Meet The Man Who Nearly Blogged Specter Out Of Office

If Pennsylvania turns into a bastion of conservatism, political anthropologists might someday partially credit a 25-year-old Duquesne University law student from Newton Township.

Christopher K. Lilik -- who goes by Chris and likes punk rock -- and his band of young bloggers helped an obscure conservative Republican congressman from Allentown scare the heck out of the state's senior U.S. senator in the spring and boosted President Bush's Pennsylvania vote in the fall.

They call themselves the Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania (YCOP) now and aim to keep conservative ideology at the political dinner table. But Mr. Lilik isn't looking for his own political career -- at least not yet.

"To be honest with you, I've kind of had a lot of fun just organizing and helping good people like Pat Toomey out in recent years," he said.

His fun attracted the attention of, among others, Business Week magazine, which called him "a one-man political action committee." The conservative National Review magazine had him as its Pennsylvania blogger during the presidential race.

What's fun now is rooted in growing up as the older of two sons of Dr. Kenneth W. Lilik and his wife, Karen. Politics was part of life in the home of his socially and fiscally conservative Catholic parents, the 1998 Bishop O'Hara High School graduate said.

The Liliks' idea of fun sometimes was eating popcorn and watching presidential debates. Between stocking shelves and assembling hoagies at the Village Grocery in South Abington Township, Chris Lilik loved talking politics with customers.

As a Villanova University political science major, Mr. Lilik co-founded a conservative daily newspaper.

When U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey announced a Senate run in 2003 while preaching a limited government, tax-cutting, pro-life, family values agenda, Mr. Lilik had a "hero" and "straight shooter" he could rally behind.

Politically, the safe thing would have been backing Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania's four-term moderate incumbent from Philadelphia, he said.

"The scariest thought in my mind was the thought of Arlen Specter chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee," Mr. Lilik said.

Pro-life conservatives fear Mr. Specter will favor pro-choice nominees for federal judgeships as committee chairman.

So Mr. Lilik set up Toomeyblog and a Toomey meet-up on meetup.com. Blogs, short for Web logs, are Internet sites where like-minded people dispense thoughts on whatever topic is at hand. Meet-ups are sites where information is disseminated and discussed.

Operating out of his Pittsburgh-area apartment with a computer he built himself, Mr. Lilik led a grass-roots army that almost e-mailed and blogged Mr. Specter's political career to death.

"We did extraordinarily well in the western part of the state," said Joe Sterns, the Toomey campaign's press secretary. "We knew the importance of the Internet ... But Chris Lilik really took it to a different level. He introduced blogging into the campaign and really used that to mobilize the grass roots."

Mr. Toomey almost ended Mr. Specter's political career, losing the April primary election by only 17,146 votes out of more than 1 million cast.

Mr. Lilik and his fellow bloggers next targeted Catholic voters for President Bush's re-election campaign. By the fall, YCOP, with Mr. Lilik as chairman, had a bigger picture in mind.

Its goal is ensuring the future of Pennsylvania's conservative movement and rallying voters behind smaller government, family values and a strong national defense. Its members' Web site is www.grassrootspa.com.

"I think there's a real opportunity for them to have a major impact within the conservative movement and within the Republican Party," Mr. Toomey said Friday. "They want the Republican Party to represent the set of values that most conservatives believe in."

(Mr. Lilik is also helping to start a state chapter of the Club for Growth, the Washington-based political action committee that spent about $2 million trying to get Mr. Toomey elected.)

Notice YCOP's name isn't Young Conservative Republicans of Pennsylvania. They welcome socially and fiscally conservative Democrats, too.

On the group's Web site Friday, Mr. Lilik posted a Wilkes-Barre newspaper story about Luzerne County's Democratic commissioners cutting property taxes.

Mr. Lilik said many Republicans in Washington allow huge federal budget deficits to pile up while cutting taxes.

"Republicans are totally destroying their credibility because they constantly spend out the wazoo. We have legislators up on Capitol Hill that spend like drunken sailors and then they try to sell the argument that we need tax cuts," he said. "I think we have to get rid of this old kingmaker system where people in the back room decide who runs. Let's have primaries, let's have the war of ideas. Let's have excitement again where we debate issues. And I think in the war of ideas, conservative ideas win out."

