Tea Party Members of KCAP endorse Proft, Lowery, Hultgren [Illinois primary]

Tea Party Members of KCAP endorse Proft, Lowery, Hultgren [Illinois primary]

KCAP consisting of 300 Kane County affiliated precinct committeemen candidates, after completing thorough research assignments, agreed at their endorsement meeting Tuesday night that Proft is their choice for Governor citing aspects of his ‘policy revolution,’ focus on K-12 education and stand up posture as critical to leading the state. Judge Lowery, in the senate race, got the affirmation as the conservative with the genuine record and gravitas to strike an important contrast with Kirk in the primary and clearly provide the best representation of our state in DC. State Rep Randy Hultgren for Congressional District 14 has legislative experience and the best chance to beat incumbent Democrat Foster in November a spokesman for the group explained.

While IL Tea Party doesn’t endorse candidates, or hasn’t so far, in this instance Tea Party Coordinators are also members of the KCAP endorsement board. “We have carefully researched and discussed every candidate on the ballot and will campaign for Lowery, Proft, Hultgren and the others we’ve endorsed within our many precincts, said Pete Malone of St. Charles.

Findings of KCAP are available for other counties and groups who are still determining choices. It is imperative in order not to split the vote, resulting in untenable and unelectable general election candidates that as many groups as possible coalesce and encourage their voters to turn out for the primary on February 2. “We feel certain having taken everything into consideration that our choices are solid,” stated Sherry Pierce of Aurora.

The tea parties originated in the Chicago area with Rick Santelli's call at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and there are now over 40 tea party groups in Illinois (though I haven't been to any tea party events myself). There haven't endorsed anyone collectively, but locally the tea parties have been very active in supporting good candidates and opposing RINOs.

Good news for Kirk primary challenger Judge Lowery, getting some recognition up here (Kane county is home to the far western Chicago suburbs, and contains Aurora, now Illinois 2nd largest city) Here's hoping Judge Lowery can break away from being seen as a regional candidate unknown outside of southern Illinois. I agree he seems to have the most impressive resume for Senator, but Hughes is the one with all the funding. Proft is my second choice for Governor after Brady, and that seems to be the trend with his candidacy... the Adam supporters tell me Proft is their second choice too. Hultgren is a no brainer in the 14th. With the remaining candidates dropping out, it's now down to him or Ethan "my daddy was Speaker" Hastert. And the more we learn about little Ethan, the less attractive his nomination sounds.

The candidates for U.S. Senate that conservatives should consider are Patrick Hughes, Don Lowery, and John Arrington.

For Governor, it's Adam Andrzejewski, Dan Proft, and Bill Brady.

For Congress, it's Arie Friedman in the 10th and Randy Hultgren in the 14th.

The remaining major races in IL have a number of equally solid conservatives running, incumbent Republicans running unopposed, or no good GOP candidates.

Our primary is in February, so the next month will be crucial for someone to breakout in these races, especially since the conservative base needs to GOTV to stop the RINO candidates. It will be interesting to see who has grassroots out knocking and passing out literature.

There is also a "Stop Mark Kirk" rally in Homer Glen, IL on Jan. 5th, sponsored by the Will Co. Tea Alliance. I'll definitely be going. Any other Illinois freepers planning to attend? This could be our long overdue chance to meet up as a group and protest Kirk. Freepmail me if you’re planning to attend.

>>> I’m glad that KCAP endorsed Judge Lowery. I’m his Northern Cook Co. coordinator. Bill, during last night’s rally, did you see anyone wearing Lowery buttons? <<<

I know several people who lean Lowery and attended that Stop Kirk/Tea Party event this week(of course one being myself). But out of respect for the Stop Mark Kirk Rally being sponsored by Hughes campaign, I don’t think anyone wore a button for another candidate. Hughes touched on all the right points in his speech but was again underwhelming in his delivery skills. During the ICRC endorsement meeting a week ago, someone mentioned that it was widely expected that all conservatives would coalesce behind Hughes once Wallace dropped out, and the remaining non-Kirk candidates would quickly fade. (I too, expected Hughes to dominate the field fairly quickly after Wallace left the race)

But that didn’t happen, and he noted the reason it didn’t happen is Pat Hughes himself -- he is still not able to show he’s ready for prime time and can run a general election against the Democrat machine. Thus, he’s still an easy target for the Kirk people to bash as amateurish -- an unfortunate factor that is not true with candidates like Lowery, Arrington, and Wallace who clearly can communicate their message and know intimately how government works. People just can’t see Pat Hughes as a U.S. Senator. I hate to speak ill of our guys since he’s doing his best to emerge as the big foe for Mark Kirk, but we have to accept reality that conservatives need to get out the big guns to take down Kirk and it’s not happening with the Hughes camp even though he has far more funds that the rest of the conservative candidates.

>>> Good endorsements. I’ll hold to voting for whichever decent candidate (3 for guv and 3 for Senate) is positioned to win if only 1 is. But I’ve come to like Proft over Brady and Andrzejewski. His answers to these questions in contrast to Brady impress me.

