Who will make GOP bid for AG?

With Lisa Madigan making it public that 20 years of public service in state government is enough (for now) for her, it will be intriguing who decides to try to fill the state attorney general vacancy she has created.
 

MADIGAN: Who will replace her?

Various reports are speculating on the same names of government officials with ambition – the state Sen. Kwame Raoul (whom some like to think of as a Barack Obama clone), former Chicago Public Schools and Illinois State Board of Education official Gery Chico and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart are amongst the predictable picks for this post.

YET ALL OF the speculation is coming on the Democratic Party side – who will get the AG nomination for the right to try to replace Madigan. I’ll have to admit to being more intrigued by what will happen on the Republican side of the equation.

Thus far, there’s only one person indicating a desire to run for the GOP nomination for attorney general. That’s Erika Harold, an Urbana-based attorney who has one major credential to her name.

Some 15 years ago, she was chosen as Miss America (the last time someone from Illinois won that beauty/scholarship pageant title). She’s the one who (based off the impression she gives of herself on her Facebook page) expects those old photos of her in sash and tiara to create a lovable image that people will cast ballots for her to be Illinois government’s attorney.

 
I remember a few months ago when I first heard Harold was in the running I checked out their Facebook and Twitter account images, and found the dueling visuals of Harold with a U.S. soldier in uniform – compared to Madigan marching in Chicago’s Pride Parade.

HAROLD: Will GOP replace her?

WHICH HAD ME wondering if the conservative ideologues who have come to dominate the Republican Party in Illinois were planning on a borderline sexist and homophobic campaign style to try to knock votes off the Lisa Madigan tally.

Considering that Harold herself has made several unsuccessful electoral bids in the past for congressional seats from her central Illinois native region, it gave me the impression of Harold as someone intended to fill a ballot spot running against someone the Republican Party didn’t really think it had a chance of beating.

 
It certainly isn’t Harold’s legal credentials that will inspire many people to vote for her. The University of Illinois alumna is also a Harvard Law School graduate, and also is a member of the state Supreme Court committee on equality and the commission on professionalism.

Is there a yet-to-be-determined GOPer in race?

Which isn’t irrelevant. But it’s not exactly the standing in the legal community that’s going to make people think she ought to be the chief attorney who defends Illinois state government when it gets into trouble.

THAT TIARA AND sash are going to be the primary images that will get her whatever political support she manages to gain.

She certainly was named publicly this summer as the Republican preference for attorney general at the Illinois State Fair, when the GOP had its own political rallies to drum up support for the ticket.

But now that it won’t be a four-term incumbent (who also served a term in the Illinois Senate from the Ravenswood neighborhood) to run against, it has me wondering how quickly the Republican Party’s political operatives will try to come up with an alternate candidate.

RAOUL: Wanting to move up pol ladder?

I know the Republican Attorneys General Association issued a statement last week indicating that Harold is the GOP choice for the post and spewed predictable rhetoric about “lead(ing) the fight against public corruption and bring(ing) integrity to the Attorney General’s office,” I can’t help but think it is empty rhetoric.

PARTICULARLY THE LINES about how Lisa Madigan supposedly dropped out in fear of Harold’s pending campaign, which is, “so strong, in fact, that Lisa Madigan has decided she doesn’t want to run a campaign for re-election.”

DART: Giving up sheriff post for attorney?

A line that was the chuckle of the week last week for political operatives across Illinois of all persuasions.

Of course, Republicans do have to show some care in the way they handle this. Because if they’re too blunt in their approach, they could wind up triggering a brawl within the party ranks that could wind up making everybody look foolish and wind up tainting whoever does manage to win the GOP AG nomination.

Which may well be the ultimate fantasy of Raoul or Dart (whom I can remember the days decades ago when political people speculated he’d probably try to be Chicago mayor someday, along with Lisa Madigan as Illinois governor) or whoever ultimately winds up being chosen in the March 20 Democratic primary for the nomination.

  -30-

EXTRA: Will immigration issue provoke 'civil war' amongst GOPers

Gov. Bruce Rauner followed through on his rhetoric of last week, using Monday to sign into law the Trust Act – a measure limiting the ability of local police across the state to get involved in the enforcement of federal immigration law.

KELLY: Rauner 'betrays' Illinoisans?

