McHenry County Blog

It’s difficult to figure out what is happening in Nunda Township, but there certainly seems to be a political war going on.

And the insurgents won the battle 14-6 with nine committeemen opting not to participate.

On Thursday night, Nunda Township Republican Chairman Nick Provenzano was ousted with the votes of new committeemen appointed by McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman Bill LeFew, a Harvard resident.

The newcomers have been identified as being active in the Operating Engineers Local 150 union.

Most, if not all, seem to have appointed by LeFew without traditional prior screening by the elected precinct committeemen from Nunda Township.

The appointments by LeFew also don’t seem to have been approved by a vote of the Central Committee.

Not that that is required by state law, but it is tradition in McHenry County.

Attorney Bernie Narusis, however, pointed out that the county GOP’s bylaws require “advice and consent” by LeFew’s committee.

And, in Nunda Township’s case, appointments have been suggested to the county GOP chairman after discussion and recommendation by the Nunda committeemen. Apparently this process was not made clear to the insurgents.

Prairie Grove’s Brent Smith, who was active in Louisiana politics as a young man, was the leader of the revolt. He was appointed to fill a vacancy in May of last year and is clearly unhappy about the performance of local Republicans in the fall election.

Also in May, Mark Dzemsko, Sandra Perdue and James Schlader of McHenry were appointed to fill slots no one ran for in the GOP primary election. Perdue has been a Republican Party stalwart for years.

No further appointments were made until after the fall general election.

In December, LeFew appointed Scott Rambatt of Wonder Lake, plus Tom Hughes, Jeff Peters, Ronald Schrader and Shawn Varvil of McHenry to fill empty precincts. Township Road Commissioner Don Kopsell also was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by Charlie Nelson’s move to McHenry.

LeFew must have thought the meeting was important, because he drove down from Harvard.

The newly appointed committeemen were described by one source as “a lot of union guys.”

Another person who provided me background information said,

It got way too personal. People throwing out stuff that had nothing to do with it.

One source said veteran Oakwood Hills Republican committeeman Narusis (who ran unsuccessfully for State's Attorney in 1964) observed that it was unprecedented for a county chairman to interfere in a township Republican organization’s internal politics, as LeFew was.

Narusis also wondered why the precinct vacancies were not filled before the election when it might have been helpful in the general election.

Provenzano was attacked for having received several hundred dollars from the David McSweeney campaign for helping set up fund raisers.

I’m told that Narusis retorted,

At least he was working for a Republican!

Perhaps he made that comment because two of the nine union member appointees previously voted in the Democratic Party primary.

Provenzano was automatically replaced by Vice Chairman Blake Hobson (whom I met and talked with at the Huntley Expo last Saturday).

I tried the get LeFew at his County Treasurer’s office Friday afternoon, but there was nothing but soft music on the line. Turns out the office was closed by the time I called at 3 P.M. Funny, I remember driving to work during the big 1967 snowstorm.

One of the ten committeemen who did not attend, told me,

I opted out of the ridiculousness.

Still, I wonder what the other Republican township chairman think.

Nunda Township runs from Crystal Lake Avenue north to southern McHenry and east to the McHenry-Lake County line.

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McHenry County Board Member Nick Provenzano picture is on the top right. Slightly below on the left is McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman and McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew. On the right well below Provenzano's photo is a picture of Bernard Narusis. The man on the bottom left is Nunda Township Republican Party Vice Chairman (now Acting Chairman) Blake Hobson.

Labels: Bernard Narusis, Bill LeFew, Blake Hobson, Brent Smith, McHenry County Republican Central Committee, Nick Provenzano, Nunda Township, Operating Engineers Local 150