In a press release run nowhere but on McHenry County Blog, GOP candidate for County Board Chairman Mike Walkup called his opponent State Rep. Jack Franks “Lying” Jack Franks.
It apparently set Franks off.
The release compared the Democratic National Platform Plank that Hillary Clinton Delegate Jack Franks approved with WGN radio comments last Wednesday night about the counterproductiveness of taxing rich people.
The Democratic Platform favors such legislation, while Franks said he didn’t favor taxing the rich on WGN.
Here is Walkup’s description of what happened during an interchange with Franks at the Republican Party booth at McHenry County Fair:
This one really got under Franks’ skin.
He showed up at the GOP booth at the Fair and started excoriating me over it.
He also picked up the walk piece with the Blago letter and tried to explain it.
The leaflet that got under Jack Franks’ skin.
The back of Mike Walkup’s leaflet reproduces the content of the memo that Jack Franks sent requesting patronage appointments from Govenror Rod Blagojevich.
His father had earlier run into me and told me that Jack was hopping mad about the release.
Some of the things said:
(1) He wanted to make this about issues but now he has bought $250,000 worth of TV air time to run comparative ads.
(2) He had hoped that after he was elected Chairman and he and I could work together to change the Board but now he will direct more resources into also defeating me in my District.
(3) He has consulted with attorneys who have told him that the Chairman is not bound by the Board Rules (which eliminate the Chairman from appointing committees and chairs of committees). He plans to reduce the number of committees to around 6 (I am inferring with Chairs picked by him in derogation of the current Rules) at some unspecified time.
(4) When I offered to set up debates to discuss said issues he said he would not “share the same stage” with me because of things I might say and, besides, he was ahead of me in the polls he had conducted so there was no reason for him to debate.
[Franks refused to debate Steve Reick in the 2014 campaign. Reick cut his winning margin under 60% for the first time since his second election, when Tom Salvi almost took him out.]
I guess we won’t get to discuss issues then.
About an hour later someone showed up carrying a new black colored handbill that contained an attack on me with the same bullet points in the “Moderate” comment above.
Oh yes, and he called this release “libelous and actionable”, but maybe not until after the election.
I guess we will have that to look forward to.
= = = = =
There are other examples of how Franks has been on the both sides of issues. The Northwest Herald just yesterday ran a letter to the editor from John Pletz which pointed out that Franks had said
- he was going to do three terms, but had been elected enough terms to vote Mike Madigan for Speaker nine times and
- “I can promise you, I’m not running for McHenry County Board chairman.”
The Northwest Herald headline from early June of 2014 about Jack Franks’ promise not to run for McHenry County Board Chairman.
Pletz said there were many more promises and wondered why “we should trust him to keep his 10 percent plan or any other plan[?]”
Pletz said his mother told him “not to listen to what a man says,” but to “watch what he does.”
You can always tell a democrat………but not much!
WALKUP?! A FARMER?! http://goo.gl/hylBjp
Jack Franks is not a nice man.
He is a thin skinned selfish person who pretends to care about the good of the people, when in reality he is all about consolidating power and running over anyone who gets in his way.
Heaven help McHenry County if he should be the Chairman.
Walkup at least is a decent person who, unlike Franks, is not a demagogue.
Franks – The Jackass of McHenry County.
Quite interesting that Franks and Moderate are saying exactly the same things.
Wonders never cease…
So Franks is saying that the chairman does not have to follow the rules of the board, and that he will do whatever he wants should, God help us, he wins.
It looks like he is positioning himself to be the McHenry County version of Madigan.
Look how well that has turned out for the state, outrageous taxes and financial ruin.
Pure partisan dem machine politics is what can be expected from Franks.
Think of this in light of what to do in the event of a water landing.
If the chair can appoint committees and chairs of committees, does the work they do still need to be funded by a vote of the board?
Can the board have decision making meetings without the chair being invited or present?
What requirement is their for the board to support any decisions, requests, or votes raised by the chair?
Can the board just ignore the chair?
How much authority does the board have to put a very small box around the chair?
I like your thinking Turn the tables!
