Again this year, I will be running for Party Treasurer and ask for your support and vote at the convention.  Individuals interested in running for party office or have any questions about this year’s convention should contact the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee at (815) 788-9540.  Of if you prefer, you can drop me a note at tom@citizensforcynor.com .  See you in Woodstock on March 3, 2010. 

Maybe the McHenry County Board should re-think the idea of creating a new county seal – apparently, they can be trouble come election time.

You can find the present county seal, which is the state seal with the county’s name and June 1837 incorporation wrapped around it, on the campaign literature of several Republican board incumbents. It made a brief appearance on Democratic state’s attorney candidate Tom Cynor’s campaign Web site as well, until County Board Chairman Ken Koehler told him that doing so violated the county’s ethics ordinance.

County Democratic Vice Chairman Sam Melei called it a double-standard that incumbent Republicans such as John Hammerand, Nick Provenzano and Marc Munaretto are using the seal on their mailings, but Cynor, a county employee, cannot post it on his campaign site.

“Either it does violate the ethics ordinance, and among the violators is a key proponent of the ethics ordinance, or it’s not a violation of the ethics ordinance and you have Chairman Koehler playing political games at taxpayer expense,” Melei said.

County elected officials and employees are bound by the county’s 2004 ethics ordinance. In his May 2008 letter to Cynor, Koehler cited the provision forbidding use of county property in connection with prohibited political activities. Koehler said on Tuesday that he understood the rule would not apply to incumbent officials using the seal, and deferred comment to First Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Carroll.

But Carroll, who also serves as the county ethics adviser, said that if the county seal is defined as property, the ordinance as written forbids both employees and elected officials from using it for political ends.

“Honestly, I think it would apply in the same way,” Carroll said. “I think the better course of practice should be that no one should be using the county seal for campaign or political purposes.”

Carroll said that he in no way is suggesting that any candidates using the seal are being dishonest, and said he could see how incumbents would not consider the seal county property. Koehler copied his letter to Cynor to the board’s 24 members.

Provenzano, R-McHenry, said his mailer in question was the last 500 copies left over from the last election cycle. The 12,000 brochures he printed last month did not have the seal on them, in part because of the letter to Cynor. Provenzano said it was explained to him that he could use it as an elected official, but that a county employee such as Cynor could not.

Hammerand, who used the seal on a fund-raising reception invitation, called the idea that incumbent candidates could not use the seal on political mailers “a lot of baloney.”

“Would I get a call from the FBI if I used the American flag, the symbol of the United States?” asked Hammerand, R-Wonder Lake. “I don’t think so.”

Hammerand said the county should be more concerned about real issues such as whether board candidates are appropriately listing their property assets that may fall under county zoning than whether anyone reproduces a seal.

Carroll said his office cannot take any action, such as a letter to candidates, without receiving a complaint. Melei said he doubted that the party would file one, but instead decided to come forward with the problem.

Cynor said late Tuesday that his party had more important issues at hand with less than two weeks before the election, but he called the differences in enforcement unfortunate.

“If they’re going to look at this ethics ordinance as something to be proud of, maybe they should consider enforcing it,” Cynor said.

However, despite notice from Mr. Koehler that use of the County Seal for “political purposes” violates the Ethics Ordinance, County Board Members John Hammerand (R-D4), Mark Munaretto (R-D1), and Nick Provenzano (R-D3) are each currently distributing campaign materials displaying the County Seal.

“The same letter which was forwarded to our attention regarding Chairman Koehler’s position on the Ethics Ordinance was forwarded to all County Board members, including these gentlemen,” noted McHenry County Democratic Chair Kathleen Bergan Schmidt. “Apparently Mr. Koehler is not interested in enforcing the Ethics Ordinance when it involves his own endorsed candidates.”

Bergan Schmidt noted that Provenzano, in particular, has taken public credit for support and passage of the Ethics Ordinance.

Vice Chair Sam Melei said that, “although we took issue with Mr. Koehler’s legal interpretation of the Ethics Ordinance in regard to use of the Seal, his current selective enforcement is hypocritical and self-serving.” He said that Koehler “flat out threatened” the Democratic candidate with one year of jail time if he continued to use the seal. “Mr. Koehler acts as if there are two different sets of rules, one for candidates he endorses and one that everybody else is to live by.”

“This abuse of authority clearly underlines the need for new leadership at the county level,” Melei said, “leadership committed to the fair application of law and to equity and justice for all residents, not a favored inner circle.”

