Terry Link Asks Help from McHenry County Democrats

by Cal Skinner

Wednesday night Lake County Democratic Party Chairman and State Senator Terry Link went courting McHenry County Democratic Party Chairman and McHenry County Board member Kathy Bergan Schmidt Wednesday night at the McHenry County Farm Bureau building.

Before the above photo, there was a slight bow as Link went up to where Schmidt was putting out goodies for the assembled committeemen and guests. It would have been a classic.

During the meeting Schmidt explained how Link had been helpful to McHenry County Democrats back to when John Bartman chaired the central committeeman.

"I'd like to welcome Cal Skinner.  I never thought I'd live long enough to do that," he said before saying,

"I can actually go back to John McClatchy."

Link explained that he had been Lake County's Democratic Central Committee Chairman for eighteen years.

"We took a very bright red county and made it light blue.  It took a lot of work.  I could not have done it by myself."

Referring to his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for lieutenant governor, he said,

"I'm not ready to retire."

He said he would use the position to advance issues across the state the way he had passed the Smoke Free Illinois bill.  He wants the office to advance economic as it does in Indiana.

Link said his re-write of the Workers Compensation law--the first time in 30 years--had pleased both labor and industry so much that both gave him awards for his role of facilitator.

He was extremely proud of getting the Early Voting law passed.  He pointed out that he "carried all election law" bills and had faced House Speaker Mike Madigan down over Early Voting.

"I stood heel to heel with (Madigan).  I told him I wouldn't sign off on (his bills if he wouldn't pass Early Voting)."

Making his pitch to his fellow suburban residents, Link observed,

"We have nobody on this ticket who had announced--and I'm saying 'announced'--who lives outside of Cook County, except me."

Guess Link was referring to the possibility of McHenry County's State Rep. Jack Franks running for governor or some other statewide office.

"I have the experience.  I come from business.  I know what it's like to run a business."

He also pointed out he knew what it was like to live in a rapidly growing county.

"I was born and raised in Lake County.  We have our problems.  We need to have that perspective (at the table).

"I'm asking for your support."

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The photos are of State Senator Terry Link.  In the bottom picture, he is talking to Spring Grove's Jeff Thirtyacre.

Posted first on McHenry County Blog.

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McHenry County Democrats Out Polling Republicans in Presidential Ballots

With 86% of precincts counted in McHenry County, Democrats have 51.2% of the ballots cast for president.

This tracks nicely with the early voting totals, in which voters were taking 51% of the ballots cast when I wrote my story.

So, is this a result of Obama fever?

Barack Obama did beat Hillary Clinton by almost 2-1 (almost 63% to almost 36%).

Was the more fervent support of the Democratic presidential candidates the reason for more people taking Democratic Party ballots in this supposed Republican County?

If you were the Democrats, wo?

Or would you stick to just one—the county coroner’s office, with Republican turned Democrat Dave Bachmann, who started Bachmann funeral home, being the candidate?

Published first at McHenry County Blog, where there is lots more on what happened in McHenry County this strange election night.

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Democrats Out Polling Republicans in Early Voting

The McHenry County Democratic Party is acting, well, like a party.

Its chairman, Tom “This is our year” Cynor has someone looking at the names and parties of people who have voted early.

And, he was “happy to share the information.”

He should be, considering what he found.

As of the end of voting Saturday, 2,056 people had voted.

1,054 Democrats

990 Republicans
4 Greens

Can you believe that?

51.3% Democrats

Someone people are certainly working for their presidential candidate(s).

There were also 6 people who only voted in some referendum. Guess they don’t care who is nominated president or state's attorney.

I think it is safe to say that the level of intensity of support for presidential candidates is stronger among Democrats than among Republicans, although I did see my first Republican presidential bumper sticker on the way home from McHenry Friday night. It was for Romney, the best financed of the GOP candidates.

In politics, intensity counts for a lot.

More at McHenry County Blog, where you can read about the 94-year old who wanted to vote for "the guy who was in prison."

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Internet Vote Reporting Confusion

It appears that McHenry County was not the only place where people depending on internet results after all the precincts were reported in where confusion occurred.

In St. Clair County, according to Respublica, the same thing happened with the Fairview Heights mayor’s race.

The confusion, Respublica writes,

stemmed from overlooking the new Illinois election law. This law, which went into effect in July, mandates that absentee and early voting ballots not be counted until after the polls closed.

The only results available on election night, at least early enough in the evening for newspaper/media deadlines, were those coming from voters who voted in person on Tuesday in their precincts.

St. Clair County chose to report the in person votes separate from the absentee and early voting which gave the impression that the election results were complete. This confused some when they read reports from the county which said, 29 of 29 precincts reporting, 100 percent. Give or take some precincts.

Madison County, on the other hand, did not report results until those ballots were included.

In McHenry County, results in the Huntley School Board race were posted. All precincts in.

Then, later in the night the numbers changed.

No explanation was posted on the web site, although the Clerk’s Office did explain to me what happened the next day when I figured out the people whom I thought had won probably did not.

Seems to me that the electronic posting should have columns listing how many votes in person, absentee and early and, then, the total so far.

Or follow Madison County’s example and wait until all the votes are counted.

Of course, that would still exclude the absentees that have not arrived by election day and are give 14 days to show up.

It’s really strange when the results change without an explanation.

Can you imagine the yo-yo of emotions when a candidate goes from victor to “also ran” in a matter of hours?

This is just one of the articles on McHenry County Blog this weekend, although goodness why you would be inside during daylight hours with the weather as good as it is.

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