The state GOP continued its backlash against conservative members of the party when it passed over State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee) to fill the 33rd Senate district seat vacated by Karen McConnaughay.

Despite a history of ugly clashes with government watchdog groups, Jack Franks, chairman of the McHenry County board, recently received an award from a local bar association for working with others to find common ground in a “respectful and civil manner.”

Joe Tirio’s lawyer attached a proposed defamation lawsuit to a court petition that seeks to reveal who was behind three political mailers attacking Tirio during his Republican primary campaign for McHenry County clerk.

The shadowy political players that financed some vicious, completely unsubstantiated mailers targeting a slate of county-level Republican candidates will be unmasked if Joe Tirio, McHenry County recorder, wins his day in court.

House-approved legislation that would allow both township boards and residents to dissolve townships in McHenry County and reduce local taxes is the first step in eliminating other redundant, costly local governments statewide, state Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills), the sponsor of the bill, believes.

A Chicago-based printer with ties to the Democratic Party printed campaign mailers that targeted county-level Republican primary candidates, according to a Northwest Herald story. But the group that funded the mailers, Illinois Integrity Fund, remains a mystery; even a Hoffman Estates address used as the return address on the mailers could be bogus.

A post-primary poll shows that re-election prospects for incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner look bleak. An Odgen & Fry survey shows him down 22 points compared with Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker, and in an almost certain death knell for a politician, Rauner’s unfavorables are nearly double his favorables.