State Senator Michael Bond Seeks to Shake, Not Just Stir, Illinois' 10th Congressional District (UPDATED)

As we anticipated (though some had doubts), State Senator Michael Bond has announced his candidacy for Illinois' 10th Congressional District for the seat currently held by 5th term GOP Congressman Mark Kirk. Read his press release here.

We've been talking about the ramifications of this for some days, since Roll Call ran a story on Bond's intentions. On the Dem side, potential candidates State Senator Susan Garrett and two-time loser Dan Seals are waiting a decision by Kirk as to whether he runs for U.S. Senate (or possibly Illinois governor), and a Highland Park attorney named Elliot Richardson has also formed a committee. We'll see if Bond's announcement has any impact on any of the others' intentions.

On the GOP side, while we all breathlessly await Mark Kirk's announcement as to his political future, the local GOP is going to have a field day with the anticipation of picking up Bond's Illinois senate seat. It's too early to tell who the front-runners might be, but my money is on GOP Lake County Chairman Dan Venturi, who just won re-election as Lake Villa Township supervisor.

UPDATED 04.30.09: Pioneer Press has an article out that quotes Susan Garrett and Dan Deals, each of whom are equally mealy-mouthed as to what their plans might be. Garrett does get a sideways dig into Bond (perhaps aimed at Seals too) as to the residency issue, and says she will seek community input before making a decision. Seals, as usual, concentrates on whether he can run a competitive campaign, not whether he'd be any good as a Congressman should he win. This guy never learns.

At some point, unless his primary opponents simply wilt in the face of a determined climber like Bond, voters will be reminded that he is one of the Tribune's "Blagojevich 26" - maybe just in time for a Blago trial to begin next year?

Public Service Announcement: The Munchkins, Glinda the Good Witch, Dorothy and all their friends will visit Zion (Michael Bond's district, coincidentially!) this weekend when a Lake County theater group stages "The Wizard of Oz." The Christian Youth Theater company will put on the live performances of the classic story 12 times starting Friday night at the Christian Arts Auditorium in Zion. The run concludes May 10. See here for details.

The Christian Youth Theater is a nonprofit, educational theater arts program for kids ages 6 to 18. It offers camps in dance, voice, drama and other specialties, and it performs three musicals annually.

Arlen Specter's Defection May Increase GOP Support for Moderate Mark Kirk's Senate Run

As you probably have heard by now, yesterday, long-time Pennsylvania GOP Senator Arlen Specter officially jumped ship and announced that he would run for re-election as a Democrat. Specter had a long history of flirting with the left, infuriating those on the right.

GOP Chairman Michael Steele opined that Specter's defection had much more to do with a desperate bid for increasing his chances for re-election than philosophical or policy differences with the GOP; after all, based on recent polling, it appears that Specter was down about 20 points from his conservative primary challenger, Pat Toomey.

"Let's be honest - Sen. Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record." said Steele. "Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010,'' Steele said, "assuming the Democrats don't do it first."

Interestingly, not all Democrats are ready to welcome Specter with open arms, even if he helps provide a critical vote that enables Senate Dems to end threatened filibusters by Republicans.

All politics is local, as Tip O'Neill's famous book told us. Well, no matter how hot a politician you think you are on the national scene, if you don't take care of business at home, you can't get re-elected. I often wonder about politicians in leadership positions that neglect their districts to the point of, seemingly suddenly, being in danger of losing an election back home because they have spent too much time trying to play D.C. (or Springfield) politics, and not paid attention to folks back home.

Will Specter's defection have any effect on IL-10 Congressman Mark Kirk's decision to potentially run for Senate? Not sure. Some have already said that Specter's defection is a sign of increasing hostility for moderate Republicans in the GOP. That might be true locally for Specter in Pennsylvania (is that a warning for us here in Illinois, perhaps?) But, with Specter's defection, if anything, the national GOP will renew its attempts to open up the big tent and embrace moderates to refute the notion that Specter's defection had anything to do with policy schisms within the party. Not to mention the fact that the GOP needs to win back some Senate seats in 2010, and Kirk is widely regarded as one of the GOP's strongest candidates anywhere.

Supporting a moderate like Mark Kirk for an important U.S. Senate race might just come at exactly the right time for the GOP.

IL-10 Dance Card Filling up Quickly, At Least for the Dems

As we have been reporting for some time now, the race for the Tenth Congressional District in Illinois has already gotten very interesting, mostly because 5th term incumbent Congressman Mark Kirk has been flirting with running for either U.S. Senate or perhaps even governor. Kirk's decision on what to do is expected by the end of this week, but meanwhile a bunch of Dems are already lining up in hope and anticipation (did I mention hope?) that they could run for an open seat and not have to face Kirk. We've already told you about State Senators Michael Bond and Susan Garrett, and of course, there always seems to be perennial candidate Dan Seals lurking in the background.

