EXTRA: To listen to malcontents, everybody in line for a butt whuppin’

There’s something I’ve learned from some three decades of watching the electoral process – some people take themselves far too seriously, have nothing but trash to utter and are convinced that the upcoming Election Day is the one in which the opposition will get trashed beyond redemption.

William Kelly seeking aid of Honest Abe; or is he still busy rolling over from the thought of Rod Blagojevich. Photo provided by William Kelly

This election cycle is no different.

TAKE THE “PRAIRIE State Wire,” an ideologue web site that is reporting how the Communist Party USA is coordinating its efforts to undermine everything good and all-American by offering up support to 24 Democrats in order to ensure the Republican Party loses control of the House of Representatives.

Supposedly, one of the 24 is Sean Casten, the Democratic nominee challenging Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner has been smacking Casten about with rhetoric claiming he’s nothing more than a Michael Madigan lackey.

Now, we’re supposed to believe he’s a “Commie” (or at least a sympathizer). Perhaps as part of a “Make America Great Again” initiative, we’re supposed to pretend it’s the 1950s and the Red Scare is on.

Personally, every person I’ve ever met who seriously was a Communist was literally someone so inept at politics that they’d be incapable of coordinating any effort that would help them win a thing.

Is it really a Communist plot to take down … 

AND MOST OF them were so uninterested in anything establishment, I can’t see any kind of serious effort that would be worth noting.

This is just more of the nonsense-talk coming from people who are struggling to organize themselves into a winning coalition. Perhaps its just time for the 57-year-old Roskam of Wheaton, following 12 years in Congress and 16 years in the Illinois General Assembly, to start thinking of a new line of work.

His nearly three-decades of time in public service could be complete.

Then, there’s William Kelly, who is leader of the Chicago Republican Party largely because the GOP in the Second City is virtually non-existent.

… to take down Peter Roskam?

KELLY SAYS HE is backing Sam McCann for Illinois governor. As in he’s backing the Republican legislator from Southern Illinois who has created his own political party (the Conservative Party) so that McCann can run for governor.

He’s definitely NOT backing incumbent Bruce Rauner for re-election. Among the reasons Kelly gives for not wanting Bruce? It’s because (in part) Rauner supported Rahm Emanuel for Chicago mayor the last election when Kelly had his own political fantasies of being Chicago’s first GOP mayor since William Hale Thompson of the late 1920s.

I do have to admit one thing – the photograph Kelly provides of himself at Abraham Lincoln’s tomb, pledging to “rebuild the Illinois GOP – free of Raunerites” is just so over-the-top!

LINCOLN: Wishing he could be a Whig again?

Although it does make me wonder how appalled Lincoln himself would be to learn that his name and image were being used by such political rubes. Maybe just enough that he’d want to give second thought to a partisan switch himself, or wondering why he ever abandoned the Whig Party in the first place?

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No ‘third term’ for Rauner? Let’s see if he even gets a second stint as governor!

Excuse me for not being overly swayed by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s statements this week that there’s no way he’d consider running for a third term as governor of Illinois.

RAUNER: We laugh at thought of no 'third' term

Which is almost a laughable statement for him to make, since he’s seeking a second term come the Nov. 6 general election, and there are those who are convinced he’s already doomed to defeat.

“THIRD TERM?” HE’ll be lucky if he becomes anything more than a one-termer – and one who barely got to live in the Executive Mansion in Springfield, what with the way it had to be remodeled extensively for much of the four years he served in office.

I’m sure Rauner is trying to score points with those people who like to think that term limits are a serious issue, and one upon which we should base our political choices.

Pick the guy who has no intention of making a career out of public service. And is most definitely different from Michael Madigan – the long-time Illinois House speaker whom Rauner has made into his nemesis. Madigan, after all, has been on the state payrolls for nearly a half-century now, and has been the Big Boss of Springpatch, so to speak, for just about the entire time since the early 1980s.

Like it or not, Madigan will be remembered by the political geeks of this state, whereas I suspect The Rauner Years will quickly lapse into the crevasses of our minds where we will manage to forget the details.