Rauner even went so far as to venture into the Little Village neighborhood for a bill-signing ceremony; which ensured he was surrounded by many Mexican-American activist types who have long been anxious for such legal protections from police harassment.

BUT THE CONSERVATIVE ideologue-types are upset. They’re the kind who want government officials who are eager to harass so-called “foreigners” who “don’t belong” in this country. Many of them aren’t too concerned about the niceties of the law or the details of a person’s ethnic origins.

Party regulars willing to defend Rauner

Such as William Kelly, a Chicago Republican (Yes, they exist) who is talking up himself as a gubernatorial challenger in the GOP primary come March. He claims Rauner has “betrayed” Illinois residents and “has made Illinois a sanctuary for criminals, drug dealers and gang members.” Kelly also said Rauner, “has turned the state of Illinois into Chicago, America’s murder capital.”

That latter statement is so over-the-top as to be absurd. Particularly for those people who take the homicide rate literally – Chicago isn’t even the worst in the Midwest (St. Louis and Detroit have higher rates, while other cities such as Baltimore and New Orleans also exceed the Second City).

Not that it really matters much what Kelly says. He wants attention (I suspect most would-be voters don’t have a clue who he is, and would say that even if he gets on the primary ballot, Rauner is still running unopposed because it is difficult to call Kelly a credible candidate). He’s desperate for it!

BUT SOME WITHIN the Republican political structure must be concerned. Because the party managed to issue their own statement, quoting all kinds of law enforcement officials who claim that the Trust Act isn’t a big deal to them. In fact, the party got their statement to me through e-mail about a half hour before the governor’s statement confirming he actually signed the bill into law.

RAUNER: Will issue be key in '18 campaign?

The political party wants us to believe only the Democrats have a mess of candidates to pick from, while the GOP is solidly behind Bruce. Which may or may not be true. We’ll have to wait and see if Rauner can successfully portray a pol who cares one whit about urban issues.

Particularly after spending the past two years bashing the city about every chance he gets. “It breaks my heart to see the senseless violence going on in our streets, especially when that violence is inflicted on innocent children,” the governor said. “We need to prioritize our resources for the prevention of violent crime.”

Are you buying it?

  -30-

Rauner getting desperate to change the story we’re all talking about these days?

I don’t expect political candidates to say nice things about their opponents, but I couldn’t quite get over the level of ludicrousness expressed Thursday by the Illinois Republican Party on behalf of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

RAUNER: 57 days, or 63 percent?

Until, that is, I saw the level of unpopularity Rauner is sinking to in a new survey by the Democratic Governors Association – which isn’t exactly an unbiased source.

BUT IT SEEMS that Rauner has desperately to do something to shift attention away from the fact that his actions as governor are creating scenarios by which Election Day of 2018 can’t come too soon for many people as they eagerly wait for their chance to vote Bruce out of office.

It’s about the only explanation for the nonsense-talk spewed by the state’s GOP where they emphasize 57 Days Madigan Machine Holding Schools Hostage.

Their line of logic is that Democrats who run the General Assembly should have sent the education funding bill (the one that is at the heart of the latest round of partisan bickering in Springfield) to the governor for consideration immediately upon its approval May 31.

That bill is still pending even though already approved by both the Illinois House and state Senate; where President John Cullerton has hinted he may send it along to the governor come Monday.

Which of these political entities ...

WHICH HAS RAUNER claiming that Democrats, particularly Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, are to blame for the potential threat to public schools across the state being able to open for the new school year come mid-August.

GOPers literally have created a clock ticking down the amount of time since then that Dems are supposedly to blame – even though most public school officials I have talked to in various districts are more inclined to blame Bruce Rauner for the fact that public school funding for the upcoming fiscal year isn’t set in stone yet.

It’s why we’re getting nonsense-talk such as “It’s a blatant assault on our democracy in order to create pressure for their Chicago bailout.” Even though his “Chicago bailout” is really just a measure long needed to specify the way in which the state ought to be involved with the retirement benefits for public school teachers in Chicago the way they are with teachers in any other district across Illinois.

OF COURSE, THE bill that supposedly has a 57-day countdown means nothing. It wouldn’t have meant anything until a budget for the state was put in place in early July. Which makes any 57-day tally as of Thursday nothing more than pure nonsense.

... warrants more credibility these days?

