McLean County

Determining my home county is certainly not a challenge for me, for my family has lived in McLean County since we moved to Illinois in 1999. Unfortunately, that fact means that I should know more about the county than people from other areas, but I would not consider myself to have a great deal of knowledge about McLean County. Depending on what a person is searching for, I can likely direct him/her to the right place, yet I have little idea about much of the history of the area. In fact, I did not even know what country district my permanent address falls into. According to McLeanCountyIL.gov, my home falls into the 10th district. Thus, the board members representing my district are Bob Nuckolls and Benjamin Owens. Although many of the names seemed unfamiliar to me, I did recognize some individuals and concluded that others were likely related to people I knew. Surprisingly, two of the twenty members were/are my teachers/professors, Erik Rankin and John McIntyre. Actually, "Coach Mac" spoke at Normal Community's baccalaureate when I was a senior. Additionally, while browsing ErikRankin.com, I discovered that the county grows by approximately 2% each year, yet the FY 09 budget has decreased by 2.2%. From 2000 to 2006, crime has risen 7%, and according to the county's website, 2008 saw 117 batteries, 108 burglaries, and 12 sex offenses among a population of around 165,000 people (U.S. Census Bureau). Overall, McLean County is a relatively safe and secure community that continues to grow and improve.

Even before this post was assigned, I had looked into the Board of Elections website because I recently applied for a scholarship through the General Assembly. Therefore, I already knew that our state senator is Bill Brady, and our state representative is Dan Brady. I do not know a great deal about them, but I remember growing up and seeing lawn signs and other campaign support for both men. Considering McLean County is predominantly Republican and incumbent individuals are generally reelected, they have been around for some time now. From 1993 until 2001, Bill Brady served in the Illinois House of Representatives, and has been a state senator ever since. Dan Brady was elected coroner in 1992 and again in 1996, before becoming the 88th District's representative in 2001. Both men were born in Bloomington and have continued to contribute to the local community. Bill Brady has been generous to me personally because he and his office decided to award me with a General Assembly Scholarship for the 2009-2010 academic year, so he is more than alright in my book. Recently, he "added to Senate Bill 2186, [which] will bar a municipality from enacting ordinances or zoning decisions to prohibit or restrict a retailer from locating within the municipality if the retailer otherwise meets all necessary requirements for construction and development" (http://brady.senategop.net/news/104-capitol-commentary-may-15-2009). Furthermore, Bill and Dan Brady both have concerns about the idea of passing a bill in support of medical marijuana and believe that the passage of the bill would cause troubles for law enforcement agencies (http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2009/05/05/health/doc49fc80257103b116912930.txt). I am interested in learning more about the individuals representing McLean County, especially after having Dan Rutherford speak to my CJS 200 class and hearing Stephen Brokaw speak highly of his work with Dan Brady.

I hope that I will continue to maintain a strong desire to become more involved with the political process, both locally and nationally.