Election stories

EAST DUNDEE – U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, believes that Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay is the right person to help steer Illinois out of rough financial waters.

WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board will vote this month on an intergovernmental agreement to unite 13 local governments seeking to get lower electric rates for constituents.

The sole remaining candidate for the long-vacant office of McHenry County regional school superintendent has withdrawn after County Board scrutiny after his arrest record became public.

State Rep. Jack Franks offered a compromise to McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler’s opposition to a bill making the chairmanship popularly elected: Put the idea to the voters.

McHenry County’s long and complicated search for a new regional school superintendent could take another twist with the background of the candidate they found to fill the seat.

CRYSTAL LAKE – Beginning this week, voters have a chance to learn more about the local candidates running in the March 20 primary.

The Illinois State Board of Elections dismissed objections to the nominating petitions of a Republican incumbent in the 52nd District.

A candidate for one of the region’s newest state legislative districts has admitted he paid property taxes on his house later than is required by law for the past nine years.

WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board approved a firm to aggregate rural electric customers to get cheaper rates, provided voters approve the idea in March.

Illinois voters might not have much of a say in who the Republican Party picks to run against President Barack Obama on Nov. 6, but there are plenty of other primary races to decide.

WOODSTOCK – A number of the McHenry County governments putting electric aggregation on the ballot may pool their customers to get an even better rate.

Three congressional candidates running in the new 8th and 14th congressional districts face objections to their petitions.

School law, election law – and Murphy’s law – have dealt McHenry County its latest setback in filling the long-vacant regional superintendent of schools elected office.

UNION – McHenry County Board member Randy Donley has withdrawn from the ballot and will not be seeking another term.

David McSweeney is dropping one of his objections to the petitions of his two fellow candidates for the 52nd Illinois House District.

LE MARS, Iowa – Mitt Romney is the clear Republican front-runner in Iowa in the final days before the first voting in the 2012 presidential election. But that's where the clarity ends in this unpredictable nomination race.

DES MOINES, Iowa – In the race for Iowa, Republican presidential candidates are largely shifting from persuading people to support them to mobilizing them to actually come out and vote for them in Tuesday's caucuses.

The vindication of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi against 24 corruption charges tops the list of the Northwest Herald’s top stories of 2011.

Democratic voters will be the only ones in McHenry County who will have contested congressional races in the March 20 primary, provided candidates survive petition challenges.

DES MOINES, Iowa – It's been a different presidential race in Iowa this year – quieter.

A McHenry candidate who sought to run as a Democrat in the 14th Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh is bowing out.

WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board became the latest local government to put the electric aggregation question on the March primary ballot.

A bill inspired by U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh’s child support issues would forbid people owing more than $10,000 in back child support from running for office in Illinois.

WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board tonight likely will join a long list of governments that will ask voters in March whether they want them to seek lower electrical rates on their behalf.

WASHINGTON – A majority of adults say President Barack Obama does not deserve a second term but are evenly divided on whether he will win re-election next year, says a new Associated Press-GfK poll that highlights some of the campaign obstacles he faces.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Challenging Newt Gingrich's claim to South Carolina, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney charged into the state Friday with a key endorsement from the tea party-aligned governor, a packed campaign schedule and plans to start airing TV ads in the early primary state.

A panel of federal judges Thursday upheld the Democratic remap of Illinois congressional districts against a Republican challenge that it was illegal.

WOODSTOCK – An old red plastic cup and numbered balls dictated where 19 candidates for the McHenry County Board will appear on their respective Republican primary ballots.

Candidates in both of McHenry County’s contested GOP primaries for the General Assembly are facing objections to their petitions.

Tea party firebrand Joe Walsh will announce Thursday which district he will pursue in his re-election campaign.

Tea party firebrand Joe Walsh will announce Thursday which district he will pursue in his re-election campaign.

A Cook County Sheriff’s correctional officer running for the McHenry County Board has spent the past year on administrative duty pending an internal investigation into a dropped misdemeanor battery charge.

The weeklong primary filing period that ended Monday set up numerous races for the McHenry County Board, a handful for local General Assembly districts, and none for countywide offices.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the potentially powerful Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election remains "up for grabs" because neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans have convinced these voters that they are on their side.

WASHINGTON – Republican Mitt Romney accuses President Barack Obama of considering America "just another nation." To other GOP politicians running for the White House, Obama has apologized for the United States and is presiding over the nation's decline.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — With the implosion of Herman Cain's campaign amid accusations of adultery and sexual harassment, the once-crowded 2012 Republican presidential field appears to be narrowing to a two-man race between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

ST. CHARLES – U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh said he would decide by Monday whether he would run in the 8th Congressional District or in the 14th, where he would continue to face off against incumbent U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield.

WOODSTOCK – A lottery to determine ballot order for McHenry County Board candidates in the March 2012 primary will take place a week after the filing period ends.

WASHINGTON – Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war.

WASHINGTON – The House on Thursday passed a bill to end the public financing of presidential campaigns. It would dismantle a system set up after the Watergate scandal of the 1970s that has been overshadowed in recent years by the huge sums of private money pouring into elections.

Petition filings for the March 2012 primary started with a bang before the usual mid-period whimper.

Rep. Joe Walsh’s campaign isn’t talking about reports that he might change his mind and run in his relocated 8th Congressional District, rather than the newly drawn 14th District in which he lives.

This Christmas also will be the season for Illinois congressional candidates to file their petitions.

Love it or hate it, election time is here once again, this time with much more to love or hate.

The McHenry County Board will proceed with a referendum asking rural voters whether they want the county to seek lower electrical rates on their behalf.

DES MOINES, Iowa – They are barely blips in presidential polls and their campaign cash is scarce. Some are running on empty, fueled mainly by the exposure that comes with the blizzard of televised debates in this election cycle and interviews they eagerly grant to skeptical reporters.

WASHINGTON – A year from Election Day, Democrats are crafting a campaign strategy for Vice President Joe Biden that targets the big three political battlegrounds: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, states where Biden might be more of an asset to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign than the president himself.

McHenry County leaders have been talking with state officials to see whether some of the numerous requirements for regional school superintendents can be overlooked in hopes of filling the long-vacant office.

WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Board narrowly rejected a last-minute attempt to voluntarily collect less in property taxes next year by turning down its inflationary increase under the tax cap.