Yesterday, McHenry County Blog reported on Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed’s surmising that State Rep. Jack Franks would announce for governor against Rod Blagojevich at an upcoming Chicago fund raiser co-hosted by Blagojevich father-in-law Chicago Alderman Dick Mell.
Both Jack Franks and his father, Herb Franks, have gone fishing with Mell for years, accompanied by various Illinois Supreme Court justices and others.
It appears that the Northwest Herald decided to check out Sneed’s Sunday report Thursday. Kevin Craver called him and got the answer that he would not announce at the fund raiser.
Franks told Craver:
“I’m certainly not ruling it out – I’m going to meet with people over the summer and get their ideas, and make a decision at the right time. I also want to see what happens in the November election, whether we have a President Obama or not.”
Maybe he’ll decide he would rather be a federal judge…although the odds would have been better if Hillary Clinton, his candidate for the Democratic Party nomination, was going to be the general election candidate.
Wikipedia
Richard Mell, former Chicago 33rd Ward Alderman
“In June 2005, Mell and Valeria Richter served as honorary co-chairman of an event for State Representative Jack Franks, a longtime Blagojevich critic who had been rumored as a possible primary challenger to the governor.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mell
– Richard Mell’s daughter Patti is the wife of former Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Richard Mell’s other daughter, Deb, is current Chicago 33rd Ward alderman.
Chicago Tribune
Politics can’t cut apart fishing lines
July 20, 2003
“A week after blasting Gov. Rod Blagojevich – husband of Mell’s daughter, Patti – for proposing deeper than expected budget cuts at his office, [Jesse] White on Wednesday headed off toward Winnipeg with a group of 25 fisherman that included Mell and State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock).
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-07-20/news/0307200033_1_richard-mell-state-jesse-white-fishing