My name is James McTague and I am running as a Democrat for the McHenry County Board in District One. Despite 2006 being my first run for elected office I came within nine percentage points of winning a County Board position. Originally I ran because I wanted to take a stand, along with other Democrats, who espouse progressive principles in the county and want to make sure you had a choice of elected officials; I still believe in this cause. The County Board, which collects your property taxes and decides how to spend it, supposedly for our collective benefit, has been dominated by the Republican Party for the last one hundred and fifty years. I heard from many of you during our last campaign about your irritation with the County Board’s lack of responsiveness to your issues including but not limited to conservation, transportation, water shed, land development and many many more.

In 2006 the first Democrat, Jim Kennedy, was elected to the County Board in over thirty years. Now that we have broken the total domination of the Board we still need to build on that success. The only Democrat on the County Board needs our support by increasing our progressive presence. How can a governmental system that does not even have a two party representation be expected to evenly and fairly weigh the concerns of all its citizens? Does the current County Board reflect and represent you? It does not represent me. Then I ask for your support in the coming election cycle.

I know many of you are frustrated with the County’s single party government, and as we have all heard many times before… “all politics is local.” I look forward to taking action to change the imbalance and misdirection of my government both on a federal and local level. How about you? What are you willing to do for you and your family’s future? Together we will create change in our community.