Kane County Tea Party may bring together former foes

Last year's Kane County Tea Party drew an audience of about 350 people at its peak. This year's gathering might feature a reuniting of GOP candidates who recently battled for the party's spot on the November ballot against Democrat Congressman Bill Foster that may ratchet up attendance.

Jeff Danklefsen will emcee the event, slated for 4:30 to 7 p.m. April 15, at the Kane County Government Center, 719 S. Batavia Ave., Geneva. Danklefsen, of Geneva, considered himself the best candidate in a race against Foster, but gave his support to fellow Republican Randy Hultgren upon bowing out of the race. Hultgren, a state senator from Winfield, is expected to attend the Tea Party event if he's not committed to votes in Springfield that day.

Danklefsen said Wednesday that Hultgren would appear at the event as the Tea Party's favored candidate over Foster in the 14th Congressional District race.

"Randy is certainly the choice over Bill Foster," Danklefsen said. "Randy has a couple votes on his score card that will make it tough for some people to support him. But Randy is as honest as the day is long. He would be the type of representative that is not necessarily run by his political party."

Other speakers expected at the event include former gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft and representatives from both the Elgin and Aurora Tea Parties.

Danklefsen said the event will showcase the Tea Party's beliefs on health care reform and personal liberty.

"If you want personal liberty, you do that with small government," Danklefsen said. "That's doesn't necessarily mean smaller government, but small government. We have dishonest politicians across the county on both sides of the aisle. They basically sell off our county to be re-elected. Apathy is really the problem that we'll focus on. We're of the opinion that even if you're a liberal, if you're informed and you believe what you believe, God bless you. But there aren't enough people who are informed."

To that end, Danklefsen recently started his own Web site, kanecountypolitics.com, to help inform people about local issues of which he believes people need a better understanding. Danklefsen said that understanding will come from his viewpoint and focus on topics such as health care, pension reform and the use of tax dollars by local schools.