You Like Donald Regan I Like Ronald Reagan

If Illinois's newly drawn Congressional Districts were the Normandy Invasion of 1944, then the 6th Congressional District establishes a beachhead in Cuba & Ela Townships for the eventual overthrow of Lake County. Haha, even though the Congressional remap does not go into effect before 2013, Peter Roskam, the Sixth District Rep from Wheaton, is already sending fundraising mail to these Lake County addresses. Your LakeCountyEye has seen a copy, and reproduces some of it:

In his letter, Roskam declares himself ...

a Ronald Regan conservative through and through

Which is a pretty gutsy claim, in your LakeCountyEye's opinion, given that no one is exactly sure who Ronald Regan is.

Many Republican candidates make sure their public statements include a noun a verb and Ronald Reagan. So some operatives are of the opinion that Roskam is actually referring to the 40th President of the United States. But others think the reference may be to Donald Regan.

The lesser known Donald Regan was Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Treasury and later on, chief of staff. And a case could be made that of the two, Regan was the truer conservative. Ronald Reagan -- who's name sounds like Ray-Gun -- was a Hollywood Movie Star married to an actress who believed in astrology. While Donald Regan -- whose name sounds like Pea-Gun -- was a Wall Street insider, chairman & CEO of Merrill Lynch, and a one-percenter back when that one-percent was worth something.

It probably will never be known which of the two Peter Roskan thinks is the real conservative. But if the difference is between an actor who plays one on TV and a Wall Street Master of the Universe, the answer would seem obvious.

Uncandid Candidates?

Despite the Democratic Primary being postponed to a new date, TBD, there was enough interest to hold a Republican Illinois Primary last week. Not surprisingly, lots of Republicans were nominated, and -- as some operatives tell it -- to both sides of the ballot. Haha, it seems the most frequent and worst accusation hurled was that the opposing candidate wasn't a real member of the Party. If true, the 2012 Primary saw a record number of Republicans running as Democrats and vice versa. It also happens to be the worst accusation because it was not very effective: most of these so-called turncoat candidates won the Primary.

In their defense, there is a long-honored tradition in Illinois of candidates appearing on the ballot for the opposing party. A LaRouche Party member was nominated by the Democrats in 1986 to be their Lieutenant Governor candidate. To win anywhere in Chicago, a Republican has to run as a Democrat -- take Rahm Emanuel, for instance. Lake County has a long history of Democrats serving on the County Board as Republicans -- or running as Democrats and serving as Sheriff or Circuit Court Clerk as a Republican. And the phenomenon is not exclusive to Illinois -- Massachusetts liberal Mitt Romney is on the cusp of cinching the GOP nomination for President.

Interestingly, these stealth candidates do tend to outperform their more orthodox opponents at the polls. Your LakeCountyEye estimates that the majority of Illinois's elected officials are card carrying members of the other party. Anyone not shy about being caught tacking in the direction of the political winds probably already has a leg up on the opposition. Despite this track-record of electoral success, operatives -- a naturally suspicious bunch -- are reluctant to embrace a party-jumping candidate who happens to be nobody that nobody sent. And who's to blame them? As a service, your LakeCountyEye has identified ten telltale tells that a Democratic candidate may not have the ideological fire-in-the-belly of a Dennis Kucinich.

10 Indications that a Democrat on Your Ballot May Actually be a Republican

Wears a sweatervest. Prefers to call ObamaCare ObamaCare. Pays fewer taxes than Warren Buffet's dog. Thinks global warming is caused by all the holes in the Mexican border. Favors filling the Social Security trust-fund lockbox with spot gold contracts. Has formally declared war on women. Pet proposal for streamlining government: Edible Foodstamps Confessed that some of the nicest people to be met are corporations. Raps professionally under the stagename: 1% Milk God Guns Gays Nuff said!

Look for your LakeCountyEye on your ballot ... posing as a write-in candidate.

An Obama Obumpa?

Those pundits who say the varnish is off the Obama brand were proved wrong Tuesday night. At least in Illinois. The big election results are in from the big primary election and it wasn't even close. The opposition threw up not one, not two, not three, but four big candidates against President Obama. And not only did Obama get a plurality he got a majority. And not just any majority but a major majority:

Barack Obama 99% Mitt Romney 47% Rick Santorum 35% Ron Paul 9% Newt Gingrich 8%

That 52 point difference between Obama and Romney is not merely stupefying -- it is huge. To put it in perspective, in dog years a 52 point win is a 364 point win. No mean feat in your LakeCountyEye's opinion!

