The great blog Champaign Common Sense has a surprising post today:
It seems Linda Frank, our elected Circuit Clerk, is at war with the Judges.
And:
Linda is, in my humble opinion, dumb as a box of rocks. Her last opponent in the election wasn't much better. Thankfully, there is already a movement in the Republican party to field a challenger to Linda in the next primary if she runs again.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: Typo fixed in first quote - should have read "Judges."
IP,
You might want to amend this post and correctly quote the CCC piece, as he/she has written that Linda Frank is at war with judges plural, not singular.
IP,
Sorry if that comment sounded curt.
It's been a bad day, but that's no excuse.
Take care.
No problem. I appreciate the correction. When I copied and pasted originally, I must have missed the "s" and the period.
It was still a strange article by CCC, I think. I've heard of absolutely no GOP discontent with Frank.
Yes, I was wondering about that.
Didn't she just win re-election only 9 months or so ago?
Perhaps by the time 2007/2008 rolls around, all this will have blown over?
I think the point is that some Republicans recognize that Linda isn't quite as strong a candidate as she used to be. I don't think anyone means disrespect, they just don't want to see a strong Democrat take away the office. Phyllis Clark wasn't a real challenge, but many recognize that a good Democrat challenger might be able to beat Linda.
The interesting thing will be how the local GOP leadership deals with the situation when it arises. As Matthew pointed out, she just won re-election, and I don't think she's up again until 2008. Maybe she'll want to retire around then.
The interesting thing will be how the local GOP leadership deals with the situation when it arises.
One, I didn't even know there was a "situation." That's why I think it's weird. I've heard absolutely nothing from any Republicans about the need to find a new candidate for that office because Frank might be vulnerable. But just because I don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exists - but it does mean that the "situation" is pretty closely held.
Two, the phrase "local GOP leadership" makes me cringe. Hopefully, by 2008, it won't anymore.
So who's fiddling with the electronic record here, IP or Common Sense? Common Sense's post doesn't currently read "dumb as a box of rocks." It reads: "Linda is, in my humble opinion, and according to lawyers I know, both Rs and Ds, not doing her job. Her last opponent in the election, Phyllis Clark, Urbana City Clerk and a really, really bad choice, would have been worse, so at least we have that going for us." etc.
What gives?
All I did was copy and paste what CCS had posted this morning. It still reads that way in my feedreader, as the original post was downloaded and the feedreader doesn't download later edits. You can see a screen cap from my feedreader with the original post here.
I suspect that CCS edited it later, as it sounded pretty harsh. I would have done the same.
And I'm not trying to make CCS look bad here. But I don't want people to think I deliberately misquoted CCS, either.
I fiddled with the post. I did disparage Linda, thought better of it, and took the insult down. IP copied the post in it's original format. IP is quick (thanks for reading IP!) because I took the insult off within 2 minutes of posting.
And I apologize to Ms. Frank.
Happens to me all the time, but more often with comments. I'm working really hard not to post when I'm either too happy or too angry.
One more thing. I make mistakes. My CUMTD/Unit 4 analysis might have been wrong about the requirement that unit 4 MUST provide transportation, as opposed to subsidizing it through State vouchers. My experience was that we had to get our child to school, and then submit State vouchers to the school. It may have been wrong then, it may have changed, etc, but my point was about unintended consequences, and how the CUMTD could screw the residents of Tapley's MTD through the school transportation contract. There would be plenty of citizen heat to go around.
When I make mistakes, tell me. I'll correct them.
An interesting effect of the medium. Thanks for the clarification all around.
One more thing. I make mistakes. My CUMTD/Unit 4 analysis might have been wrong about the requirement that unit 4 MUST provide transportation, as opposed to subsidizing it through State vouchers. My experience was that we had to get our child to school, and then submit State vouchers to the school. It may have been wrong then, it may have changed, etc, but my point was about unintended consequences, and how the CUMTD could screw the residents of Tapley's MTD through the school transportation contract. There would be plenty of citizen heat to go around.
When I make mistakes, tell me. I'll correct them.
We all make mistakes. All you can do is correct them when pointed out to you. The post on here about CUMTD/Unit 4 was written by Right of Wright, not me. I only point that out because I'm not sure I would have been as harsh as he was.
But his tone in that past was amusing to me given the second sentence ever written on your blog: We have been reading some local political blogs, and it seems that too many people, bloggers and those who comment on those blogs, base their statements on information or opinions that have little or no basis in fact.
We all make mistakes. Your first post seemed to imply that you wouldn't while everyone else would. So I'm not really that surprised that someone wanted to jump on you when you did.
It happens, and I'm glad you corrected it. You've got a great blog.
You are right. That line about "base their statements..." is a little presumptuous. I'm editing that out next. I said I was new at this!
Thanks IP, your blog has really been the inspiration for my blog. We may differ sometimes and agree sometimes, but I love this stuff.
CCS,
Thanks for the kind words. Keep up the good work.
This really is fun, isn't it? :-)
CCS & IP:
You're doing an awful lot of back-slapping. I'd swear this has turned into an on-line political event!
On a serious note, keep up the great work. I know many, many people are reading each of your blogs. You're filling an obvious void in our community, and I'm sure there's many like me who appreciate your efforts.