But Rauner wants to tar Madigan with a count similar to the 735-day count that was done during the budget talks (as in just over two full years without a state in budget in place, a figure that was used to blast Bruce repeatedly).

It’s also meant to detract from the latest poll by the governor’s association – one that shows 63 percent of Illinoisans thinking Rauner has done a “poor” or “not so good” job as governor.

Only 34 percent of those surveyed think Rauner is doing well as governor – which is actually worse than the 39 percent approval rating that the Gallup Organization gave to President Donald Trump on Thursday.

CULLERTON: Will bill advance Monday?

MUCH OF THE politicking is meant to stir up outrage amongst voters in the rural parts of the state; making them think that Rauner is their protector against the urban monstrosity known as Chicago. He hopes he’s stirring up voter support in the other third of Illinois.

For his sake, he’d better be. Because the same survey shows Rauner with a 68 percent negative rating in Chicago and 54 percent in the collar counties that make up the outer Chicago suburbs – usually the one part of metro Chicago where a Republican can count on some support.

MADIGAN: What will next move be?

The scary part of all this is that we have just over 15 months to go until the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle. We’re going to have to endure a lengthy period of this spiel – particularly since the poll shows Rauner losing to any unnamed Democrat.

For even long after this current partisan spat over the opening of the school year is settled, we’re going to hear the details repeated over and over and over yet again until the level of nausea reaches a record peak.

  -30-

EXTRA: Note to GOP; Quit yer whinnin' and find a challenger

The latest whiny rant that makes the Illinois Republican Party seem like a six-year-old who just dropped his ice cream cone and Mommy won’t buy him another came out Wednesday, and this time Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is the target,

WHITE: Two decades, and counting, in current post

The one-time Party of Lincoln wants us to be all offended that White will not say for sure if he’s running for re-election in 2018. He has hinted in the past he’d like to retire (he’s already 82 and has held the post since 1999), but seems to be one of those political people who just can’t see himself doing anything but holding office.

OF COURSE, FOR Republicans the real issue is that if White does run again, it is very likely they won’t be able to come up with a credible challenger. That would mean yet another high-profile political post they would likely lose come the 2018 election cycle.

If White does retire, maybe some GOPer has a chance to slip into office and prop up the potential future political opportunities for Gov. Bruce Rauner. Of course, that’s presuming voters aren’t so fed up with the Illinois political status quo of ‘no budget’ that they don’t just dump him too.

Republicans are trying to make it an issue that White ran for re-election back in 2014 even though he previously had hinted at retirement, and has since made statements in 2015 and 2016 that he didn’t want a sixth term as secretary of state.

We, the voters of Illinois, didn’t seem to get too offended just over two years ago. Who knows how we’ll react. Or do you really think a gaudy, cluttered license plate design is really the kind of issue that will rile up voters?

RAUNER: He'd like political allies

ALTHOUGH IF YOU really want to get technical, you’d think the Illinois GOP would be the last entity to try to make an issue out of term-limit pledges.

For they’re the ones who include amongst their ranks Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. He’s a congressman from the part of Illinois that is suburban St. Louis, and when he originally ran for office back in 1996 he made a firm pledge that – if elected – he would not serve more than six, two-year terms in office.

Which means we should be coming up on the 10-year anniversary of Shimkus’ departure from the Washington scene. Somehow, Shimkus keeps concluding that his presence in the District of Columbia is still needed. As far as I know, he’s going to face about as credible of opposition on Election Day ’18 for his congressional seat as White will for secretary of state.

SHIMKUS: Supposed to leave 10 yrs ago

It is kind of odd in White’s case, because I remember when he first got elected to his present post in 1998, the idea was that White was a long-time state legislator and Cook County recorder who would serve a term or two in Springfield before taking political “retirement.”

JESSE, HOWEVER, SEEMS to be a political survivor. One whose presence causes the Republican Party to engage in such lame nonsense as what they’re now spewing.

And yes, this latest Republican statement tells us that White is sticking around because Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, wants him too. It all comes back to Madigan, in the minds of the Illinois GOP.

I guess the idea of coming up with more credible candidates who can actually beat the opposition is an idea that goes beyond their intellect; or perhaps even the power of all the millions of his own money that Rauner has committed to spending in next year’s election cycle.

All I know is that it is likely Rauner will be a little bit poorer come early 2019 – and probably just as lonely politically as he is currently.

