Late in the Day, a Growing Movement in Illinois Rallies to the Politically Numinous

For weeks and weeks my email has been peppered with notes from people in Illinois along the lines of this one:

You keep talking about Pat Hughes, but what about Adam Andrzejewski? He’s a dream candidate. He’s a Rubio.

Everyone these days calls their candidate a Rubio. Guess what? Andrzejewski is a Rubio — well spoken, attractive, conservative to his core, and with a zealous band of conservative supporters.

Oh, and he strikes fear and dread into the heart of the old guard Republicans who led Illinois off the cliff into the hands of an even more corrupt Democrat Party.

Let me say one more thing about Andrzejewski that I have not said about Marco Rubio. In his uniqueness as a candidate, his story, and the sheer dread he instills in the corrupt old guard of Illinois, he is politically numinous.1

Let's see...

Marco Rubio - Graduated J.D. Cum Laude from the University of Miami in 1996, won internship to serve under U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, while still in his 20s, became City Commissioner for West Miami before being elected to the House of Representatives for the 111th District in a special election on Jan. 25, 2000, before his 30th birthday. Repeatedly won re-election in heavily Democrat Miami era. In November 2006, elected by his colleagues to Speaker of the Florida State House for the 2006-2008 term. During 2007, Marco Rubio made headlines across the state when championed a major overhaul of the Florida tax system. He wanted to reduce property taxes and decrease the size of government. Best known for his book 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future. The book was compiled from Rubio’s travels around the state to gather ideas from citizens.

Adam Andrejewski - Ran a successful Dekalb, Illinois based phone book company with his brother. Talks about his “reform” organization, ‘For The Good of Illinois’, which absolutely nobody ever heard UNTIL he ran for Governor and had “stepped down” from the organization.

(If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make noise?)

Sorry, I don't see any comparison. And I don't get the internet conservatives who worship this guy. Seriously, go to his website and read his “credentials” for Governor. It's not an insult to say he doesn't have any. As usconservative and other freepers have noted, many of us freepers have more impressive credentials than this guy in politics and/or in the business world, and none of us are considered gubernatoral material. Running a phone book company does not prepare you to govern a state of 13 million people, no matter how much his supporters insist otherwise. Dealing with employees is totally different from dealing with Mike Madigan and the Democrat machine. Where is the evidence Adam will "run circles around Madigan", other his fan club wishing it so? If simply being a successful businessman makes you the “Best choice” for a major office, we might as well dump “professional politicians” like Sarah Palin and Mike Pence in favor of “outsiders” like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

Sure, Adam's charismatic, right on the issues, has a solid platform, and speaks great in public. The same was true of Obama. And the fact Obama gave a masterful speech at the 2004 Democrat convention didn't make him presidential material either, as voters found out after they put an amateur in the White House. And the same could be said of Ahnuld and his legions of supporters when he entered the California govenornship as an “outsider” with big plans to completely overhaul the system. Both were in over their head.

Going by Adam supporter logic, Obama was supremely qualified for the Presidency — being an “outsider” to Washington who had worked as a community organizer, gave wonderful flowery inspiration speeches about how he would single-handily “change the system” and made millions of dollars for himself.

Sorry, Adam fan club, he may be great on the issues but there are two other conservatives running who have much better resumes for the job than this guy. They may not be perfect, but you can't always get what you want in life. Furthermore, most of Adam's supporters were Oberweis suppoters in 2006 who proclaimed back then that we “had to” vote for the highest polling conservative — even if he wasn't our favorite choice — in order to unite the conservative vote and stop a RINO from winning. Apparently this rule no longer applies in 2010 when the conservative vote is once again split but the “highest polling conservative” is no longer their guy.

I'm kinda looking forward to Wednesday, if nothing else than to stop hearing endless internet chat about how a unknown political amateur is some kind of political genius and the savior of Illinois. Some on the right are as enthralled with the guy’a speeches as the left was with Hussein.

I agree Rubio is overrated, and I'm not completely sold on him. I'd vote for him over Crist but it doesn't help that the same people who are absolutely 100% convinced that Rubio is a solid conservative leader were absolutely 100% convinced that Mel Martinez was a solid conservative leader.

The point I was trying to make though, was that Rubio has an actual background to qualify him for the office he's seeking, compared to this guy Adam Andrejewski that a bunch of Illinois conservatives worship. Adam's resume literally consists of "I ran a phone book company". That's it. Sure that might be fine for an entry level political position but Governor? And the hype is that Adam is some kind of brilliant mind who will revolutionize Illinois government forever if he is elected. Read every glowing review of this guy online and you'll see stuff about how it's not just a campaign but a "mission" to save our citizens and ONLY Adam is capable of reforming our state.. Eerily reminiscent of stuff you'd hear from Ron Paul and Obama fans, and a bit too much kool-aid for my tastes.

The one talking point I really don't get from the Adam fan club is "only Adam has REAL solutions, all the other candidates just have soundbites". Seems to me the opposite is true. The other candidates can point to ACTUAL political achivements, whereas Adam has no background so all we get is catchy promises like "Every dime online in real time" and "Follow the Bobby Jindal standard"

As usconservative and other freepers have noted, many of us freepers have more impressive credentials than this guy in politics and/or in the business world, and none of us are considered gubernatoral material.

Don't take my quotes out of context and by all means don't underestimate the anti-Washington and anti-Springfield establishment sentiment that's in the air right now.

I mean c'mon, it's freaking palpable in this state right now.

I'll tell you who finally won my vote yesterday: Adam Andrzejewski.

