If Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is looking for campaign support in Lake County, perhaps he might want to check in with one of the newest Lake County Board members, District 8 Rep. Collin O'Rourke of Waukegan. While appointed to the Democratic seat vacated by Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian because he was elected mayor, those wily county Dems uncovered that the 23-year-old O'Rourke pulled a Green Party ballot in 2008.
Whitney, an attorney in downstate Carbondale, home of Southern Illinois University, is making another bid to be Illinois governor in 2010 as a member of the Green Party. In 2006, he surprised The Hound and captured more than 10 percent of the statewide vote, but still a distant third behind Democrat Rod Blagojevich, who won re-election, and the Republican challenger, then-state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.
Whitney rode what was considered to be a wave of general dissatisfaction with the two candidates and state government in general --- sort of a "none-of-the-above" candidate. Now, with controversy swirling around the state budget and Blagojevich's arrest and removal from office, Whitney believes 2010 could be a similar revolutionary situation for the Greens.
It better be. Next year's election will be an important one for the Greens. They need to get 5 percent of the vote for the party to remain an "established" one in Illinois. Once established, they don't need as many candidate petition signatures. Because of that, they had candidates in quite a few races in '08, which is when newly christened Democrat O'Rourke turned Green.
Because Sabonjian left his County Board seat representing Waukegan's far North Side in May after getting re-elected in November 2008, O'Rourke has to stand for the seat next year. You can bet he's got a bull's-eye on his back for the Feb. 2, 2010 primary from the county Democratic organization. Democratic County Board representatives questioned O'Rourke's bona fide party credentials at the July 14 board meeting when he took over the Sabonjian seat, bringing up the Green Party vote.
If O'Rourke is in the line of Democratic fire, it will be interesting to see if the mayor throws his support behind the neophyte or sits it out and lets him twist slowly in the cool lake breeze. Welcome to the rough-and-tumble realm of county politics, Mr. Green Dem.
Until someone removes "it's all about Suzi", this county is going nowhere! She thinks this is her personal board and everyone is afraid to challenge her! I do realizes that someone may have taken her crayons as a kid but this is the county we're dealing with!
THE HOUND SAYS: Suzi Schmidt is not the bad guy here. It's whomever gave her the names to present to the full County Board, which, by the way, could have rejected any and all of the replacement candidates. Besides, you won't have Suzi to kick around anymore, AW, if she gets elected to the state Senate seat in the 31st District.