  -30-

Whose money is truly tainted? Or, Are Rauner bucks really holier than thou?

We’re only at the first day of spring 2017 on Monday, while Election Day for Illinois governor won’t take place until we’re close to winter of 2018. Yet the level of doggie waste being generated on behalf of the campaigns truly is astounding.

What would 'Honest Abe' think of Daniel Biss, Bruce Rauner, or any of the Illinois officials now involved in creating Illinois' financial mess? Photograph provided by State of Illinois

Monday was the day that state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, formally declared himself a candidate for governor, and made a point of taking pot shots both at Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

AS THOUGH HE wants to create an impression that he’s somehow separate from the process of Illinois government. While everybody else is fighting, he’s the guy who would like to do some serious work toward getting our government operating properly again.

Which is nonsensical – he’s just a state senator from the North Shore suburbs, which makes him a complete unknown to everybody else in the state. And it’s questionable whether he has the resources to become better known.

In short, he’s a non-ethnic Amaya Pawar – the alderman from Chicago who has his own political dreams of running for governor.

The Illinois Republican Party, of course, went on their usual line of attack – instantly declaring him to be a party hack who does whatever it is that Madigan tells him to do.

“DANIEL BISS IS the North Shore branch of the Madigan machine,” state GOP spokesman Steven Yaffe said, in a prepared statement, adding later, “Daniel Biss is a willing Mike Madigan accomplice who would give the governor’s office back to the Chicago machine.”

Which is pretty much the standard line of rhetoric Republicans try tossing out – just fill in the blank with the name of the candidate. The rest stays the same, no matter how little it makes any sense.

If anything, there was one part of Yaffe’s statement Monday that made me laugh – the part where he produced what he wants us to think of as a dirty little secret that taints Biss. “Financial records reveal that Biss has taken over $260,000 in tainted Madigan money” (emphasis added).

 

RAUNER: Is his money holy?

Yet only four minutes before I received the Yaffe e-mail, I got one from Rauner himself. One that says he will match, dollar for dollar, any contribution people make to Citizens for Rauner (his campaign committee) to help boost his own re-election campaign.

RAUNER, OF COURSE, is the guy who already has pledged to spend some $50 million of his own money toward his re-election bid AND those of Republican candidates for the Legislature whom he would expect to become his political allies.

In short, the Rauner vision is to be able to operate like a strongman with legislators who rubber-stamp his vision – which largely is one meant to undermine the authority of organized labor.

There are going to be a ton of Republicans running for office in 2018 (can’t we just declare the April 4 municipal elections over and done with already so we can move on to the process next year some people might actually care about?) on Rauner bucks.

Or are we supposed to truly believe that only Madigan money is tainted, while Rauner’s finances are the equivalent of being blessed by His Holiness himself. Does Bruce Rauner see himself as the political equivalent of the Pope? Should we all genuflect and kiss his ring?!?

BUT BACK TO Biss, who wants us to believe he’s some sort of political virgin, saying to reporter-types Monday, “I’ve been clear for a long time that Madigan has been there too long.”

Yet he also has led fundraising efforts to produce money meant for anti-Rauner advertising to try to sway voters – which, in Rauner’s mind, is the true offense of which he’s guilty and must be put to a political death! That, and he publicly blames Rauner for the state’s inability to come up with a budget for the past two fiscal years.

Candidates won't ever come across this charming

Considering that we have nearly 20 months to go before the Nov. 6, 2018 date upon which we actually pick a new governor (or decide that Rauner is worthy of another term), all I can say is that I dread the endless rounds of nonsense we’ll be subjected to – particularly since that recent SIU-Paul Simon Institute poll showed people don’t like Rauner just as much as they don’t like Madigan.

I took my father’s dogs, Rocco and Carmelo, for a walk Monday just before writing this commentary, and Carmelo (the light brown one) left a steaming pile of a certain substance that is going to prove as unappetizing as anything the candidates have to say.

  -30-

It’s now the Madigans on GOP “hit” list

Let’s be honest; it was just a matter of time before the Illinois Republican Party – which is engaged in active efforts to besmirch the public reputation of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago – added his daughter, Lisa, to their list.
 