MADIGAN: Nearing a half-century as pol

NOW THE REASON I have trouble taking Rauner’s talk – which the Chicago Tribune reported he said during a meeting with Crain’s Chicago Business – is that there is absolutely nothing binding about his “pledge.”

There’s nothing in the law that would require him to keep his word. He could easily decide when the time comes that he thinks his presence is still needed on the political scene.

Any promise to depart after a certain amount of years doesn’t mean a thing.

SHIMKUS: Approaching his 12th term

Personally, I always think of Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., whenever this issue comes up.

THE CONGRESSMAN FROM the part of Illinois near St. Louis campaigned back in 1990 on a hard-and-fast promise that he would not serve more than 10 years in Congress. He wasn’t going to make a career out of being a part of the Capitol Hill scene. He really wouldn’t.

KELLY: Readying self for D.C. return

Yet here we are, 22 years later, with Shimkus having built up his seniority and showing no signs of even contemplating his one-time pledge to leave after five, two-year terms. Instead, he’s seeking term number 12.

Which actually is fine, if that’s really what the people of that particular congressional district want. Actually, I think they could do better, but I don’t have a vote in that district.

As well it should be. My votes are for the portion of metro Chicago in which I reside, and where I have every right to exercise my right to cast a ballot (where we’re likely to send Robin Kelly back to D.C. for yet another term in the House of Representatives).

SO FOR RAUNER to say he’s not interested in having a third term in office? It’s empty rhetoric. It’s not binding. It borders on self-righteous political rhetoric.

Because too many people are going to look at the governor’s race just over a month from now (actually, early voting centers will open Oct. 22) and see how badly Rauner has failed – not only in accomplishing any of his desired goals, but also in managing to muck up the operations of government so as to intensify the financial problems our state confronts.

McCANN: Will he gain gov votes?

Even for those people who think there’s anything noble about the Rauner efforts to mess with organized labor influence in Illinois, they’re going to find their own reasons to despise the idea of another term for Bruce. They’re the ones seriously looking to Sam McCann and his “Conservative Party” for a vote.

And Rauner’s talk of a nobly turning down a “third term” will come across as absurd and ridiculous a statement as we’ve ever heard in partisan politics. Except for maybe that self-righteous talk that President Donald Trump gave this week to the United Nations -- the one that had the world's delegates bursting out in laughter.

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EXTRA: How many chances does Gov. Rauner need to say Madigan is corrupt?

Listening to Gov. Bruce Rauner say this week he wants there to be a dozen formal debates between now and Election Day reminds me of the 1998 election cycle.

Pritzker only wants three

Specifically, the portion of the cycle in which Democrats had their candidates fight it out for who would get to be the gubernatorial nominee who would ultimately take on Republican George Ryan.

THAT ELECTION CYCLE ultimately saw Southern Illinois favorite son candidate Glenn Poshard use his regional base to beat up on urban candidates John Schmidt, Roland Burris and Jim Burns. It also was one in which there were many debates.

It seems the candidates were traveling all over the state, making appearances and trying to make the locals feel like they were privileged to be in the presence of the gubernatorial aspirants.

Sounds great? Not really.

What I remember of that election cycle was that they became less about speaking to the would-be voters, and more about giving every broadcast organization involved in sponsoring an event a chance to pretend that THEIR debate was the ONLY debate that mattered.

Rauner must really want to say "Madigan evil"

WHILE NEWSPAPER COVERAGE wound up making these events all sound so repetitive of each other.

Largely because they were. Candidates mostly ignored the questions they were asked and used their time to issue rebuttals to whatever negative pot-shots were made against them. I can remember sitting through those events and feeling incredibly uninformed.

I was always thankful that election officials in the future went back to thinking in terms of three as the number of debates that were needed prior to an Election Day. Even though I do believe there is benefit to a structured-format event in which the candidates confront each other.

McCann will take 12 too

So to hear Rauner say he wants a dozen debates fills me with dread. How many times do we need to hear the man spew insipid claims of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s corruption? How many times do we need to hear rhetorical links of Madigan’s support for billionaire J.B. Pritzker’s candidacy?

THREE WILL PROBABLY be more than enough. Although I expect Rauner will insist on complaining he’s not being given ample times to screech “Dump Madigan!!!” to prospective voters.

