Dan Venturi out – RALC member, Bob Cook, elected Chair of the Lake County Republican Party

The Lake County Republican Central Committee held its mandated convention on Wednesday, March 3rd at the Midlane Country Club in Wadsworth.  Foremost on the agenda was the nomination and election for Republican Central Committee Chairman and the nomination and election of State Central Committeemen for the 8th and 10th Congressional Districts.

About Lake County:  It has a total of 481 precincts.  The total number of votes available in Lake County is 26,700.  This reflects the number of precinct positions which are filled by precinct committeemen.   Present at the meeting were precinct committeemen whose vote totals numbered 21,668.

Robert Skidmore, Treasurer of Lake County, was appointed president pro-temp during the nomination and election for Republican Central Committee Chair.  Dan Venturi, Chairman of the Lake County Republican Party for the past four years, faced challenger Bob Cook, Township Chair of Wauconda, for his position.  There were no votes tallied or cast for incumbent Lake County Central Committee Chairman, Dan Venturi.  He withdrew his name before nomination.   According to Raymond True — Chair of the Republican Assembly of Lake County — his personal tally of announced precinct votes for Venturi and Cook indicated that Bob Cook had received roughly 60% of the vote. 

This is the first time a member of the Republican Assembly of Lake County has been elected Chair of the Lake County Republican Party.  As an aside, Maria Rodriguez, a U.S. Congressional Primary Candidate in the 8th District and presently mayor of Long Grove, joined the RALC at the meeting. 

There were two candidates for the nomination and election of State Central Committeeman for the 8th District:  Michael Adelizzi. a Schaumburg Township Committeeman, and Gene Dawson, current 8th District State Central Committeeman.  Gene Dawson was reelected to his 8th District Committeeman seat:  11,991 votes for Dawson and 2,332 votes for Adelizzi.   

The nomination for 10th District State Central Committeeman had more drama connected with it. The race was between incumbent Tolbert Chisum; Ray True, Chair of the Republican Assembly of Lake County; and Louis Atsaves, Township Chair of Moraine Township.  Louis Atsaves received 4,170 votes; Ray True’s vote tally was 2,313.  At that point candidate Ray True asked for unanimous votes be given to Louis Atsaves, thereby giving Atsaves a total of 8,195 votes, which fell short of the 33,500 votes Tolbert Chisum received in Cook County.  Cook County cast zero votes for Ray True and Louis Atsaves.

Surprising is that incumbent Tolbert Chisum, who did not attend Lake County precinct committee meetings to ask for their votes, and who attended only one Lake County Central Committee meeting in four years, garnered,1,712 votes!