I hope you all are sitting down because we’ve been here before, but I swear as soon as Amazon approves the paperback version of ‘So You Want to Win a Local Election,’ it will go live likely as early as Saturday.

It’s gonna be priced a little higher than my business coach and I originally had in mind, but since it costs $33.50 to print a 400 page, 8.5 by 11 book with a number of color photographs, Amazon won’t let us sell it essentially below a $59.95 price.

But trust me! Thought I might be considered more than a bit biased, it’s well worth it. Campaign managers cost quite a bit more than that and this book covers absolutely every aspect of political campaigning in an outline format. Some of the chapters include:

• Why are you running?
• Pick a race you can win!
• The nominating paperwork
• You always need M.O.M. to win!
• Signs
• Social Media
• Targeting your voters
• The press

While other similar volumes provide generic big picture advice, ‘So You Want to Win a Local Election’ is actually a textbook with step-by-step instruction on how to run a successful local campaign.

“It’s gotta be a boring read,” you say? Au contraire! ‘So You Want to Win a Local Election’ employs more than a bit of that legendary Jeff Ward sense of humor and it’s peppered with “Real-world Examples” that not only entertain, but drive the main points home.

Some Kane County, Illinois politicians, might even find themselves in those short passages.

Put more simply, this is the most comprehensive book on local elections ever written. The Kindle and e-book versions will follow shortly!

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

While that proverb is a perfect illustration of what we’re about to discuss, for what it’s worth, I could’ve gone with a little Buffalo Springfield instead:

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong

The truth is, both passages accurately describe the State of the City of Elgin right now and it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

But if I had to pick the postulates that truly apply here and most deftly describe most underlying political dynamics, I’d resort to those Newtonian Laws of Motion with a little Aristotle thrown in for good measure:

1. A politician will either remain at rest or in a uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force.
2. For every political action, there is an equal and opposite political reaction.
3. Like nature, politics abhors a vacuum.

Of those three postulates, understanding the third is most critical to any successful political endeavor. To wit, the current inexplicable Elgin leadership vacuum will continue to have vast repercussions for years to come.

Just like our lack of a nail allegory, the abject absence of any visible support for Elgin Police Lieutenant Chris Jensen, or the kind of leadership required to craft and stick to a reasonable message in regard to the tragic Decynthia Clements shooting, has created the kind of vacuum that has all sorts of political factions rushing in.

And that kind of reactionary politics is never a good thing.

It means you’ve completely lost control of the situation, and by “control,” I mean what you can control, like your response to what you can’t control. It’s a subtle but very important political concept.

First, Mayor David Kaptain never should have allowed Elgin City Council meetings to turn into keening sessions – by either side. I’m convinced he thought that by allowing folks to vent, it would ameliorate the rawest emotions but that only works when your husband leaves the toilet seat up at night, not for racially charged issues like this one.

Both the U-46 School Board and the Kane County Board have adopted rules stipulating if you’re simply going to say the same thing the last speaker just said, it’s a pointless waste of everyone’s time. Letting absolutely everyone speak on the Jensen question certainly hasn’t made the situation any better.

Second, especially in light of the reasonable reaction – by both sides – to the Cook County State’s Attorney clearing Jenson in early March, the City should’ve unequivocally declared he’d be back and that would’ve stopped the bleeding. They could’ve noted that his new role would be somewhat determined by the results of the pending internal investigation.

But no! Because the Elgin City bird should clearly be the ostrich, their head in the sand messaging methodology – where’s City Manager Rick Kozal? – created another vacuum allowing the anti-Jensen folks to rush in in the form of a 1,600-signature petition demanding his head and a billboard asking for “Justice for Decynthia.”

In turn, the Mayor’s and City’s failure to effectively respond to that message by offering even a modicum of support for Jensen produced yet another vacuum which saw the local Police Benevolent and Protective Association rush in with their own pro-Jensen Billboard.

So now, both sides are taking the competing billboards personally and all hell broke loose on social media complete with name calling, threats, absurd declarations, and a general failure to even begin to consider logic and reason. And that’s just a microcosmic harbinger of what’s to come in Elgin.

With the 2021 city council campaign season a scant year away, you can bet your bottom dollar both sides are mobilizing to take over the city council, and those kinds of bitter personal political campaigns and agendas never work out in a city’s best interest.