Despite the good night for the President, the Primary will probably be better remembered for its turnout. The 2012 Illinois Primary turnout was as puny in numbers as Obama's win was huge in numbers, if not more so. The primary turnout was so low that most polls have been kept open, 96 hours later -- and to no appreciable difference in election results. If you haven't voted yet, it's still not too late to sneak your ballot in.

Nonetheless the Obama bump remains real, seismic and epicentered in the 10th Congressional District, where readers of this blog are hotly aware ...

A Third Party Endorsement

One unnamed candidate easily won in a crowded field, solely on the basis of a district-wide mailer that showed a grainy B/W photo of Obama.

Note to operatives: the November election will be here sooner than you think. It's never too soon to start working on your very own Obama mailer. One photo of your candidate standing next to a cardboard cutout of Barack Obama is worth at least 10 sweatervests, in your LakeCountyEye's estimation -- and may well be the difference between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Special note to Romney ops: Obama stole Obamacare from your candidate. Turnabout is fair play. If you plan on delivering Illinois to Mr Romney on November 6 then you better to start cranking out your own Obama mailers tout suite!

Primary Indicators

The crucially big 2012 Illinois Primary election is tomorrow, so every year at this time your LakeCountyEye predicts the results in advance. This year being no different, here come your LakeCountyEye's predictions:

U.S. President

• Barack Obama
• Mitt Romney
• Ron Paul
• Newt Gingrich
• Rick Santorum

Barack Obama

Rep in Congress 10th

• Vivek Bavda
• Brad Schneider
• Ilya Sheyman
• John Tree
• Robert Dold

Too close to call!

Rep in Congress 14th

• Dennis Anderson
• Jonathan Farnick
• Randy Hultgren

Too close to call!

Committeeman Precinct 203

• Louis G. Atsaves

Louis G. Atsaves

There are other candidates on the ballot. But quite frankly your LakeCountyEye doesn't care about any of them and doubts if anyone else knows anything about any of them either. And in any event, your LakeCountyEye wouldn't even try to pretend to guess who is going to win somewhere like in the Lake County Clerk of the Circuit Court. Uh huh, as if.

Given a sufficient margin of error, all LakeCountyEye predictions are 100% accurate within the margin of error. No warranties expressed or implied. Predictions are posted on this blog so you don't have to put in long hours tomorrow, waiting for late returns. For that matter, you don't even have to vote tomorrow.

The Walsh St Crash of 2012?

Joe Walsh, the Lake County elected representative everyone loves to hate, now parks his campaign bus in Schaumburg, the epicenter of the new Eighth Congressional District. Operatives for the Walsh campaign need not fret over having their tires stolen, however, because the wheels may already have fallen off the campaign bus.

As readers of this blog are tiredly aware ...

Q the Eye/10.12.11

Walsh is being sued by his ex-wife, and your LakeCountyEye is on the record advising Walsh to settle up, and ASAP. Now the Chicago Tribune reports that Walsh has heeded that advice ...

Walsh, ex-wife still 'working toward a settlement'

Anyhow, one sure sign that a campaign is in trouble is when the candidate starts heeding your LakeCountyEye's advice.

Politico now reports that Walsh, the ...

potentially most vulnerable House Republican in the country -- raises just $38,300 during the first two months of the year, pre-primary Federal Election Commission reports show. A Democratic sources notes that number is barely enough to cover the $24,015 he still owes in legal fees.
Joe Walsh's cash drying up

Walsh, the Tea-Party candidate's Tea-Party candidate, may not be getting the support this time around from his Tea-Party rank-and-file. As readers of this blog are flatly aware ...

Where's Walsh?

Walsh appealed instead on March 13 to his wealthy backers in Barrington Hills. And he hosted another $500 minimum funder the next day at the Union League Club:

Congressman Walsh to Host Fundraising Reception

If this Union League invitation looks familiar to you, that may be because it passingly resembles that Barrington Hills invitation you got in the mail:

Any campaign that prints its invitations from reused PDFs may have a cash-flow problem. Just sayin!

The Route 53 Over-Extension

Operatives are urged to get their people to the polls so they can choose themselves a new power company. As readers of this blog are electronically aware ...

An Energized Electorate

With referenda on the ballot promising free electricity for all, your LakeCountyEye predicts a super monster turnout for the Primary Election on Tuesday. The last time Lake County saw this sort of super monster turnout at the polls, the voters overwhelmingly approved a 2009 referendum promising to build the Route 53 Extension for them, totally free of charge. Well the chickens have come home to roost all over the Route 53 Extension, metaphorically speaking, because it's time to pay the piper. According to the Daily Herald ...

