Thursday, October 18, 2012

County-Wide Republican Candidates Snag 3 of 4 Endorsements from the Daily Herald

Waking up to the Daily Herald endorsements this morning for the county-wide races, the re-energized Lake County Republicans did pretty well.  We got three out of four, as follows:

Mike Nerheim over Chris Kennedy for State's Attorney

Keith Brin over Rupam Dave for Lake County Circuit Court Clerk

Steve Newton over Tom Rudd for Coroner

The only Republican not to receive the DH endorsement was Bob Bednar, who is up against long-time Record of Deeds Mary Ellen Vanderventer.

A few observations.  First, I will admit that I am quite relieved about Nerheim's endorsement over Kennedy.  There's certainly no doubt in my mind that Nerheim is the better man for the job, but I was quite concerned that given the criticism of retiring State's Attorney Michael Waller on handling DNA evidence and the like, the press was going to tar Republicans in general, and Nerheim in particular, with what the press saw as the failings of the Waller administration, even though both Nerheim and Kennedy are former prosecutors who worked for Waller, and both candidates have been gone from Waller's office for some time.

I had little doubt about the Brin endorsement; I'm still scratching my head that the unimpressive Rupam Dave was the best candidate Terry Link could scrape up.

Steve Newton's earning the endorsement over Dr. Tom Rudd is a bit of a coup; I think the DH looked at Newton's prior experience in the office and they also mentioned 'temperment': which you can basically read to mean that they thought Rudd was a jerk.

Finally, it's probably no surprise about Bednar losing the endorsement to Mary Ellen Vanderventer.   Of all the Dems in office, she's probably the most competent, and Bednar's signature issue of consolidating the office of Recorder of Deeds with the County Clerk's office did not appear to resonate with the DH editors; at least, not as a campaign issue that should be decided by choosing between elected officials.  But, given the strength of the GOP ticket overall, I would not say that a surprise victory is out of the question for Bednar.

Let's see what our friends at the Chicago Tribune now have to say....



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting as yet another election season comes to close to see how much these endorsements have merit at the polls.
I recently was part of an incentive program that helped people in our community I asked people if they had heard about the program through the newspaper and not one of the 60 people we helped learned of the program from the newspaper, even the elderly.
If memory serves me correct, I don't think the DH hit the 40% rate of endorsed candidates winning their race in 2010.

Anonymous said...

Even with the endorsement, it is still "...Pants on Fire!" for Mr. Brin to be exclaiming that the Clerk's Office is profitable. IT IS NOT! He is taking credit for revenues that do NOT directly support the functions of the office. The Clerk is merely the bill collector for many other departments. Take away those revenues and you will see that the office is in the red.

Pumpkinhead said...

Some candidates open their mouth and remove all doubt of being a jerk. This includes Rudd, Kennedy and Bednar. Kennedy even made rude and vicious comments at a recent debate with attacks against Mike Ori and his wife and dad (who is deceased), which proved he has no class and has to resort to personal attacks because he knows Nerheim is a much better candidate and besides that, a gentleman. Rudd has used attacks against Newton and his family and Bednar is a loose cannon. Vanderventer is not corrupt and has not done a bad job. Bednar's chances are slim against Vanderventer.

Lake County Is Corrupt To The Core said...

"Of all the Dems in office, Vandervetter is probably the most competent,"

Maybe it's all relative, but you better check your facts, TA. The cat is out of the bag about forged recordings at the Recorder's Office for developments around Fox Lake and Ingleside. Corruption championed by Bonnie Thomson Carter that extends well into local government in Lake County, into the Recorder's Office.

The Lake County Eye and The Local View have caught wind of it and reporting on the scam, too.

www.ripoffreport.com/-woosterwater-scam-i/politicians/district-5-lake-county-illino-8db0e.htm