Chad Koppie for U.S. Senate (Running AGAINST Dick Durbin!)

Chad Koppie for Illinois ^ | Sept. 5, 2008 | Koppie for Senate - Official Campaign Site

[BillyBoy]

Since I've recommended Chad Koppie for U.S. Senate, alot of freepers have been asking about my pic. Chad's campaign has been working diligently to get his website up and running this week. I thought my fellow Illinois freepers and many others would be interested now that the information about Chad is available.

Chad Koppie is the REAL deal. He is unabashedly pro-life, pro-family, pro-second amendment, pro-drilling, pro-soveignity, pro-cutting taxes, pro-smaller government, pro-WOT patrotic America. He has the experience and judgement neccessary to serve as our next U.S. Senator. Best of all, he was the LONE Republican with the guts to take on legendary crooked RINO Geroge Ryan in the 1998 GOP primary for Governor.

Chad Koppie is a personal friend of mine and an outstanding American. Though he faces an uphill battle, freeper support for his effort to unseat DICK Durbin would be most welcome.

[napscoordinator]

Good luck to him, but sadly he does not stand a chance. For some unknown reason Dick Durbin is beloved in Illinois. He hopefully will do better than Katherine Harris did in Florida...Nelson was called the winner in Florida about two seconds after the polls closed. He should last a bit longer. Good luck to him just the same. Hopefully his name is out there more in the state than it is nationally as we only have 57 days left until election day.

[fieldmarshaldj]

See, Billy, you’re just gonna keep Sauerkraut from winning. ;-)

[Maelstorm]

Durbin needs to go and anyone who is willing to fight against him towards his ultimate political demise is welcome.

[BillyBoy]

*** STOP DICK TURBAN Ping! ***

Introducing the candidacy of Mr. Chad Koppie.
I hope you will give him your whole-hearted support and perhaps DONATE to the campaign in the future.

All of you have been pinged because you've posted on Election 2008 threads about Dick Durbin in the past. Some threads promoting the candidate of the GOP establishment have misled freepres into backing the wrong candidate, one being backed by the same pro-Durbin combine that gave us "electable" Judy Barr Topinka and George Ryan.

Make NO mistake, Chad Koppie is the ONLY fully pro-life, pro-family, and pro-gun candidate on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Illinois , and he deserves our support. (He's also the only guy besides the incumbant to have held elective office before!) He faces an extreme uphill battle, BUT -- Chad is ready and able to serve the people of Illinois.

[OneLoyalAmerican]

Greetings BillyBoy:

Thanks for the ping. Given I’ll most likely be canvassing for Mcwhatshisname/Palin; it would be great to have palm cards for Chad Koppie.

Cheers,
OLA

[BillyBoy]

Hi OLA,

Glad to hear you have switched to the Koppie campaign after hearing the evidence. Chad will be very happy to learn my posts are having an effect. As of right now, his campaign only has flyers and not palm cards, but I'm sure they will have palm cards ready to go as election day gets closer.

Who a candidate chooses to be his deputy says alot about how he will govern. For example, in 1998, George Ryan picked Corrine Wood as his Lt. Governor, then an obscure inexperienced State Rep. perhaps best known as being one of the most pro-abortion legislators in the GOP.

In picking Governor Sarah Palin to unite the party base after the primary, McCain choose wisely.

In picking a radical gay rights activist to be his campaign mouthpiece after the primary, Sauerberg choose poorly.

[ConservativeMind]

Everything he stands for sounds great, but I'm not going to waste my vote on him this fall.

For the past three major elections, I've signed petitions to get Nader on the ballot, simply because I love the idea of splitting the liberal vote by even a few percentages. How can I, in good conscience, vote for someone who further diminishes a chance to get Durbin out of office?

I don't like our candidate, but he's much more likely to win than your friend, Chad. Chad should have run under the Republican ticket into the primary to have had my vote now.

Please, people, don't vote for this guy. The Republican nominee is a global warming idiot, but he's capable of giving Durbin a run for his money.

