Claire O'Brien
Claire O’Brien follows how local government decisions, activism and public safety shape daily life in McHenry County politics. She is a reporter at the Northwest Herald, focusing on the municipalities of Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Woodstock and Marengo, along with the McHenry County Board. Her coverage ranges from board votes and ballot questions to protests, surveillance technology and community incidents, tying local policy to what residents experience on the ground. She also reports on public health and environmental issues such as West Nile virus, treating them as part of the same civic landscape.
McHenry County Board and Local Government
O’Brien’s core beat is the McHenry County Board and the network of municipal governments it interacts with. She covers contested decisions such as the board’s court-ordered approval of multiple solar farms, capturing both the legal pressure and members’ frustration, including the sense that individual votes have been “co‑opted.” Her reporting explains how state legislation and court rulings frame what local officials can and cannot do, while still foregrounding the practical impact of those decisions on residents. She follows tax and budget debates closely, and her work on the county’s floated tax increase earned recognition in government beat reporting from the Illinois Press Association. Across these stories, she tracks not just outcomes but the process in meetings, hearings and deadlines that define local governance.
Local Elections, Referendums and Civic Forums
O’Brien reports on local elections with an emphasis on how candidates and structural ballot questions will change day‑to‑day governance. She has moderated candidate forums for offices such as the Woodstock City Council, then published full transcripts so voters can read candidates’ complete answers on improving the city.
She has also moderated a Huntley Village President debate, producing a podcast that lets residents hear how contenders handle local issues ahead of Election Day.
Beyond candidate races, she covers referendums that ask voters to decide on home rule for the county and whether state lawmakers should repeal limits on local control, making clear how these abstract questions translate into authority over policy and services. Her election coverage treats civic participation, from forums to ballot boxes, as the mechanism through which communities steer their own future.
Protests, Public Safety and Civil Liberties
O’Brien consistently connects politics to public protest and civil liberties debates.
She has reported on hundreds of people rallying against federal immigration enforcement in McHenry, documenting how national policies drive local turnout and message discipline. She has produced photo coverage of a May Day protest, highlighting signs, slogans and the presence of labor and community groups in the streets. Her work on Flock license plate reader cameras in Woodstock follows both the mayor’s position and residents’ concerns, covering the state of the city address and ongoing scrutiny of how the cameras are deployed.
She reports on packed council meetings where opponents challenge the city’s transparency and data‑use policies around these surveillance tools, framing the issue as a balance between public safety and privacy. Her public safety stories also include serious crashes requiring medical airlifts and deaths in homeless encampments, where she records the responses of officials and agencies as part of the broader picture of how vulnerable people are treated.
Coverage of West Nile–positive mosquitoes in Fox River Grove fits this same pattern, linking environmental health alerts to municipal responsibilities and residents’ risk.
Municipal Infrastructure, Technology and Daily Life
O’Brien’s beat regularly crosses into infrastructure and how it disrupts or supports daily routines. She has reported on water main breaks along major routes in active roadwork zones, explaining how these failures intersect with construction and affect traffic, access and nearby businesses.
She documents the visible details of city systems - pipes, streets, cameras - as they fail, are repaired or expanded, building a clear picture of what governance looks like at street level. Her background includes experience in technology and software documentation, and she brings that understanding to stories about government tools, from surveillance platforms to data‑driven systems. That perspective allows her to treat technology not as novelty but as inherited infrastructure that reshapes how authorities operate and how residents are watched or protected. She also works visually, shooting and curating photo galleries from protests and civic events, which complement her reporting by showing the faces and places behind policy debates.
Across politics, infrastructure and technology, her coverage stays close to the way decisions and systems play out in ordinary settings - on roads, in council chambers and in neighborhood gatherings.
4 more politics journalists.
A.D. Quig
A.D. Quig follows money and power through Chicago and Cook County government, showing how political decisions, taxes and public spending affect residents and businesses. At the Chicago Tribune, she covers city and county politics, municipal finance, tax policy, budgets and the structures shaping mayoral and council authority. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after covering politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Line. Her work examines council power, ethics rules, police leadership, tax incentives, public agencies and pandemic aid. She has reported on data center tax breaks, property tax errors, federal relief spending and the fiscal effects of major development proposals. Quig combines insider government reporting with public accountability journalism. She uses public records, data and budget documents, follows committees and staff negotiations, and explains complex decisions in plain language with precise numbers and a direct link to everyday consequences.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Adam Pack
Adam Pack covers Capitol Hill through power struggles, investigations and ideological fights, focusing on how Congress intersects with Donald Trump’s agenda. He is a politics writer on Fox News Digital’s Capitol Hill team, covering Congress, federal elections, legislative battles, election rules, war powers, primaries and intraparty fights. He previously wrote for the Daily Caller News Foundation. His reporting examines deadlines, vote counts, bill language, campaign spending, court rulings, oversight reports, culture clashes and emerging issues such as AI-backed political groups. He has covered FISA reauthorization, defense spending, the SAVE America Act, housing policy, redistricting, candidate absences, primary spending and disputes over sex, gender, religion and race-based caucuses. He reports primarily through news features and investigative-style pieces built around documents, committee reports, court records, unearthed video and specific legislative details. He often co-writes complex Capitol Hill stories and publishes “FIRST ON FOX” exclusives.
Adam Sullivan
Adam Sullivan is a veteran politics reporter for WCAX who connects elections and party disputes to everyday life. He covers statewide races, party primaries, federal representation, political rhetoric, extremism, and accountability across the Upper Valley and neighboring states. His reporting includes Becca Balint’s victory over Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary to replace Congressman Peter Welch. He also reports when political controversies affect public safety, political culture, towns, and institutions, including a New Hampshire Libertarian Party post endorsing violence against elected Democrats. Sullivan follows cultural stories with civic consequences, such as Noah Kahan’s appeal to fans to stop stealing a Strafford road sign linked to his music. He writes straight news centered on concrete events, official reactions, political context, community impact, and what comes next.