Part 2: A Primary Election Day Wrap-up: Future Projections

Read Part 1: A Primary Election Day Wrap-up (Here & Now)

Local Races

On first glance, my record of wins looks to be a definite mark against me in my ability to judge candidates. All of my endorsed candidates lost their races, with the exception of David Barkhausen, who defeated Rick Lesser in the Lake County Board District 13 contest.

Other factors, however, were in play that helped eek out victories for Lauren Turelli (District 58) and Steven Newton (Lake County Coroner) over my endorsed candidates, Dr. Mark Neerhof and Dr. Howard Cooper, who I thought were better equipped to go up against their Democrat challengers in November.

The results of the Primary Elections only strengthened my pre-election assessments of Turelli and Newton. Both will face uphill battles in their quests to win in November over the very strong candidates Democrats have chosen to pit against them.

Regarding Neerhof with his background in medicine, this asset alone made him the ideal replacement for retiring Karen May. There is presently no doctor in the Illinois House. Neerhof would have been able to bring his expertise as a physician to much needed Medicaid Reform, without which Illinois will continue to sink further and further into complete financial ruin.

Going up against Turelli in November is Democrat Scott Drury. Newton will face Democrat Dr. Thomas Rudd, a Lake Forest Hospital pathologist. Both are strong candidates who will be defending positions already held by Democrats, a definite plus for the candidacies of Drury and Rudd. 

It is certain that Turelli's challenger will bring up her insistence that she was awarded a Cambridge University degree in England when documented facts on hand prove otherwise. Having heard Drury speak at Candidate Voter forums, he is more than capable of holding his own against Turelli.

Regarding the battle for Lake County Coroner, Newton doesn't seem to stand a chance against Rudd, who won over his Democrat incumbent Artis Yancy.  Like Yancy, who was favored by the Democrat establishment, Turelli was the pick of the Republican establishment. 

Dr. Rudd will air Newton’s baggage in the run up to November's general election, which the Newton campaign refuted when facing Cooper in the primary.

The in-control Republican establishment in Lake County will most likely regret the day come November when early on it decided to throw its support, power, and money behind candidates Turelli and Newton in its attempt to seize back from Democrat control the District 58 House seat and the Office of Coroner.  Yet I wish them both well in their respective races. May "Lady Luck" be with them.

I really didn't have a direct connection to the results of the County Board District 12 race between Scott Helton and the former mayor of Lake Forest, Mike Rummel. As a resident of Lake Bluff, I voted on the District 13 race between Barkhausen and Lesser.

Being acquainted with Helton, however, I did feel he would have brought much-needed workplace accessing skills, etc., to the Lake County Board, if elected in November.

Regarding the November elections, the Republican voter turn out of registered Republicans on Primary Election Day was dismal at 24 percent (the lowest in 70 years), which doesn't bode well for positive results come November. 

Voter apathy was most likely in play. Were voters turned off with negative campaigning by their local candidates?

Presidential Race

Most likely many Republican and conservative voters were not pleased with the way presidential candidate Mitt Romney came into Illinois to carpet bag the state with millions of dollars of ads -- which lacked accuracy given the situations Rick Santorum faced when making the votes Romney targeted -- to convince conservative voters that he (Romney) really is a conservative rather than the moderate that he is?

This mode of operation in states prior to Illinois where Romney has outspent other candidates 7 to 1, and which promises to continue as Romney moves on to other states, is upsetting to Republican base voters who Romney needs to win in November. 

I am not political savvy enough to know if Romney can heal the wounds he has created with his base in what amounts to buying his way to the top Republican position to become the candidate to go up against President Barack Obama in November.

Even if conservative voters are able to consolidate behind Romney because he represents anyone but Obama, it is doubtful whether there will be sufficient enthusiasm for the work needed at the ground level throughout the nation to propel Romney to victory. (It matters not in Illinois even with a Romney win, because Illinois is Obamaland and Obama country.).

One thing I do know, if Republican voter apathy continues into November, this nation may well be in deep trouble with the election of Obama to a second term.

Obama's promotion of green energy while disregarding the massive, as-of-yet untapped energy resources located in the U.S., and his determination to have Obamacare take effect in 2013, will result in a piling on of even more debt for future generations, more unemployment, less prosperity, and the continued loss of our freedom to choose what we want and when we want it, and not what the government tells us we should have and when.