Matthew Best, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Federation of Young Republicans, said many of his members are also YCOP members, but realize backing Republican candidates they disagree with is better than backing Democrats.

"I have ideas of my own that I'd like to see happen and that's why I'm a Republican. More times than not, it's going to be accomplished through policies a Republican is promoting," Mr. Best, 28, of Carlisle, said.

What a load of CRAP!!!

Spector did a lot better in the general election in Pennsylvania than did George W. Bush. Spector won the race because he is not as conservative as Bush. And Toomey would have not done as well as Bush because Bush is not as conservative as TOOMEY.

Toomey could not even win a race when the only voters were Republicans. Only a Media fool or rank amatuer could believe that a Republican who could not win a Republican primary could win a general election where Democrats are allowed to vote.

Toomey and Kerry are very similar candidates. Neither understands what it takes to win. Toomey in his primary race against Spector, ran a mostly negative campaign. Kerry in the presidential race ran a negative campaign against Bush. Neither one presented a positive agenda.

Niether Toomey or Kerry ever figured out that a winning candidate has to get people to vote for them.. Only losers try go get voters to vote against their opponent. Toomey and Kerry share a common characteristic. Both are too dumb to win a race against a professional opponent.

The only thing left to do for Toomey is put the date of his political death on his Toomey stone.

You have read way too much into the posted article than what was there. I think that it is YOU who is seeing ghosts and straw men.

Chris was referring to the state committee trying to annoint Arlen Specter as the candidate without a primary battle. Arlen and the state committee brought lots of pressure to bear at all levels of the Republican party throughout the state -- from promises of money to threats of withholding money to local committees, local politicians, and even the college republican groups.

All Chris, and the rest of wanted was for the party to stay out of it and let the people choose the candidate. That is an entirely appropriate place for democracy to be exercised.

He isn't advocating direct democracy at all. He believes that the direct election of senators is part of what is killing the republic we have. It's your ghosts that you see, not his.

"Without getting into the horrid results of enslaving politicians and legislators to public whim and flattery,..."

WOW! That's an interesting take. You almost make me feel sorry for these conniving, pandering bastards. Almost, but not quite. They can all burn in the hell that they help create and perpetuate.

Seems you are reading a good bit more into Mr. Lilik's post than he intended. If you read it again, I think you'll see that Chris was proposing a system of REAL primaries where there are MULTIPLE candidates from which to choose, and MULTIPLE ideas are represented and debated. All too often, the candidate is not chosen in a general primary, but indeed is chosen by, and a front for, the "Kingmakers." I see no suggestion of a change in the system, just a suggestion that we should use the system as originally intended, not as it is currently used, abused, and manipulated.

All Chris, and the rest of wanted was for the party to stay out of it and let the people choose the candidate.

That's absurd. Nor is it a very good way to take over a party organization. Instead of whining about how unfair it all is, go make that party your own. But I'm not hearing that in the article. Instead, we're getting "principles over party," which is a good way to start reading oneself out of a party.

You can resent what happened, or you can rebuild. Looks like resentment is leading this chorus.

The only CRAP here is you when you showed up.

How many elections have you won? What position do you now hold? How many campaigns have you managed and won?

Were you here in PA? Do you know how many votes Chris got for Bush INSPITE of Bush supporting Specter in the primary? Do you know how many people were refusing to vote for Bush after his involvement in the primary? Read the article. It said he BOOSTED the numbers. It didn't say that he WON the race, but he did help narrow it.

You completely overlook the grass roots efforts that came together in 3 months and came close to winning a race when he was outspent by a 4 to 1 margin and fought an uphill battle against Bush's influence as well as two US senators. Had he won, the momentum would have continued to grow. We were winning over Democrats who hated Specter and his pandering and vote buying. They just didn't get the opportunity to vote for him.

