LAWRENCE CO.—Plagued by arguments over budget, use of resources and overall effectiveness and ability, the contention over the office of state’s attorney in Lawrence County was settled decidedly by the voting public on the night of November 6, and done so in one of the quickest elections in Lawrence County in recent memory.
All votes were in and tallied by about 8:30 that night, and the candidates and public were on their way with new seats being filled in some of the key offices countywide, while the incumbents who needed to stay on a couple more years were held in place by voters who obviously had done their homework and had made informed decisions.
Decisive victory for Quick
The big office of the night went to Republican challenger Chris Quick, who ran for state’s attorney against incumbent Democrat Lisa Wade.
Wade has tussled with the county board nearly every year she’s been in office, waging war and winning the battles by being allowed to keep a bloated office staff and an assistant that, it was revealed very close to election time, has been doing most of the work for her, contrary to her own claims that he only does “traffic and misdemeanors.” When it was revealed to the county board that Michael Strange, the assistant, had been seen on many occasions handling felony first appearances, much of the board was appalled…and that translated into lack of support for Wade.
The early returns showed that support going to Quick. With the first display of numbers from early/nearby precincts, Quick had nearly a 200-vote lead over Wade, and that remained the case for the next hour.
When it was all said and done, Quick had taken 55.57 of the total ballots cast (in a turnout that is actually phenomenal for Lawrence: 57.87 percent of registered voters, or 6,079 or 10,504). Quick’s count was 3,265. Wade’s was 44.43 percent, or 2,610.
Sneak attack didn’t work
Quick prevailed against the odds that included by and large non-support from the Republican Party in Lawrence, as well as what was likely supposed to be a “sneak attack” by law enforcement in the county (as that’s what they’re so good at doing) lead by deputy Danny Ash, who had managed to get a copy of some cobbled-together nonsense Cassandra Goldman circulated in 2008 about an old DUI of Quick’s that she apparently believed caused Quick’s loss in that county for the same seat (Goldman didn’t take into account that Quick had pissed off the movers and shakers of Wabash by not bothering to overlook their kids when they were doing bad.)
Quick lost the 2008 bid, but citizens of Lawrence looked past the nonsense and seated him definitively, showing that either they did their own homework into his “past”…or the tactics of corrupt members of local law enforcement are now backfiring, as opposed to how they worked in recent years on first former mayor Henry Kijonka (2001), then on former sheriff Dennis Bridwell (2006).
Because the citizens have gotten wise to what some members of local law enforcement are up to, it will truly be interesting to see how the 2014 sheriff’s race shakes out.
Quick is currently residing in Marshall (Clark County), two counties to the north of Lawrence, where he is an attorney, and a minister at a local church. He is originally from Allendale.
Incumbent upset in Dist. 1
Other major offices up for election this year were unchallenged and the vote for circuit clerk and coroner was largely symbolic; yet incumbents Peggy Frederick, Republican circuit clerk, received a hearty 5,156 (85 percent) votes; and Republican coroner Shannon Steffey received 5,315 (87.4 percent) ballots. With support like that, there’s usually little point in the other party running a challenger, but the Dems, a strong party in Lawrence, might have a different idea in four years.
The county board, however, was another story altogether, as there were upsets in some races and strong support for incumbents in others.
District 1 showed they had more faith in someone who indicated he’d carry out fiscally-conservative ideas as opposed to the person who’d held the office since earlier this year and was carrying on the tradition of her predecessor, fighting for more spending and less cuts. John Brookhart had an amazing lead over Julia Laroche-New, who was appointed by the board to fill the seat of retiring Gene Hays. Hays had a record of ignoring budget crises facing the county in various offices, and was a big spender. By all accounts, New carried on the tradition. But Dist. 1 voters, watching each November argument unfold when it came time for the budget and necessary cuts, came to see where it was getting them with property tax hikes and sales tax impositions. Brookhart took it with 61.27 percent of the vote (541 ballots cast); New received 38.73 percent (342) in a decisive victory for a man who ran on fiscal common sense above all. Now, residents county-wide are hoping he holds true to the promises.
Pleasant surprise in District 2
In District 2, it was another decisive victory for the voters, who opposed the voting record of the woman they seated by a very slim margin over another fiscal conservative.
In 2010, Bonnie Hann edged out Larry Stoltz by a mere handful of votes. Stoltz had been a long-term county board rep in the Sumner area but had endured vile retribution on the part of those who were supporters of Lawrence County’s emergency management coordinator, Jess Angle, after the 2008 flood, during which time Stoltz first-hand observed Angle’s dangerous ineptitude in dealing with actual disasters, and reported it to citizens. Those citizens responded by circulating a petition to remove Angle from his board-appointed position, and received more than 800 signatures in support of this.
This petition prompted Angle to get a couple of political gadflies to rally around him, and the smear campaign against Stoltz was on. By the time the 2010 elections rolled around, Stoltz’ name was mud and Hann, who’d never had any experience in the political field but was hand-picked by the Dems to run against Stoltz, was the frontrunner. Sadly, Stoltz, who had suffered lung cancer for a number of months during his last term, died shortly after the election.
Hann’s time on the board was marred by the July 2011 incident in which her son, Chad Hayes, is alleged to have run over David Kearby, 7, while Kearby was riding a bicycle in Sumner. Hayes has yet to see anything meaningful occur in his case. Outraged county residents blamed the Dems—the party of Lisa Wade—for that, and that translated into a loss for Wade as well as for Hann on November 6.