If it wasn't tricky enough reaching consensus on extending Route 53 into Lake County, the group advising the Illinois tollway on the project received a supersized challenge Monday -- overcoming a possible shortfall of up to $2 billion. Tolls alone aren't enough to cover building the road, planners told members of the tollway's Illinois Route 53/120 Blue Ribbon Advisory Council. "It's a sobering situation," said council Co-Chairman George Ranney, who is president of the civic group Metropolis Strategies. To fill the gap, multiple options are on the table, including raising sales or gas taxes in Lake County, charging tolls on the existing Route 53, and dedicating some of the tax money from higher property values and new development to the project. Some participants also floated the idea of a systemwide toll increase.
Planners: Route 53 extension money is way short

Haha, politicians who were all gungho to fire up the backhoes, back then, are now backtracking. The Daily Herald observes ...

With those variables, Long Grove Village President Maria Rodriguez wondered "is it even worth continuing the conversation?"
Planners: Route 53 extension money is way short

Rodriguez is well known for flipflopping over Route 53 in 2009, when she unsuccessfully challenged Joe Walsh in the Eighth Congressional District. Your LakeCountyEye speculates that Rodriguez will tell her voters in the municipal election, next year, that she was against the Route 53 Extension before she was for it before she was against it.

Not for nothing is Lake County known for its can-do spirit. Your LakeCountyEye thinks our elected officials can-do better than run like scared little kittehs from some bad budget forecasts. There are other ways our leaders can pay for Lake County's long awaited super monster super-highway without having to raise taxes and then get booted out of office. At least ten of them, grasshoppers ...

Ten Painless Ways to Pay for the Route 53 Extension

Organize a Route 53 Extension Bake Sale. Throw an Old-Timers Charity Ballgame at Fielders Stadium. Borrow the Money from the Chinese. Host a Fort Sheridan Celebrity Pro/Am Golf Tournament. The commuters can pay for it: Put toll booths in all the Lake County roundabouts. Wait for the Route 53 Extension to be falsely arrested & wrongly convicted. Then sue Lake County for that big payday. The 3 Little Pigs Principle: Build the road with less expensive material -- Straw or Sticks, for example. Sell the naming rights: The Route 53 Extension, Brought to you by Glaxo, maker of Cialis Skim some more dough out of the Waukegan Casino. The Old Tried and True: The Check is in the Mail.

Take it from your LakeCountyEye: You can get your hilarity on Route 53.

An Energized Electorate

With the big election next Tuesday, Lake County voters are chomping at the bit to get to the polls and cast that deciding ballot on the one question that really matters to anyone, the electricity referendum. According to the Sun-Times ...

Thirty-one Lake County communities -- including Lake Forest and Lake Bluff -- will vote on electric aggregation referendums March 20 that for the first time will give residents and small business owners the right to shop for electricity in a free market, just as you do for groceries. "It's all about saving money on your electric bill," according to Grayslake Mayor Rhett Taylor whose village has already successfully implemented an electric aggregation program that is very popular cost-saver with local residents.
Voters to decide power suppliers

It goes without saying that any ballot referendum that promises something for nothing is going to draw voters to the polls like bugs to the zapper. Smart operativess will tailor their GOTV efforts accordingly. But smarter ops will recognize a big-buck opportunity waiting to be plucked, and its name is electricity. With all those voters primed to sign up for free electrical service, the climate is ripe for the fastbuck artist who can throw together a PDQ business plan for generating electricity. Here are 10 tips for creating that flybynight power company in anticipation of the goldrush:

Ten Sure-Fire Schemes to Sell Electricity in Lake County

Hook up that exercise bicycle to a generator. No exercise bike? Then invest in 500 hamsters & wheels from PetSmart. Tornado season means big bucks out of that backyard wind turbine. Connect your car battery to the grid. Call AAA for a jumpstart every day. Comb + Hair = Static Electricity 2 words: Potato Batteries That 3-prong socket on your neighbor's garage is a source of cheap renewable energy. The radio waves from your iPhone can be converted to AC. 1 word: Nuclear Run a 220 line into Wooster Lake. Stock Wooster Lake with electric eels.

Look for your LakeCountyEye, singing the body electoral.

Unqualified Endorsements

Those operatives putting in 18 hour days are reminded to set all their pre-4G wireless devices ahead one hour. (Unless they are supposed to be set back one hour in the Spring?) Your LakeCountyEye recalls there is an easy-to-remember Daylight Savings Time mnemonic ...