All three Republican County Board members, each a candidate for re-election, continue to circulate campaign literature prominently featuring the County Seal.

Tom Cynor spent $2,000 on a vandalized political sign.

It’s more than just a sign to him, though, it’s a “campaign artifact.” Three times an Obama sign was placed in front a rural McHenry County home, and each time it was defaced.

“The second time, they defaced it with spray paint and actually broke into his home,” said Cynor, the Democratic candidate for McHenry County state’s attorney. “What he decided to do was give the sign to the local party, and we had it framed and auctioned off at a rally on Wednesday.”

Throughout the county, political signs are being destroyed, vandalized or stolen, and it appears to be happening more as Election Day approaches.

“Within just the last two weeks, I’m sitting on 20 to 30 e-mails from people saying their signs have been removed from their yard,” Cynor said. “But those are just people who have written. I can assure you the number is much higher than that.”

It’s not just happening to Democrats.

John McCrory is a McCain delegate and works for the campaign as a county coordinator, including making sign purchase orders.

He said the campaign has names and addresses of about 50 people who have come back to the office to say their signs have been stolen from their yards.

On Thursday morning, when a Lakewood woman went out to get her newspaper, her McCain sign was still in her front yard. Two hours later, it was gone, and an Obama sign was in her neighbor’s yard, McCrory said.

Another person involved in the McCain campaign works for Waste Management. A garbage truck came in to drop off a load Thursday, and he counted 23 Republican signs in just that load, McCrory said.

But are the sign stealers really going to make a difference and sway voters to their side? McCrory thinks so.

It’s a sort of “sign theory,” he said.

“Most of the guys who have been in politics for a while swear by it,” McCrory said. “If all of a sudden there were no Republican but all Democratic signs, there could be a sign effect.”

Cynor said sign stealing happens in every election, but it has been more prevalent this year.

“I think a lot of it is just flat-out interest as well as people who have a lot of emotions and energy involved,” he said. “One of the things they do is lash out at the symbol of the campaign, which is the signs.”

There also is a significant financial investment in the signs, McCrory said. His campaign has spent more than $7,000 on political signs, he said.

McCrory believes there might be some organized effort in stealing or vandalizing the signs, but Cynor believes that it has been done on a more individual level.

“They’re rogue people out there for one reason or another,” Cynor said. “It’s counterproductive.”

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said a handful of reports are filed each year in connection with people tampering with the signs.

“You run the risk if you do steal them of being charged with a crime,” Nygren said.

He said a few people who have been arrested in the past simply didn’t like the way the signs looked on the side of the road.

“This guy was just sick and tired of the clutter and was taking the signs down,” Nygren said.

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“It is a symbol of the ugly turn the campaign has taken as it becomes apparent that change is coming,” Cynor said. “I treasure it as a reminder of our fight to overcome fear and hatred.”

The sign was one of three defaced at the same rural McHenry County home. The sign host’s home was also broken into and vandalized. The donor, the target of harassment, decided to anonymously donate the sign to the party as fund raiser.

Cynor has a particular interest in yard signs. His campaign bought 500 Obama signs and placed them around the county via an on-line registration hosted by his campaign web site, www.citizensforcynor.com. Volunteers hand delivered the signs, and signs for local Democratic Party candidates directly to the yards of those requesting them.

Nearly a half of all the Obama sign placements have been destroyed, vandalized, or stolen according to reports to Cynor’s campaign.

The auction was part of a pre-presidential debate rally featuring local candidates held at the Stage Left Café in Woodstock. 16th Congressional District Candidate Robert Abboud and State Representative Jack Franks; Cynor and Auditor Candidate Kerry Julian; and a parade of County Board candidates addressed a standing room only crowd.

The Presidential debates on a wide screen television capped the evening.

Democrats seek to unseat Republican incumbents in Lake, McHenry Counties

By Susan Kuczka and Carolyn Starks | Chicago Tribune reporters
October 16, 2008

The top prosecutors in Lake and McHenry Counties face November election challengers who are upset with the status quo for very different reasons.

In Lake County, Democrat Michael Jacobs is making his second straight run at Republican State’s Atty. Michael Waller, claiming the 18-year incumbent hasn’t done enough to protect the public from sexual predators.

In McHenry County, Thomas Cynor, also a Democrat, claims Republican State’s Atty. Louis Bianchi has done too much when it comes to personnel issues.

