Bob Kaempfe airs radio endorsement ads

Thanks and a tip-o’-the-hat to Robert Kaempfe for endorsing Change for Nunda candidates Meredith Reid Sarkees and Patrick Murfin for Nunda Township Trustee in radio ads that will air Saturday and Sunday on Star 105.5 FM. Eight spots will run each day. Listen for them.

Kaempfe was the Democratic Party candidate for Illinois State Representative in the 64th District in the last election and is planning to make the run again. A retired postal worker and Vietnam veteran, Kaempfe ran as a non-career politician, a “regular Joe” looking out for the interests of ordinary working people. In the ads he makes the same claims for Murfin and Sarkees as well as other McHenry County candidates in the April 7 Consolidated Election.

Also endorsed in the ads are Algonquin Township Trustee Candidates Frank Hyden, Robert Franks, and James McTague; Ed Riley for Supervisor, Kerry Julian for Clerk and Tom Ganka for Road Commissioner in Greenwood Township; Jeff Thirtyacre for Road Commissioner in Burton Township; and John Darger for McHenry County College Trustee.

The Committee to Elect Robert Kaempfe is paying for the spots.

Door bells and shoe leather

On Saturday, Patrick Murfin, with Meredith Reed Sarkees one of the Change for Nunda candidates for Township Trustee, was out canvassing for votes the old fashioned way—by ringing door bells and talking to actual voters. He had to work fast with a heavy spring snow storm threatening to close in. He will be hitting the bricks again next weekend. So will volunteers in other “urban” precincts.

While the tactic may be traditional, a high tech voter data base enables Democratic Party Precinct Representatives to target likely supporters. Getting those supporters to the polls on April 7 or to cast an early vote is critical to electoral success.

Voters, including those in more rural areas of Nunda Township, are also being contacted by phone and by post card mailing.

John Darger for MCC Trustee and Change for Nuda Campaigns Join for Phone Banking

Please join us for a co-operative voter calling party this Sunday, March 1 from 12 to 3 PM at Pauline Walker's house, 233 Third Street in Crystal Lake. Volunteers will be calling identified Democratic voters on behalf of John Darger’s campaign for McHenry County College Trustee, and the Change for Nunda candidates Meredith Reid Sarkees and Patrick Murfin.

If you are not familiar with John Darger, you should be. A former candidate for the McHenry County Board, Darger is a leading McHenry County Democrat who worked full-time as an Obama Fellow this past summer in Saginaw, Michigan, the town where his parents grew up, and worked weekends for Obama in northwest Indiana. Now he is applying that hard earned political acumen to making our community college work for all of us.

Darger is a sale representative for a leading independent publisher, W.W. Norton and has the intellectual curiosity of a true bibliophile.

He has also been a strong supporter of MCC, as well as a vocal critic when this vital community institution has strayed away from its mission. Many observers point to him as critical to crystallizing opposition to the Board’s ill advised scheme to build an addition with a minor league baseball stadium last year. And he has been skeptical of the current proposal to locate the world’s tallest free standing broadcast antenna on land sold by the college.

Bring your cell phones and join us this Sunday!

NUNDA TOWNSHIP—Only Votes in April Election Can Elect Democrats

McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Bergan Schmidt addressed confusion over the upcoming Republican Party primary elections in Algonquin and Nunda Townships in a recent statement.

“The only way voters can support Democratic candidates in these townships is to cast their ballots in the April 7th Consolidated Elections,” Bergan Schmidt said.

Republicans chose to select their candidates in a primary election scheduled for Tuesday, February 24. Democrats elected to choose their candidates by caucus, which Bergan Schmidt noted was a considerable savings to tax payers.

Winners of the Republican primaries will square off against Democrats for trustee seats in both townships. Frank Hyden, Robert Frank, and James McTague are the party nominees in Algonquin Township. Patrick Murfin and Meredith Reid Sarkees will be on the ballot in Nunda Township.

“If a voter chooses to participate in the Republican primary, however, he or she can still vote for Democratic candidates in the April election,” Bergan Schmidt pointed out.

Voters with questions should contact Friends of Murfin and Sarkees at 815 814-5645 or e-mail changefornunda@yahoo.com.