GOP adds Lisa to 'hit' list

So learning Monday that the GOP was adding the Illinois attorney general to their BossMadigan.com list of political people we should vote against was surprising only in the sense of “Why did they wait so long to do it?”

YOU’D HAVE THOUGHT that picking on the daughter of the House speaker would have been a move they would have made early on.

 

Schneider speaks out against Illinois AG

The Illinois Republican Party, which is continuing for the 2018 election cycle in its strategy of trying to get voters to believe that Madigan, as in Michael, is all that is wrong about government, and anybody who associates with him also needs to be dumped.

Replaced, of course, with a Republican official who’d be willing to vote in lock step with the ideals of Gov. Bruce Rauner – who actually is dipping into his personal fortune for several millions of dollars to pay for all this politicking.

He wants re-election next year real bad – primarily because he doesn’t want to go into the history books as “Gov. Gridlock, the guy whose own partisan political games prevented the state from ever approving an operating budget during his governing stint.

BECAUSE THAT’S THE direction we’re headed in, unless something seriously shifts on the political partisan scale.

That is part of what Illinois Republican Chairman Timothy Schneider (also a Cook County Board member) had in mind with his Monday morning conference in which he trashed the speaker’s daughter – which is something political insiders know you’d best not do.

 

How will speaker choose to retaliate?

Michael Madigan tends to take it personally when someone says something nasty about his daughter, and usually figures out a clandestine way to retaliate.

So I can’t help but wonder how far up Schneider goes on the Dem hit list for his comment, “Lisa Madigan is working for the speaker, not the people.” Or his other line about how the Madigans are, "stop(ping) reform by causing a crisis."

EVEN THOUGH IT can be argued that the attorney general, by trying to force the state’s ongoing (for nearly two years) budget stalemate to come to a head, she is acting on behalf of the people.

What we have is Rauner wanting to tie in other issues to a budget while Madigan (the speaker) wants those other issues (many of which would harm organized labor interests) dealt with separately.

 

The ultimate beneficiary?

Because he knows that separately, the Illinois General Assembly can be counted on to kill them off. Only by forcing them to be part of a budget agreement that must be approved do they have a chance to become reality.

Lisa Madigan has used her post to put political pressure on the sides of state government to force them to get around to passing a budget sooner, rather than later.

SPECIFICALLY, SHE WANTS a court to rule that the state payroll cannot continue to be met once the month ends, unless a budget is in place. Which is in accordance with the spirit of the state Constitution that says a budget must be approved by the legislature and governor for government to operate normally.

A hearing is scheduled for next week, and we could learn something before Feb. 28. Unless government officials can get their heads out of their partisan behinds and work together by month’s end, we could get the sight of government employees not getting paid.

Which would put them in the same category of those Illinois residents who rely on government programs whose funding is on hold, or the public school systems that are months late in getting the aid payments they rely on for their funding. Or those public universities that are losing students (with Chicago State U. facing possible closure) because of the uncertainty.

That’s a lot of angry people who will be prepared to blame everybody, and not just Mike Madigan, for Illinois government’s flaws. Which might make Lisa Madigan the most responsible person we have on the Illinois political scene.

  -30-

A “Kennedy” for Illinois governor; is GOP taking notion too seriously?

I’d be inclined to chuckle at the idea of Chris Kennedy, the one-time manager of the Merchandise Mart who is a member of the famed Kennedy political family (a nephew to JFK and son of Bobby).

KENNEDY: Next generation of Camelot for Ill.?

Except that the Republican Party seems to get itself all worked up over the idea, to the point where it seems they’re indulging themselves in preemptive rhetorical attacks to try to make sure that Kennedy can’t get any traction as a political candidate.

IF ONE WANTS to trust the latest Sneed Scoops of the Chicago Sun-Times, it seems that Kennedy is going around privately saying that he’s going to run for Illinois governor come the 2018 election cycle.

As in he means it. No, really! He’s going to do it this time!

Yes, Kennedy has often suggested his interest in running for electoral office in Illinois – which would put him among the many Kennedy cousins who have held government office in various parts of the country throughout the years.

Although if he were able to win the election cycle, it would be a first for Illinois – our very own “Kennedy” to try to enhance the family political legacy in our very own home turf.

WHICH SEEMS TO be the basis upon which Chris Kennedy would campaign; get all the people with fond memories of the former president and his father who tried running for president until he became among the casualties of 1968 to want to vote for him.