And it’s a particularly tragic turn at a time when Elgin is making real economic strides. So, a beyond contentious 2021 election and a fractured city council is the last thing the city needs.

But what really frosts my flakes is, all that was necessary to prevent this eminently predictable spiral into the abyss was for the City Manager to have the cojones to reinstate Jensen immediately after the CCSAO’s ruling. That’s when that political capital was at its highest. But no! Kozal has been scarcer than Waldo and that opportunity has passed.

And it’s about to get a lot worse, too.

My sources tell me Jensen will be back sometime in the fall, but he’ll be relegated to desk work for the rest of his EPD tenure. Ah yes! The proverbial horse designed by a committee always turns out to be a camel.

Am I the only one who realizes this is NOT a circumstance that demands compromise? With three separate agencies clearing him of any criminal charges, either you bring him back or you don’t, and if you don’t, then you suffer the legal consequences. Anything else is a chickenbleep response. Any football player will tell you the prevent defense doesn’t prevent a damn thing.

Whatever happened to doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do? Did you get elected to make the difficult calls or simply to stay elected? And let me tell ya, when Jeff Ward is the adult in the room, that really says something, doesn’t it?

“For want of a nail?” That describes Elgin to a T.

Yes! In their inimitable wisdom, or perhaps after a week-long bender, the Illinois Supreme Court summarily decided that all civil lawsuits must be electronically filed. Their theory, they said, was to increase court access particularly for those folks who couldn’t afford an attorney.

Perhaps if, like a gift, it was the thought that counts, you’d have to give those justices credit for their foresight. But when you take the e-filing execution into account, it quickly becomes a case of the cure being far worse than the disease.

So, with my complete sexual harassment document FOIA denial civil complaint in hand, I availed myself of the online Odyssey System only to be thoroughly confused.

The first problem is the multiple-choice dialog boxes scroll so poorly that you can’t read all of the possibilities. But even if you could, the answers are concocted in the kind of legal terms that most pro se litigants wouldn’t begin to understand.

I did correctly guess the complaint category and subcategory, but I still had attorney Jeff Meyer on the phone to ensure I didn’t go too far astray as there was yet more legalese in the offing! I did try to sue myself at one point, which would’ve been a fascinating proposition, but I eventually managed to name the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office as the “respondent.”

But then Jeff had me upload what we thought was the wrong file, and with no way of retracing our electronic steps, I had to start the process all over again.

This time, upon attempting to upload the right file, the system said it wouldn’t accept any complaint over 15 megabytes. Enforcing brevity on lawyers? How the hell did they ever get away with that one? So, I resorted to a system chat with Shawn who told me the only option was to restart the process a third time with a smaller complaint file.

So, with a dutifully compressed the PDF file in hand, the third e-file attempt was, indeed, the charm. Here’s the stamped copy of that lawsuit:

Stamped Civil FOIA Complaint

But let me tell ya, all those bumps in the road weren’t nearly as bad as having to fork over $377.61 just for the privilege of suing the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Hey! Illinois Supreme Court! If you really want to give court access a boost, how about doing away with the kind of absurd entry fees that price justice well beyond what so many Illinoisians can afford? Granted, the KCSAO will have to pay those fees when I beat them – again – but I still have to front that cash to get the ball rolling.

Entities like the KCSAO know those fees can be cost prohibitive and they tend to take advantage of that reality.

On the good side, a mere two hours after completing the e-filing, the Kane County Circuit Clerk’s Office accepted the complaint and responded with that officially stamped copy. Now, we’ll see if Civil Division head Joe Lulves will waive service so I don’t have to shell out yet more money on a process server.

Once service has been established, it’s up to the KCSAO to respond to the lawsuit. As I previously indicated, I’ll keep you posted!

One of the “joys” of turning 60 is the imminent prospect of staring your own mortality squarely in the eye. In that very vein, that plan to live forever notwithstanding, my wife and I just had our will done.

You’d think it would have been a somewhat sobering experience, but it turned out to be a rather fascinating proposition right down to bequeathing my vast superhero statue collection to one of my favorite Facebook friends.

There was an element of humor to it, too! When it came time to discuss what medical interventions might be applied to keep us alive, without hesitation, I declared, “Pull the plug,” and I made it clear that should be the case even in the case of mental incapacitation.

I have to say I was a little dismayed by how quickly my wife agreed to that course of action, but all things considered, can you really blame her?

