JZ, since some of us opined on JohnyEdwards and other disgraces from your state. Yes, you can jump in on our discussion.
From most of the posts in this thread, you'd think the race is about ideological issues. Wrong.
Toopinka has a fixed number of votes (40%) regardless of where she stands on ideology. She could not care less about guns or gays or abortion. Toopinka's sole interest is money and power. She'd pimp her best whore to anyone with the price.
Her fixed votes come from a corrupt but very experienced and effective organization known as the BI-PARTISAN COMBINE. Regional combine leaders like Rosemont Mayor/Leyden Twp boss Don Stephens and St Rep Skip Savianno deliver a known amount of votes for Toopinka. This is how. They order specific people:
"You will work your precinct and deliver for Toopinka. If you don't, your mother-in-law will lose her job and it will be all your fault." That type of effectiveness has zero to do with the issues. The mother-in-law might have a job with a Democrat, Republican, ambulance chaser or politically correct corporation. It doesn't matter. It is hard-ball.
In contrast, some of us are trying to build a good-government coalition of which us ideological conservatives / libertarians are the single biggest bloc; but not the only bloc. I've already seen coalition builders establish good relations with good-government Democrats (Eisendrath, Claypool, Coconate types) with the intent of getting them to support Oberweiss, should he win the primary. This is the same successful model that was built by Ogilvie in the early 60's.
If the votes were counted today:
Toopinka 40%
Oberweis 39%
Brady 10%
Gidwitz 10%
Martin ....
I presume you agree that getting behind Oberweis is the proper course here?
Oh, if people want to vote for Oberweis because they believe it's in the service of a greater good, that's certainly their perogative. As long as folks know all the facts, and don't try to perpetrate some fantasy. He is what he is, and reasonable people can look at a race with Topinko, Gidwitz, Brady, and Oberweis, and make the choice they think is best.