Toomey didn't lose because of his conservatism. That's why he was gaining despite the other disadvantages. Bush DID lose because he wasn't conservative enough to get people to go out and work for him. They limited their support to simply pulling the lever. He got votes mainly because Kerry was so bad, not that he was so wonderfully moderate.

So take your load of crap back to where ever it is that you normally store it. We aren't buying it here.

But for the intervention of Ricky Santorum and GWB, Toomey would have won the primary. Toomey didn't wage a negative campaign...he simply highlighted Arlen's voting record----Do you consider that negative campaigning? If so, then maybe Snarlen Arlen shouldn't have provided us with SOO much ammunition.

Chris did more than "almost" oust Specter, he forced The Republican Machine into action. I think they were shocked at the effectiveness of the message and the methods. I think Chris has a very bright future.

You are too full of yourself.

Where you see whining, I see commentary about actions taken. This article is about one race. It doesn't really touch on the other activities that Chris and others are involved in to take back the party, nor should it at this time.

But when the party controls are held by those who seek power solely to exercise power with solid conservative and moral principles to guide it, the people who see it differently need to, are are, getting involved to restructure it. Voicing concerns about it isn't whining. It's letting other know that you also see and problem and are seeking help to resolve it.

Anyone who can get the number of signatures required can run in a primary.

Bush could not stop McCain from running in 2000. Spector could not stopp Toomey from running. There are no king makers.

How stupid does one have to be to believe that the Republican Party structure wanted Barry Goldwater to win the nomination in 1964. Nearly everyone except Goldwater knew he dwas going down to a massive defeat.

Those principled Republicans who nominated him thought he was going to win. The most telling thing for me was an interview I had with LBJ after he left office. I asked him to what he attributed his success in getting the "Great Society" passed. He replied, "Without having Barry Goldwater to run against in 1964, there is no way the Great Society could have been passed. Only when the Republicans put up a right winger like Goldwater, could Democrats elect enough senators to allow passage.

There is only one barrior to getting a nomination and then the office. That is enough voters to vote for a candidate.

Almost the entire Republican power structure supported Robert Taft for the Republican nominee in 1952. The Republican voters however wanted Ike. Ike won the nomination.

People who cry that the "Party Power Structure" keeps them from winning, are really saying they do not have enough voter support to win.

Politics is so simple. Convince a majority of the voters to your point of view and only those that support your position will win the nominations and the elections. Fail to get enough support to win and they are reduced to crying about how the system is stacked against them.

Losers always blame others or the system for their losing. Winners accept congratulations on finding a way to win.

I agree with him there.

Badray, wrote to Common Tator:

The only CRAP here is you when you showed up. How many elections have you won? What position do you now hold? How many campaigns have you managed and won?

I'll write this about Common Tator not for Badray's benefit, for he's already made up his mind about someone of whom he knows not a thing, but for other readers: The man he's attacking wasn't in PA because he was too busy winning in Ohio -- and with an amazing grass-roots campaign that will be studied as exemplary.

This thread is something. I get called full of myself, arrogant, and ignorant amidst calls for "more debate" and "integrity." The Admin Moderator is called upon to shut down my post for supposedly insulting someone who in a newspaper is quoted calling others corrupt, among things.

Folks here can't see past their anger. Enthusiasm is all very good, but once carried away, it becomes counter-productive, in the least, and often far worse. I came here with some advice to tone it down, especially this business about more democracy and less party, and principles over party and how corrupt the party is and so on. I needn't have bothered, for no one's in a listening mood -- a first sign of the disease, by the way.

Badray, if you really plan on taking over the party, I should hope you use a more tactful approach than that displayed in the original article and throughout this thread. Pissing off the agency to your goals is not a good way to get to them.

"The man he's attacking wasn't in PA because he was too busy winning in Ohio -- and with an amazing grass-roots campaign that will be studied as exemplary."

So who is this hero of yours? Is he nameless? Since we're going to be graced with his story of magnificance, why don't you name him now so we can practice our bowing and scraping?

BTW, is he a Democrat? He certainly isn't a conservative or have any appreciation for conservative values.

I can't figure out why he is on FR.

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