to the video above, but it has the right title and two minutes into the piece, a couple of women start singing, so I think it fits the story.
Patriots United Executive Director Brian Kelly informed the crowd that candidates would have an opportunity on his group’s web site why they missed the meeting, as well as answer ten or so questions.
Unlike the pre-Thanksgiving 8th congressional district event, this one was not video taped for later posting on the web site. That’s unfortunate, in my opinion, providing more weight to what I consider the false argument that national politics is more important than local political affairs.
I know for a certainty that the lower the level of government, the more opportunity a citizen has to make an impact on governmental process.
Ask the six county board members who were subjected to the voter activation from ten thousand phone calls on the issue of banning video poker (really, slot) machines by an organization associated with Patriots United, the Illinois Family Institute.
I thought the following, sent out by the McHenry County Community Foundation, might be of interest:
The process continues into summer 2008 with the highest priority being to locate land for the first phase. The McHenry County Community Foundation will continue to facilitate the process. This involves further involvement of interested parties through a thorough evaluation process and networking relatable resources. And unique to other participants, MCCF will continue to educate the County about the Foundation’s special role: the means to leverage financial support and grow investments through the creation of a legacy endowment to provide funds for the venue from creation through years of maintenance support.
Planning Team
Mike Baumstark, Cornerstone
Dick Crone,
Mark Ehlert,
Kate Halma,
EnRico Heirman, Continental Amateur Baseball Association (CABA)
Pete Heitman,
Victor Narusis,
Barbara Wheeler, McHenry
I thought the following, sent out by the McHenry County Community Foundation, might be of interest:
The process continues into summer 2008 with the highest priority being to locate land for the first phase. The McHenry County Community Foundation will continue to facilitate the process. This involves further involvement of interested parties through a thorough evaluation process and networking relatable resources. And unique to other participants, MCCF will continue to educate the County about the Foundation’s special role: the means to leverage financial support and grow investments through the creation of a legacy endowment to provide funds for the venue from creation through years of maintenance support.
Planning Team
Mike Baumstark, Cornerstone
Dick Crone,
Mark Ehlert,
Kate Halma,
EnRico Heirman, Continental Amateur Baseball Association (CABA)
Pete Heitman,
Victor Narusis,
Barbara Wheeler, McHenry
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