If anything, Rauner is merely confirming my own political hypothesis – which is that the first candidate in any election cycle to complain about the number of debates is the loser.

So I’m inclined to be sympathetic to the Pritzker camp which has suggested three debates – although I’ll admit Pritzker is playing some hard-core politicking of his own in picking where they will be held, and pretty much making it a “take it or leave it” choice for Rauner to accept.

Two of the debates would be held in Chicago, with one to be co-sponsored by the Telemundo Spanish-language television affiliate along with the Chicago Urban League. Where I’m sure we’ll get tons of questions intended to remind us that Rauner is just a rich white guy who doesn’t get it. Along with reminders of all the vetoes Rauner made last week on measures related to immigration.

AS FOR THE one debate intended outside of metro Chicago, it would be set for Quincy, the city along the Mississippi River with a veterans’ home that has been the focus of instances of veterans who died from Legionaires’ disease. It’s probably the one place in rural Illinois where Rauner does NOT want to set foot.

Multiple debates didn't help Poshard win

And as for the traditional debate held by the League of Women Voters, that’s a group most likely not interested in cheap political pandering by any candidate.

I do find it intriguing that Conservative Party candidate Sam McCann is accepting Rauner’s offer of 12 debates. But that’s because he needs as much attention and opportunity as possible to let voters know he exists if he’s to be at all irrelevant come Nov. 6.

Which means it’s really sad that Rauner, an incumbent with significant personal wealth (he essentially bought the post in the 2014 election cycle) feels he’s just as desperate. All the more reason many voters have already shifted their focus to the mayoral election cycle of 2019.

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How weak is the so-called “Party of Lincoln” in the “Land of Lincoln?”

What's the point of Party of Rauner?

It really shouldn’t be a wonder that Gov. Bruce Rauner isn’t willing to publicly denounce Republican congressional candidate Art Jones – a white supremacist who literally used to run around wearing Swastika armbands and pledging “Heil!” to Adolf Hitler.

Jones, who managed to win the Republican primary to run for Congress from the 3^rd Illinois district (Chicago's Southwest Side and surrounding suburbs) because no one else tried seeking the GOP nomination, is a political embarrassment.

What would Lincoln think of GOP?

NOT ONLY TO Chicago’s Southwest Side (he’s a reminder of those days of about four decades ago when the area around the city’s Marquette Park was home to many willing to see a role model in Hitler to try to scare off black people from moving anywhere near their neighborhood) or to Illinois.

But to the Republican Party themselves. Which is why Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas who made his own presidential bid two years ago and whom some consider somewhat of an embarrassment himself, came out recently with his cry denouncing Jones’ presence on his political party’s ballot.

If Rauner was competent, neither Jones ...

He came out and called Jones’ presence “horrific,” and said people should vote come Nov. 6 either to re-elect Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., or no one. Zero votes for Jones, is his goal.

Rauner’s response this week was something along the lines of telling Cruz to mind his own business. Personally, I have no problem with telling a Texan to, “Butt out!”

BUT I DON’T think it’s because Rauner really thinks people will pay that much attention to Cruz. Most likely, it’s because Cruz is scoring political points for himself by drawing direct attention to just how weak the Republican Party is in Illinois.

… nor McCann would be on ballot

It’s a party that literally couldn’t find a token candidate to bear the GOP banner back in March, and also couldn’t get itself organized enough to challenge the ballot status of Jones – who based on his past attempts at running for government office has a fringe campaign that isn’t capable of running a serious effort to win office.

But no matter how incompetent Team Jones IS this time around, it would seem that Team Rauner is even worse off.

Yes, I think it accurate to call the Illinois Republicans Team Rauner, largely because the only reason there is a Republican Party in our state is because of all his own money the governor has thrown in to prop up GOP candidates.

MOSTLY BECAUSE HE wants to have political allies to support his ideals for government. Yet what he has is a state Legislature solidly in opposition to him – one where as little as we think of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, we think even less of “Governor Bruce.”

Which is why many of the would-be Republican partisans are thinking of shifting over to a third-party political candidate for governor – that of the newly-created Conservative Party that plans to run state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, for governor.

