This year's general election includes the race between incumbent Dennis Conard and former Davenport mayor Phil Yerington for Scott County sheriff. Both candidates boast long-term careers in criminal justice. The sheriff's office has four primary areas of responsibility: jail management, courthouse security, service of all court orders, and rural-community policing.
The River Cities' Reader asked candidates in contested Scott and Rock Island county races - from people running from U.S. Senate to county offices - a simple question: "Compare yourself to and contrast yourself with your opponent(s) in terms of your respective positions on the issues you think will be most important during the next term of the office you're seeking.
This is an election. It is not a meeting of a Sunday School class," Illinois State Bar Association President Ole Bly Pace told the Associated Press this week. Pace was referring to the Fifth District Supreme Court race as he made what could be the political understatement of the year.
The Rock Island Housing Authority is building the first public housing in the Quad Cities in more than two decades. Six homes for low- and moderate-income people are currently under construction - at a cost of $1 million - and the authority has applied for funding for another six.
During the week of October 18-23, Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns 62 TV stations nationwide, is forcing its affiliates to air an anti-John Kerry film entitled Stolen Honor. The FCC has refused to do anything about it but at this writing, there is an intense nationwide boycott against Sinclair, and its stock is at an all- time low point.
Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn was threatened with political "divorce" not long ago by Governor Rod Blagojevich's office. Quinn has been a critic of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority for years, but he was completely cut out of the governor's massive restructuring and reform plan.
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I hear in this campaign that Senator Kerry has a plan that will penalize companies for moving their manufacturing to foreign countries. He indicated that the current administration has rewarded companies for this loss of jobs.
This year's only Illinois Supreme Court race is just about the hottest political thing going. The Fifth District race pits appellate justice Gordon Maag (D-Glen Carbon) against trial judge Lloyd Karmeier (R-Nashville).
Up until last week the Statehouse had been one of the safest places in Illinois. No one had ever been killed there in its entire history. And then some unbalanced kid stops taking his meds and all hell breaks loose.

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