Posts tagged ‘Chris Lauzen’

The Three Republicans Who Are Running as “Democrats” in the March 20th Primary Election

by , posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2018 at 11:12 pm

The Kane County Board is composed of 24 district-elected members (10 Democrats and 14 Republicans) and one at-large executive (Chris Lauzen – Republican). In the March 20,  Democratic Primary Election, Democrats in at least three districts will have, sadly, an opportunity to vote for a Lauzen-backed Republican who is running as a Democrat.  In a 4th county board district race in Elgin, a progressive Democrat is challenging a regular Democrat who votes with Lauzen for his austerity budget.

Republican Chris Lauzen has not shied away from his overt effort to infiltrate the Democratic Party with Republican candidates.  There have been at least two newspaper articles on the topic. The Daily Herald reports, “Chairman Lauzen backing some Democrats in Kane Board Races.”  The Beacon News (Trib affiliate) hits the nail a little more squarely on the head with their story, “Lauzen helped recruit candidates challenging Democrats running in Kane County primary races.”

Here is a letter that Chris Lauzen wrote to Republicans and his supporters in the district’s that he is targeting to change.

Meet the real Democrats and their Republican challengers below.

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Chris Lauzen at Odds with the Pope Francis on Economic Issues

by , posted on Thursday, November 28th, 2013 at 7:16 pm

It is Thanksgiving and I can’t get over the conversation I had with Chris Lauzen last week over the topic of a living wage ordinance. Even though I was born and raised on the mission field in West Africa, I don’t think that a politician’s faith should matter, unless that politician makes it part of his or her campaign. Chris Lauzen has put his faith front and center in most of his political endeavors – his political views as one who professes very publicly to be Roman Catholic are fair game. And, if you read the press release linked above you will notice that Lauzen doesn’t mind criticizing the Pope when the Pope admonishes Republicans. Maybe Chris is more in tune with God than the Pope is?

This morning I read a recent speech by Pope Francis who condemned the idolatry of cash in capitalism and called for a society with people, not money, at its heart. “It is the consequence of a global choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system which has at its center an idol called money.”

It made me think that the phone conversation Chris and I had should be made public and I should let readers decide if they think Lauzen is a man of faith or another hypocrite.

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Klinkhamer Running for Kane County Board Chair

by , posted on Friday, November 4th, 2011 at 2:23 pm

Hate to say I told you so, but Sue Klinkhamer is circulating petitions for the Kane County Board Chair Dem primary. She will have a primary opponent in former Carpentersville Mayor Bill Sarto. I’d give Klinkhamer, a former mayor of St Charles, the edge on that one. Between her regional transportation work, her work in DC lobbying for the City of Chicago, and her stint as Bill Foster’s in-district director, she’s got a lot of contacts and a lot of support throughout the county and beyond.

Either way, nice to see Dem interest in stopping either Chris Lauzen or Kevn Burns continuing the Republican stranglehold on Kane County government – with Elgin and Aurora in the mix, Kane is far from a solidly red county.

Klinkhamer tells me she plans to “test the system” and run an unconventional race…can’t wait to see how that plays out.

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AFSCME Rally: Governor Quinn, Keep Your Word!

by , posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 at 6:16 pm

During a tough 2010 political campaign, Governor Quinn negotiated raises with members of the American Federation State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union.  On July 1, 2011, Governor Quinn cancelled those raises for more than 30,000 state workers.

This afternoon, fifty to seventy-five citizens rallied in Aurora, IL to call on Governor Pat Quinn to keep his word and honor long overdue wage increases for state

workers.  The Aurora event was part of a statewide, 75-rally day of action and a majority of the participants were AFSCME members.  Representatives from other unions and local businesses also participated in the action. 

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Illinois General Assembly passes civil unions

by , posted on Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at 12:09 pm

While the Illinois General Assembly has yet to create jobs, pass a balanced budget, or find a way to fund the $80B pension liability, they did a very courageous thing during veto session by passing a civil unions bill.  This strikes me as one of the biggest “change” votes taken by the ILGA and perhaps the biggest act of courage in my memory. It was a positive step forward for residents of Illinois as we seek to join other states who view equality as a centerpiece for social and economic justice.

In the 21st century, I find it hard to believe that there are still people in Springfield and Washington who honestly feel that some in our society should be treated like second class citizens in the eyes of the government. But, some still voted “nay.” You can see the entire Senate vote here. You can see the entire House vote here.

If you agree that this is a good step for Illinois, please call or write members in the Fox Valley to let express appreciation or disappointment.  Altough he has delayed signing the bill until 2011, it is expected that Governor Quinn (312-814-2121 / Online Contact Form) will sign the bill.  It probably does not hurt to send the Governor a note to thank him for his support of equality.  See list of Fox Valley Representatives below.

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Ethan Hastert officially in: IL-14 officially over

by , posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

The Kane County Chronicle is reporting that Ethan Hastert has officially declared he will run for the IL-14 congressional seat formerly held by daddy Denny.

Meh – no surer way of ensuring Foster hangs on to the seat, imho.

Anyone who was paying any attention at all knows that Foster outpolled Obama in Kane County (which contains about 50% of all voters in IL-14) in ’08 – and anyone who is local knows damned well why that happened: Lauzen supporters voting for Foster as a means of getting even with the powers-that-be who got behind Oberweis and managed to leverage the nomination for him.

Which makes 2010 a repeat-in-the-making, because Lauzen will be Lauzen, will be Lauzen, ad nauseum: he’s so scary that moderates will vote for Foster (or whatever alternative is on the ballot) if Lauzen does get the nom, and his supporters are so violently pro-Chris, they will likewise vote for whatever alternative there may be to the Repub who beat Chris out for the nomination – exactly as they did in ’08.

Only way out of the spoiler-Lauzen scenario for local Repubs is if they can get Lauzen to throw his support behind someone like Ethan Hastert. And anyone who has followed Lauzen’s career knows there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.

So the Dem on the ballot in IL-14 in 2010 is elected by default: barring Lauzen getting struck by lightning or a random meteorite, it’s already done.

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