I also like to hear my neighbors who were previous Franks supporters, slowly realizing what Franks is all about.
The word is getting out and people are becoming educated that Franks is bad for McHenry County!
Walkup can’t even decide what he stands for on any given day….and your best evidence of dirt is from 13 years ago?? Seriously?
What if I went back 13 years in Walkups life?
Or anyone else’s for that matter.
Wasn’t Walk up voting for atax increase on the Park District then?
Just saying.
This headline fits Michael walkup like a glove as he is a parasite and getting under someone’s skin comes natural for him.
someone loan him a lawnmower so he can cut down that hay field in front of what’s left of the walkup homestead.
Ah, the trolls are out tonight.
Jack Franks has not been honest with people.
First he made a campaign pledge of serving a maximum of 3 (2) year terms, which is 6 years.
He was first elected to office in November 1998, taking office in January 1999.
So he should have been done in 2004.
1999 – 2000 (term 1, 90th General Assembly).
2001 – 2002 (term 2, 91st General Assembly).
2003 – 2004 (term 3, 92nd General Assembly).
xxxxxx
Then, he promised to Kevin Craver in a Northwest Herald interview that he would not run for McHenry County Board Chair.
He is running for McHenry County Board Chair right now.
xxxxx
Then he said he has never voted for a tax hike.
That is very misleading.
He has voted yea (a yes vote) for many unfunded and underfunded legislative mandates on state and local government that have become state law.
So have most of the legislators.
That results in a tax hike at some point in most cases, although sometimes their could be service cuts or efficencies found.
One of the reasons property taxes are so high is due to unfunded and underfunded mandates from legislation that passes both houses in the Illinois General Assembly (State House of Representatives and State Senate) that is signed into law as a Public Act by the Governor.
That would be new laws for public schools, all the way from early childhood through 12th grade, community colleges, fire, police, cities/towns/villages, pensions, retiree healthcare, etc.
Those unfunded and underfunded mandates are one of the key points in the Turnaround Agenda that was promoted by Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and his administration.
Read the Turnaround Agenda to learn more.
It can be located through a Google search.
Those unfunded mandates were also a point brought up in the resolution supporting local empowerment zones that was passed by the McHenry County Board, which the County Board agreed to rescind as a result of settling the lawsuit brought by the IUOE Local 150 labor union.
Mark, your long winded posts are boring and you have no idea of what your talking about.
just a lot of knocking and pinging and a lot of run on.
and abe, you have a lot of class with that last comment.
How about this.
It’s not to late for walkup to drop out of the race and save what’s left of the family name.
unlike all the property that was sold to developers and the ancestors are rolling in their graves over what Michael has done and cannot even keep the grass mowed at the residence.
Michael never had what it takes to you can keep talking like this is about jack but really this is and has always been about Michael’s short comings.
Another time Jack Franks exposed himself is when a reporter in central Illinois quoted Democrat 63rd District State Representative Jack Franks calling Republican Bruce Rauner a union buster.
So much for Jack Franks reigning in union costs.
But the union buster comment was in line with the actions of Jack Franks.
Jack Franks said he would not step down from running as Democrat State Representative 63 District unless someone emerged whom held a political view consistent with his own, and whom Jack Franks thought was electable.
That person was John Bartman, current prevailing wage monitor, former Chair of McHenry County Democrat party, former #4 person on the Jack Franks patronage letter to Rod Blagojevich for a job in the Blagojevich administration (the first 3 were Jack Franks immediate family relatives – his wife, dad, and on of his brothers).
John Bartman did get that job in the Illinois Department of Transpirtation
John Bartman has since departed IDOT and is now a prevailing wage monitor for IIIFFC, an IUOE Local 150 union affiliated organization based in Countryside Illinois.
A prevailing wage monitor checks construction sites to ensure state mandated prevailing wages are paid on public sector construction projects in Illinois.
Prevailing wages are one of the many underfunded mandates that resulted from the state legislatures and Governors passing laws that bind counties, schook districts, park districts, cities, etc.
And now Jack Franks and John Bartman are sending out joint Democrat mailers.
