Candidates keep fists up in race for Dundee Township Supervisor

Keeping tabs on the race for Dundee Township supervisor is like watching a boxing match: there are plenty of attacks and counterattacks, bobbing and weaving and candidates taking their turn on the offensive.

And these are candidates from the same political party duking it to claim the Republican nomination for Dundee Township supervisor.

Although three candidates are seeking the post, the war of words incumbent Sue Harney and challenger Don Rage has emerged as the main attraction heading into Tuesday's primary.

Pamela Griffin also is on the ballot, but it is Harney who's become the main subject of a Web site Rage has dedicated to the race. The site features a black-and-white photo of Harney alongside those of former governor Rod Blagojevich and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. A list down the side of the page headlines alleged wrongdoings by the current supervisor from "Harney's $200,000 blunder," to the township's "accounting practices."

"There is so much that is wrong," Rage said.

Harney, seeking her third term as supervisor, calls Rage's charges outrageous and accuses him of playing political games.

"This is mudslinging and if my opponent has a plan for the township, he has not shown anyone what those plans are," Harney said. "He has a hidden agenda."

Among his complaints, Rage says Harney and the township board have mismanaged their budget, resulting in the loss of almost $1 million from a fund used to repay bond debts.

"There has been a record of poor bookkeeping and poor stewardship of taxpayer money," Rage said. "How can you budget to be overspending year after year after year?"

But Harney says the township "is doing exactly what it should be doing," and spending down money that has been allocated to open space.

"That money cannot be spent anywhere else," she said, "When we get a grant we have obligations that we have to fulfill. We have to buy land and do the improvements we said we would do when we applied for the grant."

Rage also contends that Harney and the board authorized an "obscene pay raise" for the supervisor's salary.

In October 2008, the board voted to increase the supervisor's salary to $40,000, effective at the beginning of the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

"In the midst of the biggest financial crisis of our lifetimes, in Dundee Township, our current Supervisor and Trustees feel inflated raises like these are appropriate," Rage wrote on his Web site.

The pay raise reflects the demands of the position, said Harney, noting her pay is well below other township supervisors.

"This may have been a part-time job years ago, but not anymore," Harney said.

Griffin has stayed above the fray and notes that could hurt her on Tuesday.

"There are many more important issues out there and there's too much focus on the negative," Griffin said. "But these two have been in politics for 19, 20 years. It is a name game and I'm not in the game, yet."