Safety in Numbers

Fresh back from vacationing in the Hamptons, your LakeCountyEye has been attempting to catch up on current events.

The News-Sun last week was all over the Dick Keller kerfuffle:

Lake County Republican Chairman Dan Venturi of Lake Villa said the situation "is not being driven by politics," adding that "from a party standpoint, I can tell you that we haven't been involved in it at all. "We're about as far out of the political cycle as you can possibly be. If this had come out last October, I can see people saying that, but it's three years until the next election," Venturi said.

Your LakeCountyEye is no math major, but isn't the next election in 2010? One year (and change) until the next election? Certainly Keller would have been slated for re-election in 2012, but he declared last month that he's not running again.

2012 looks to be a big presidential election. And 2012 is the year of redistricting. But call your LakeCountyEye sentimental, the 2010 election ought to count for something. The Lake County Republicans seem to think so, according to the News-Sun they're already campaigning for 2010. The County-wide quadrille of Helander, Skidmore, Curran & Wood are running collectively as the Republican Leadership Team. (Your LakeCountyEye hopes not a ton of money was spent on that particular nom de plume.)

It's possible Venturi is locked in like a laser guided missile on the 2012 election. And oblivious that four of his top candidates are running as a team in 2010. Does that mean there is no plan in the works to run his people against a party of corruption in 2010 -- against the party of Blagojevich and Burris and Keller? And there really is nothing political lurking behind the Keller kerfuffle?

If that's so your LakeCountyEye is on record saying Dan Venturi has missed a bet.