McHenry County Board member Carolyn Schofield is not running for re-election.
Instread she is running for Lt. Governor with former State Senator Paul Schimpf.
Schimpf is from Southern Illinois and, of course, Schofield is from the Chicago metropolitan area.
And, she is from the Republican vote-rich County of McHenry, which has Woodsotck’s Gary Rabine as a candidate and has seen active campaigned by candidate Darren Bailey.
Schofield has run for the Republican nomination for State Representative twice, losing both times to Allen Skillicorn.
The first time she carried the McHenry County portion of the district.
She did not the second timer.
After losing the first time, Schofield was again elected to the County Board.
Prior to winning her County Board seat, Schofield served four years on the Crystal Lake City Council, having lost once before becoming victorious.
She served on the planning and zoning boards for Crystal Lake before that.
Schofield has been a Republican Precinct Committeeman in a mega-precinct for a long time.
Her current State Representative, Suzanne Ness, had Grafton Township resident Schofield remapped out of her new district.
Schofield’s retirement from the County Board leaves only one Republican incumbent–Robert Nowak–in the newly-drawn district that runs from Weatern Crystal Lake south to the Kane County line.
What district is schofield within?
That’s interesting. I assumed because of her name ID she would run for county board and be re-elected.
Running for lt governor means she isn’t going to be in office (I don’t see Schimpf winning the primary or general election).
She has to know her chances are abysmal going this route while running for county board would be a much easier track for her to remain a public official and get a salary, right?
Perhaps she doesn’t care and was tired of being on the county board anyway, or maybe she knows something we don’t about the voters in her new district but it’s hard to picture that since these districts look to have been drawn specifically to protect incumbents and name ID is huge in county board elections otherwise you wouldn’t have Skala being easily elected in a Democratic district.
She’s also moderate if not liberal especially for a Republican.
Maybe Schimpf/Schofield isn’t a bad general election ticket in terms of putting together a coalition but there are two enormous and glaring problems.
1. You have to win a primary first. Schimpf is not doing so well and I don’t see how this improves his chances of winning the primary. It allows people to play the “He’s a RINO card.” To me, Schimpf is already seen as a RINO although he has been campaigning as more conservative lately.
2. Schofield’s name ID in the state is zilch. This really only brings in voters from McHenry and Kane County. For example, Stephanie Trussell, who I’m not a fan of, is at least somewhat known for her radio show and being at many GOP events (not talking about local ones).
Like I said, interesting development.
Keep us posted about Rabine, Sullivan, Erickson, and Roper’s running mates.
This is VERY bad news for Gary Rabine whose chance of winning was already low (Bailey will win) but now with Rabine’s home turf (McHenry County) being under siege by Schimpf with the addition of Schofield, Rabine’s chances have dipped even further.
I know many on this blog don’t like Schofield, but she does have a base of support.
She has won county board races numerous times.
I would have assumed if any local gal was going to be picked as a running mate it would have been Pam Althoff or Karen M, both former state senators (Althoff now a county board member).
Karen might be from Kane County but I think part of the district she used to represent was in McHenry County.
That may have been DeWitte’s seat, the 33rd district.
Cal, there are more Republican voters in other counties, all of the collar counties except for Kendall have more Republicans.
Even if the percentage is lower, the other counties have a much higher population.
And the number of people who voted for Trump in Cook County is greater than the entire population of McHenry County even though it is overwhelmingly Democratic.
So if getting a “Republican rich” county was the goal, McHenry is not the obvious choice like one might think.
It is when you only consider the fact that McHenry County is the sole county near Chicago that’s still voting Republican — and barely at that.
Frank, her current district is 2 but her new district will be 3.
Her county needs her on the County Board.
Sad she can’t see that, and stay where she is needed and doing some good.
This new endeavor is an exercise in futility.
It will only give her another loss under her belt.
Pam is just like KingZinger, she doesn’t stand a chance anywhere beyond her home turf.
Oak, she’s a pos.
As I’ve said elsewhere, when I hear “Carolyn Schofield” I can’t help but remember this fiasco:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp3U8e0HCpY
When I hear “Carolyn Schofield” I reach for a revolver