Incumbent Democrat Michael Bond is in the fight of his short political life trying to fend off a strong challenge from Republican County Board Chairman Suzi Schmidt.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, it seems, so Bond was first up with a very misleading ad in which he claimed that Schmidt voted to raise taxes, but that Bond "stood up to party leaders" (but that's a laugh). Here's his cable TV ad:
Suzi has now struck back, however. Suzi's campaign rebutted the Bond ad through an e-mail blaast and noted the following:
Pay Raises
Suzi has returned her pay raises for the last two years back to the county.
Suzi has frozen her salary twice, including a current salary freeze in effect through 2012 for all countywide elected officials, county board members and county employees.
In order to help balance the budget and save jobs in uncertain economic times, last year Suzi successfully negotiated with the unions who have county contracts to also freeze their salaries.
Budget and Spending
The 42% increase in spending at the county that Bond's ad refers to is actually federal stimulus (grant) money the county received through President Obama's ARRA stimulus package, which had to be spent. This was NOT county tax dollars.
Last year Suzi cut $6 million from the budget in order to keep it balanced, and this
year has proposed another $8 million in cuts to non-essential services.
Suzi has maintained a balanced budget for 10 years as County Board Chairman.
Suzi has now gone on the counter-attack against Bond with a few video ads of her own:
This one is even better:
This race is a hot one, kids. But I think Bond is going down. And the Ghost of Geo isn't going to be swooping in to save Mr. Bond this time.
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4 comments:
Considering that Geo was a close friend of Suzi's mother and a friend of Suzi, assumptions over who the late Senator Geo-Karis would endorse are interesting. No one ever brings up the close relationships Geo had with Suzi's family.
Louis G. Atsaves
You need to post something about last night's League of Women Voters debate held in Lake Forest.
1. Lauren Turelli clearly won the debate over Karen May, who squeaked "I am an Independent" and tried to push that she is now a public pension reformer with a 10 point plan. After 10 years, May had her chance, both Stratton and Griffin in earlier campaigns brought up the pension crisis and May then blew it off. Turelli came across as an intelligent, thoughtful candidate while May waived her hands in frustration while claiming to be a reformer.
Must be tough when you vote against the ethics bill advancing out of committee that you introduced in the House, right Karen May?
2. Carol Sente had an "important business engagement" and sent her sister to read a statement. Her sister stated that Senator Link chose Sente to replace Ryg. Dan Sugrue then gave his statement.
The hand picked Representative thanking the party boss? Wow!
3. Carlton Marcyan shocked an unprepared Ann Flannigan Bassi for Lake County Board. Prepared. Focused. Proactive in wanting to tackle problems. Will donate his salary if elected. Gave such a closing statement that the crowd was transfixed and burst into applause, to the frustration of the League moderators who wanted no applause until the end of the debate.
After the debate, Bassi immediately left the building. Perhaps now she realizes she has a major fight on her hand.
Louis G. Atsaves
Republicans have always controlled Lake County and that has led to the highest property taxes in all of Illinois and we just moved from 17th (Forbes 1/23/09) to 16th in the nation. Suzi commands an 80K salary for a part-time job (there is a County Administrator on the payroll), a 6K car allowance, 3K stipend for being liquor commissioner, and a cadillac health and dental insurance plan. Again ALL for part-time work. No other collar county pay nearly as much as our Board members command, and they get reimbursed mileage for going to board meetings...their job! So while pay raises may have been tabled (purely political), the Board and much of Lake County Municipal government has been out of control and unchecked for decades.
So the "greedy" Suzi will take a pay cut if elected to the Illinois Senate? And can you imagine the Democratic shrieks of indignation if Suzi truly only worked part time, instead of 80 hours a week as County Board Chairman?
Nice try with the falsehoods. Next time get your facts straight.
Louis G. Atsaves
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