McHenry County Blog

Route 47 front yard in Woodstock.

Except for signs all over, incumbent Sheriff Keith Nygren is running a pretty low key campaign.

The signs, of course, are only good for name identification and he already has plenty of that.

He mailed a post card two weeks ago that was pretty routine. It could have been rebutted (and was by an anonymous letter writer here), but challenger Zane Seipler doesn’t have enough money for a mailing.

Last week a letter arrived from Nygren that said pretty much the same thing as his post card.

Keith Nygren ad with the theme of "The Proud Tradition Continues." (Click to enlarge.)

Then I saw Nygren’s ad in the Northwest Herald.

As I was driving into every driveway in my precinct (except the one owned by the couple who refused to register to vote because “they didn’t have time,” although I was standing at their door on a mild day with registration cards on my clipboard, plus driveways of a couple homes that were vacant—one a nice half-completed fixer-upper right down the street from me), it occurred to me that Nygren’s ad might be interpreted by some as having all those past sheriff’s endorsing him.

“Dead Sheriffs for Nygren” crossed my twisted brain.

A couple on the list are still alive, but most are dead. The list, after all, goes back to 1837.

Lots of time to think worthless thoughts while going door-to-door.

Was there a parallel to Dan Hynes’ running a video of a vibrant Harold Washington talking from the past about Pat Quinn’s administrative incompetence?

Probably not, but the thought flitted across my mind.

And, didn’t some of the sheriffs listed have reputations that wouldn’t be considered favorable?

When I was McHenry County Treasurer, my bookkeeper, Oral Herendeen (the wife of a former sheriff and whose old home is in my precinct across from the Dole Mansion), told me that Ed Dowd, who was sheriff the term before I was Treasurer, had his checks sent to Texas for the last two years he was in office. No cell phones then.

While I was in college, I remember reading about how Dowd’s deputies seized the slot machines in Algonquin. They were full then, but empty when destroyed more than a year later.

No accounting for the money.

Surely, Nygren wouldn’t want Dowd to endorse him for re-election.

How would Dowd’s reputation fit into “The Proud Tradition” touted above Nygren’s list of mainly dead sheriffs?

I was brought back to reality as I saw a Nygren sticker on the front of the Northwest Herald’s Sunday edition.

Nothing more than another name identification effort, something this incumbent sheriff does not need.

It was the same place where McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew gets tax paid advertising telling people property tax bills are due. (Why do public officials have to put their names on so much stuff the taxpayers buy?)

Nygren’s campaign has not mentioned that he has an opponent.

It’s been a positive campaign.

No need to spend any money dirtying up the opponent when the Northwest Herald will do it on its front page for free.

But Nygren’s supporters’ tearing down yard signs and disabling the biggest sign of his opponent’s campaign delivers another message.

Billboard on Route 176 northeast of the intersection with Route 31 on wehich the ligths were vandalised last week.

There also have been a couple of–how shall I put it?–how about “not in complete control” moments I’ve heard about Nygren.

I’m not sure that means much, because candidates try their very best to control what happens in a campaign and all get disappointed or even outright disturbed sometimes.

In any event, the election is Tuesday and you won’t get anyone to bet that Nygren won’t win.