Lake County races look nasty to the end
If political campaigns were snowball fights, some candidates seeking to represent the Lake County area would've been filling their projectiles with ice and slush and who knows what else in recent weeks.
Republican Party races for a congressional seat and a county board post have been particularly mean-spirited as Tuesday's primary election neared.
One local Republican leader would rather see her party's candidates discuss goals and real issues than run negative campaigns.
"Voters want to know what you're going to do to improve the quality of life in their community," said Antonietta Simonian, executive director of the Lake County Republican Federation, the local GOP's fundraising arm. "I think a negative campaign confuses voters and disenfranchises voters and ultimately turns them off."
The three-way contest for the Republican nomination in the 8th Congressional District has been especially heated.
Businessman Steve Greenberg of Long Grove seems to be the favorite candidate of national party leaders, and has benefited from a House GOP fundraising effort. Fellow candidate Kirk Morris has tried to take him down a few notches in recent weeks.
Morris' campaign has issued news releases attacking Greenberg's business skills and statements Greenberg made in campaign fliers.
Greenberg's camp has taken a few shots at Morris, too, such as criticizing him for exaggerating the extent of a conversation he had with now-former presidential contender Rudy Giuliani. Greenberg's campaign has also questioned Morris' claim he served on a biofuels committee created by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn.
Morris apologized for his characterization of the Giuliani meeting, but has defended his resume.
The third GOP candidate in the 8th District race, Kenneth Arnold of Gurnee, mostly has stayed out of the fray.
The winner of the Republican primary will face incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean or challenger Randi Scheurer in the general election for the 8th District, which includes parts of Lake, Cook and McHenry counties.
In contrast to the GOP contest, the Democratic primary has been virtually silent. Scheurer, an activist from Lindenhurst, has campaigned via e-mail and the Internet. Bean, a two-term congresswoman from Barrington, has focused on legislation and other issues rather than Scheurer's bid to unseat her.
The congressional candidates don't have a monopoly on negative campaigning. Lake County Board member Bonnie Thomson Carter has been under near-constant attack from challenger Kirk Denz and his political supporters.
Carter, who's also president of the county forest preserve district board, and Denz, a product manager for Motorola, both live in Ingleside. They're seeking the Republican nomination for the 5th District, which is on the county's western edge.
Denz accused Carter of taking a campaign donation and ignoring environmental problems on Wooster and Fisher lakes, allegations Carter repeatedly refuted. He's also attacked Carter over a plan to bring Olympic events to the Lakewood Forest Preserve and other issues.
No Democrat filed for the District 5 race. The party could nominate a candidate after the primary.
Because negative campaigning in a primary race creates bad feelings within a political party, the tactic often backfires against candidates in the general election, said Dan Venturi, chairman of the Lake County Republican organization.
Voters -- and losing candidates -- who are offended by a negative campaign may support the other party's candidate in November, Venturi said.
It happened in 2006 when veteran Republican state Sen. Adeline Geo-Karis supported Democrat Michael Bond after she lost a primary fight to challenger Suzanne Simpson.
Bond won the seat.
"Even if it helps you in the primary, it could be catastrophic to you in the general election," Venturi said. "It's very hard to heal those wounds."