However, the up-and-coming bloggers at LakeCountyEye uncovered yet another stealth candidate on the Dem side, a Highland Park Attorney named Elliot Richardson.

Richardson's website can be found here, and it appears he launched his campaign back in March. However, I never heard of this guy, and was unable to find any mainstream media coverage of his candidacy. Maybe this plug will help the poor guy. Daily Herald, you guys listening? It'll be something to write about until Kirk's announcement, maybe.

You can also see Richardson's LinkedIn page. I have to say, at least he has some community involvement to his credit and apparently actually resides in the 10th District. Thus, he's already got a couple legs up on Seals as far as TA is concerned, and Bond as well, for that matter (at least on the residency issue). Neither Seals nor Richardson has ever been elected to anything, though, so they are even on that score.

It's a bit troubling (or perhaps simply sad) that this guy has announced for Congress and no one knows about it, so we can't count him as a serious contender, yet. After all, anyone can form a committee and put up a website. It remains to be seen if he can get his signatures to get on the primary ballot, and considering the rest of the already-announced field, we have to place Richardson as the 4th in a four-horse race right now.

State Senator Michael Bond the Latest Contender for Mark Kirk's Not-Yet-Vacated Congressional Seat? (UPDATED)

As we have been reporting, the 10th District Congressional race in Illinois is already turning into a free-for-all, especially on the Dem side. Former two-time loser Dan Seals and current State Senator Susan Garrett have indicated their brave intentions to run for the seat, but only if incumbent senator Mark Kirk decides to run for either U.S. Senate or Governor. Kirk has stated that he will announce his intentions by the end of the month, but TA's ad-hoc Kirk Campaign Advisory Committee seemed to, on balance, recommend staying put in the 10th.

Now, Senator Terry Link's "mini-me," State Senator Michael Bond, is apparently gearing up for a run, as reported by Roll Call. I was just commenting to someone the other day when I had heard this news on the street that if Bond was smart, he would announce quickly before Kirk made his choice that he (Bond) was going to run regardless of what Kirk did. That would allow Bond to steal just a little of Kirk's thunder, but more importantly, would get him momentum among Dem primary voters and allow him to claim that he is the one Dem with some testicular virility, considering that bravehearts Garrett and Seals have indicated they are interested ONLY if they do not have to face the fearsome and unbeatable Mark Kirk (say, wasn't it only last cycle that the Obama wave was going to sweep Kirk out of office? What a difference a few months make...). I doubt the person I made the comment to ran to tell Bond, so apparently he figured this out for himself, and is setting up a campaign team; I would expect an official announcement soon after some of the press builds.

So, what about Bond? For those of you who don't know him, he is an ambitious little climber, who squeaked into office by coercing an endorsement from long-time Senator Adeline Geo-Karis at the twilight of her career, after she had lost a primary race to Bond's opponent, Sue Simpson. Bond has quickly tried to get his fingers into all sorts of local races in Lake County to build up a political army, kind of like his mentor Terry Link's 10-year plan on steroids. He has had varying degrees of success, and TA hears the word among the Dems is that Bond is a bully and mean-spirited even among his "own" people. Like Link, like Bond, apparently.

If Bond runs, regardless of his opponent, Illinois voters will be reminded that both Link and Bond are part of the Tribune's "Blagojevich 26," the group of state senators that voted to block a recall provision months before Blago's indictment and appointment of now-U.S. Senator Roland Burris. TA also hears that Bond's donor list will reveal some very interesting ties and contributions, so this could be quite a festival.

Terry Link, who is also Lake County Democratic chairman, has not been as effective a leader as he has been for years, being tainted by the Blago debacle and most recently losing a prime ally in Waukegan Mayor Dick Hyde. Looks like that Waukegan riverboat may not happen on Terry's watch after all.

But, I digress. I believe Bond is up for re-election in 2010 and will have to give up his senate seat to run for Congress. That will set off a feeding frenzy on the Republican side for Bond's seat, with names like Lake County GOP chair and Lake Villa Supervisor Dan Venturi, State Representative JoAnn Osmond, and County Board Chairwoman Suzi Schmidt all being mentioned on the street from time to time.

UPDATED 04/24/09: The Daily Herald has an article today, which I would have expected, but not much new information--unless you count the implicit confirmation by Bond that he is in fact running. Where's the press release/conference/fundraiser, Einstein?

The article does not address whether Garrett might change her mind about running only if Kirk does not, now that Bond has thrown in. The funny part is, there is far less risk for Garrett to run than Bond, since her senate seat is not up in 2010. Maybe Garrett will run just to annoy Bond, for whom she has no love lost, TA understands. Where will LBG of the 10th Dems go? She has already made some nice statements about Garrett, but her heart previously belonged to Seals. And she probably thinks Bond is cute in a munchkin sort of way.

