SOMTHING'S GOING ON HERE AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS, DO YOU, MR. JONES
Looking for interesting, even startling, trends in McHenry County politics? Try this one on for size.
With a hot and bloody race for State’s Attorney and a multiple candidate contest for the honor of loosing to Melissa Bean in the 8th Congressional District, you would think early and absentee voting turn-out for the Republicans would be big.
On the Democratic side there is a lot of interest in the Presidential race, but Illinois favorite son Barack Obama is considered a prohibitive favorite here making the contest less interesting in some eyes. And in McHenry County there are only contested races in the 8th Congressional (which Bean is not sweating,) County Board District 6, and for two Precinct Representative slots (including this scribe’s Nunda 5 post.)
As of Wednesday evening, after three days of early voting, Democratic Party Vice Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt relayed the following numbers from the County Clerk’s office:
Democratic Ballots: 691
Repubican Ballots: 663
Green Ballots: 4
Non Partisan (Referenda only) 3
And these numbers are not a one day fluke. Daily tracking reveals that Democrats were virtually even from the beginning before pulling ahead.
The winds of change are blowing through McHenry County.