 

Will 2018 become the referendum on who ...

Could that kind of sentimentality actually defeat the millions of dollars of his own personal wealth that incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner likely will spend to try to get himself re-elected along with a General Assembly of a more sympathetic composition that might actually let him start imposing all those anti-organized labor initiatives he tries to pass off as “reform?”

I don’t know.

Particularly since Kennedy didn’t do his own reputation for being too flighty to actually get into the election cycle any good when, earlier this year, he refused to discuss with reporter-types his alleged campaign desires following a meeting with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

 

... we hate more; Madigan or Rauner?

BUT THE REPUBLICANS in this state are more than willing to offer up their perspective. As part of their BossMadigan.com initiative that is meant to make people so angry at “Mr. Speaker” that they actually vote the GOP candidates instead, they issued a statement this week demanding that Kennedy publicly show his distance from Madigan.

“Mike Madigan endorsing a run for governor by Chris Kennedy tells you everything you need to know about Chris Kennedy,” Illinois Republican spokesman Steven Yaffe said, in a prepared statement. “Chris Kennedy secretly kissed Madigan’s ring months ago because he knows Madigan is the real boss.”

It comes across as over-the-top, just as many of the statements do that criticize rural Democrats for not opposing their political party’s positions. I’d like to think it is merely an example of the Republican Party being absurd and over-reacting (they do it so often).

Unless THIS IS the year that Kennedy decides to finally show some backbone and try running for political office. Which will depend on how much he’s willing to be dirtied-up a bit by the campaign process.

BECAUSE THE 2018 election cycle will be a hostile one – I wonder if it will get as vulgar as the presidential election cycle we have completed. Because Republicans already are showing their interest in turning this into a Chicago vs. the rest of Illinois election, with them banking their chances on rural people overcoming the state’s primary city.

Already trying to spread discontent for 2018

Of course, there’s the fact that Rauner himself has pathetically-low approval ratings (a majority of people have an “unfavorable” impression of the man in various polls).

We in Illinois could wind up being subjected to a brawl of Who Do We Hate the Most – Rauner or Madigan? It makes me wonder about my own sanity in being interested in the political process, which has devolved in recent election cycles to a choice of whom we have less contempt for.

That may wind up being the reason that a “Kennedy” may decide our state’s governorship isn’t worth the hassle – there’s no way that his campaign would bring back memories of the days of “Camelot” and the inspiration that his “Uncle John” and his election as president provided to our society.

  -30-

Playing the partisan game by accusing opponent of being politically partisan

Illinois state Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, let it be known he’s not running for re-election come 2016. He’s going to finish out his term in the state Senate, but he’s bringing an end to his legislative career.



SULLIVAN: GOP already eyeing his seat

Which isn’t of much interest to Chicago-area political geeks, unless you think of his hometown as being near the city of Quincy – which once had a Chicago Cubs minor league baseball affiliate. I’m sure the locals will find themselves another person to represent their needs in the Illinois Senate.

BUT HIS ANTICIPATED departure brought about a reaction from the Illinois Republican Party that ought to be of interest to political observers across the state.

For it seems that the party and Gov. Bruce Rauner are determined to keep pushing for their ideological desires over the wishes of the people of Illinois by trying to play one of the old regional favorites – Chicago versus the rest of the state.

 

Just as Rauner has been issuing many statements pointing out that Democrats from parts of Illinois outside of the Chicago area are too supportive of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, the political party put the spin on things Friday that Sullivan is running scared because he is a Democrat and a Madigan-backer on several issues.

“Sullivan’s announcement is an early sign that the Democrats controlled by Mike Madigan are afraid of answering to voters after their repeated failure in Springfield,” the party wrote.

EVEN THOUGH THE fact is that Sullivan has represented a Republican-leaning legislative district since 2002, yet manages to get elected over and over even though he has the “D” following his name. He must be doing something right that appeals to the people of that western Illinois city on the Mississippi River.

VRDOLYAK: Became a 'nobody' w/ GOP

 

Or is it just that Rauner and the Republicans want someone whose blind political faith will be to the GOP, rather than the D?

What amuses me about this particular tactic is that it is so old. So much for the idea that Rauner represents a “turnaround,” a shake-up of the old way of doing things on the political scene.

