Posted on 07/28/2002 11:25:53 AM PDT by BillyBoy
First a little background info. For those of you who don't know, the Illinois GOP has basically been controlled by a moderate "country club" establishment for at least 30 years. Back in the 70s, the party "leadership" lined behind Gerald Ford for President over Illinois' native son, Ronald Reagan. In the 80s, they nominated and won with a "Republican" Senator who was so liberal than the state's moderate Democrat Senator, Alan Dixon, actually ranked slightly MORE consevative than him in the ACU ratings. But there's been a power struggle for control of the state GOP for most of 2002. Observe excerts in this piece from the Illinois Leader just 10 days ago:
The liberal wing of the Illinois Republican Party likes to blame the conservative wing when things don’t go right. If a liberal Republican loses, it’s the fault of conservatives who stayed home or didn’t get involved. If a conservative loses, it’s the fault of conservatives who put up a candidate “too extreme” on the issues.
The meltdown of the Illinois GOP is squarely on the back of the non-ideologues and it is they who have shown no interest in party unity. It began with George Ryan’s praise for Fidel Castro and Paul Vallas and harsh words for all three Republican gubernatorial candidates in the primary. It proceeded with Lee Daniels ascension to Chairman of the State Republican Party. It continues with the recent actions of Congressman Mark Kirk...and former Governor Jim Thompson.
Rep. Kirk blocked O’Connell [from appointment] for her failure to support him in the 10th Congressional race in 2000.
Add to this, former Governor Jim Thompson’s attendance, this past Wednesday night, at a fundraiser hosted by the law firm of Winston & Strawn for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich. Thompson is the Chairman of the Board of Winston & Strawn. Isn’t that cozy? This comes amid reports that Jim Ryan is badly trailing Blagojevich in fundraising (not to mention in the polls). With GOP friends like Thompson, Jim Ryan need hardly worry about the Democrats.
The actions of the current leaders of the Illinois Republican Party are all the more curious given the GOP’s general state of disgrace thanks to George Ryan, et al. It’s a different face on the same old way of doing business and conservatives continue to be treated as a nuisance to the powers-that-be. When that changes, the GOP can begin a true rebuilding.
-- from http://www.illinoisleader.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=1366
That was then. Since the April 2002 Primary, the forces within the party have remained fractured and engaged in a three-way ideological bloodbath (between the unabashedly liberal RINO wing, the "finger to the wind" moderate wing, and the principled conservative wing). They were still fighting to a standstill.
Two days ago, conservatives finally got the upperhand.
The Chairmanship of the Illinois Republican Party has been up for grabs for almost a month. Lee Daniels, the moderate minority leader of the Illinois House (he lost four out of five elections under a REPUBLICAN drawn map) had been appointed chairman in 2001 thanks to lots of seniority and people owning him favors-- big time. Daniels served 7 monthes. He ended under a "cloud of investigation" for state employees as election workers on state time. The party nominee for Governor, Jim Ryan, knew he must get Daniels to resign.
The expected guy to fill the vacany was former Governor Jim Edgar, a "fiscally consevative, socially liberal" very popular leader. He wanted to take the job but had other committments. Then the party leaders asked the CEO of Quakers Oats to take the job. He didn't want to quit his day job. Then they asked Congressman Ray LaHood, the moderate-conservative rep. from Peoria who presided over the Clinton impeachment. He said no. The GOP had to settle on an intermin chairman, Dallas Ingermon. They would reconvine in three weeks to pick a new chairman. The front runner in the next two weeks appeared to be buisnessman Greg Baise, a solidly "pro-choice" Republican who had backed RINO Corinne Wood for Governor in the primary. Conservatives would not stomach Baise. Finally, Senator Fitzgerald did some arm twisting and insisted on a hard core conservative. Under pressure and desperation, the Illinois GOP leaders relented-- and our new chairman-- Gary MacDougal-- turns out to be the very person the grassroots conservative activists had urged to run for office and defeat the moderate establishment a year. From the Chicago Sun-Times, July 26th:
The new chairman of the Illinois Republican Party warned Friday of a "nuclear winter" for businesses if Democrats sweep the Legislature and win the governor's race in November. Gary MacDougal, a conservative businessman who helped rewrite the state's welfare laws, accepted the party chairmanship after several marquee Republicans turned down the post. The party's state central committee unanimously approved his appointment Friday. "Facing this job is a daunting thing," MacDougal said. "I've climbed the Matterhorn. I've climbed the Grand Teton. Those seem like molehills compared to some of the challenges we have up ahead." MacDougal conceded that Democrats, who drew the state's new legislative map, appear poised to win control of the House and Senate this year. If they do and Democratic U.S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich beats GOP Attorney General Jim Ryan in the governor's race, it would spell disaster for businesses, he said.
