McHenry County Blog

Since so many folks from McHenry County have crossed the Wisconsin border to participate in election on behalf of and in opposition to Governor Scott Walker, I thought the following We Ask American poll results might be of interest.

Treading Water

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has been a lighting rod since first being elected in 2010.

Walker’s take-no-prisoner persona early in his first term exacerbated the polarizing reforms he promoted and muscled through the state legislature.

The subsequent highly charged political atmosphere led to a hard-fought recall election which Walker won handily.

In speeches, Walker continues to somewhat rue his role in the rhetoric that dominated the period and has become a sought-after speaker for pro-smaller government and business groups around the country.

In a recent event in Illinois where Walker was the keynote speaker, the crowd — which was made up of business types who are accustomed to oceans of state government red ink — literally gasped when Walker touted turning Wisconsin’s big deficit into a tidy surplus.

But everyone likes other states’ leaders, and Walker isn’t traveling the nation to talk about the things that aren’t working so well for the state.

His opponent will cherry pick statistics that paint a gloomy picture of Wisconsin (for example, employment numbers aren’t great), but Walker’s successes are viewed by many as genuine and he’s good at projecting the glass as half full.

Clearly, the effect of Walker’s reforms and accomplishments will not be fully measured before next year’s election.

With Wisconsin’s economy viewed as “treading water” and the discontent from last year’s political wars still fresh in the minds of voters, how will the public view Scott Walker now?

As with all governors in this series of polls, we asked likely Wisconsin voters a straightforward and simply worded question:

“Do you approve or disapprove of the job Governor Scott Walker is doing?”

Here are the results:

As we pointed out in yesterday’s initial poll in in this series [on Pat Quinn], these approval ratings are probably as much a measure of voters’ opinion of state government as a guide to re-electability.

Gov. Walker’s overall approval rating now is nearly identical to what we saw in July, 2011 although he seems to have lost some mojo among Independents.

Yet, Walker survived a nasty recall attempt and has lived to see some positive results from his efforts.

Assuming he runs again, he’ll face a Democratic opponent who won’t have President Obama leading the ticket.

Still, many Wisconsin voters continue to carry the scars of the uncivil war that broke out after Walker’s ramrod approach to his reforms blew up.

We believe that–once again–Wisconsin will be among the most politically interesting states to watch in 2014.

When I heard that Illinois fire departments were helping put out the fire in Burlington, Wisconsin, I figured some would be from our area.  (Here’s the Chicago Tribune article.)

Burlington is one of the places where my father used to get his newspaper, The Star Reporter, printed.  I made the trip a couple of times.

I reached out to some local fire protection districts to find out local involvement.

It turns out that seven McHenry County departments provided assistance.

Richmond’s Chief Rick Gallas was kind enough to provide the details:

“MABAS Division 5 responded to an inter divisional task force request made by MABAS DIVISION 102 for a Tender Strike Team.

“We were alerted at 4:50 am this morning.

“Richmond sent a Chief as the strike team leader, Harvard sent a Battalion Chief, and water tenders were sent by

• McHenry
• Huntley
• Woodstock
• Cary 
• Marengo

“Our strike team was put to work as “A” Division water supply at 6:30 AM.

A WMAQ-TV aerial view of some of the fire equipment marshaled to fight the Burlington, Wisconsin, fire at Echo Lake Farms Produce Company.

“Our strike team was demobilized approximately at 10:15 AM.

“I was back in Richmond by 11:00 AM.”

Scott Rasmussen is a pollster best known for doing a daily poll on Presidential approval and disapproval.

Yesterday he published an article that points to Wisconsin as the key for a Mitt Romney over Barack Obama.

Will Illinois activists on both sides of the aisle now head to Wisconsin, as they did in the Scott Walker Recall Election?

Rasmussen says that Wisconsin is a toss-up.

I went fishing in the Sheriff’s Department for assets seized this summer and found a property in Delavan, Wisconsin.

The funny thing was, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department refused to supply the address.

I appealed to the Public Access Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

Last Monday, when Jan Weech got back from vacation, she emailed me that she had spoken with the AG’s Office and she provided the address:

W6845 South Shore Drive

So, what’s the reason this home is on the list?

Today’s “Message of the Day ” is a license plate found on Route 14…

in Wisconsin.

Today’s message is there for all to see at Lowe Excavating between Cary and Crystal Lake.

Marshall Lowe’s message board reads,

Illinois Problems
Solved.
Annex to Wisconsin.

I would suggest the bushes be trimmed so the whole message can be read before one is upon the sign location.

Friday’s editorial cartoon in the Chicago Sun-Times by Jack Higgins is trenchant.

I knew the word worked, but had to look up its meaning: “vigorously effective and articulate.”

He shows traffic leaving Wisconsin.

The sign says, “”Leaving Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Governor.”

The next sign is over the Illinois border:

Entering Illinois
We should be
so lucky

Unfortunately, the Sun-Times has not posted the cartoon, so I can’t link to it.

Look what reached by inbox from Wisconsin.

It was obvious that feelings were running hot in the recall election in which Republican Governor Scott Walker soundly defeated Tom Barrett.

Want to know how high?

Take a look at the sign vandalism below:

There must be a dam at the Illinois-Wisconsin border.

The water from Wisconsin’s boiling tea kettle didn’t spill over the state border last Saturday when the McHenry County Republican Party decided no candidate against Jack Franks was better than Tea Party activist Tonya Franklin.