I don't care that he doesn't have experience. In fact, that's what I decided I absolutely liked about the guy. He won me over yesterday when he declared on WLS Radio, via the Don Wade & Roma show (hosted yesterday by Anna Davlantes and Jonathan Hoenig) that once elected, Andrzejewski would do two things:

1. Issue an executive order to put all state spending on-line, which would expose the waste and fraud for us all to see.

2. Order a forensic audit of the state budget for the purpose of prosecuting those who have committed fraud with the state budget. I think you and I will both agree that there's a whole hell of alot of fraud going on in this state. Andrzejewski along with literally each of his Republican opponents all acknowledge there's anywhere from 4-6 BILLION dollars in waste and fraud in the State's budget.

Both of which as Governor, he'd be able to do by Executive Order. No negotiating with Mike Madigan, no begging the Democrats - Executive Order. And he says he'll do it Day One.

Furthermore, Andrzejewski is pro-life, he is for concealed carry here in Illinois, and finally he is the "Tea Party Candidate" as he was the run-away winner of a straw poll conducted by the Tea Party movement here in Illinois.

I wouldn't want to underestimate the passion of the Tea Party movement here right now. I was in New Lennox last September at the Tea Party Rally which shut down I-80 in both directions for more than a mile as people tried exiting the Interstate to get to the rally, and I saw Route 30 jam packed with cars also trying to get in. There were some 12,000+ of us in a park made to hold 5,000.

One last thing. At work yesterday, a number of us got together to talk about the Governor's race. Most of us are what I'd call Conservative, although I'm probably the hardest leaning to the right of the group. The rest are what I'd describe as "Moderates" some of which voted for McCain/Palin and others who voted for ODUMBO. Each and every one of us is voting for Andrzejewski. Not wanting to influence my co-workers (they view me as being highly political) I went last in the voting. Andrzejewski took an impromptu group of 13 people by a 100% margin. Granted that's a small group and yes, mostly Conservatives but it says that his message has been resonating.

We'll see what happens Tuesday.

By the way BillyBoy have you ever run a company? How about a department inside a company where you had budget authority, responsibility for the profitability of the company and by the way people's livelihoods?

You may ridicule "a phone book company?" but the fact is it's the same type of Executive experience required to run a state.

Show me one other Republican or Democrat candidate in this state (and don't you dare say Alexi Giannoulis) that's had that type of responsibility. There are NONE.

To compare Andrzejewski to the other Republican or Democrat candidates is like comparing Sarah Palin to Barack Hussein Obama - she had Executive level decision making experience and Obama (nor Biden, nor McCain) did not. We see the results of that today. Hell it was in full view the other night during the "State of Obamunism" address.

I'm not one of those Andrzejewski "worshippers" you're complaining about. I only decided to vote for the guy yesterday because he said two things that made sense to me (outlined in my previous post.) I just don't think it's fair to run down the guy because he ran a "phone book company." I've started and run two companies myself - one succeeded, the other failed. I know exactly what it's like to have that burden of responsibility for the profitability of the company and my employees (as well as their family's) well being. I've been there when my first company did exceedingly well and I rewarded my employees for their work, and I was there when I had to close down another, knowing full well what was happening to 14 other people's lives as a result and how it would impact their families. That kind of experience changes you from your core and Andrzejewski has that kind of experience. As a result, his message resonates with me far more than any other candidate running today.

Question for you: Assuming your horse doesn't win, what are you going to do after Tuesday? Are you going to support the winner of the Republican primary, or are you going to take your ball and go home? Better think hard about that one, this state's future is at stake and there's no way in hell we can financially survive a Hines or Quinn as Governor here. Both will raise our taxes through the roof and continue the Democrat's party socialist spending ways driving this state's economy further into the ground.

There's a time to fight, and there's a time to unite. What are you going to do?

>>> You may ridicule "a phone book company?" but the fact is it's the same type of Executive experience required to run a state. Show me one other Republican or Democrat candidate in this state (and don't you dare say Alexi Giannoulis) that's had that type of responsibility. There are NONE. <<<

Quite the opposite, actually the other two conervatives "insiders" in the race have exactly the same type of "successful business career" and "private sector experience" that Adam has. Read up on them for themselves. Dan Proft's never been elected to anything in his life, either. Is it really fair to say he's a Springfield "insider" because he knows politics and is actively involved in working for conservative candidates? The combine hates him.

Bill Brady and his brothers own and run one of the largest privately held home construction and real estate development companies in Illinois, as well as property management, mortgage, real estate marketing, hospitality and entertainment companies in Central Illinois.

Dan Proft is the founder and principal of Urquhart Media, LLC. They are an aggressive one-stop strategic communications firm for clients who require success in the public affairs arena and have been involved in dozens of high profile political campaigns. Urquhart Media does Television and Radio Advertising, Direct Mail and Phones, E.Communications, Grass Tops Communications, Strategic Research.

Yes, these guys had real careers before politics and weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouths. I guarantee you what Bill Brady and Dan Proft did with their businesses was just as successful as Adam.

You said the other day that what you did in the private sector probably "qualifies" you for Governor more than Adam, according to their criteria for the job. And you had it right then.

Of course I'm going to vote for the GOP nominee for Governor. I just question the allegations of Adam and his supporters that having any type of political experience before you run for the highest office in the state is bad.

Remember, Sarah Palin was a MAYOR and CITY CONCILMEMBER before she ran for Governor. According to the logic of Adam supporters, she was part of "the system" and we should have just run a successful CEO for Governor of Alaska instead. Does that make sense?

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