It reminded me of the old (sort of) days of the late 1980s and early 1990s when Republican organizations used to routinely issue statements any time someone who had been connected to Democrats shifted to the Republican Party. They used to have a running count that pushed into the thousands (nationally). It was supposed to create the impression that anyone of sense was a part of the Party of Reagan.

OF COURSE, IF you read beyond the rhetoric, you’d see how silly this became.

PUCINSKI: Became a judge after returning to Dems

There may have been some Southern legislators who permanently shifted their political party allegiance (usually for racial hang-ups they refused to give up), but locally so few of those transitions lasted.

Edward R. Vrdolyak may have been the alderman and Cook County Democratic Chair who became a Republican and never went back. But it can also be argued that his political shift was the exact point in which he became practically irrelevant!

More typical were people like Aurelia Pucinski, the Illinois appellate judge who for a time went Republican, but then decided that being Democrat was the way to get elected to office in Cook County.

THIS IDEA OF Democrats being damaged goods just comes across as ridiculous. If anything, the Republicans run the risk of damaging themselves by coming across as absurd if they keep up the nonsense rhetoric.

I realize the purpose of a political organization is to enable its candidates to have the best chance of actually winning election. I don’t expect the Illinois Republican Party to “play nice” with Madigan – whom I’m sure will fight back with “great vengeance and furious anger” (remember actor Samuel L. Jackson’s “Jules” character from “Pulp Fiction”?).

RAUNER: Becoming the next Bill Brady?

 

But this attempt to gain victory by putting Chicago at the weak end of the Illinois “urban vs. rural” split has so much potential to backfire. For Rauner won his electoral bid last year by managing to get a share of the Chicago vote to combine with Republican voters in the rest of Illinois.

Becoming the blatantly anti-Chicago candidate could get the local electorate so worked up that they do whatever it is Rauner dislikes -- just like in 2010 when William Brady’s Republican gubernatorial bid went down to defeat because his rural Illinois strategy so blatantly offended Chicago interests.

  -30-

Gay marriage “statement” to be made (maybe) this weekend in SW suburbs

It will be intriguing to see how intense the ideological rhetoric will be Saturday when the state’s Republican Party is supposed to meet to consider whether to dump party Chairman Pat Brady.

BRADY: Fate on the line?

For there are those of a certain conservative bent who are disgusted not only with the fact that they are being pressured into consider a measure to make marriage amongst gay couples legitimate, but that their own party chairman isn’t backing them.

THESE ARE THE same people who liked it when, nearly two decades ago, the Illinois General Assembly and then-Gov. Jim Edgar made their own statement to change state laws to clarify that marriage in Illinois could never be legal between same-gender couples.

Now that such a thought is blatantly offensive (although honestly, it was just as tacky in 1996), they want to complain.

The party delegates are scheduled to meet Saturday at the convention center in southwest suburban Tinley Park located just off Interstate 80 – which makes it fairly easy for all to get to.

Although I’m wondering how many people who are party delegates are going to be reluctant enough to want to get involved in this issue that they will decide to skip this session.

I’M SURE SOME delegates will show up and will get all vehement in their talk. They are the hard-core who are prepared to go on a crusade for their “cause” – which has less to do with the sanctity of the family and our society and more about their “need” to demonize anyone who isn’t exactly like themselves.

I can’t help but notice that the person who seems to be at the forefront of leading this effort to dump Pat Brady is none other than James Oberweis – whose family business may make high-quality dairy products (the ice cream in particular is outstanding) but has become something of a political joke.

OBERWEIS: Trying to "make" his bones?

He finally got elected last year to a seat in the Illinois state Senate, and is amongst the rank-and-file of the legislators now in Springfield. But considering this was a man with aspirations to run for the U.S. Senate or Illinois governor, being nothing more than a freshman senator from Sugar Grove (out near Aurora) must be demeaning to his ego.

He probably envisions that deposing Brady will make him a party leader – or at least leader of the conservative ideologue faction that is probably the only group of people he wants to have to pay any attention to.

WHICH IS WHY I think that people of sense ought to just skip the event! Particularly since I noticed the Capitol Fax newsletter is reporting that it is very possible that no binding vote could be taken on Saturday -- so it wouldn't matter what happens.

Let them leave Oberweis with a movement that goes nowhere due to a lack of a quorum. Or with so few people on hand that it becomes blatantly clear how limited the opposition to the whole gay marriage issue has become.

