Part 2: Republican Candidates for Lake County Board, District 13

Part 2 of a 5-part Series: Read Part 1

The Republican nomination for the Lake County Board District 12 seat features two Lake Bluffers who served together for the past eight years on the Lake Bluff Village Board of Trustees: and .   

One of them will be chosen March 20 as the Republican nominee to replace retiring Susan Gravenhorst, who has served her 13th District well as its County Board member. 

At first I was at a total impasse over whether my own vote should go to  Barkhausen or Lesser. My quandary was: Barkhausen is the precinct committeeman in the Shields Township precinct next to my own in Lake Bluff. In our elected, but non-paid positions, we attend the same scheduled precinct meetings and other Republican events. Lesser is known to me only through casual meets-up as residents of Lake Bluff.  

With this in mind, I went door-to-door collecting petition signatures for both Barkhausen and Lesser when asked, as part of a necessary process to getting their names on the upcoming primary ballot as County Board candidates.

My first chance to listen and evaluate how Barkhausen and Lesser responded when asked specific questions came  

I left with the distinct impression that Barkhausen's responses were far more specific and to-the-point than were those made by Lesser. Barkhausen also shared ideas that the County Board might benefit from that are posted on his website.

As with the negative campaign being conducted by the Lauren Turelli camp against Dr. Mark Neerhof in the 58th House District, the same has broken out in the Barkhausen/Lesser County Board race. There is a mud slinging activity by the Lesser camp against challenger Barkhausen. 

Why I am appalled with the mudslinging against Barkhausen is that it's of a personal nature, and, if not rebutted, threatens to sully Barkhausen's reputation in his hometown and in Republican political circles. The Lesser camp is not going after Barkhausen on issues or on how he might have voted, but about pension exaggerations. 

Recently I received a mass mailer paid for by "Friends of Rich Lesser," which took Barkhausen to task by accusinghim of being a "Government Pension Triple-Dipper. The mailer further claimed "Barkhausen had collected over $1.5 million of your tax dollars as a professional potitician."  

In order to set the record straight, knowing the importance of a good reputation, I contacted Barkhausen to check out the allegations cited on the mass mailer. In Barkhausen's own words:

"This is not true! I receive a pension for my legislative service and a small additional increment for prior and subsequesnt service as a state employee. I do not receive three pensions as Lesser's mailer states. I am not entitled to a pension for my role as township clerk and turned down the partial health insurance coverage that the prior clerk received. The small salary is the same as it was 15 years ago, and, without my serving in that role with the trustees I helped to elect, the property tax for the township would not have been cut by 30 percent." 

Regarding the quoted statement from Lesser on the same mass disputed mailer, "Rick Lesser will not accept a pension for his service as a Member of the Lake County board," Barkhausen responded, "I honestly don't know if that's possible."

In addition to the false pension claims by the Lesser camp, there was yet another unaccepted and highly deplorable communication sent out by Jay Krasne (a former candidate in District 12 and now a Lesser surrogate) to precinct committeemen who professed support for Barkhausen. 

This communication amounted to an even greater attack on Barkhausen's integrity than did the pension allegations. It was designed to leave the impression that Barkhausen had been implicated in an investigation conducted by former Attorney General (and Blagojevich's Senatorial appointee) Roland Burris now 19 years in the past.   

The allegation-based mailing (made by an ex-employee who Barkhausen had to terminate for non-performance) accused Barkhausen of using government money to pay for office equipment used in his business.

The Krasne-Lesser mailing failed to mention that following an extensive investigation lasting almost three years and countless subpoenas of Barkhausen’s office and personal records, his ex-employee's allegations were proven to be false.   

I am privy to a PDF file that details Barkhausen's office equipment purchases during the period in question showing that out of $20,308.30 spent on office equipment during the time period in question, he paid $17,815.53 of the total cost with his own funds including equipment that was frequently used to conduct state business.