Before the Primary Election set your clocks ahead;
Before the General Election, set them back instead!

Haha, the 2012 Primary is just around the corner and after weeks of foot-dragging, desperate candidates are tripping over themselves with eleventh-hour gambits to get the leg-up on their opponents. Back in 2008, Barack Obama ran his first successful presidential campaign. And every Lake County candidate who had a photograph with (then Senator) Obama was going to win on the basis of that photo plus a last-minute mailer. Your LakeCountyEye recalls more than one candidate, with Obama envy, who produced an appropriate image with the help of Photoshop. And those were the Republican candidates ... rimshot!

Well things were done old-school, back in the day. As readers of this blog are dubiously aware ...

A Third Party Endorsement

Nowadays Lake County candidates cut out the middleman and just send out mailers with a cut-and-paste photo of Obama next to theirs. And, wawa haha, their opponents are crying foul. If your opponent has got that implied-Obama endorsement all sewed up, don't get mad, get even. Your LakeCountyEye advises any operative in this situation to double down and raise the stakes. It's no secret that the varnish is off the Obama brand -- there are better endorsements to be had than Obama's. Ten, and counting ...

Ten Fake Endorsements to be Preferred Over a Fake Obama Endorsement

Michelle Obama Rachael Ray Donald Trump Mike Ditka Oprah Taylor Swift Samuel Adams The Progressive Insurance Girl Justin Bieber God

Look for your LakeCountyEye, endorsing your candidate, TBD.

A Third Party Endorsement

It ordinarily takes a lot to interrupt your LakeCountyEye's dogmatic slumbers -- especially with daylight savings time kicking in at 2AM tonight. So naturally your LakeCountyEye ignored some irrelevant political noise recently produced by the Rockefeller Republicans over at TeamAmerica10th:

If you are a Democrat, an Obama endorsement is often seen as the Golden Ticket to a win, and people go to sometimes desperate lengths to get it... or at least appear like they have gotten it. IL-10 hopeful Brad Schneider may well have crossed the line, however, in sending out a mailer that prominently displays the picture of the President in the company of other endorsers, such as former Congresswoman Melissa Bean, the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald. Schneider got called out on this by front-running opponent Ilya Sheyman (who recently won a huge victory (73%) in the 10th Dems straw poll this past weekend), and the story has attracted the attention of Huffington Post and Politico.
IL-10: Brad Schneider Taking Heat for Too-Close-For-Comfort Suggestion of Obama Endorsement

It goes without saying that if HuffPo has covered something in Lake County, can the Daily Herald be far behind?

The piece doesn't sit well with fellow Democratic candidates John Tree, Ilya Sheyman and Vivek Bavda. Tree called Schneider's use of Obama's image on the flier "deplorable." "This blatant attempt by Brad to inflate his own campaign with misleading and patently false associations should be called out for the shameful act that it was," Tree said in an email.
10th District Democrat criticized for using Obama image on flier

Now, your LakeCountyEye may be just a simple country blogger, but even your LakeCountyEye knows that these political mailers that choke-spam the US mailboxes during elections do little more than annoy voters and get directly consigned to their dustbins.

So, if your LakeCountyEye was advising Brad Schneider, Schneider's ops are advised to send some nice thankyou notes to TeamAmerica10th and Huffington Post and Politico and the Daily Herald for all the free earned media. And send some nice contribution checks to Ilya Sheyman and John Tree and Vivek Bavda for their help in reaping all of that earned media from some crappy campaign mailer they doubtless spent too much money on.

It also never hurts to send a nice contribution check to your LakeCountyEye.

Congression Analysis

If the Electoral College was the Kemper Open then the state of Illinois must've chipped the ball into the water -- because Illinois is being penalized one Congressional District. Haha, 2012 will be the year that the amount of Illinois congressional districts is whittled down to 18. On the plus side, because of a not-well understood clause in the Constitution, Lake County is being awarded that Congressional District. An increase from 2 to 3 will give Lake County more congressional districts than 12 other states, plus the District of Columbia:

US Congressional Districts

Haha, Rhode Island, in your face.

As a consequence of the deal, Illinois's Congressman who everyone loves to hate -- Joe Walsh -- is being sent down to Schaumburg from Lake County and will be replaced by two minor league players. Despite repeated efforts by your LakeCountyEye, the names of the three congressmen who represent Lake County are not known.