MEREDITH REID SARKEES

Meredith Reid Sarkees and her husband John are natives of Niagara Falls, New York, and moved to Nunda Township after living there and in Romeo, Michigan.

Meredith spent most of her career as a professor of political science at Niagara University and DePaul University, while John is an automotive engineer. Meredith is currently working as a consultant and an author, while retaining an honorary appointment as a faculty fellow with the Women & Politics Institute at American University.

She has written extensively on issues relating to women's leadership, the making of American foreign policy, and international wars. As Director of the Global Women’s Leadership in International Security (GWLIS) project, she is interviewing women who are leaders in the realm of international security, including women in both governmental and non-governmental organizations. This project led Meredith to create ties with women's organizations in Sri Lanka, where she did volunteer work in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.

Meredith has become involved with a number of local organizations, particularly the McHenry County Democratic Party. She was appointed and then elected as the Precinct Representative for Nunda 14.

Meredith received her B.A. in political science from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio; her M.A. in international affairs from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and her Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

PATRICK MURFIN

Patrick Murfin was born in Montana on March in 1949 and grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The family left Cheyenne and relocated to Skokie, Illinois in 1966.

Patrick attended Shimer College, then in Mt. Carroll, Illinois and Columbia College in Chicago, where he studied creative writing. As a student he became involved in the anti-war movement. In the summer of 1968 Patrick was a participant in most of the major actions around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In1969, Patrick joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW.) He served the union in many positions including Editor of the Industrial Worker and, at the age of 23, General Secretary-Treasurer. With Fred W. Thompson he co-authored The IWW: Its First Seventy Years 1905-1975.

Patrick was a member of the staff of The Chicago Seed, the city’s underground paper in the early ‘70’s.

Patrick was tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison 1973 for refusing induction into the Armed Forces. He served six months.

He returned to active participation in the labor movement. He helped found the first Chicago labor support committee for the United Farm Workers, marched with Cesar Chavez, and helped organize the city’s first grape boycott. While working as a drill press operator at Dietzgen Corporation, he was elected Secretary of the Employees Association and served on the bargaining committee.

He also became involved in community organizations. He drafted the constitution and by-laws for what became the Ravenswood East Association and was active in the Logan Square Neighborhood Association where he coordinated gang awareness, graffiti removal projects and neighborhood watch programs.

He got involved in electoral politics as a volunteer for Independent Democratic aldermanic campaigns and was active in Harold Washington’s mayoral campaigns.

In 1981 Patrick married Kathy Brady-Larsen, a young widow with two daughters, Carolynne and Heather.

After the birth of daughter Maureen in 1983, the family moved to Crystal Lake in 1985. Patrick found work as a school custodian.

In the fall of 1989, Patrick became a Precinct Committeeman in the McHenry County Democratic Party and has served continuously ever since. Later, when the office of Vice Chair of the Party was left vacant by a death he was appointed to fill out the term and was elected in his own right the next year. Upon Chairman Bob McGarry’s death he served briefly as County Chair. He was elected Secretary in the 2008.

Patrick has twice before been a candidate for office. In 1997 he ran for Crystal Lake City Council and in 2002 ran for County Board District 3.

Patrick has been a long term lay leader at the Congregational Unitarian Church in Woodstock.
In 1995 Patrick helped found the Diversity Day Festival in held annually on Woodstock Square and is now its Executive Director.

He served a term on the Crystal Lake Human Relations Commission.

Patrick was among the founders of the McHenry County Peace Group, which he has served as press and public relations spokesperson.

In 2004 Skinner House Books of Boston published his poetry collection We Build Temples in the Heart.

The same year Patrick was retired as a Head Building Custodian. He is currently Communication Manager and Non-Profit Consultant for Oaktree Capital Corporation in Woodstock.

Patrick launched his blog, Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout, in January of 2006.

CELEBRATING THE INAUGURATION

We celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama as President at a party organized by MoveOn members at Porters’s Oyster Bar in Crystal Lake. Meredith is shown with Dan Gialombardo, District 3 Chair of the McHenry County Democratic Party. District 3 encompasses all of Nunda Township. Patrick snapped the photo. Together we hope to bring the same energy, passion, and conviction to local government as the President has to national office.