Yesterday, McHenry County Blog published the Daily Herald’s county board questionnaire. Today, take a look at the Northwest Herald’s.
I like to look at candidate questionnaires probably because I enjoyed tilting with editorial boards at election time. Often their questionnaires, especially those of the Chicago Tribune, were so loaded.
They often revealed the editorial board’s hidden–or not so hidden–agendas.
Editors regularly had different views of what was best for my legislative district than I did. One, Leroy S. Clemens, the editor of the Elgin Daily Courier-News, even wrote a column in 1970’s in which he named the 33rd district as the worst represented in Illinois.
I had sponsored a bill in my first term that tried to equalize real estate taxes for local governments that lapped over county lines. Elgin and its school district lies in both Kane and Cook County. The 33rd district represented Elgin west of McLean Boulevard.
My legislation resulted in tax bills being cut by 14% in Kane County and going up 14% in Cook County, according to Kane County Auditor Don Clute.
Clemens lived in Cook County and–this is just a guess because he didn’t mention it in the column—probably figured out it was me who had caused his tax bill to increase.
Clemens had other reasons to denigrate my Dundee Township Republican running mate Bruce Waddell and our Johnsburg Democratic Party colleague Tom Hanahan.
If I run across that column, I’ll have to share it with you.
But, back to the Northwest Herald.
Top priorities, disagreement with past decisions, addressing top transportation needs and stewardship evaluation are the first four questions.
Not bad. They don’t lead the candidates to give a particular answer as candidate questionnaires from various newspapers often do.
But, then there is question 5:
Should the county pursue a regional conference and event center project?
I just knew the Northwest Herald would find some way to bring up the baseball stadium.
My answer would be short:
Not if any of my tax dollars pay for it.
Candidates are allowed 100 words. I could finish this one off with ten. Probably less, if I tried.
How about?
Not with my taxes.
That got it down to four words.
Enough rambling. Here are the questions:
Northwest Herald Questionnaire
Please respond to each of the following questions.
Answers are strictly limited to 100 words.1) What are your top priorities if elected?
2) What past decision made by this elected body did you most disagree with and why?
3) What are the county’s top transportation needs and what can be done to address them?
4) Has the county been a good steward of tax dollars? Why or why not?
5) Should the county pursue a regional conference and event center project?
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Any county board candidates or other candidates wishing to share their answers can do so by emailing them to McHenry County Blog, where they will be published.