Operatives can find out who their congressmen are by asking for a Republican ballot on the March 20 Illinois Primary Election and looking for the name of the Republican Congressional candidate. The title bout that day will be the hotly anticipated steel cage deathmatch between Willard "Mitt" Romney and Willard "Rick" Santorum. Although it is very likely that most LakeCountyEye operatives will be casting a ballot for Ron Paul, who favors legalizing marijuana.

Despite the fact there is a full roster of Democratic candidates, no Democrats are expected to vote in the Illinois Primary. The few Democrats that do, by accident, find themselves at the polls on March 20 are projected to cast their ballots for Ron Paul. Who favors legalizing marijuana. All of which means this represents a pick-up opportunity to those operatives working for a Democratic candidate. Because of the anticipated record-low Democratic turnout, ops who get enough of their "cousins" and other relatives to the polls on election day are in a position to turn their dark-horse loser of a candidate into an election-day headline. It's happened before, it can happen again.

Cancer Risk Assessment and Prevention with Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade

The Stevenson Center will host a program on Cancer Risk Assessment and Prevention:

Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy

Cancer Risk Assessment and Prevention with Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade

Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade will speak on Integrating Women's Health In the Global Development Agenda. Dr. Olopade is the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Global Health at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Dr. Olopade's research has focused on understanding familial forms of cancer. As a physician and scientist, Dr. Olopade works to translate scientific discoveries and cancer risk assessment into optimal interventions for women at risk of breast cancer. A global leader in academic medicine, Dr. Olopade has received numerous honors and awards, including the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award for "bridging continents with her innovative research and service models."

• Sunday
  March 11, 2012
  2 PM
• The Stevenson Center on Democracy
  25200 N St Mary's Rd
  Mettawa (Libertyville), IL 60048
  847-816-7433
• $15
• Coffee and conversation following

Where's Walsh?

Eighth District Congressman Joe Walsh must relish opportunities to speak ex cathedra. As readers of this blog are uncontrollably aware ...

Contrabanned Contraception?

Walsh was last observed instructing all the ladies to surrender their birth control devices. But ever since that bit of papery japery, Walsh has maintained an uncharacteristic low profile.

Where's Walsh? Although his new district is Schaumburg, Walsh, according to his website, will be campaigning in Barrington Hills:

Congressman Walsh to Host Fundraiser
with Congressman Peter Roskam

Operatives who plan to attend Walsh's all-star funder at the Tudor Oaks Farm may want to think twice. That $500 minimum is a lot of money -- even to a Tea-Party pensioner -- and all it buys you is a bleacher seat. In fact there are a lot of other things that one could do with $500. Ten of them, by your LakeCountyEye's count:

Ten Things that $500 Buys in Lake County

500 MEGA Millions® Tickets Enough Gasoline for a Spin Through a Lake County Roundabout Foursome & Decent Tee-Time at the Fort Sheridan Golf Course 25 Cartons of Tax-Free, Roll Your Own, Cigarettes A Burger at the Route 53 Extension Oasis The Skybox -- Opening Day -- Fielders Stadium Five Santorum® Sweater Vests 666 2/3 Condoms Spa, Champagne Bath & Caviar Facial at the Proposed Dimucci Mall One Congressman

But look for your LakeCountyEye at Tudor Oaks Farm, working the stallions.

Potential Developments

Ha ha, the Lake County County Board is doubling down. As readers of this blog are nervously aware ...

Taste of Cicero

The skids to a super secret deal to build a super duper shopping mall are getting some grease from one Lake County Commissioner. The Dimucci family is asking the Lake County Board to OK their proposal to re-zone a 109 acre parcel of land north of Lake Zurich for an unspecified 800,000 square ft retail/commercial project. And it's already sounding like a done deal. According to the Daily Herald

Lake County District 17 Board Member Stevenson Mountsier, whose district includes the property, said he supports the plan and intends to solicit support from his fellow board members before he leaves office at the end of the year.
North Barrington, BACOG oppose mall plan

The super shadowy Lake County Regional Planning Commission is obligated to go through the motions of publicly vetting these sort of proposals before a presumably apathetic public. One such meeting, held last month, had to be cancelled because everyone who showed up couldn't fit into the room booked by the Regional Planning Commission.

Presumably someone got spooked by all this, and now three more meetings are scheduled ...

Concorde Banquets
20922 N Rand Road
Kildeer

Saturday, March 3
9 am – 12 pm

Wednesday, March 21
5 – 8 pm

Tuesday, March 27
5 – 8 pm

Update on Dimucci Family Property
(Southeast corner of Route 12 and Old McHenry Road)

Sunshine is the best disinfectant.