From what Democratic Party Chairman Tom Cynor is reported to have said Wednesday night at the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee meeting, it looks like he is thinking very seriously about running against McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi.

If so, you heard it here first.

Cynor announced he was not seeking election as party chairman again, but that he would have another announcement soon.

You may read these tea leaves differently, but I sense a party slating of Cynor is in the works.

One would assume that Cynor would have to resign his post with the 22nd Judicial District to run for this partisan office.

That would mean that some law firm or business would have to agree to put bread on the new father’s table.

Reading the obituary of long-time chairman of Winston and Strawn Tom Reynolds, I was reminded how he hired Thompson for what I heard was $50,000 when he left the U.S. Attorney’s Office and ran for governor.

Thompson lost his first case. It was in Elgin’s appellate court and concerned a property tax appeal.

The attorney who beat the future governor was Boyd Gates of Dundee Township.

Boyd was the newly-minted attorney whom boss Ed Glaser told to call me when I was running for state representative in 1972 and all of Dundee Township had been reassessed. The senior law partner’s home sat on one of the highest hills and he had quite a jump in his assessment.

Using the information I had learned in my successful representation of McHenry County assessment appeals, Boyd and I did an dog an pony show at three locations in Dundee Township, first at the congregational church, then at a church across from the historical society building and, finally, on the coldest day for the year, at St. Monica’s.

The Carpentersville police were on Route 25 directing traffic that Saturday. There were that many people who wanted to file appeals. We leafleted the entire township of one of the incumbent opponents, R. Bruce Waddell. (He came in first in Dundee Township. I came in second ahead of incumbent State Rep. Les Cunningham, former mayor of Belvidere, with two to be nominated.) Naturally, the broadside that Ed Richardson printed up had my name in it, along with the three seminar locations.

Word of mouth spread throughout the township as what happened at the first two meetings became known, leading to the overflow crowd that frigid Saturday.