[BillyBoy]

Looks like Chad does a good job of addressing your points in his campaign FAQ:

http://www.compustuff.org/koppieforsenate/FAQ.htm

---

Q. If you are a conservative, why aren't you running as a Republican?

When Dick Durbin was up for reelection, I welcomed the chance to run against him as a Republican. I declared my intentions and sent notices to the Illinois Republican Party declaring my qualifications and past campaign experience. I never received a reply. Conservative Republicans who did file against Durbin soon found themselves given the cold shoulder, shunned in favor of an “electable” party favorite who did not have any solid convictions or conservative values. While it might sound cliche, this U.S. Senate election is a living example of where I did not leave the Republican Party, but the Republican Party left me. If the Illinois Republican Party welcomed conservatives, I would welcome the chance to run as a Republican against Dick Durbin. As it stands, the Constitution Party is the only option Illinois voters have of electing someone who shares our traditional values of less government, lower taxes, and personal responsibility.

Q. Shouldn't we vote for the candidate most likely to beat Durbin, rather than the waste our vote on a third party? Isn't half a loaf better than none?

A. A recent Rasmussen poll of likely voters in Illinois put Senator Durbin at 61%, and the Republican candidate at 27% (plus or minus 5% error rate). Do those numbers suggest he is likely to “beat Durbin”? I think not! My Republican opponent doesn't want to beat Durbin, he wants to BE Durbin, otherwise he would be doing everything he could to unite the conservative base around his candidacy. Now, I agree with the principle that a candidate who agrees with me 90% of the time is not my enemy. But where is the 90% of issues where conservatives agree with the Republican candidate? He doesn't communicate any part of the 90%. He only communicates that he is against Durbin. That is his problem, not mine. It's been said many times, but the only wasted vote in this country is one that's not cast. I don't think any serious voter can come to the conclusion that the Republican candidate is the most “electable” based on poll numbers. Therefore, why not vote your conscious? If you want Democrat-lite, vote for the Republican. If you want a conservative Senator, vote for me.

Q. What if your candidacy splits the anti-Durbin vote, thereby re-electing Durbin? We need to unite conservatives in Illinois.

A. Absolutely we need to unite conservatives in Illinois, and that's why I'm running. If you consider yourself a conservative, there is only one choice on the ballot. None of the other candidates come close. If you feel the Republican Party can best unite conservatives, then you need to take your argument to the Republican camp and persuade them to rally conservatives to their cause. My Republican opponent has had numerous chances to make the case that he is the conservative choice, but where is the evidence? There isn't any.

The beauty of this election is that Illinois voters will finally have a choice of many candidates to pick from. Voters who are “anti-Durbin” will have not only myself, but five other candidates vying for their support. Why would my candidacy be the spoiler in this case? I believe it's more likely that the liberal vote will be split. While there is only true conservative on the ballot, leftists have multiple options. Voting Democrat, Republican, or Green in this particular case will give them a Senator who is a pro-legal abortion, pro-gun control, pro-homosexual agenda nanny-stater. We should be thankful there are so many liberals on the ballot but only one conservative.

[PhilCollins]

Sauerberg can’t win. An Aug. poll said that Durbin was ahead, 55%-31%. Since it won’t be close, I’ll vote for the only candidate, in that race, who is pro-life and pro-gun rights.

[davidlachnicht]

I firmly believe the GOP could be making gains this cycle if they would just associate EVERY Democrat that is running with Obama (the same way they try to negatively assoc all GOPers with W).

[davidlachnicht]

OBAMA is a sinking ship --- PUT Democrats ON IT!

[PhilCollins]

I agree that we shouldn’t waste our votes and vote for a third-party candidate who can’t win. If I think that the vote will be close, I’ll vote for Sauerberg, since I don’t want to help split the anti-Durbin vote, helping Durbin win. If the race won’t be close, I’ll vote for the only conservative, Chad Koppie. The last poll that I heard about said that Durbin was leading by 24%.

[davidlachnicht]

From the FAQ at the site...

Q. What is the Constitution Party? If you are a conservative, why aren't you running as a Republican?

A. The Constitution Party, originally founded in 1992 as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, is the largest conservative political party in the United States today.
--snip--
When Dick Durbin was up for reelection, I welcomed the chance to run against him as a Republican. I declared my intentions and sent notices to the Illinois Republican Party declaring my qualifications and past campaign experience. I never received a reply. Conservative Republicans who did file against Durbin soon found themselves given the cold shoulder, shunned in favor of an "electable" party favorite who did not have any solid convictions or conservative values. While it might sound clique, this U.S. Senate election is a living example of where I did not leave the Republican Party, but the Republican Party left me. If the Illinois Republican Party welcomed conservatives, I would welcome the chance to run as a Republican against Dick Durbin. As it stands, the Constitution Party is the only option Illinois voters have of electing someone who shares our traditional values of less government, lower taxes, and personal responsibility.