I think a good case can be made that Proft’s platform has more impressive conservative planks than Brady’s similar views, and course there’s no doubting that it public, Proft is the best communicator of the three conservative candidates. A lot of it has to do with Proft’s life career as a political stagiest. Like Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour he can dominate a political forum and deconstruct the left’s ideas. During the Stop Mark Kirk rally in Homer Glen, Proft’s people were the clear presence in the governor’s field, and I didn’t see anyone there promoting Brady or Adam A. But most conservatives I’ve met have Proft as their second choice, and the reason being that Brady & Adam supporters feel Proft’s background and associates give him a lot of negative baggage that could hurt him in a general election.

One rare time where time Proft’s answers seemed fairly week compared to Brady and Adam’s conservative views was the United Republican Fund forum where Proft disappointed me during the “lighting round“. See the responses here: http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2009/09/04/illinois-conservative-summit-full-report/ He was the ONLY conservative to 1) oppose making Illinois a right to work state, 2) to state he opposes the death penalty in principle, and 3) to say he wouldn‘t support an amendment declaring only marriage between a man and a woman is recognized in Illinois (a Proft supporter suggested to me that Proft said that because he holds “federalist” views and thinks marriage should be “left up to the states”, but that makes absolutely no sense since Proft is running for Governor so the ONLY types of legislation he would deal with on marriage would be STATE laws!)

But overall he’s still my second favorite choice in the race.

>> Everybody’s enthused with Adam A but I think he’s very green to be Governor. <<

I think he’s sort of the Ron Paul factor in this race (aside from the fact Ron Paul says some nutty things and Adam is rational, though overly excited candidate), in that he has a very hardcore group of enthusiastic supporters that dominate the internet and from online polls you’d think this guy is beloved by all “constitutionalists” and is blowing away the competition, but in the real world he’s getting about 4% support in the GOP primary. And like the Paul situation I think most Republicans just don’t seem him as a credible choice for the party, even though like Paul he makes some really good points in his speeches. >> <<

>> The only 3 acceptable Gov candidates are Adam, Dan and Bill. Yes, it would be nice if one of the 3 would emerge as the leader around whom to unify. I agree Dan is very good. I question whether he can overcome his “baggage”. Scratch Ryan and the others off your list. A vote for them is a wasted vote.... more of a waste than voting for Lex Green, the 3d party candidate.Don’t waste time with any other Gov candidate. They’re tax&spend and/or corrupt and/or pro-abort and/or has-beens. <<<

That seems to be the sentiment at every grassroot conservative meeting and event I’ve been too. The other four GOP candidates are not reliable conservatives and not worth considering in the primary. Of course conservatives are divided among the first three, but in the Governor’s race it’s not as alarming as the Senate race because the GOP establishment is divided among the remaining four. Schillerstorm, Dillard, McKenna, and Ryan are have built up some big clout over with the establishment over the years and are cashing in on it now. Unfortunately that means are all the “official” major GOP meetings in the state are likely to endorse one of the bad candidates, as was the case during my township’s endorsement session yesterday (I’ll refrain from mentioning which Twp. I’m in, since this is a public forum, but freepmail me for details) where Dillard got 60% of the weighted vote. I, of course, voted against endorsing him but I’m only one person.

>>> I guarantee you that right now Kirk has 40% (Topinka vote + 5); No-way-Kirk has 60% and most of them are totally undecided. <<<

I agree on this one too, and the same thing happened when Kirk’s name was floated during the endorsement session. He got more votes than anyone else, but NOT the 60% threshold needed for a township endorsement. Thus, my township is officially endorsing no one in the primary for U.S. Senate. My committeeman noted that Hughes, Arrington, and Lowery all got a decent share of votes, and my guess is the combined totals outnumbered the number of Kirk votes.

I agree we need some.

The Senate race is a sticky wicket. Lowrey is the most qualified I think, I also like Arrington, but Hughes is best positioned to make a run though he’s the least able candidate. I heard he ran an ad on TV (saw it online, great message (kirk is a liberal), wooden delivery)

I thought at first Hugues would emerge but I’ve seen no recent polling and get the impression he may not be getting more support than Lowrey.

On Ryan, I think Ryan’s name does help him. Because even though he’s a blast from the past he’s easily the one with the most name ID in the crowded field.

On Proft, his right to work answer disappoints me. I’m for right to work in the strongest possible terms. This state and Michigan sure could use it. When Bob Smith ran for President in 2000 he suggested a national right to work law.

I note that Dillard’s time ran out during that questioning, lol. And that Matt Murphy didn’t know what the Freedom of Choice act was. I expect Murphy will win the LT Gov primary. Him being McKenna’s running mate disqualifies him from my primary vote. I was for Dave Winters before he dropped out.

I notice many freepers are for Randy White. His Constitution party bid in 2006 might be a drag on the ticket. And personally I turned off by the religious rightish feeling I get from him. Though he seems quite qualified and good on the issues.

I was interested in Mayor Brad Cole, he was a Governor George Ryan Deputy COS so forget him, he goes to the bottom of the list.

The other 2 candidates are a laywer, a school board president and a Businessman.

http://elections.chicagotribune.com/editorial/randy-a-white-sr/

On White’s site I found this link to a Q and A piece with all the LT guv candidates.

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