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>> the formerly strong IL GOP has gotten weaker (except for those who play ball with it, who get amply rewarded — the only price for belonging to it is their soul). <<

>> I’ll give you that - Maryland’s GOP is flat on it’s ass with NOTHING <<

Exactly. And that's the difference between Illinois and Maryland. The corrupt Republicans in this state who sell their soul to the Combine get rewarded with cushy political jobs for it.

For example, the Democrats have dominated ALL three branches of government since 2002 in Illinois, but "Republican" Judy Baar Topinka (a liberal Republican and loyal Combiner who does whatever her Democrat masters tell her to) has been rewarded by continually holding major state offices in that time. She was elected State Treasurer for three terms (1994, 1998, 2002) because the Dems deliberately put up weak opposition, then she took the fall as the sacrificial lamb GOP candidate for Governor in 2006, then she was rewarded by the Democrats with a cushy appointed government job on the Chicago Transit Authority board from 2007-2010, then she was AGAIN elected to statewide office as State Comptroller twice (2010, 2014), again, against token Dem opposition since she does their bidding. She's been sucking at the government teat since becoming a state legislator in 1980, AND collected pensions from statewide office for the last 20 years.

No such arrangement would exist in Maryland. Some RINO hack who tried to suck up to the Democrats in power in exchange for a statewide office would be laughed away by the party leaders and buried in the general election by a powerful Democrat opponent.

Worse, as Fieldmarshaldj notes, there are numerous self-proclaimed "CONSERVATIVE" Republicans who are bought and paid for by the Chicago machine. They campaign as strong "pro-life", "pro-gun" "pro-family", "limited government", etc. and vote conservatively when the bill will lose anyway and it won't do anything, but cut deals behind the scenes to help the Democrats control Illinois government, and will sell us out at a moment's notice when needed by the Chicago machine. Three prominent examples are former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former Congressman Ray LaHood, and outgoing Illinois State Senator Kirk Dillard.

There are conservative Republican combiners, there are liberal Republican combiners, there are liberal Democrat combiners, there are conservative Republican ANTI-combiners, there are liberal Republican ANTI-combiners, there are even liberal Democrat ANTI-combiners (Quinn was one until he sold his soul to become Governor). It's quite complex behind the scenes here.