McHenry County Blog

In my first article about how McHenry County Metra chairman Jeff Ladd had come out of the mass transit arena the way he came in—calling for a tax hike—I wrote about the Crystal Lake debate with Jeff Ladd speaking in favor of the RTA referendum and all the legislators living in McHenry County speaking against it. (My second story--probably more balanced--on Ladd is here.)

Now, former State Senator Jack Schaffer (R-Cary), one of those legislators, has been named to replace Ladd on the Metra Board by the county board chairmen of Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will Counties. Only Will has a Democrat as chairman.

Is that irony or what?

Both the Chicago Tribune and the Northwest Herald did stories on the appointment.

Jack’s father worked for the Chicago and Northwestern and his billboard business was certainly assisted by that connection.

It is hard to think of a better person to serve on the Metra Board at this point in time.

After gaining control of all branches of state government in 2003, the Democrats have been salivating at the opportunity to take control of Chicagoland’s mass transit, the same way they took control of the tollway and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

(Has anyone noticed that McHenry County has received no major highway improvements, despite its massive increase in population?)

Jack knows the history of the RTA fight. The only Democrat left who was involved in the original fight is House Speaker Mike Madigan.

When the Democrats begin their next effort to grab mass transit power in the suburbs, Jack will be ready with appropriate and quotable comments.

He also will not be intimidated by RTA Chairman Jim Riley, who was a state representative while Schaffer was state senator. Riley is a Downstater transplanted from Jacksonville in the early 1980’s by Governor Jim Thompson to run McCormick Place and Navy Pier.

Schaffer will be paid $15,000 per year.
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Somewhere I have a color photograph of Jack from our 45th high school reunion last year but, instead of spending too much time trying to find it, I got the Secretary of State’s Office to provide this 1998 Blue Book black and white picture when Jack was Governor Jim Edgar’s Commissioner of Banks and Real Estate or whatever it was called then. It’s now a division of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.