11th Hour Dirty Tricks

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Bill Gentes and his supporters really don’t want to give up on this race even after his admitted lies and the endorsements of Dan Duffy by every newspaper. No, now they have trumped up a completely bogus website (note – now unreachable) to go after Dan Duffy and his credentials. I won’t post the link here because people don’t need to see this garbage, they only want to spread it around in their desperate attempt to drag Dan down to the level of their candidate.

First they post a view of his house from space, what this has to do with the important issues facing this election, I have no idea. Maybe his unemployed opponent thinks that it’s a vice to have a solid business and steady income to afford a nice home for his large family. Most of us would call that the American Dream.

Next the anonymous website creators, since they don’t have the courage to register the site in their own name and instead use a proxy service, tear into Duffy’s abortion position. To all my pro-life friends out there I can assure you of at least one thing — Bill Gentes is adamantly pro-abortion, has taken funds from the pro-abortion group Personal PAC and done nothing to stop their bogus mailings about Dan’s position. Dan acknowledges Roe v Wade as the law of the land but is against state support of abortions and feels that no one should be compelled to be pro-abortion if their beliefs dictate otherwise (i.e. pharmacists).

So on one hand you have Gentes supporters Personal PAC saying that he’s going to throw women in jail for having an abortion and then other supporters throw up a site saying he’s pro-choice. Which is it going to be? They can’t seem to make up their mind on this issue because, ladies and gentlemen, Gentes and his campaign have proven they are very adept at circulating the lies.

So, who are you going to believe? Dan Duffy, endorsed by every newspaper and strong in his positions as indicated in his website from day one? Or are you going to believe the supporters of someone who would say anything, including outright lie, to get elected?

The choice is yours on Tuesday.

Trib: Gentes Regrets Lying – But Stops There

State Senate candidate says he regrets lying about his professional background — chicagotribune.com

Gentes still refuses to discuss leaving his previous employer further:

“I did not disclose this fact because I was embarrassed,” Gentes said. “That’s my statement on it.”

Apparently Gentes doesn’t feel the voters are entitled to any more information on this matter. Again, I think he should come clean with what happened and release his former employer from confidentiality in discussing it. This is not the simple matter of a “tough economy” when his former employer has endorsed Dan Duffy and their PAC has donated to the Duffy campaign. Makes you wonder why they would do that if Gentes left on good terms or was laid off, doesn’t it?

Gentes Short Of Full Disclosure

Photo by Cal Skinner.

Bill Gentes wrote of contrition in his letter to the editor in the October 17 Daily Herald, however he states the reason why he was not truthful about his employment was that he was embarrassed to be unemployed. Gentes made it a point to tell the Daily Herald editorial board and others during his campaign that he took a leave of absence from his job, yet only after the Daily Herald looked into this claim was it determined he was, in fact, terminated.

The larger issue is that, by his own admission, he was fired, not just out of work. Now we the voters are supposed to assume that it was through no fault of his own that he was terminated and give him a promotion when his previous employer fired him? It’s pretty tough for an average person to get another job after they have been terminated but any good employer will look into it and get both sides. The people are not getting both sides though since Gentes’ former employer is bound by confidentiality.

In the interest of full disclosure not only should Gentes explain why he was fired, he should release his employer from confidentiality in talking about it. Let his employer give their reasons, if they care to, why he was terminated. Mr. Gentes can make his case and then let the voters decide. Normally this would be beyond the scope of what voters are entitled to know, but Gentes opened the door when he lied to the Daily Herald and lied to the people.

It’s The Lie That Gets You

Photo by Cal Skinner.

Richard Nixon learned a cold hard truth of politics and paid the price, Bill Clinton nearly did the same. That truth is, no matter how bad the thing is that you’re trying to cover up, it’s the lie that people remember and the lie gets you every time.

Apparently Bill Gentes, Round Lake village president and candidate for Illinois Senate District 26 didn’t get the memo because he decided to outright lie to the Daily Herald editorial board, on his website, and elsewhere. What was the lie? That he was on a leave of absence from his job when he was actually fired six months ago.

Per the Herald article:

When asked Monday about handling all that goes with running for the open Senate District 26 seat, Gentes responded he’s on a leave of absence from his full-time job as operations director at the Realtor Association of NorthWest Chicagoland.

However, association Chief Executive Officer Peggy Kayser refuted Gentes in a statement issued Tuesday.

“On advice of counsel, I cannot give the terms of his separation, but Bill stating he is on a leave of absence is an outright lie,” Kayser said.

