Monday morning at a Barrington Park District facility, Mark Beaubien’s widow Dee Beaubien had a formal kick-off to her quest to gather 1,500 good signatures (3,000 being the goal) to get on the fall ballot as an Independent to run against Republican Dave McSweeney.
Not knowing the park behind the library, I had done some research on how to find the place, but it was still past the 10 o’clock announced starting time when I arrived at Jewel Tea Pavilion in Citizen’s Park.
Former State Rep. Rosemary Kurtz' license plate.
Even so, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to look at license plates and bumper stickers in the isolated parking lot east of the meeting place.
The first I saw had the number 64, that of my old legislative district. I made a wild guess that it belonged to the woman who defeated me in the 2000 GOP primary, Rosemary Kurtz.
That didn’t really surprise me since Dee and Rosemary have similar philosophies.
Bumper stickers on the back window read "Turn Off Fox" and "Obama 2012."
For some reason, the Chevy with the Obama 2012 and the Turn Off Fox bumper stickers caught my attention.
Then I thought, of course, Democrats will be supporting Dee Beaubien because there is no Democratic Party candidate running for State Rep. in the 52nd House District.
I walked past the back ends of some other cars.
Former State Rep. Elizabeth Coulson was in attendance.
There was a retired legislator plate with “BC.”
No mystery there.
Former State Rep. Beth Coulson, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress to replace Mark Kirk, still had a “Beth Coulson for State Rep.” bumper sticker on her bumper.
"GOBAMA" urges this bumper sticker.
Moving along, I found a bumper sticker on a car bought in Highland Park that said, “GOBAMA.”
Good play on words, I thought.
The middle bumper sticker "Dogs Against Romeny" shows that Democrats haven't lost their sense of humor.
Another Obama 2012 was on the back of a black vehicle.
Above it was an Evanston Township High School sticker.
Below was one I just focused on.
When I did, it made me smile.
“I ride inside. DogsAgainstRomney.com” with a photo of a dog whose breed I should recognize, but don’t.
Another Obama sticker.
A Volvo sported a round “Obama 2012” sticker on its bumper. It was bought in Barrington.
A Ford Taurus has four bumper stickers.
Two were “Obama 2012” ones.
One was stuck over a “Women for Obama” sticker, probably from 2008.
Melissa Bean's bumper sticker share billing on this bumper with Barack Obama.
And, on the right hand side of the bumper was a “Melissa Bean for Congress” bumper sticker.
And, finally, a Toyota bought in Arlington Heights had a handmade poster in its back window touting workers’ rights in Wisconsin:
This sign supporting workers' rights in Wisconsin was in the back window of a Dee Beaubien supporter.
They look like Democrats to me!!!
Only needed a Murf sighting to make things complete
Looks like these people want 4 more years of a declineing economy. Some people never learn.
She certainly has every right to run and people have every right to support her.
However, any sitting Republican who supports her needs to get some SERIOUS primary competition next time around.
Why isn’t Dee running as a democrat?
She seems very appealing to them.
I say Gobama too…get out of the White House so someone can lead the nation to recovery!
I joined the TEA Party MOVEMENT before I joined the Republican Party. I live in the 52nd District and wondered why Mr. Beaubien was constanatly being re-elected. Being persistent, somebody in the Republican Party finally gave me the answer, “Beaubien comes from money and he always contributes to the Republican Party so we don’t run anybody against him. Furthermore, Beaubien always votes with the Democrats on critical issues…so they don’t run anybody against him.”
There is no mystery to me why our state is the laughing stock of the nation. We are controlled and governed by incompetent and corrupt officials..who are backed by special interest groups with campaign money. Mrs. Beaubien can run and waste her money…she wasted enough on her failed candidate she helped install to replace her husband. Our state is in desperate need of leaders who will hold themselves accountable to the people they pledge to represent.
I don’t know Mrs. Beaubien, or ever met her…however, I do know that she does not represent my views. In addition, I believe her main reason for running against conservative is to maintain the present liberal status quo in Springfield.
BTW…this is excellent reporting Mr. Skinner…well done!
**this is excellent reporting Mr. Skinner**
And by “excellent reporting,” you mean only showing the portion of the cars that make Beaubien look bad?
And by “excellent reporting,” you mean only showing the portion of the cars that make Beaubien look bad?
Absolutely Dave! Some of us have our eyes open as to what is going on in our state. Others like to bury their heads in the sand…Mr Skinner is not one one of them!
Every bumper sticker or sign that was in this parking lot is in the story.
Just so we have clear facts here:
Dee Beaubien’s “control” over how Mark voted increased as he got sicker over the years.
Dee Beaubien enjoyed (and reveled) in the power of the Republican Party (from a very Republican District) for over a dozen years.
We put up with the social garbage because Mark was a Republican – and we welcomed his spouse as one of us for a long time.
Dee Beaubien pushed hard for Kent Gaffney to be appointed as her husband’s successor because she thought she could control the seat that way.
Dee Beaubien got behind Gaffney’s campaign very early on, but then she seemed to fade as time went on.
At some point, Gaffney told Beaubien “I’m not Mark – and you don’t tell me what to say or how to vote”, so she stopped supporting his campaign.
In other words, Dee pushed her ill husband around into voting the way she wanted, then she pushed Tom Cross around and got him to get Gaffney appointed, and then when she couldn’t control Gaffney 100% of the time, she decided to screw the Republican party again by voting a non partisan ballot on primary day which would make her eligible to run as an independent.
After years of money, support, and Republican friendship and comfort, Dee Beaubien showed us all what she is made of.
If she manages to get on the ballot, voters will repudiate her by a huge margin.
Note how many of the supporters at her launch event were not even from this district.
It’s just Dems trying to stir up trouble with no expectation that she will win.
They’re happy to let her waste her time / money fighting Republicans just to create a distraction in the 2012 election.
McSweeney will win easily.
I believe it’s illegal to photograph and publicly display people’s license plates.
Where’s yours and the people you run with?
What’s good for the goose…
Too many have forgotten how 43 got us into the economic mess that started all this and will more than likely take another decade to straighten out, if ever.
Remember that little war that cost us billions of dollars a month?
Where were the complaints then? Where were the complaints when the checks and balances system that was supposed to keep Americans from this kind of economic disaster was completely bypassed?
It’s so easy to choose to ignore the past and blame others when it’s convenient.