Democrat John Bartman v Republican Steve Reick for 63rd District State Representative, representing western McHenry County.
Democrat Jack Franks v Republican Mike Walkup for the inaugural McHenry County Board Chair election.
Election is November 8, 2016.
#####
Love the new political leaflet, Mike !
You have the experience on the board,
Know the issues & are the RIGHT PERSON
At the RIGHT TIME to be board chairman.
Stand4BS: Its. A. Prairie. You don’t mow it.
OK Michael, It’s whatever you say it is.
I get it!
It still Looks Like $hlT either way it says your Lazy and willing to spend more effort in changing it’s name to suit you than it would take to actually get out there and cut the crap down.
See Before you signed up to serve the people, you should have considered how you appear to others.
Your 3 step plan to defeat franks has one major flaw, Jack Franks wins and you Loose!
Enjoy your prairie while your sitting home covered in defeat!
The native plant species in the prairie don’t just show up if you stop mowing.
You have to go through a multi year process of suppressing the non native plants that will show up on their own with native plants from seed or plugs.
It has to be burned periodically as well.
There are whole nurseries and local and national groups dedicated to restoring native plant species.
There is a seminar held at MCC every year which is sold out and a sale as well in which you have to wait in line for 90 minutes just to get in to buy the plants. Even the seed is very expensive.
I have sold both the plants and seed in years past along with heirloom tomato plants and organic vegetables, eggs, and meat from free range chickens and turkeys.
There was some disruption when the County took some of the land in front and widened the road so I am in the process of bringing that back to where it was before, but with the campaign, there is not much time for that this year.
I am out getting votes.
Plants don’t vote.
If you look around you will see native prairies in use in wetland detention, roadside swales, and office parks.
There is a whole big national movement which has been going on for a couple of decades now.
Its also better for the environment.
It never needs water or fertilizer, attracts butterflies and bees, and the roots help hold the soil.
These plants are what would have been found around this house at the time it was built, which is one reason they have been reintroduced.
It is a reproduction of a 19th century farm, which goes with the 1856 historic house which is plaqued by the county.
You should learn more about it.
PS: The Franks law office also features a prairie in the front of that building.
Maybe he should mow it.
Nah, the strip at Franks place
Looks more like WEEDS.
Jack Franks does not want to debate Mike Walkup for the inaugural November 8, 2016 County Board Chair election?
Jack Franks lobbied to have the County Board Chair a voter elected position, then refuses to debate the opposing candidate?
For a guy who wants to be king, he seems to lack the courage for an open debate.
Not much leadership there.
What is jackie worried about?
A career politician with nothing but empty promises and a plan that only common core can support
Is Jackie denying he wrote the letter to Blagojevich?
Did he, or did he not write that letter?
Great question for the debate.
I believe the voters have a right to know.
This would be an excellent opportunity for Jackie to explain the situation.
One would think he would jump at the opportunity to set the record straight.
It should be asked of him in abstentia if he lacks the courage to show up.
Maybe moderate should be jackie’s stand in…
He could borrow Hillary’s earpiece
Jack Franks has never denied writing the February 27, 2003 letter to Governor Rod Blagojevich.
This from a July 2, 2008 Daily Herald article by John Patterson titled, “Blagojevich team: Gov.’s critic suggested family, pals for state jobs”:
“Franks said three of the 12 were appointed to posts or got a job, including his father, who was named to an unpaid post on the Illinois Courts Commission.”
++++++++
Actually 4 of the 12 were appointed to posts or got a job.
Herbert Franks – Illinois Courts Commission (father)
John Bartman – Local Liaison for McHenry County for the Illinois State Department of Transportation (IDOT). John Bartman is a former Chair of the McHenry County Democrat party, former Chair of the PAC for the McHenry County Democrat party, current union member, and current prevailing wage monitor for an IUOE Local 150 subsidiary Indiana Illinois Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting (IIIFFC, which is a prevailing wage monitoring organization).
Judge Erin O’Connell-Diaz – Illinois Commerce Commission
Bill Clow – Harvard School District
++++++++
It is not known what impact if any the letter had on those individuals receiving those positions.