The Culture of Ammunition

Why does the Lake County GOP need to own a trademark on the Culture of Corruption^® -- when they can just steal it instead?

Haha, the Lake County Republican Party invites you to their annual family picnic:

An old-fashioned family picnic and all are welcome to attend!! Hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, corn-on-the-cob, soft drinks, beer and wine will be provided. Attendees are encouraged to bring a dish or dessert to share. Come out and join in the fun!!
September 9, 2018: Republican Assembly of Lake County Picnic

Your LakeCountyEye notes that there are no sex, drugs or misuse of public funds on offer at the Lake County GOP picnic. How much fun will that be?

One thing not mentioned in the promo for the Lake County GOP family picnic -- and not searchable on Google -- will be a raffle. For a Mossberg 590 Shockwave:

In case you didn't know, the Mossberg 590 Shockwave is a military-style shotgun:

590^® Shockwave


LEGENDARY MOSSBERG PUMP-ACTION RELIABILITY IN A COMPACT 14" BARRELED PACKAGE.
The Shockwave Raptor bird's head pistol grip is uniquely shaped to minimize felt recoil. Includes all the features that have made Mossberg pump-actions the choice for millions worldwide: ambidextrous safety, dual extractors, positive steel-to-steel lockup, twin action bars, and a smooth operating anti-jam elevator.
Mossberg 590^® Shockwave

It is unknown if the Mossberg 590 Shockwave military-style shotgun being raffled off at the Lake County GOP family picnic will come with child-proof safety-locks.

Bring the kids anyways.

Bullets or Ballots

Criminals, they say, always return to the scene of the crime. Then why is the Lake County Republican Party returning to the site of their 2017 Gun Raffle?

As readers of this blog will recall, the Lake County GOP held a fundraiser in Kildeer last October, where high-capacity firearms were given away as raffle prizes:

Lake County Republican 2nd Amendment Dinner & Gun Raffle

The proceeds all went to a worthy cause: the Lake County Republican Party.

Well, six months later, to the day, the Lake County GOP will be back -- same town, same venue. They will be reassembling this time however not only to shoot off their mouths but to elect a new Chairman:

The Lake County Republican Party is slated to hold its official county GOP convention on April 18 at Concorde Banquets in Kildeer.
Lake County GOP to select party leaders at upcoming county convention

This new Chairman will be selected by a vote of his GOP precinct committeemen. It is unknown if he will also win an AR 15 assault weapon.

Your LakeCountyEye will keep you apprised when further developments warrant.

Itteh Bitteh Teah Parteh Committeh

Back when it was Pres. Bush Jr's finger on the trigger, the Lake County Democrats would count their precinct committeemen on the fingers of one hand. Stray anywhere west of I-94, and you couldn't find a Democratic committeeman to give the finger. Out of desperation the Democrats were crashing Dean For America Meetups to recruit precinct walkers. Your LakeCountyEye could've predicted the sad outcome. Instead of filling their ranks with dedicated ward heelers eager to knock on doors and drag voters to the polls, they got a sorry crew of couch slouchers who were more interested in gathering at flash mobs to whine about George W Bush than participate in anything that approached constructive political action. Lake County Democrats have only recently managed to turn things around, and to their advantage, by replacing their DFA slackers with Rahm's private army of paratroops. Your LakeCountyEye expects the County Dems to be the dominant political player for the foreseeable future.

Now it's the Lake County Republican's turn, who find themselves in the same unenviable spot the Democrats held those few years ago. And to your LakeCountyEye's chagrin, the County Republicans are making the same mistake the Dems made back then, all over again. Of course they'd be ill-advised to attend DFA meetings, but that hasn't stopped the County Republicans from searching for recruits at the moral equivalent of a DFA meeting -- at Tea Party rallies. According to the Chicago Tribune ...

Bob Cook, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party, said his organization was having some difficulty filling vacancies until they reached out to the tea party activists. Now, Cook said, he has filled nearly half of the 60 vacant precinct positions with those who are active in the movement.
Tea partiers rally, plan for bigger role

LakeCountyEye Ops consistently report your typical Tea Party rally is mostly a demographic who believes Pres. Obama is a Muslim from Kenya who wants to confiscate our guns.

Champaign mayor doubts Obama's citizenship

You don't need a calculator to know, that of the County Republican committeemen, a now sizable number are getting their information from FoxNews. Sure, Rumsfeld said you fight with the army you got, not the one you want. Nonetheless, your LakeCountyEye has to wonder just how many doors will Bob Cook's new committeemen knock for his down-ticket candidates? Your Regional Superintendent of Schools yardsigns don't do any good if they're never pulled from the shipping crates.

Cook has perhaps two worst case scenarios to consider:

1. New Tea Party committeemen all stay home in October.
2. New Tea Party committeemen knock on doors in October; inform voters that Obama is the Socialist Antichrist foretold in scripture & that the EndTimes approach.

Well, that's an exaggeration. Worst case scenario would've been if they had recruited the DFA slackers.

Register Here to Vote + Vote Republican

Thanks go out to another sharp-eyed shutter-bug. We now have some more photos of the Lake County Republican's illegal voter registration operation at this year's County Fair. Click the photos to see a full image.



The message here must be:
Register Here to Vote and Vote Republican



The registration form.



And in case you don't know who to vote for,
there are some easy-to-see reminders on the back wall.

