Posted on 10/23/2013 7:51:55 PM PDT by chicagolady
State senator Jim Oberweis---who has run twice for U.S. Senate and once for governor---is going to make a run again for the Senate seat now held by Dick Durbin.
Obeweis said this morning, "Though a number of groups had encouraged me to run for the U.S. Senate against Dick Durbin, I had pretty much decided not to, believing it to be almost impossible to win. Then Ron Gidwitz contracted a poll. ... The results stunned me. I expected to trail Durbin about 60 percent to 30 percent. Instead it was 49 percent to 38 percent with me leading among younger voters and independents. After carefully considering that and not wanting to give Mr. Durbin another easy pass, I am strongly leaning towards running against him."
Oberweis, Republican and conservative, differs with Durbin on both social and fiscal issues. Durbin spoke in favor of same sex marriage at a rally in Springfield Tuesday. Today Oberweis, wearing a button saying "Marriage--One Mom, One Dad", will appear at a rally in the rotunda of the capitol against legalizing gay marriage.
A wealthy businessman for decades, Oberweis acknowledges that a race against the incumbent U.S. senator will not be easy:
"This is a huge and expensive undertaking," the state senator from Sugar Grove acknowledged. "It is still a long shot but Mr. Durbin has been in Washington for 31 years and has lost his Illinois roots."
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcchicago.com ...
Yes, I have an opinion of Doug Truax. I think that he’s another rich businessman who thinks that he can win a statewide office because he’s rich, although he’s never run for office, like Adam Andrzejewski, Steve Sauerberg, Ron Gidwitz, and Jack Ryan.
I endorse Chad Koppie, and I hope that you’ll help his campaign by volunteering and/or donating. He’s in his second term as a member of the Kane Co. Regional Board of Schools, and he’s been a township trustee and school board member. He’s been a conservative activist for at least 21 years, but I never heard of Truax before last July. Chad is pro-fair tax, pro-spending cuts, pro-life, anti-Obamacare, pro-gun rights, and anti-illegal alien. Please read his site, www.chadkoppieforillinois.com.
I’ve given my 2 cents on Koppie before, I don’t mean to malign a gentleman that you admire but here I go, his potential for victory is 0% in the general (Oberdouche is at least 1%) and maybe 1% in the primary. No resources, no name recognition, he’s cannon fodder, nothing more than a protest vote. We need to do better than that. His long history of third party runs is unproductive, he took 0.41% away from Al Salvi in 1996 as the Taxpayers (Constitution) party nominee. That was a long time ago but WTF? IL conservatives were trying to stop Durbin from reaching the Senate and he was playing mini Perot? Fail.
Anyway, it’s official. Oberweis is in, I’d wager he’ll win the primary if no one else jumps in. And he won a 4 year term in the State Senate so he’ll go back to Springfield after Turbin slaps him around.
That being said, I will it was pretty much a token protest vote for Chad against the worthless RINO candidate, and Chad is pushing 80 so I think his odds of winning the nomination this time around are extremely slim.
I think almost all of us on this thread are in agreement that Oberweis would be a lousy choice to run against Durbin. He's had a pretty good conservative record in office so far (and I'm very pleased he went to bat for us in working to oust Pat Brady as ILGOP chairman). However, he literally just became a state senator a few months ago, and now his fan club (Which claims there's no such thing as an Oberweis fan club, it's sheer coincidence people keep floating his name for every office on the planet) wants to him to mount ANOTHER quixotic bid for statewide office after he's already lost 4 or 5 times. Cue the "very definition of insanity" remake here. I wouldn't be surprised if they gear up to run him again in 2016 after Durbin crushes him this time around. You can't fix stupid. Amusingly, his fan club compares him to Abe Lincoln, although Lincoln actually got elected to the state legislature FOUR times AND to Congress BEFORE attempting to win statewide.
In the case of both Oberweis and David McSweeney, the fact they FINALLY won election to LOCAL office in 2012 should have told their fan clubs that having all the money in the world can't make someone a viable candidate for a major office overnight. Sadly though, that lesson has fallen on deaf ears. I'm surprised the "let's run more wealthy businessmen that don't have a clue about politics" crowd seems to be in Dillard's camp instead of Bruce Rauner this time around. Maybe Rauner should try pretending to be a "tea party" candidate, regardless of how liberal he is (Donald Trump proved people will fall for that)
But the real problem here is how weak the entire field is. Oberweis' fans just retort: "Oh yeah, if you don't want Oberweis, who do YOU have who is better known?!" and we don't have anyone. It's very similar to the situation in Florida where Kathrine Harris fanclub was hellbent on running her against Bill Nelson. Anyone with an IQ over 3 knew she would be DOA in the general election, but the only other Republicans who filed against her were third tier unknowns with no money. Similar set of choices against Oberweis: Chad Koppie, Doug Traux, and William Lee (I'm sure Phil will remind me that I forgot someone else)
Sadly this is another example of why Illinois remains a one party RAT state. I wouldn't be surprised if the combine was hoping Oberweis is the nominee, so they can "prove" ala Alan Keyes that "conservatives can't win" and strengthen their argument to run more RINOs the next time around.
Fun fact, GOP candidates for state legislator out-polled the rats in 1858 but the rats kept the majority of seats. A direct election for Senator would have meant Senator Lincoln.
I hate to back a random rich guy but I look to Truax as an alternative to Obie and Koppie (and Lee who is a complete unknown with no political experience, money, or support base). Be he a RINO or douchebag loser then we’re up shite creek without a paddle and may be forced to go with Obie as the lesser evil alternative. Koppie just isn’t viable. I haven’t a clue where Truax stands, he might be a RINO recruit for all I know. But I think GOP combiners may have no horse in this race, they concede to Durbin, just look at Kirk’s comments.