“In the 31/2 years since Bianchi was elected, there has been a calculated 138 percent turnover rate,” Cynor said. “Lou has the right to bring in a new administrative staff . . . but there’s been a continuous revolving door since that time.”

Bianchi, who is completing his first four-year term, praised his staff as award-winning, experienced trial attorneys.

Of the four attorneys in McHenry County certified to be lead counsel in capital cases, three are on the state’s attorney’s staff, Bianchi said. Two of his assistants teach other prosecutors across the state.

“That’s the kind of quality people we have here,” Bianchi said. “I was elected to make change in the office, and with that goes turnover.”

Change is exactly what Jacobs said he’d like to see in the Lake County state’s attorney’s office.

“I think it’s time for a change,” said Jacobs, who got 45 percent of the vote in 2006. “I think 18 years in office is long enough for any one person.”

Waller disagreed.

“I’ve accomplished a lot, but there’s still things I want to do,” he said. “I love the job.”

Waller, 60, said he’s particularly proud of his creation of a “cyber crime” unit that focuses on identity theft and sexual predator crimes, especially against children.

It’s Waller’s prosecution of child sex offenders that has been less than stellar, according to Jacobs, who said a solution would be to better train prosecutors.

Jacobs, 47, an assistant in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office the past two decades, said he has spent most of his career defending county employees against a variety of claims, including sexual harassment.

What Jacobs doesn’t have, according to Waller, is the type of management experience that would prepare him to oversee a 135-employee office with a $14 million annual budget.

“You have to have experience and expertise in management to run this office,” Waller said.

Jacobs countered that his experience overseeing thousands of youths while serving as president and board member of the Gurnee Youth Baseball league, and his work as president of the Lake Prairie Adventures Guide, should suffice. He also serves on the Gurnee Village Board.

In seeking the McHenry County post, Cynor, 40, also cites his professional background, including trial experience as a private lawyer and public defender. He is the research attorney for the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court.

Like Waller, Bianchi, 65, is running on his record. Before running for the prosecutor’s job in 2004, he served as an assistant in the office from 1968 to 1974 and later practiced in both criminal and civil courts.

skuczka@tribune.com

cstarks@tribune.com

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Representative Jack Franks opened the evening with an acknowledgement that Obama had energized the electorate and helped transform the political landscape of McHenry County. He called on the audience to take that energy and apply it to candidates all down the ticket on the local level.

Robert Kaempfe, candidate for the General Assembly from the 64th District pledged to “lead by example” on issues like energy independence. Pointing to the incumbent state’s attorney’s billing of personal expenses to tax payers Auditor candidate Kerry Jullian and State’s Attorney candidate Thomas Cynor each attacked the culture of arrogance and entitlement of entrenched Republican leadership. They pledged fiscal responsibility, transparency and integrity in office.

Candidates for County Board paraded to the microphone to call for diversity of opinion on the Board. James McTague (D-1), Jill Mawhinney and Anita Harmon (D-2), Kathy Bergan Schmidt (D-3), Paula Yensen (D-5), and Bob Ludwig (D-6) hammered away on issues of accountability to tax payers, land use planning, groundwater preservation, and better government.

Meg Murray Bradshaw of Northwest Suburbs of Chicago for Obama called for volunteers to phone bank and travel to battleground states for Obama. Several attendees signed up for trips to Wisconsin.

16th Congressional District Candidate Robert Abboud arrived from a Rockford newspaper endorsement interview just in time to fire up the crowd with an impassioned call to arms. He said that the magnitude of the country’s problems in the face of the current economic emergency truly made this “the most critical election of our lifetimes.” Change, he said, must be secured from the “top of the ticket down t o the most local race.” Abboud told his cheering listeners to each find “at least 16 Republicans or uncommitted independents” and convince them to vote for that change.

A highlight of the rally was a special auction. Noting the ugly turn of the campaign as John McCain’s fortunes have waned, Cynor, who has coordinated the Democratic Party’s yard sign operation, noted that many of the more than 500 Obama campaign signs placed in the county have been stolen or vandalized. In one case, signs were vandalized three times and the home of the sign host was broken into and defaced. One of those vandalized signs was framed and put up for auction “to show that we cannot be intimidated.” The spirited auction ran up the price to $2,000 and was won by Cynor himself. Proceeds will go to supporting local Democratic candidates.

The crowd stayed to watch the Presidential debate on a big screen TV. They cheered Obama when he landed telling points and hooted at McCain’s perceived misstatements and attacks on Obama.