In fact, his former employer has endorsed Dan Duffy, his opponent in the upcoming election.

To be honest with you, I had a lot of respect for Bill Gentes at one point and, like many residents, thought he had done a great job for our village. Then before long I started to look deeper into things and had more personal dealings with him and that opinion changed.

In fact, that opinion did a 180 last summer after a tense meeting at the village hall with myself, district administrators and Bill where he demanded RLAS come to an agreement with a developer to lower our impact fees or he would dictate to us what we would get. We had researched our impact fees before adopting them and they were in line with other school districts. But because the developer had been quoted fees from several years ago and had already negotiated impact fees with other entities they were unwilling to give RLAS what we wanted. Here I thought Bill would step in on our behalf, we’re under state oversight after all and we’re talking about critical funds to help provide infrastructure for the additional kids we would take on, and he was telling me our fees were way out of line.

He then accused me of threatening him when I said I would take my case to the village trustees and said, “Do you know who runs the village, Guy?” I hesitated and replied, “the board of trustees.” Bill leaned forward in his chair towards me at that point and said, “No Guy, the mayor does” as he pointed a finger into his chest looking dead at me. In a matter of a few moments my opinion had totally changed and it was clear to me that Bill was not the person I thought he was. So this latest admission on his part comes as no surprise to me.

Things might be a lot easier for me if I kept my experiences to myself, didn’t work to support candidates I believe in and I know some people think I should step back and be impartial. School board is non-partisan but not un-partisan. I shouldn’t have to forfeit my rights as a citizen to say what I believe in just because I serve on the board.

When the future of our state is at hand and a rare opening of a state senate seat is at stake I think people are entitled to know who they’re voting for. I’m not supporting Dan Duffy simply because he’s not someone with a skewed sense of power like Bill Gentes. I’m supporting him because he’s a down to earth man with a beautiful wife and family who built his own business. He knows what it’s like to struggle just like you and I do from day to day and he knows what an impact the General Assembly has on our everyday lives.

I took my time to get to know him asking to sit down one-on-one which he gladly accepted several months ago. I think if you take the time to get to know Dan you’ll find he has the makings of a great state senator. Elections should be about the candidates and who they are, what they stand for, what standards they embody — not the party banner they carry and most definitely not about who’s running for President of the United States.

Bill forgot the second most important lesson of politics — you don’t run anything, the people do and at the end of the day you will be answerable for what you have done and what you have led people to believe. When you lie to the people to try to get their support they remember, and I think they will remember the first Tuesday in November.

Gentes Needs Some Workin’ On The Railroad

Photo by David McNeary.
In today’s Daily Herald, Bill Gentes, village president of Round Lake and candidate for the Illinois State Senate 26th District is crying foul about his opponent, Dan Duffy, pointing out the numerous real estate ties in Round Lake of Gentes and his wife.

The classic Shakespeare line “thou doth protest too much” instantly popped into my head knowing the nonsense that Gentes’ campaign has been throwing around concerning railroads. Gentes has made it a point to let everyone know the Duffy campaign has taken a $2500 donation from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and then linking that to support for the highly controversial issue of Canadian National’s proposed acquisition of EJ&E.

First off, Gentes claims he’s just noting the donation and it has nothing to do with the CN issue — hogwash! The Lake County Democratic Party’s website proudly touts “Bill Gentes is the only state Senate candidate in our area who has pledged to fight against this acquisition, which will be disastrous for our communities.” He has been repeating the allegations in person when meeting with people as one Daily Herald letter writer states. All of this despite clear support from Ela Township Clerk Bill Donnan and one of Barrington Communities Against CN Acquisition’s founders, Dave Nelson. This is a clear case of the candidate saying one thing to the paper (where he is certain to get picked apart with this ridiculous non-issue) and then saying another thing in person to people and having his campaign circulate it as true.

So, I have a lesson for Gentes on railroads because apparently he spent too much time playing Monopoly and not actually understanding how business works with this silly linkage of one railroad to another. BNSF, you know, the modern day equivalent of “the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” (great tune!) is a completely different railroad company than Canadian National, the operative word being Canadian. Saying that taking money from BNSF shows support for CN is a bit like saying someone taking money from Chevrolet shows their support for Toyota. It’s utter nonsense.

Dan Duffy is from Barrington, he’s been in the lead on the issue of the CN acquisition, he understands how it would impact our community and has been against it from the start. Look through the smoke and mirrors of his opponent’s campaign and you will see that Dan Duffy is the right candidate for the 26th.