No Coin Toss in Mettawa Mayor's Race; 12-year Incumbent Barry MacLean Apparently Ousted (UPDATED)

Well, I just got back from attending the counting of the late-arriving absentee ballots at Lake County Clerk Willard Helander's office. In the much-anticipated count for Mettawa Mayor, which was tied after election day, challenger Jess Ray got three votes of three ballots that were counted (several more were received but were rejected by the election judges for various defects), and none for incumbent Barry MacLean. So, the unofficial totals for mayor are Jess Ray- 146, Barry MacLean- 143. That means no coin toss after all, although Willard was ready with a shiny new coin, just in case. Here's a pic of the votes being read off the tape.


The results are expected to be certified tomorrow. No word yet on any challenges or recount demands, etc.


The other very interesting aspect is that Mr. Ray sued the Village over its plan to develop a Costco at the southwest corner of I-294 and Route 60. If Mr. Ray is confirmed as the winner, he may well be in the unusual (if not unprecedented, at least in Lake County) of a sitting mayor suing his own village. Ironically, the Ray lawsuit was up in Lake County court this morning on the Village's latest motion to dismiss, at the same time while the mayoral votes were being counted downstairs in the clerk's office. The late word is that two counts of the lawsuit were dismissed by the judge, and three survived the motion to dismiss. So, this could be very interesting.

This could turn out to have plenty of twists down the road as the new Mayor tries to play his various cards to thwart the Costco project. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The Daily Herald has expanded its article that was posted earlier today, here.

Lake County Election Scandals Continue

The Daily Herald reports yet another Lake County election scandal:

A Chicago woman filed at least 10 fake voter registration cards in Lake County before last fall's election, prosecutors said Monday.

Jeannette Sims, 46, of the 700 block of North Ridgeway Avenue, is charged with mutilation of election materials and faces up to three years in prison.

Sims was working with a voter-registration drive sponsored by the Service Employees International Union when she submitted the falsified cards, said Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop.

Read the whole article here.

More:

In the weeks leading up to the election, more than 1,000 suspicious cards had been discovered by employees of the Lake County Clerk's office, which oversees elections and checks such documents for validity. Some were submitted with Lake County addresses that didn't exist, while others were for people who didn't live at the addresses given, County Clerk Willard Helander announced in mid-October.

The discovery prompted a criminal investigation by the county sheriff's office and the state's attorney's office, which found suspicious cards submitted by Sims, Bishop said. Handwriting samples and 10 of those cards were sent to a handwriting expert for analysis in late October, Waller said. After the Nov. 4 election, the expert determined all 10 had been filled out by Sims, and had fake addresses listed, prosecutors said.

Hmm, does anyone notice a pattern here? From Senator Terry Link's and would-be Antioch Township assessor Eugene Kryczka's petition scandals down to fraudulent voter registrations, something must be done to address the apparently systemic voter disenfranchisement issues that are being perpetuated in this county.

Is it fair to blame this all on the Democratic party? Traditionally, Dems must register more voters every cycle just to keep up with the GOP, as voters who tend Democratic also tend to be more transient, which means that the Dems loose more voters and must re-register people as they move. Couple that with now-President Obama's big campaign push to register literally millions of people that had never voted before, and it's no surprise that some people try to cut corners to meet registration goals.

It's all great to get everyone who is eligible to vote involved in the electoral process, but when you have to lie about it, it's the candidates who end up suffering--that is, when the fraud is discovered in time, which it often is not. If not, then it's you the voter who suffers--as a fradulent vote or petition signature often means that your legal vote is nullfied.

Kudos to the fantastic Lake County Clerk Willard Helander and her office for figuring out this scam and reporting it to the State's Attorney's office.

Join TA's Kirk Campaign Advisory Committee

Congressman Mark Kirk's self-imposed deadline to make a decision as to whether he will run for U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress (for a sixth term!) or Illinois Governor, is the end of the month.

So, while I'm sure that many people have weighed in with Congressman Kirk as to what he ought to do, here is your big chance at Team America to let Mark know what your advice is.

Which office offers Kirk the best opportunity to serve the people? Which poses the biggest challenge? Why?

Let's also try to avoid the obvious, folks. We all know that if Kirk runs state-wide, he will need a lot of money, no duh. But we can do better than that. For example, if Kirk doesn't run for Congress, is there enough time for him to build a state-wide organization, especially if there is a contested GOP primary in which the state GOP apparatus will not officially take a position (so I understand). Given Kirk's more moderate stance on social issues, will the hard-core right-wingers support him in a primary?

If you were advising Kirk, what would you tell him? And, if you say that this is silly and Kirk must have made up his mind by now, I would not be so sure. This will probably be the toughest decision of his political career. Over to you, folks.