Illegal Electioneering at the Lake County Fair

The cell phone photo on the left was sent to us yesterday. The photo was taken at the Lake County Republican Party booth at the County Fair. The photo is blurry but the handwritten sign reads ... REGISTER TO VOTE This happens to be illegal. Illinois law prohibits electioneering and voter registration in the same place. Illinois Election Code is quite clear about it ... No deputy registrar shall engage in any electioneering or the promotion of any cause during the performance of his or her duties. 10 ILCS 5/5‑16.2(e)

And these guidelines are from the State Board of Elections:

Political parties having certified civic organization status must NOT conduct voter registration activities at political functions. Voter registration activities must be organized as separate and distinct functions by all organizations. Any type of electioneering or campaigning while conducting voter registration activities is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

Deputy Registrar Guidelines, Page 4, (emphasis in the original)

In the past, Lake County Clerk Willard Helander has not been shy about enforcing this law. According to a 09/25/2000 News-Sun story, Helander was on hand to bust up a voter registration rally at the Jesus Name Apostolic Church in Waukegan.

Helander said she raised questions about planned registration in the church during the rally because, "You can't electioneer and do voter registration at the same place." Illinois law "prohibits electioneering and registration," she said. "You can't promote candidates when you register people to vote."

Willard Helander specifically objected to the use of Motor Voter forms at the Waukegan rally.

Helander also raised concerns about the use of motor voter registration forms instead of regular state forms by trained registrars. "With the Illinois form, you're registered from that moment," she said. "With the motor voter forms, you aren't registered until I get the form." Helander said her office discourages the use of motor voter forms. "We want deputy registrars to register voters," she said. "You fill out the motor voter form yourself. Sometimes we never get them back. Sometimes you can't read them."

According to our source the two Republican volunteers in the photo were handing out Motor Voter forms.

Where is County Clerk Willard Helander when we need her, to bust up this illegal voter registration operation at the Lake County Republican booth? Take another look at the photo. Do you see the red sign with the letters W I L L? That would be a Willard Helander yard sign. In case you don't know, the purpose of yard signs are to promote candidates.

Willard? ... Willard? ... Willard?
Anyone? ... Anyone?

The Brouhaha in Mettawa

For the first time in recent memory, there will be a contested election over who gets to run the Village of Mettawa. The Village Board there gave the green light to a new Costco on Route 60 ... and it looks like they got more than they bargained for.

"Mettawa residents who tried to stop the Village Board from approving a Costco store vowed they would try to unseat the Board after Costco was approved 5-2 on Nov. 18. They have organized a slate to run against five current Village Board members in the April 7 election."


http://www.pioneerlocal.com/vernonhills/news/1348080,vh-mettawa-122508-s1.article


http://www.pioneerlocal.com/lakeforest/news/1300605,lf-costcorxn-112008-s1.article

The opposition is running under a slate called the Mettawa Transparency Party.

Defending their turf are the Open Space Fiscal Responsibility Party. The incumbent slate includes Mayor Barry MacLean and four current trustees, including Larry Falbe.

Falbe is notable because he is Communications Vice Chair for the Lake County Republican Party.
http://lake.weareillinois.org/leadership.aspx

Falbe also blogs under the nom de guerre TeamAmerica.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/15035504738668036802

The exact name of the blog is TeamAmerica10th. Presumably not because Falbe considers himself to be (by comparison) one-tenth of a Team America. Rather, his is a pro Mark Kirk blog -- and Kirk's is the 10th Congressional District. Falbe's blog is also hosted by Blogspot.

Lake County board member latest to flee Democrats

Latest defection from the Lake County Democrats is County Board member Bob Sabonjian son of the former Democratic Mayor of Waukegan. The most interesting part of the article below is his quote that he left the Democratic party because and this is the quote "Since the election, however, Sabonjian has become dissatisfied with partisan politics, particularly when it came to leadership posts and committee assignments." The odd thing is that the Republicans were the ones who were the ones handing out those assignments not the Democrats.

From the Daily Herald-- Just a month after the presidential election of Barack Obama put Illinois Democrats on top of the political world, the party is taking hit after hit after hit.

First came the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges. Then came the defection of Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran to the Republican Party.

The latest shot was fired in Waukegan, where veteran Lake County Board member Bob Sabonjian on Tuesday confirmed he has left the party and will serve the rest of his term as an independent.

Sabonjian said he was driven to defect by growing political partisanship on the board, which doubles as the county's forest preserve district board, and infighting within the local Democratic organization.

"This is something I'm doing because this is something my conscience is telling me to do," said Sabonjian, 53, who last month was re-elected to a four-year term.

Democratic board member Angelo Kyle, one of the panel's senior members, hopes to persuade Sabonjian to reconsider.

"I certainly want him to carry out the balance of his term under the banner of the party (with which) he was elected," said Kyle, also of Waukegan.

Sabonjian's victory in November - and four upset wins by Democratic newcomers - helped close the Republican majority on the county board to 13-10.

Since the election, however, Sabonjian has become dissatisfied with partisan politics, particularly when it came to leadership posts and committee assignments.

He feels Democrats deliberately were kept from top posts. County Board Chairwoman Suzi Schmidt, a Lake Villa Republican who assigned members to committees and chose leaders, rejected the accusation.

Sabonjian's Democratic roots run deep. He is the son of the late Democratic Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian, who led the city in the 1980s.

The younger Sabonjian, a county board member since 1999, had been considering running for mayor in 2009 but recently backed off that bid, saying infighting in the local party soured him on the idea.

"These guys can play pretty ugly," Sabonjian said. "And I don't want to submit my wife or (myself) to that ugliness."

On a separate note, Bob should smile during his official portrait more often, what a depressing picture.