McHenry County Blog

Without any significant newspaper coverage in McHenry County by the Northwest Herald or the Daily Herald, 16th district congressional candidate John Borling made hardly an impact on election day.

Borling tallied just 76 votes.

Another 93 don’t seem to be itemized. Perhaps the recipients did not register their candidacies, as has been required since Springfield politicians got tired of reading how many votes Mickey Mouse was receiving every election.

In percentage terms, Borling got 15/100ths of one percent of the vote, a far cry from what he achieved with his fall candidacy in the Rockford media market.

Although final results are not yet posted in Winnebago County and Rockford, 8.7% of the votes for congress were write-ins.

That certainly shows the power of the media, although remember that Rockford has three TV stations which covered Borling. Even good coverage by McHenry County's two daily newspapers would probably not have resulted in Borling's having reached an 8% level of support.

McHenry County Blog was the first in McHenry County to notice retired General Borling's candidacy. You can read my interview with him here. (It may have the only profanity that I have published, but it certainly made me smile.)

Incumbent Republican Don Manzullo won McHenry County with 2/3 of the votes.

I'm still wondering if Borling's write-in candidacy wasn't an first shot of an independent congressaional candidacy in 2008.