Before y’all get too excited, that end-of-life determination must be made by my wife and a medical professional – not my “adoring throng.” So, any reader petition drive in that regard would be patently pointless. The plan continues to be to stick around and torture you for as long as I possibly can.

Put more simply, I have absolutely no interest in lingering in a persistent vegetative state because some things truly are worse than death. And one of those things would most certainly be walking in Elgin Police Lieutenant Chris Jensen’s current shoes.

I understand that, because justice is blind, she tends to bump into a lot of things in her quest for the truth, but Lt. Jensen has been on administrative since Decynthia Clements was shot and killed at that fateful I-90 traffic stop on March 12, 2018.

That adds up to 16 months, 2 days, and 9.5 hours, which is far too long to leave someone twisting in the wind. That’s especially true when you consider both the Illinois State Police and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office cleared Jensen of any possible criminal charges back in early March.

Sure, the private consultant’s investigation found that Jensen violated some minor department protocol, but those “offenses,” even if combined, don’t nearly amount to a case for termination. All we’re talking about is a letter of reprimand or a brief suspension.

So, what the bleep is the City of Elgin waiting for, a sign from God? Sorry! But that kinda thing only happens in Blues Brothers movies. Reinstate Lt Jensen NOW! Three separate independent and unbiased agencies ruled the shooting was justified and that’s the only thing that really matters.

But at this bleepin’ drawn out point, it appears as if Elgin is trying to stave off the inevitable by dragging their feet. C’mon! You know it’s gonna hurt when you finally yank that sticky bandage off, so just do it quickly and get it over with.

Then the City seems bent on placating the vocal minority who’d place Jensen’s head on the end of a pike regardless of any investigatory findings. But that kind of appeasement is beyond futile. The mob won’t settle for anything less than blood and nothing’s going to change that.

Those folks refuse to believe the City Council and Mayor lack the power to fire Jensen. They refuse to believe the three agencies that cleared him. And they refuse to believe that, if fired, especially in light of Councilmen Tish Powell’s and Cory Dixon’s determined decision to ignore good legal advice and open their mouths at every turn, Jensen will win a hefty settlement AND get his job back.

Remember what happened when Elgin fired officer Jason Lentz for unforgivably racist social media posts? He’s back on the job, isn’t he? And the longer this “investigation” drags on, the worse the rabble’s reaction will be at the inevitable reinstatement result.

The late 49’ers coach Bill Walsh’s described a fascinating team dynamic in his book on leadership, ‘The Score Takes Care of Itself,’ and it applies to any group effort. He said that, on a reasonably functioning football team, 80 percent of players love the coach and 20 percent don’t regardless of external influences like wins and losses.

Walsh said the problem was, if the 20 percent were allowed to peddle their poison unchecked, it would start to infect the 80 percent, and the team would rapidly descend into dysfunction. The solution was to silence or rotate those disgruntled folks off the team.

Similarly, because Elgin is either incapable of or simply refuses to frame the message correctly, the anti-Jensen minority – and it is a minority – is gaining momentum. Not only is there now an Elgin billboard calling for Jensen’s head, but a community activist group submitted a 1,600-signature petition demanding he be fired.

Those signers may amount to a mere 1.4 percent of all Elgin residents, but it’s another sign that the “infection” is growing and Elgin is losing the messaging battle. That, of course, begs the question, where are Mayor David Kaptain and Communications Manager Molly Center?

Kaptain can be a formidable communicator when he chooses to apply that skill, while Center is the least effective municipal communications manager I’ve ever met. There’s never been a better time for the Mayor to step in, and if Center can’t frame a reasonable message when it’s beyond critical to do so, perhaps she’s better suited to another gig.

Now the City is talking about a discussion of the consultant’s finding before Jensen’s disposition is determined, which is only going to allow the wound to further fester. As our Italian friends would likely interject, “basta!”

Elgin! With the handwriting clearly on the wall, reinstate Lt. Jensen NOW and let’s bring this sad chapter in Elgin’s long history to a reasonable conclusion. If disciplinary measures are required as result of the procedural lapses, then do it. But don’t waste any more of our or Jensen’s time on meaningless discussions that won’t change anyone’s mind.

There’s nothing worse than a slow death by 1,000 cuts, so stop the bleeding.