Succeeding Hann therefore is W.R. Brian, who took the nod with 66.76 of the vote (486 ballots) over Hann, with only 33.24 percent (242 ballots).
Huber shut down in 3
District 3 voters were prepared for a tight race, but they, too, had educated themselves as to the candidates and didn’t let the contentions between the two men running sway them to a wrong choice.
There, incumbent (and county board chairman) Bill Gray, Republican, took it away from Democrat challenger Gary Huber quite handily: 58.41 percent (493 ballots) over 41.59 percent (351 ballots).
The contention only arose because Huber is a contentious soul himself, and everywhere he goes and in everything he does, he’s got to add an element of hellraising that is both annoying and unnecessary.
That worked against him this time, and Gray, who has recently had a history of siding with Wade in keeping her budget expanded (not that it matters, as it’s now not HER budget), prevailed.
Dist. 5: Brewer defeats Pacholski
District 5 saw a challenged race after Kerry Emmons opted not to run for the seat he’s held since 2006.
The voters there went with a man who promoted fiscal conservatism as his platform, Jim Brewer, and voters opted for it, as the one who ran against him, Jerry Pacholski, has had only teat jobs (including one in Lawrence: organizing post-flood relief via state and federal grants) on his resume for years.
Brewer bested Pacholski by an overwhelming majority, 61.96 percent of the vote to 38.04 (or, 588-361 ballots).
Voters showed their hope in Brewer to get the spending in Lawrence, running unrestrained for so long until it reached crisis levels over the past two years, under control; now, Brewer’s job is to show, right off the bat, that the nonsense that prevailed in Lawrence for so many years, such as a pervasive attitude that Texaco was still in town and providing jobs, would finally come to an end when it came to spending and benefits.
The BIG race: District 6 wins with White
The big race on the county board was in District 6, however, and numbers showed that there was a lot of support, albeit ill-placed, behind the Dems’ hand-picked candidate.
Their candidate, Brad Purcell, was an alright guy, but not fiscal conservative material. That honor went to the champion of the county taxpayers, Dave White, former police chief and independent candidate for sheriff (2006). White ran on a platform in 2010 and this year of controlling the spending so that property owners in Lawrence wouldn’t have to continue their exodus out of the county in order to keep surviving without drowning in property taxes. It’s been White’s budget-slashing acumen that’s taken the county from an $850,000 deficit two years ago to less than half that this year…and next year, it’s entirely possible that there may no longer be a deficit budget the type of which Lawrence has suffered for years, and which necessitated ongoing tax rate hikes in order to borrow against “next year’s” tax take.
White put a lot of effort into ensuring that citizens were the top priority; the county’s Dems put a lot of effort into a candidate that had never even attended a county board meeting in recent memory. The slim margin that ensued—White’s 54.28 percent (640 votes) over Purcell’s 45.72 (539)—showed that the Dem campaign was strong, but the citizens’ recognition of what White has done for them in two years’ time was stronger.
The board’s makeup of six Republicans to one Dem (Pat Spidel, who ran unopposed) may not be as helpful as it appears at first blush…particularly because of Gray and the other board rep who ran unopposed this year, Ryan Curtis, often tend to vote like Democrats. However, the voters believe, at any rate, that this makeup may help save their floundering county in the years to come; so the expectation is there. It remains to be seen how much faith and confidence this board will uphold for their constituents.
Lawrence not getting the ‘Vote NO to Retain’ thing
The message of “Vote NO to Retain” did not get across to Lawrence Countians this election cycle, and they added to Jefferson and Franklin counties’ (the latter of which has a voting contingent largely composed of ‘migrant workers’ who vote how their Dem handlers tell them to) retention of one of the judges who should have been booted this go, Melissa Drew.
The appellate judge, Melissa Chapman, was retained in Lawrence by the narrowest of margins, 61.75 percent. Neighboring Crawford County’s resident judge, Chris Weber, was retained by 62.10 percent. Drew was retained by 62.03 percent…disappointing the largest part of the circuit, most counties of which wanted Drew gone.
However, 1,004 ballots cast did NOT bear a vote at all, ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ for Drew’s retention.
More people need to be aware of how important the retention vote is. Judges sit on the bench for six years at a time. Twelve years on a bench is entirely too long, and can lead to complacency and corruption, as is seen in several circuits in downstate. Judges should be changed as often as it is available to do so, which is every couple of years to give another set of judges another vote for a six-year stretch. The next retention is in 2014. At that time, many judges serving will have had enough time to retire…thus stretching the state’s resources to beyond the breaking point, as that’s where we are now.
From presidential to local, it was spectacular
Lawrence went overwhelmingly with the Romney/Ryan Republican presidential team, giving 64.25 percent of the vote to them; Obama/Biden voters weighed in at 33.52 percent. A 1.47 percentage of voters in Lawrence (88) enlightened themselves to the liberty movement of candidate Gary Johnson, and 33 selected the Green Party (Stein/Hawkins), while 13 opted for a write-in vote (mostly Ron Paul, which didn’t count in Illinois.)
Lawrence was also fooled into giving “Mr. Term Limits” Republican John Shimkus another two years, 65.39 percent of the vote going to him over challenger Angela Michael, 34.61 percent.
A ballot proposition for the Lawrence-Allison Fire Protection District passed overwhelmingly in three precincts, allowing those three to join the LAFPD. The vote was 208 for joining, 47 against…concluding a rather spectacular election day in Lawrence County.