Endorsement: Gottemoller as GOP candidate for first elected chairman of McHenry County Board
This year, for the first time in McHenry County's 180-year history, its voters will go to the polls on Election Day to choose not only the members of their county board, but also its chairman. The front-runner (and perhaps only contestant) in November will be the winner of next month's Republican primary between current board Chairman Joe Gottemoller - elected to the post by his peers in 2014 - and fellow county board member Michael Walkup.
Both Crystal Lake residents have the experience and knowledge to fulfill the job's still nebulous duties, but Gottemoller has a clearer vision for what he wants to accomplish and how he'll do it. Gottemoller, an attorney, stresses the need for more economic development to ease residents' property tax burden and offers creative ideas to take advantage of the county's geographic and demographic strengths.
Walkup, a fellow lawyer who's also seeking re-election to his District 3 county board seat, offers many criticisms of his opponent, ranging from the amount of time Gottemoller spends in the chairman's office to whether his legal representation of developers before other local governments is a conflict of interest. While some of those questions are fair, Walkup has fewer and less concrete ideas about addressing county issues. We endorse Gottemoller.