My preeminent intention was to stay out of this one in the fervent hope that cooler heads would prevail and it would all work out exactly as it should. Silly me! Though no one could ever accuse me of harboring idealist tendencies, wouldn’t you think after thirteen years at the keyboard I’d finally realize the opportunity to pander to your political constituency is an even more powerful proposition than the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy?

Still, hope does spring eternal.

Most of my beloved Aurorans are well aware of the ongoing kerfuffle between Mayor Richard Irvin and the fine folks at the Wayside Cross Ministries at 215 E. New York Street. For those who aren’t, it started back in February when, according to the Mayor, the City opened a “conversation” with Wayside regarding the 19 child sex offenders residing at the facility.

You see, employing a cell phone app, some of the neighborhood rabble discovered the Wayside building fell within the 500-foot radius of McCarty Park, which means those 19 residents are in violation of a state law prohibiting sex offenders from living that close to a school, park, or daycare.

But that not-quite public dispute didn’t reach a fever pitch until paroled Ripper Crew member, Thomas Kokoraleis, was admitted into Wayside. That’s when the bovine excrement hit the rotating air-propulsion device and the rabble immediately resorted to their social media torches and pitchforks in an effort to get Aurora to remove the sex offenders.

Never one to miss an opportunity to pander to the loudest of those City of Lights voices, on June 26, Mayor Irvin, through the Aurora Police, ordered Wayside to remove those 19 men within 30 days. “Our effort and priority is the protection of our children,” Irvin told the media, “Especially in proximity to the park where the children regularly play.”

First, despite the Mayor’s personal assurances to the contrary, my sources tell me McCarty Park ain’t exactly the kind of place where young children regularly frolic. But for argument’s sake, let’s say the Mayor is right, and the park isn’t a haven for drug dealers, drug users and hookers. That doesn’t mean this misguided move will make Aurora’s children any safer. In fact, it will do just the opposite.

Please allow me to explain.

In their unrelenting pursuit of more votes, Illinois politicians created the previously mentioned ridiculous 500-foot rule fully understanding it was nothing more than a feel-good maneuver. Anyone with half a brain knows no sexual predator would be stupid enough to show up at a playground or school, grab a child, and abuse them – particularly one in close proximity to their residence.

C’mon! Where would the police go first?

The problem is, because the press tends to hyper-cover those eminently rare child kidnappings, the rabble tends to believe that’s how it works. So, the stranger-danger myth persists.

But the truth is, in 85 to 95 percent of child sexual abuse cases, the predator, a family member or someone known to the family, first gains the trust of the parents and then starts “grooming” the child before they finally strike. If “successful,” the abuse can go on for years.

So, when the Mayor finally kicks these men out of a religious institution that truly keeps tabs on them – individuals who were 90 percent likely to have been sexually abused as children themselves – where will they go? Small group homes and seedy apartments where they’ll have little or no supervision? And they won’t have each other as a de facto support group anymore, either.

Instead of residing in one very manageable location, those 19 individuals will simply scatter into the wind putting the children of Aurora at a far greater risk. And Mayor Irvin damn well knows this, but doing the right thing doesn’t always get you votes, now does it?

Though he refused to give me an on-the-record quote, Mayor Irvin argued the City had no choice but to follow the letter of the law. Really? Because when it comes to any potential local ICE raids, the Mayor made it abundantly clear that the APD would not cooperate with that agency in any way, shape, or form.

Why? Because it would be political suicide to support ICE in municipality that’s 43 percent Hispanic. Ironically, the only positive thing Donald Trump has managed to accomplish is getting our Latino brothers and sisters to finally vote.

Put more simply, Mayor Irvin follows the letter of the law only when it falls in line with his ambitions.

Some other sources told me the City and Mayor may have their eye on the Wayside building and they want to force the group out for financial reasons. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if the building inspectors started showing on a more than usual basis?

I also reached out to APD Chief Kristen Ziman in this regard, someone I generally hold in the highest esteem, but she refused to respond. I reminded her that, as far as letter-of-the-law arguments go, a plethora of statutes remain on the books that, if enforced, would make being gay patently illegal. But those statutes are generally ignored because our police departments correctly apply a more-than-reasonable discretion.

And that’s exactly what the APD should be doing here.

But here the real kick in the fricken’ kiester! In an era of artificial and convenient Christianity that somehow allows the “faithful” to support a bleep like Donald Trump, Wayside Cross Ministries is actually doing their best to adhere to what truly is a tough standard.