CRUZ: For once, Texas has a point

Considering how difficult it is for an outside entity to get itself on the ballot (there are too many political tricks that can kick political dreamers away), it ought to be considered further evidence of Illinois Republican ineptitude that McCann WILL challenge Rauner, along with Democrat J.B. Pritzker and Libertarian Kash Jackson.

It actually is sad that in Illinois, a place that likes to think it was influential (because of Lincoln) in creating the Republican Party, the GOP has become so inconsequential. To the point where outspoken Chicago Republican William Kelly, it could be said, wouldn't be any more inept if he ever were elected to office.

BUT THAT IS the status of our political scene, where it seems we have a Democratic Party that represents the two-thirds of the state population that views itself as urban, and another third that is rural and, in its isolation, seems quite confused.

KELLY: Would he be any worse than Rauner?

The “Party of Rauner” is one that doesn’t seem capable of accomplishing the tasks that, quite honestly, are a political party’s only reason for existing.

It makes me wonder what Rauner really thinks he has accomplished during his three years in office, and why he thinks anything would be significantly different for Illinois if he were to somehow miraculously be elected to a second term in office.

Unless, that is, if he can somehow write off all the money he put into Republican political candidates as a financial loss. Which would be exactly the kind of action I would expect from our federal government during this Age of Trump we’re now in.

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Would you be more likely to vote for a “Kash,” or a “Winderweedle?”

It seems that Sam McCann, the Republican state senator from one of those Illinois towns not far from St. Louis, is going to proceed with his plans to be the newly-created (as in by himself) Conservative Party’s candidate for governor come Nov. 6.

JACKSON: Gov. Winderweedle eyes his parking spot

He filed the nominating petitions Monday to get his third-party candidacy on the ballot – and soon we’ll get the process by the Republican establishment to claim his signatures of support aren’t valid and he should be kicked off.

BUT IF IT turns out that McCann somehow manages to remain on the ballot so he can try to steal votes away from Gov. Bruce Rauner’s re-election bid, there’s a chance he won’t even be the most notable third party candidate to appear.

For it seems the Libertarians have come up with a candidate who may well have one of the most unusual ballot names to ever be seen in an Illinois election.

I’m talking about the gubernatorial candidacy of Kash Jackson, who says his full name is Grayson Kash Jackson. But he also concedes that is the name he picked for himself back in 2017 when he completed the legal process of having a name-change.

It used to be Benjamin Adam Winderweedle.

RAUNER: Wants this to be a two-race race

THE ILLINOIS STATE Board of Elections says that his entry on the gubernatorial ballot will offer, along with those of Republican Rauner and Democrat Pritzker (and maybe Conservative McCann), “Grayson Kash Jackson formerly known as Benjamin Adam Winderweedle until name changed on Aug. 29, 2017.”

For the record, Jackson/Winderweedle is an Antioch resident who will turn 40 by Election Day and who includes among the many roles he has held in life that he’s a reserve sheriff’s deputy in north suburban Lake County.

He’s the founder of the Restoring Freedom organization that advocates for family court, and he served in the Navy for 20 years, reaching the rank of petty officer, First Class, before retiring in 2016.

PRITZKER: The more, the merrier

Which means he’s a political newcomer, who likely will try to claim his total lack of government experience is actually his greatest strength – a person to vote for if you’re absolutely disgusted by the content of modern-day electoral politics.

WHICH IS PROBABLY the niche that McCann envisions for himself, but may or may not get, depending on whether he can remain on the ballot for Nov. 6.

Now as someone who has written about government and electoral politics for nearly three full decades, the idea of fringe candidates is not unique. They come and go.

When the election is over, they tend to be forgotten about. As though we can’t remember a thing about why we were ever asked to vote for them in the first place – except to express our disgust with the person who eventually won that election.

I can’t help but wonder if “Kash” (that’s what he seems to want to be called for short) is the exception because of that incredulously-long handle he’s going to have on the ballot – which may well be the first-and-only time most people will ever hear of him.

JUST ENVISION, PEOPLE who feel like they need to cast a ballot come Nov. 6 show up not feeling enthused about either incumbent Bruce or billionaire J.B. – then they see there’s also a Libertarian with all the names.