I can’t help but note what Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady had to say about Wisconsin Scott Walker’s victory–the only Governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election:

“I enjoyed seeing all of the energy from Illinois Republicans over the past few weeks for Scott Walker and I know that energy will carry over to the Illinois Republican State Convention this weekend and to our elections this fall.

“I look forward to personally congratulating (Republican National Committee Chairman) Reince Priebus on Friday in Tinley Park for all his work in ensuring victory tonight.”

The abdication of the 63rd District seat to 7-time Mike Madigan supporter “Chainsaw Jack” Franks was three days before our state party leader’s praised that same energy.

Some may find some irony in the flat out rejection of the offer to take on a McHenry County GOP Establishment-predicted suicide run from a woman who had the energy to campaign in Wisconsin.

Not to mention for a month volunteering in Florida four years ago helping John McCain try to win the state on her own dime.

Ironically, McHenry County GOP Chairman seems more interested in not losing McHenry County to Barack Obama in 2012 as he did in 2008, than having a chance to beat Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks.  (From email discouraging Precinct Committeemen from attending the Special Meeting Saturday at which a crucial step could have been taken that could have led to a Republican opponent to Jack Franks being on the ballot: “We are committed to help elect our Congressmen, our State Senators and Representatives, our County Board candidates and most of all, electing a Republican President.“  Emphasis added.)

On the CNN fall election may last night while the analyst was debating on whether to change the color in Wisconsin from solid blue to pale blue, I noticed Illinois was the brightest of blues.

National commentators don’t share Tryon’s belief that Mitt Romney can carry Illinois this fall.

Carrying McHenry County will, at best, give bragging rights to local Republicans, while beating Jack Franks could make a difference in who controls the Illinois House.

A slim possibility, I will admit, but still a possibility, given what happened north of us.

Above the state line, Tea Party activists–even from Illinois–have been embraced by Republican leadership, including the Chairman of the National Republican Party Reince Priebus: “Thank God for the Tea Party.”

“We’re not in competition with the Conservative Movement. We’re just part of it,” Priebus said in an interview on Breitbart. “We need to have a party about addition and multiplication, not division and subtraction.”

Priebus, a Wisconsin resident, said,

“Courage is on the ballot in Wisconsin.

“We need more people to run for office and govern like they campaigned.”

Can’t help but wonder how he would react to the McHenry County Republican Party’s defeatist attitude.

And, arguably, the Party Leadership’s policy of, how did the National Chairman put it?

“Division and subtraction.”

Kool-Aid in the 63rd District better than Tea?

A perspective from the Left (“The Political Environment, Progressive reporting from Wisconsin and the region. Scott Walker Recall Updated Frequently.”) on the Wisconsin election points out:

“But Walker got to spend and benefit from $35-$50 million, and an advantage over Barrett by something like 7:1 this time, so where’s Walker’s growth? Yes, he won, but not in a landslide.”

We Ask America had the race at 54-44-4, the 4 being undecided, but warned that differential turnout was what the contest was all about.

I was listening to Milwaukee’s WTMJ coming home from a sleep apnea study this morning at Centegra’s Algonquin outpost and heard that no poll had predicted a Walker victory.

I guess, as with the mainstream media’s missing We Ask American’s poll on the Joe Walsh-Melissa Bean 2010 election, the commentator just didn’t look closely enough at this Illinois emerging source of information.

A McCormick Foundation analyst was interviewed.

Commenting on the effect the victory would have nationally, he said, “The political dynamic is certainly different.”

But, as the swim coaches say,

“You can win the race, if you’re not in the pool.”

And, no one in the McHenry County Republican Party leadership will be wearing this sweatshirt at this weekend’s GOP State Convention in Tinley Park:

Here’s the press release from the only polling firm to get the Joe Walsh-Melissa Bean race right:

Who Survives?

Our final poll in the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election comes after an impressive debate performance by Democrat Tom Barrett — who may have saved his best for last.

The highlight for many viewers was when Barrett took beleaguered Republican Gov. Scott Walker to the woodshed for airing a very tough ad that displays an image of a severely beaten child who later died of his injuries, suggesting that as Milwaukee mayor, Barrett’s police department “didn’t consider it a crime.”

In reality, the person who beat the child was arrested but escaped prosecution through a bureaucratic blunder not of Barrett’s doing.

Barrett’s outrage was punctuated with this zinger: “I have a police department that arrests felons. He [Walker] has a practice of hiring them.”

That line, of course, refers to the ongoing “John Doe” investigation that has resulted in the arrest of a number of Walker’s former aides for their alleged role in embezzling funds raised to help veterans and their families. (You can read the details of that investigation here.)

So, as fireworks continue to explode over the political horizon in the Dairy State, we asked 1,570 likely voters who they support in the June 5 election. Here are the results.
Those surprising results would project at a 56-44 final win for Walker.

HOWEVER, while Walker continues to lead Barrett, we once again caution readers that this is an extremely difficult election to predict.

Turnout is king in all elections, and it may be even more important in this one. Wisconsin’s labor movement is keen to get as many of the anti-Walker voters to the polls as possible and have displayed the ability to rally their troops effectively.

And Wisconsin regulations allow Election Day voter registration with a minimum of residency documentation–something that has both sides whispering of potential abuse from their opponents.

Too many polls have been conducted showing Walker in the lead (even Barrett’s own poll shows him trailing) to disbelieve the sentiments displayed in the results.

But Walker’s continuing problem with the John Doe investigation and a bit of swagger among his supporters could–possibly–keep some of them home.

Then again, Barrett’s aggression that he displayed in the final debate may have come too late.

At any rate, it may be appropriate to say that there could be no winner in this election–only a survivor.