Tryon gets third term at helm of McHenry County GOP

After being chosen to lead McHenry County Republicans for a third, 2-year term on Wednesday night, state Rep. Mike Tryon exhorted precinct committeemen to support — regardless of personal preference — all Republican candidates in the general election.

Mark Daniel, a Nunda Township precinct committeeman who lives in unincorporated Crystal Lake, was elected as the new vice chairman of the McHenry County Republican Central Committee at the biannual McHenry County Republican convention held at D’Andrea Banquets and Conference Center in Crystal Lake. About 60 elected precinct committeemen were in attendance.

Former vice chairman Kathy Kuchta is no longer active with the party and decided not to run again, officials said.

Earlier in the evening, Daniel was also elected chairman for the Nunda Township Republican Central Committee.

Also re-elected to their third terms with the McHenry County Republican Central Committee were secretary Glenda Miller of Harvard and treasurer Fred Wickham of Crystal Lake.

Tryon, of Crystal Lake, is a former McHenry County Board chairman who was elected in 2005 to his post in Springfield.

“It is time for us to come back together. There are people who won (in the primary) that you are happy about, and people who won who you are not,” Tryon said. “We don’t want precinct committeemen who are going to work for only one candidate, or some candidates (...). With the power to appoint comes the power to un-appoint, and I intend to follow through on that.”

“This will be a very difficult election. This won’t be a cakewalk, it won’t be easy,” Wickham said of the November election. “We need to bring everybody together. This includes Spanish-Americans, the women’s groups, the patriots, the Tea Party. Everyone we can find to get active and be passionate about this election.”

In the March 20 primary, voter turnout in McHenry County was a paltry 19.72 percent, with a total of 39,242 people casting their ballots, McHenry County Clerk Katherine Schultz said. Of those ballots, 33,268 were Republican, 5,585 were Democrats, 347 were nonpartisan and 42 were Green Party ballots, she said.