The three-year investigation by Attorney General Roland Burris led to the following conclusions:

1. Barkhausen paid for 88 percent of the equipment costs of both offices out of his own pocket.
2. Barkhausen used much of his own personal business equipment for State business.
3. Barkhausen managed his office account so efficiently that he was able to return 23 percent of his office budget back to the State of Illinois in the year prior to the start of the investigation.

Accordingly, there was no basis to prosecute or to file a civil suit to recover money. Given these facts, it is disgraceful and utterly shameful that Lesser would poison the political climate of our close-knit community by seeking to make a negative issue of this nearly 20-year-old investigation which cleared Barkhausen.

On the subject of Winchester House nursing home, when attending a Shields Township Republican Precinct Committeemen's meeting last November, I heard a number of candidates speak in the hope of winning the endorsements of the committeemen. County Board District 12 candidates were at the meeting to introduce themselves.

At the meeting, Lesser agreed with Barkhausen's reservations about the County spending $40 million on a new Winchester House, given the expert position of the former director of the Lake County Department of Health that there is plenty of space in private (including not-for-profit) nursing homes to accommodate those who need this care.  

Lesser seems to have flip flopped on the subject of Winchester House. In the March 8 issue of the Lake  Forester, Lesser said he differed with Barkhausen and offered that it would be a "bad idea" to do anything other than rebuild Winchester. 

In checking the voter referendum of the last time the County Board asked for a property tax increase for Winchester House, it lost by an overwhelmingly 9,000 votes, as reported at the time on March 9, 1988 in the the Waukegan News-Sun.  

I have in hand a copy of the 1988 News-Sun article, but was unsuccessful in finding its link after so many years have passed. The article's headline reads: "Winchester tax defeated." The first paragraph of the article states: "Lake County residents said no Tuesday -- by a margin of nearly 9,000 votes -- to a tax rate increase for the deficit-stricken Winchester House, the county's extended care facility in Libertyville."

The checkered history of Winchester House can be read at the

It has been questioned whether Lesser tailored (flip-flopped) his position on Winchester House to appease the interests of the public employee's union, which is not a good omen for already overburdened property taxpayers. 

Voters are able to take into consideration the following examples of Barkhausen's pro-taxpayer accomplishment:    

• As a State senator, Barkhausen co-sponsored the Illinois Property Tax Cap law and helped keep the state income tax at its previous 3% level (This is  a  far cry from the largest personal and business income tax increases put in place in 2011 by Governor Quinn.).

• As clerk of Shields Township, Barkhausen has led the trustees to cut the Township budget and reduce the property tax levy by 30 percent.

• As a member of the Lake Bluff Village Board, Barkhausen chaired the finance committee where budgets were balanced during hard economic times, which earned Lake Bluff its first Triple AAA credit rating.  Unlike the other Village trustees, Lesser never attended a finance committee meeting.

• As an attorney, Barkhausen volunteered his services in filing a successful property tax objection suit against the previous Shields Township Highway Commissioner and Board for approving two property tax levies that exceeded the Illinois Property Tax Cap by 80 percent and 30 percent. This resulted in a refund of about $400,000 to the taxpayers.

Lesser's website informed me that he is not a politician. One might then ask how Lesser managed to get himself elected to all the positions that he mentions he’s held on his website, including to the Village Board?

As I stated before, experience does count for something, especially when it includes the kind of pro-taxpayer record that Barkhausen has compiled. 

Barkhausen seems to have the experience to deal with issues he'll face if elected to District 13, which was evident to many who attended the Candidate Forum in February. There was no stumbling or hesitation when answering questions submitted by those in attendance. Barkhausen's answers further reflected his vast reservoir of experience and knowledge in facing issues and solving problems.

For this and for reasons already stated, Barkhausen is certainly deserving of your vote. 

Next: Part 3 - Louise Hayes, as a Lake Bluffer, rates above Mike Nerheim and Bryan Winter for the Republican nomination in the Lake County State's Attorney race.