Transparency, accountability and limited government are the cornerstone principles of For The Good of Illinois. We encourage citizens to ask their local school districts, municipalities, counties, and other units of local government to show taxpayers exactly where government spends every dime.

Recently, a citizen brought transparency to his hometown of Palatine.

As a private sector executive compensation expert, he did a very professional one-page overview of the village manager’s compensation plan. He discovered that the village manager in Palatine has an unbelievably lucrative employment contract.

PalatineVillageManager

Base salary = $183,700. Total estimated annual compensation = $350,000.

Then, there is the…perquisites. I wasn’t familiar with that word. Here’s what it means: country club membership, health club membership, and luxury car. This contract has $23,000 of perquisites. Sickening.

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The Tea Party folks keep getting mad at me for saying that in the end they might prove ineffective in races at levels higher than local because they aren’t organized enough. They puff up their chests proudly proclaiming that they intend to resist being organized and they claim that being organized is precisely what they are fighting against. I understand the feeling, even sympathize quite a lot, but there is a problem with this obstinacy. It means they won’t win on a statewide ballot very often. The Illinois primary just proved me correct, too.

Let’s take the race for Senate in Illinois as exhibit “A.” Of course the good old boys in the state party went with Mark Kirk, the center left candidate from a northern suburb of Chicago. He was the he-can-win candidate and the establishment choice. Not one Tea Party group, though, wants Kirk and for good reason — and I heartily concur with them, as it happens. So who was the “Tea Party candidate,” the one meant to beat out Kirk, the one backed by the newly found power of the Tea Party movement? There wasn’t one. There were three.

Sadly, the Tea Partiers in Illinois split their vote all up. Some Tea Party Groups went with Don Lowery and some went with Patrick Hughes. A few even went with John Arrington. Hughes, of course, was the only one that had even a remote chance as far as voter polls were concerned. Hughes at least registered in the polls, Lowery and Arrington barely showed up at all.

Now, I like Mr. Lowery to be sure. He is a great fellow and has some fantastic principles. I can see why Tea Party groups are attracted to him. I feel the same way about Mr. Arrington. On the other hand, the same can be said of Hughes (disclosure, I endorsed Hughes). The problem is not that one or the other Tea Party group chose the wrong candidate, it’s that they didn’t choose the same candidate. They petered away their votes by choosing three candidates allowing Mark Kirk to run away with it.

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Last week, Nobel Laureate, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and former president of Poland, Lech Walesa, traveled to Chicago to endorse a political candidate for governor of Illinois.

Who he endorsed doesn’t matter.  The fact that he is here endorsing anyone at all should be considered newsworthy.

Unfortunately for Chicago residents, and the Polish community specifically, if you get your news from the city’s local television stations, you might not have even known that he was in town, let alone that he attended a Tea Party, and endorsed Adam Andrzejewski for governor.

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Wow! Rush Limbaugh just endorsed conservative and tea party candidate Adam Andrzejewski today on his radio show.

Adam is the true conservative in the Illinois gubernatorial race.

Rush Limbaugh just called Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski the “Scott Brown of Illinois.” Adam experienced a surge in the polls this past weekend and is quickly gaining momentum in the final sprint of the campaign for the Illinois primaries.

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On Friday, January 29th, 2010, Lech Walesa, former President of Poland, traveled to Chicago to endorse Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate, Adam Andrzejewski.

We were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to sit down with the President and Mr. Andrzejewski. Our video from that visit is below.

Items that stand out:  1) Lech Walesa tells his American Audience that the United States no longer leads the world politically or morally 2) At least one of your Founding Bloggers asks President Walesa if he thinks America is slipping toward Socialism. His Answer? Yes! 3) Andrzejewski is running on a platform of forensically auditing Illinois’ books and exposing corruption by making the details of the audit available to the public.

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Today, in Chicago, anti-Communist hero Lech Walesa is headlining a Tea Party Rally. The Rally is in support of Republican Candidate for Governor Adam Andrzejewski. 20+ years ago an American President helped Lech take back his country. Today Lech returns the favor and helps us take back ours.

It all started in Chicago. Rick Santelli’s call to arms was broadcast from Chicago. The first Tea Party was last year on a cold day in February.  I heard you.  We need a new generation of leaders that will serve the people, not the political class.  My campaign for Governor started because I heard you and I still hear you.

The Tea Party movement is now a year old and what better place to celebrate the movement than in Chicago. We will be at the Dierksen Federal Building plaza at 2:30pm having a rally in honor of the movement and to celebrate all that we’ve accomplished.

I’m also bringing in someone who knows a little something about freedom and just a few decades ago he was fighting in Eastern Europe and Ronald Reagan stood at his side. Lech Walesa will be addressing the gathering to tell us about his struggles.

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Just when I thought that Dede Scozzafava had been vanquished to the outer reaches of the liberal fringes, up pops her specter in Illinois. Poor Illinois. Hasn’t its people suffered enough?

Kirk Dillard is one of a handful making a bid for the governor’s office. He’s a classic RINO, a man who decided to sell his soul and his voters in exchange for political relevancy during the 2008 election by way of joining the peanut gallery in lathering on praise for Obama.

Dillard took his adoration for a man who voted against allowing citizens to conceal carry (fine for retired police officers) and providing medical care for abortion survivors (the infants, not the women) by recording a campaign spot for him.

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In an exclusive, Big Government has obtained a letter addressed by Nobel Prize Winner and anti-Communist hero Lech Walesa to the people of Illinois, endorsing Adam Andrzejewski, Republican candidate for Governor.

Andrzejewski_endorsement_01.25.2010 –

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