Members of the crowd departed with unabashed enthusiasm taking with them buttons, bumper stickers, yard signs and a renewed commitment.

Stung by criticism his office received earlier this year from law enforcement groups and even a former supporter, Sheriff Keith Nygren, McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi launched an effort this spring to rebuild relationships with local police.

He and his assistants offered legal seminars to police officers, made appearances at their daily roll call meetings and even rode along with patrol officers for eight-hour shifts.

The experience, Bianchi said, has brought an overwhelmingly positive response from law enforcement.

“We’ve worked very hard on improving relationships with the police,” the Republican from Crystal Lake said.

But according to Bianchi’s opponent in next month’s election, those efforts have gone mostly to waste because they do not address what he calls the core problem: the high rate of attorney turnover that plagued the first few years of Bianchi’s administration.

That turnover, Woodstock Democrat Thomas Cynor said, cost the office institutional knowledge of local police forces, souring many officers on the office.

“It’s not an issue of personality or professionalism,” he said. “As best as I can tell the breakdown comes from the lack of consistency between the people in the office and law enforcement.”

Bianchi’s relationship with police was one of several points of contention that arose this week when Bianchi, a first-term incumbent, and Cynor, a Democrat from Woodstock, appeared before the Daily Herald editorial board.

The candidates traded barbs over one another’s integrity and experience, with Bianchi at one point suggesting that Cynor’s job as research attorney for the county’s 22nd Judicial Circuit was not part of “the real world.”

“He’s a law clerk,” Bianchi, 65, said. “I don’t think he has the experience. I don’t think he understands this community.”

Cynor, 40, called Bianchi’s remarks about his job “bizarre,” saying it, along with 16 years of experience as a corporate lawyer, public defender and special prosecutor have prepared him from the job as state’s attorney.

While Cynor defended his experience, Bianchi faced more attacks over his office’s spending of about $17,000 since 2004 on food, candy, gift certificates and other items.

Bianchi said he made mistakes in how he processed the spending, but stood by the expenses, noting that the Illinois Attorney General declined to pursue a complaint against his office.

“I do not believe, and I never believed, they were inappropriate,” he said.

Cynor said the expenses were “highly questionable” and renewed his call for Bianchi to reimburse the expenses.

“It’s not the $17,000 that is at issue,” he said. “What is at issue is the integrity of the office.”

Click to watch video of the candidates
Incumbent State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi said he’s made strides to improve relations with law enforcement since area police unions and Sheriff Keith Nygren supported his opponent in the primary.

But the Republican’s Democratic challenger, Tom Cynor, said it was too little, too late, arguing that the problem stemmed from high turnover in Bianchi’s office.

“The problem is not one of personality. It’s not one of professionalism,” Cynor said in an interview Thursday with the Northwest Herald editorial board. “It’s the fact that every time an officer needs assistance, it’s a new person in the office.”

Bianchi, 65, said he believed that most police officers supported him in the primary race, but his office has taken steps to improve communication. He also disputed Cynor’s assertion that his office has a “revolving door.”

This year, Bianchi’s personnel have hosted 12 seminars for police officers and attended 24 roll-calls at area police stations. Bianchi also hosted a mock domestic-violence trial to illustrate challenges they often face and have encouraged prosecutors to ride along with police officers.

“We work jointly together to prosecute better,” Bianchi said.

But Cynor said the officers he had talked with were frustrated that new prosecutors seemed to be handling cases each time they called Bianchi’s office with questions. He has suggested routing all calls from police to the lead criminal prosecutor, which Bianchi said was impractical.

Instead, Bianchi has three lawyers on call around the clock, one of whom has been with the office since the previous administration, to answer questions. He said department leaders also have contact information for upper management and personnel specializing in juvenile delinquency and abuse.

Bianchi, of Crystal Lake, pointed to a bad-check program, savings associated with representing county government in-house, and starting a mental health court as promises he had kept to voters in the past four years.

He handled personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits after stints managing video and music stores and working in the McHenry and Cook county state’s attorneys offices.

Tom Cynor, the 40-year-old treasurer of the local Democratic party, has promoted himself as the candidate who can restore integrity to the office Bianchi has led for almost four years. The Woodstock man both defended clients and worked as a special prosecutor downstate before handling complex civil litigation, including asbestos and state tobacco litigation.

The state’s attorney makes $160,400, 84 percent of which the state reimburses the county.

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