When Jesus said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers,” I don’t recall him adding caveats like “unless we’re talking about child molesters or murderers.” He made no exceptions because there are none. So, when the folks at Wayside take in these difficult individuals, they truly are doing God’s work, which is a lot more than I can say for the Mayor, the Chief, and the Aurorans who would so casually throw these men out.

Trust me! I’ve been toiling at the keyboard long enough to know when I write, “Because they enforce the law, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office firmly believes they’re above it,” some of you chuckle and say to yourself, “There goes Jeff Ward with the hyperbole again!”

I will be the first to admit that I’m not nearly averse to the auspicious application of embellishment, but the truth is, the KCSAO is a proposition that requires no exaggeration whatsoever.

To wit, a full 19 days after the Attorney General told them to turn over 255 pages of sexual harassment complaints against just one former prosecutor, I finally received a response from Civil Division head Joe Lulves. Just as I predicted, citing the same sad  stipulations the AG already struck down, the KCSAO remains steadfast in their refusal to abide by the law.

I can almost understand another elected official trying this kind of bleep, but the state’s attorney’s office? Aren’t they the very individuals tasked with upholding the standard they’re supposed to set for the rest of us?

Here’s Lulves’ final response to the AG upholding my FOIA request appeal:

Lulves Final Response

Please note his argument it’s not materially different from his previous FOIA denial responses. He cites the same statutes, the same precedent, and the same internal policies that the Attorney General’s Office already overruled in their lengthy eight-page ruling.

He did manage to add a few inconsequential new twists at the end, but as any competent attorney knows, the time to make your argument is during the trial. The appeal process is reserved for determining the efficacy of that argument.

If that weren’t the case, the KCSAO could simply change their position every time they lose a FOIA appeal sending the requester right back to square one. Lulves regularly brags that his office is FOIA-proof and that’s exactly how he does it.

So, when Lulves encouraged me to go back to the Public Access Counselor in his latest denial letter, I wanted to shout, “Joe! Did you miss the fact that I already appealed your illegal FOIA refusal and won?”

To be fair, in an obvious effort to placate me, Lulves did release a letter of reprimand issued by Joe McMahon to the former prosecutor involved. So, now I’m the proud recipient of two pages and one sentence out of a 255-page sexual harassment file the AG asked them to turn over.

You can read that reprimand right here:

FOIA response

And the reason they released that letter is, at first glance, it appears as if they actually did something about this prosecutor. But Joe Lulves made a point of saying it was “the only written disciplinary documentation,” finally coming after the problem had persisted for more than five years and at least four female ASA’s quit as a result of the harassment. And what was McMahon’s amazing answer? To move that prosecutor’s office away from one of his victims.

Be still my beating heart! Who knew that making them walk an extra ten yards would be an effective sexual harassment deterrent!

We also now know the prosecutor got away with it because, in McMahon’s own words, he was “a very talented lawyer and a valuable employee in the office.” I guess McMahon feels that women are expendable! Anything for a higher conviction rate, right Joe?

And doesn’t it really say something that out of those 255 pages, only two of them contain any sort of disciplinary action?

So now, after nine long months, we’re finally to the point where most newspapers and journalists would be forced to give up. They’d realize the court system would be their only option and the legal process takes the kind of time and financial resources that local newspapers no longer have.

And Joe Lulves knows that.

But as my adoring throng already knows, I have a propensity to be a little more persistent. Ironically, as a result of the KCSAO’s efforts to silence me, I’ve learned how to write reasonable complaints and motions. I also understand the Kane County court system better than most attorneys, which really isn’t setting the bar too high when you consider most Kane County attorneys.

Of course, there’s no way of escaping the horse manure $350 “tax” attorneys have to pay just to walk into a civil courtroom, but we certainly have to keep our judges in the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed, don’t we?

So, with yours truly coughing up the cash and doing most of the legal groundwork, and with attorney Jeff Meyer ready to provide the courtroom argument, trust me, a judge will eventually order the KCSAO to release every last page of those complaints and they will subsequently be posted right here.

Meanwhile, please understand that this is exactly who Joe McMahon and Joe Lulves are. They can offer all sorts of halcyon platitudes about their KCSAO tenure, but their final legacy will be the kind of beyond the pale arrogance that would have them believe they’re somehow better than the rest of us.

The truth is, they’re far worse than the people they successfully prosecute.