Politics1.com also lists a “Joe Ruiz”, no website or description given, guy off the street.
Dec-2 filing deadline. Time running out for a better choice to enter.
I haven’t decided who I’m backing yet. Traux probably has the most credible background, at least on paper. I went to his website and his “values” page says a lot but tells us nothing about where he stands (http://www.dougtruax.com/meet-doug/values/). I heard him speak at the southwest Cook County GOP picnic and Traux was pretty sharp and on message, so at least he’s no Pat Hughes. Oberweis has a long-time losing steak and largely negative reactions from Illinois voters, and Koppie is solid and experienced but a political gadfly. William Lee has been running against Durbin since Sauerberg conceded, but I’m sure 99.99% of IL GOP voters will look at the ballot and say “William WHO?”
I agree the IL GOP establishment probably has no horse in this race, and is content to concede to Durbin before the campaign even starts (and I’m not surprised that slimy turd Mark Kirk is planning to endorse Durbin). The combine won’t get involved in the GOP primary, but simply out of the desire to tarnish conservatism, I think they’d be pleased if Oberweis was the nominee and crashed and burned in the general.
Possibly, but not necessarily. I went and looked up the Congressional elections for 1858. IL had 9 House seats then, the Democrats won 5, the GOP won 4. However, the GOP did narrowly receive a higher number of votes (125,668 49.87% to 122,181 48.49% with the remaining 4,110 1.63% going to Anti-Lecompton Democrat candidates). This was a close enough margin that had it translated to a direct Senate race, it's possible as the incumbent, Stephen Douglas might've pulled off a win. Although Douglas died in 1861 before he could complete this term, I think it is possible, like his seatmate Lyman Trumbull did, that he would've switched to the GOP before 1864.
Impy, I disagree since you said that Chad has no name recognition. He has high name recognition, since he ran, statewide, four times.
That race has six candidates, Chad Koppie, Jim Oberweis, Doug Truax, William Lee, Joe Ruiz, and Almen Alveraz.
I posted wall-to-wall comments, on Truax’s facebook page, at least twice, and I said, “What are your views about aboriton, guns, and immigration?” I didn’t see a response.
I’m surprised that few people know about William Lee. I heard him give a campaign speech, during a Republican Assembly of Lake Co. meeting, two years ago.
The IL GOP establishement supports Truax. The IL GOP website has a page that lists statewide candidates. The only U.S. Senate candidate, on that list, is Truax. At least two weeks ago, I emailed the ex. director, and I asked her to include Chad’s name. When I checked, last weekend, Chad’s name still wasn’t there. That should hurt Truax’s campaign. In Jan. 2008, the party leaders endorsed Sauerberg. In Feb. 2006, the party leaders endorsed Topinka. In Aug. 2004, the party leaders endorsed Keyes.
Thank GOD! Now watch for the Combine to sabotage him.
FWIW: Don Manzullo is from Rockford, IL., and his district was the 16th U S Congressional District. He got way laid by Adam Kinzinger in some gerrymandering jiu jitsui.
I eat dinner every night, does that prove I'm fat?
Commission a poll, I 100% guarantee you that Koppie has very low name recognition and that Lee almost none.
People who attend political meetings are not representative of the general electorate which is MUCH less politically engaged and knowledgeable. Those people vote for people they've heard of who are usually a)Major elected officials or people of similar prestige B)Guys who have the money (whether they're rich or able to raise it) to buy name recognition which Obie has already done and Traux can do.
You CANNOT win a US Senate race in this State with a piggy bank campaign fund, that is a fact. If Koppie wants to win an office he should try for one he can win like State House or County Board. 76 year old School board members who ran several third party campaigns (amongst one admirable long shot race against George Ryan) are not viable US Senate candidates.
Your criticism of Traux is completely valid. But as I see it he and Obie are the only 2 viable choices. I do not beleive Koppie (or of course, Lee) can compete seriously in the primary and am positive their chance in the general election would be ZERO even if Durbin was outed as a child molester.
I may well end up voting Koppie if Obie and Truax equally distasteful but it would be a protest vote, he will not win the primary. But if Truax is acceptable, I'd go with him. If he's another Sauberberg then I guess as much as I don't like or trust him (and think Durbin will kick the c rap out of him) I'll have to go with Obie in order to stop him. I'm not keen on wasting my vote. If I'm wrong (which I doubt) and Koppie polls viably I will consider him. "Who is Truax?" is the question that needs to be answered.
Never heard of him. Given the most recent attempt at reforming the Chicago Park District pension, I suggest not splitting our vote. The state is bankrupt financially, morally and intellectually.
I thought that the majority of Illinois voters have heard of Chad Koppie. In the 1998 governor primary, he was the only conservative who ran against George Ryan. Chad got 14% of the vote, although he spent a lot less than 14% of the money that was spent, in that race. In 2008, Chad was the Constitution Party nominee for the U.S. Senate. He got about 24,000 votes, which was about 2%.
Well, it appears that the more they heard, the less they liked. We don't need another loser or another Democrat. Pick again and find one who's electable.
I’m withholding judgment for now, but if Truax turns out to be another Sauerberg-type RINO, we’re really screwed. I’m going to help Chad get on the ballot, but I think it’s extremely unlikely that Chad or William Lee can win the GOP nomination, and Oberweis is probably DOA in a general election (of course, his fan club will claim it’s everyone else’s fault that Durbin kicked his butt, and gear up to run him again in 2016)
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