If anything, it would go a long way toward showing that Brady wasn’t wrong when he said the Republican opposition on this issue puts Illinois GOPers on the “wrong side of history.”

Just that certain people don’t want to accept it – making them as pathetic as those people who in the late 1970s and early 1980s were still ranting and raging about segregation and the fact that it was no longer written into the law!

ALTHOUGH I’M ALSO aware that there are many people who are going to disagree with Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka – who this week offered her praise for Brady and went so far as to say that gay marriage is actually a conservative concept. No wonder why some GOPers think of her as the "crazy aunt" whom they try to hide in their figurative closet!

TOPINKA: What will she say next?

After all, these couples want to be married and in monogamous relationships just like any other heterosexual couple, is what Topinka says.

True enough, but I suspect many more agree with a person who wrote a recent letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune – claiming that bans on gay marriage are NOT discrimination because gay people are permitted to marry anyone of the other gender whom they might wish?!?

Maybe, just maybe, those members of the Illinois House who are wavering on the issue will see the Republican event this weekend and finally realize how isolated they’re going to make themselves if they don’t get with the program on this particular issue.

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EXTRA: A GOP “civil war” brewing at Chicago suburb political conventions?

Rick Santorum lives on in Chicago suburbs. Photographs provided by American Conservative Union

The Illinois Republican Party is holding its convention Friday and Saturday in southwest suburban Tinley Park, hoping to get the party faithful together to get them all worked up about the prospects of voting on Election Day.

No, they’re not going to put Illinois into the Republican column of electors for the presidential campaign. But they’re hoping to inflict their share of damage on Democrats, and probably would consider it a major deal if they could keep Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., from losing to Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth.

NOT THAT WALSH himself is going to be anywhere near the Tinley Park Convention Center, the facility located just off Interstate 80 that party leaders brag they chose because of its easy access to downstate Illinois.

Why make rural Illinois Republicans have to drive for another hour or two through the Chicago area to get to a northwest suburban convention site?

Yet somehow, I suspect another reason they’re in Tinley Park (which admittedly has a nice convention facility) is because the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont (near O’Hare International Airport) is already taken.

For that is the site of the American Conservative Union convention being held Friday at the very same time that party functionaries are trying to get people all worked up to vote GOP!

WALSH IS AMONG the people who will be speaking at the union’s convention, along with Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill. (the Republican who beat Duckworth the last time she tried running for a seat in Congress).

Among others who were expected to have a presence at the gathering include the failed presidential hopefuls such as Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann – names which have some attraction to segments of the electorate.

They’re also supposed to include names such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

For those people who want a Grand Old Party experience, it sounds like the real bash is taking place in Rosemont – while the Illinois party leaders are gathered in Tinley Park, less than a mile from the site of the Lane Bryant store where five people were killed some four years ago in a still-unsolved case.

UNLESS THE PROSPECT of a “surprise” birthday party for St. Louis-area congressional candidate (and failed Illinois 2010 lieutenant governor nominee) Jason Plummer held Thursday got you all excited, it seems like the people the party leaders want to appeal to have all chosen to show up at the other end of Cook County.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that events were scheduled in conflict with each other. In the public’s eye that often cares less about political concerns, I’m sure it was a bigger deal a few years ago when the Chicago White Sox scheduled their winter fan convention on the same day of the Super Bowl.

Still, it makes me wonder which party operative is responsible for deciding that this weekend was the one for Republicans to gather in the Chicago area.

We’re going to be seeing the split between the party regulars and the ideologues who these days get most worked up over the prospect of voting for Republican Party nominees – even if in many cases they’re really voting AGAINST Democratic challengers.

BECAUSE I’M SURE that group would eagerly have rebuffed the party officials if there had been any suggestion put forth that these two sides somehow work together.

So what’s my point in stating all of this?

JINDAL: What GOP thinks Obama should try to be like

It’s just that the American Conservative Union says in the statement that they’re gathering in Chicago on Friday to, “take the fight for the future of America directly to President Barack Obama’s backyard.”

Yet if we look to the president’s “backyard,” we get to see the split that harms the party’s chances of Election Day victory – which may well be the reason that Obama overcomes the concerns about a sluggish economy and wins Term Number Two come November.

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