As expected, that hole in dike has manifested itself in District 5, where Republican turned Democrat Lake in the Hills trustee Jim Kennedy picked off Perry Moy two years ago.
With 59% of the vote has counted, Paula Yensen is leading the pack.
Odd man out, so to speak, is John Jung.
Yensen is leading the four-way race with 32.4%.
Top vote getter four years ago, Virginia Peschke, for whom I saw no literature, is second with 32.3%.
Jung is running third with 28.2%.
Green Party candidate Frank Wedig is pulling 7%, enough to earn the Green Party “established party status” in the Lake in the Hills-Huntley-Woodstock-Bull Valley district. (That means the party, if it elects a precinct committeeman, can nominate candidates the way the Democrats did in McHenry County this year—without running anyone in the primary election. Dave Bachmann is the only except on the Democratic Party side. He did stand for nomination in the primary.)
A similar upset may occur in the Crystal Lake-Prairie Grove-McHenry District 3, where Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergen Schmidt is leading another incumbent male, Nick Provenzano, by 115 vote with only 3 out of 37 precincts not counted.
Leading is incumbent female Mary Donner with almost 37% of the vote in a three-way race.
There could also be a Democratic Party pickup in the most rural district in McHenry County.
With half the votes counted, the two Republicans in District 6 are leading, but they are not splitting the vote evenly.
Randy Donley is ahead with 31% of the vote in the four-way race. His running mate Ersel Schuster has 26.6%. Atypically, the male Republican is running ahead of the female. Incumbent Donley got more votes than Schuster in the primary election, too.
The leading Democrat, Darryl Frank, is 600 votes behind Schuster at 22%. He is ahead of his running mate Bob Ludwig by almost 300 votes. Ludwig has 20% of the vote.
I wonder if voters see the name “Frank” and think he must be related to Jack Franks, the candidate for state representative against whom the Republicans did not run a candidate.
In county board District 1 (Fox River Grove, Cary and Algonquin), with 77% of the vote counted, the two Republicans are winning handily. Newcomer Bob Bliss has 37% of the vote, incumbent Marc Munaretto has almost 34%.
Democrat James McTague claims 29%.
Republicans are leading in the Crystal Lake-Lake in the Hills District 2.
Perennial top vote getter Jim Heisler pulled it off again, leading the four-way race with almost 32% of the voted. His running mate Scott Breeden is running second at 25.5%
Two Democratic Party women—Jill Mawhinney and Anita Harmon—are running behind with 20.8% and 22%, respectively.
54% of the vote is counted.
Not much of a contest in District 4 either. It has a lot of Wonder Lake—where both of the candidates reside—McHenry, Johnsburg, Richmond and Spring Grove.
Republican John Hammerand is leading with 37.5% of the vote. His running mate Sue Draffkorn is second at 35%, with Democrat Jeff Thirtyacre coming in last with 27.5%. Note the anomaly of a male Republican out tallying a female Republican in this race. 66% of the votes are counted.