We have this problem ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!!!

[BillyBoy]

Which explains why Chad is not running as a Republican. Remember, Chad was in the Republican primary a decade ago against uber RINO George Ryan, and faced an enormous uphill fight as EVERY member of the rank and file GOP establishment was pushing hard for Ryan for Governor. That worked well, didn't it?

The IL GOP was so sleazy in this year's primary they wouldn't even ALLOW a fair primary fight. Ask the two other gentlemen who sought the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate this year. The state central committee and party chairman OFFICIALLY "endorsed" the "moderate" Sauerberg before ANYONE had heard of the guy, and removed the names of Sauerberg's challengers in the primary from their website and candidate materials BEFORE Sauerberg was ever selected by Republican voters as the nominee. And 45% of the GOP grassroots STILL voted against the RINO hack the party put up. Pretty clear why the state GOP was afraid of an open, neutral primary process.

Chad clearly would have run as a Republican if there was a realistic chance a conservative could get nominated for U.S. Senate this year in Illinois.

The positive thing about Chad is he didn't sell out to get a third party's nomination. Bob Barr gutted his conservative principles without blinking to get the Losertarian nomination. Chad strongly supports the WOT, and although many in the Constitution Party do not, Chad held firm to his beliefs on Iraq. The IL CP saw that he was a strong principled conservative and opted to nominate him.

Character and integrity always counts.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I would like to see Chad Koppie elected.

[freepersup]

I like Chad too.

Check this out: I almost killed the man.

In 1998, Chad was campaigning for governor, by driving a tractor in a southerly direction down Route 51, between Bloomington and Decatur. The tractor had a Chad Koppie for Governor sign, attached to the rear of the farm vehicle (it was a John Deere tractor). I was driving a large U-Haul truck at the time, filled with Fitzgerald for US Senate campaign signs and literature, on the same route. Chad had zero escort vehicles with him, neither in the front or rear... It was a gloomy day, and the lack of light made it hard to see the tractor, until I was almost on top of the slow moving vehicle. I nearly ran over him that day. Later that afternoon, Chad was ticketed for driving the tractor eastbound on I 72, on his way to Champaign. By the way, Chad is a former jumbo jet pilot (747).

I chalk the whole thing up to bad judgment, driven largely by enthusiasm to defeat George Ryan, with a publicity stunt better suited for Illinois’ rural roads.

It wasn’t a deal killer, because I voted for him anyway.

I have made some bad calls in my day; yet I still want to be supported in most of my endeavors, by my friends and family, and most of the time they do support me, in spite of my rare moments of ineptitude. As a part of the human experience, most people will cut someone a bit of slack, bumps and warts included, if they are good decent human beings.

Chad fits the bill, warts and bumps included.

[Clintonfatigued]

It doesn’t matter. Turban Durbin will be back, holding his head up high as he arrogantly berates the troops and doing what he can to undermine what’s left of free markets, national sovereignty, national security, and American culture.

[BillyBoy]

If Durbin cruises to re-election, the fault will be squarely at the feet of the IL GOP for shoving yet another "electable moderate" down our throats. You think they'd get a clue after their star players Topinka & Lynn Martin couldn't even muster 40% of the vote.

If they were going to throw some RINO to the slaughter, I wish it would have been Mark Kirk, because at least we'd get him out of the House. But Kirk will probably never run against an entrenched RAT incumbant, since Kirk doesn't want to risk showing off how "electable" he supposedly is.

You know the funny thing is, Durbin's fairly conservative opponent in 2002 (State Rep. Jim Durkin) was completely written off by the state GOP and abandoned after the primary and had no funds to even run TV ads -- and he still managed to get around 40%. Meanwhile, the state GOP establishment has attempted boisted this RINO's campaign around the clock, and he still can't even break 30% in the polls.

Chad Koppie's right. At this rate, Sauerberg will do worse than Alan Keyes by the time election day rolls around.

[Clintonfatigued]

Dr. Saurberg is a sacraficial lamb, as were all of the candidates running against Durbin this year. The GOP wrote off this race a long time ago.

The real key to making a race of it is finding a candidate who has some real name I.D. and fundraising ability.