The bottom line is, in the words of that late, great philosopher, Tom Petty, “I won’t back down.” And wouldn’t you think Joe Lulves would get a little tired of me consistently beating him?

Let’s move on to the second installment in our two-part series on soon-to-be-departing Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon.

While the kind of KCSAO issues we discussed last week certainly aren’t unique to any particular political office, what baffles me most is the insistent incompetence on the part of the civil division.

Their utter failure to effectively defend Kane County against any lawsuit is so far beyond the pale that it’s inexplicable. This deficiency culminated in millions of dollars being paid to Maxxam Partners as a result of failing to provide the County Board with reasonable legal counsel pertaining to the incoming Campton Hills rehab center.

As a result of that malpractice – no other word works – the County’s lawsuit liability insurance just doubled. Guess who’ll be paying for that preposterous premium increase every bleepin’ year?

To make matters much worse, for an encore, the Civil Division incorrectly constructed and failed to accurately review an AFSCME labor union contract that will cost Kane County taxpayers an unexpected $1.2 million.

The thing is, some of Civil Division head Joe Lulves’ detractors still say he’s a good attorney, but if you’re unwilling to apply those skills, then it’s even worse than being a bad one.

Let’s not forget about the general arrogance.

After Daniel Rak was acquitted of murdering his father in 2017, the KSCAO continued to post newspaper articles detailing those charges on their taxpayer-funded Facebook page as if the trial never occurred. Despite both myself and an expert trial witnesses explaining that it was blatant libel, the KCSAO persisted in the practice.

And the reason they did is because they knew Rak didn’t have the cash to mount an appropriate lawsuit. It’s yet another stunning failure on the part of our prosecutors to abide by the same law they’re sworn to uphold. They fervently believe that, because they enforce the law, it doesn’t apply to them.

But McMahon’s biggest lapse was the virtual lack of any response to the sexual harassment scandal that proceeded right under his nose. We’ve previously discussed the “Welcoming Committee,” a group of male prosecutors who competed to “date” their newly hired female compatriots.

Then, despite an Attorney General ruling in my favor, The First Ward is still battling to get 255 pages of unredacted sexual harassment complaints against just one former prosecutor. Between being regularly berated and/or harassed by their male supervisors, the number of female ASA’s who resigned as a result is more than a bit staggering.

We’ll cover Lulves’ and the KCSAO’s most recent response to the Attorney General’s directive on Wednesday. Let’s just say they’re using the same sad arguments to completely ignore the ruling and continue to withhold the documents. Attorney Jeff Meyer and I will have to take them to court to force their hand.

To summarize, what are the real reasons McMahon’s fleeing a sinking ship after 10 years in office? That’s easy:

1. He has a real opponent

I’ve briefly spoken with current state’s attorney candidate Jamie Mosser, and she’s an impressive individual who understands how Kane County elections work. That means McMahon would have to mount a real campaign for the first time in his life and he has no interest in that much work or knocking on the thousands of doors a Democrat-leaning 2020 race will require.

2. His relationships with the Chairman and County Board are irretrievable

It goes back to McMahon’s all-encompassing political obliviousness. Every single one of his board battles became an unnecessary self-inflicted wound, and when those spats, particularly the union contract fiasco, finally pushed the board past the tipping point, being state’s attorney quickly lost its luster.

3. Being forced to produce the sexual harassment complaints

Though McMahon and Lulves will stand in my way every step of the way, per the Attorney General’s ruling, they know a Kane County judge will force them to release the complaints well before the 2020 election. And when even the AG’s office referred to some of that content as “salacious,” those revelations would have made it very difficult for McMahon to win reelection. Investigative journalism, when properly applied, still has merit!

So, what’s our State’s Attorney going to do going forward?

Some folks say he’s aiming for Judge Katherine Moran’s soon-to-be vacated seat, but an associate judge has to consistently be on call, work weekends, and perform marriages, and that ain’t Joe McMahon. Put more simply, an associate judgeship would not afford him the capacity to set his own hours like being the state’s attorney does.

My best guess is he’ll try to parlay the press from the Van Dyke prosecution into a lucrative downtown Chicago law firm gig.

But as far as McMahon’s “integrity, professionalism, and commitment” declaration goes? Those are the three words that least describe his ten-year tenure. It’s time for the Kane County voters to elect an outsider who will attack the rampant dysfunction and return the office to some semblance of the standard set by his predecessor John Barsanti.