McCANN: Will he remain on ballot?

I have to wonder how many people will wind up putting a mark beside that ballot entry, just because!

Although a part of me has to wonder if he’d have been better off keeping his mother-given name – I can’t recall quite as noteworthy a name as “Winderweedle” appearing on an Illinois ballot. It would have gained him voter attention – without all the legal expense of a court-approved name change.

Besides, just think of all the attention the Illinois political scene would gain from those who want to speculate on how seriously a “Gov. Winderweedle” would be taken?

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Rauner delves into ‘robot’ mode – spewing lines about “Madigan pawns”

It shows at times that Bruce Rauner, at heart, is a political amateur. Which is going to be the real reason why his re-election campaign is likely to be taken apart come Nov.6 by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan – who in many ways is the ultimate political professional.

McCANN: Madigan pawn? Really!

The Illinois governor, who had hoped he was finished with dealing with the conservative wing of the Republican Party when he narrowly beat state Sen. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, in the March primary, isn’t going to get away so easily.

FOR NOW, IT seems, we’re going to have William “Sam” McCann, a state senator from an unincorporated part of Macoupin County in Southern Illinois, declaring himself to be the Conservative Party’s candidate for governor.

The party doesn’t have a ballot slot, and there are those who question if they can get enough signatures of support on nominating petitions so that McCann and Aaron Merreighn for lieutenant governor to even be on the general election ballot.

But Rauner is going out of his way to denigrate the McCann/Merreighn ticket. On Thursday, the governor said McCann’s candidacy is “being used as a pawn” by Madigan and Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker.

When a reporter-type person tried to get Rauner to clarify what he meant, he promptly repeated himself, saying McCann “is being used by Pritzker and Madigan, and we’re going to win in November.”

RAUNER: Rehearsed rhetoric falls flat

BASICALLY, IT SEEMS the answer to any question anybody asks Rauner about anything is “blame Madigan!” Failing, he seems, to realize that no matter how little favorability the House speaker and Democratic Party chairman has, the governor himself is liked by even fewer people.

Take the fact that McCann, who has spent the past eight years as a state senator from a part of Illinois where Chicago’s existence doesn’t even factor and even St. Louis (which is less than an hour’s drive away) is considered alien, even feels compelled to run for governor.

His Conservative Party label is meant to be a place for those individuals who absolutely can’t get themselves behind a Rauner re-election bid AND who feel nothing in common with the modern-day Democratic Party in Illinois.

MADIGAN: Last laugh?

The idea that anybody thinks there’s a connection of any kind between Madigan and McCann is absurd. If anything, such rhetoric ought to show that perhaps Rauner has learned nothing during his three-plus years he’s been governor.

PERHAPS SUCH RHETORIC ought to be evidence why Rauner ought not to get anyone’s vote for re-election.

But is the line of campaign talk that Rauner seems to have settled into, and we’re bound to hear versions of this lack of logic over and over between now and Election Day in November.

McCann, in a statement he issued in response to Rauner, said the governor, “resorted to petty attacks and name-calling.” While the Chicago Tribune reported that McCann said Rauner is, “a lying liar who lies.”

Of course, part of the reason that Rauner may have been eager to resort to nonsense talk on Thursday is that it was his first public appearance in Chicago since his return from a 12-day journey to Germany and Poland.

RAUNER WAS SUPPOSED to be meeting with corporate types whom, presumably, he might be using his influence on to get them to bring business to Illinois.

PRITZKER: GOP fights while J.B. coasts to win?

The most specific thing Rauner had to say about his trip was that there’d be, “several really exciting announcements” to be made in coming weeks. Which almost makes it seem like the governor took a vacation trip at state expense, and maybe he’ll have a slide presentation to show us once the pictures are developed.

So instead, he chose to go after the fringe candidate who threatens to make Rauner the fringe candidate come Nov. 6; splitting up the segment of Illinois society that looks to the Republican Party for its Election Day choices.

With this kind of rhetoric, all I have to say is that it will take quite a significant screw-up on the part of the Pritzker campaign for them to avoid having to hold a victory celebration once the ballots are counted – with Madigan having the “last laugh” about all the pot shots being taken these days against him.

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