"I believe that Jim Ryan's opponent is owned and operated by the union bureaucrats ... and the trial lawyers," MacDougal said.... Weinberg [said] MacDougal's conservative views are out of touch with mainstream voters. "We have to have a little sympathy for Gary MacDougal," Weinberg said. "Certainly being appointed chairman of the Illinois Republican Party in July of 2002 is like being named captain of the Titanic after it already was taking on water." Republicans have struggled to distance their ticket from political scandals involving top party officials. House Republican Leader Lee Daniels stepped down as party chairman earlier this month amid allegations members of his House staff campaigned on state time during the 2000 elections. Daniels has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing. Federal prosecutors also are continuing their investigation into the trading of drivers licenses for bribes when Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, oversaw driver's license bureaus as secretary of state. MacDougal said he shares Jim Ryan's position that the [[RINO] governor should either resign or fully explain his role in the license scheme. But MacDougal also declared his party is not alone in scandal. Federal prosecutors have been asked to look into allegations the staff of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan — the state party chairman — campaigned on state time and received improper bonuses. "I believe that the sleaze is bipartisan sleaze" MacDougal said. He called on Blagojevich to demand that Madigan resign as party chairman. "There were dark clouds around the chairman of the Republican Party, and Jim Ryan stepped up and took action and changes were made," MacDougal said. "As we speak, there are very comparable clouds around the chairman of the Democratic Party." Weinberg said Blagojevich is not considering asking Madigan to step down. "There are tremendous distinctions between what Lee Daniels is alleged to have done and the stories about Speaker Madigan," Weinberg said. "You cannot equate the two cases." Cook County Republican chairwoman Maureen Murphy of Evergreen Park, who sits on the committee that approved MacDougal, described the Democratic ballot as an "All My Children" ticket. Blagojevich, attorney general candidate Lisa Madigan, Comptroller Dan Hynes and treasurer candidate Tom Dart all have parents or close family members involved in Chicago politics.
"The pitch that these are 'fresh faces' is (erroneous)," Murphy said. Jim Ryan said MacDougal is committed to expanding the base of the party. "I would describe Gary as a fiscal conservative with a very strong social conscience," he said
Naturally, a mere change in the head of the state party from a wimpy moderate to a fiery conservative doesn't mean a conservative "take over" of the party, but due to the "meltdown" of many of the establishment leaders, reformist conservatives have slowly begun taking over many of the key positions within the party in the past few monthes. Observe:
Peter has also pushed for the appointment of tough, new, independent federal prosecutors for 3 Illinois jurisdictions. The establishment (on both sides of the aisle) is already running scared. These appointments alone are enough to win my support. Peter is nobody's patsy. He may be quirky, but he is no RINO -- Peter is Peter.
Why bring up the irrelevant and unimportant?
Kirk is a good example of a liberal Republican who comes from a part of the state that is still controlled by a RINO bastion (Illinois' 10th district). He's the LONE Illinois "Republican" in congress with an American Conservative Union rating under 50% (Kirk scored a whooping 48%) That means he really does fit the New England-RINO mold that some try to falsely pin on Fitzgerald. And Kirk's voting record is so pathetic that it's actually MORE liberal than two moderate Democrat congressmen from Illinois-- Lipinksi (3rd) and Phelps (19th). Kirk apparently votes with the 'RATs over his OWN party a majority of time.
The problem I have with little Mark Kirk is that his "beliefs" seem to be driven by the latest polls in his district. See if you can find him supporting a conservative position that isn't strongly backed by the voters in Illinois. Spineless is incapable of taking a position on anything "contraversal". Also problematic is that he runs on the "Republican" ticket because he knows it helps him get elected, but he has no interest in going to bat for the party at all. Kirk insists he's an "independant", so maybe he should put up or shut up by running as such. Oh geeesh...that might risky for his career. Poor Mark.
Kirk and his organization cannot be defeated in the primary. Since Kirk basically "inherited" the job from former Congressman John Porter (another RINO), he has an army of patronage workers. The RINOs will insist one of their own is the only one who "can win" in the 10th district, but this theory has never been tested since they haven't run a conservative there in 30 years. Personally, I think it has a small but devout conservative voting block, given how the district is next to the ultra-conservative 8th district and keeps nominating RINOs by a small plurality.
The only way I see a conservative takeover of that district is if conservatives run a candidate against Kirk in the GENERAL election and empathize Kirk's liberal views so that he and the Democrat SPLIT the liberal vote. His views on abortion alone are so liberal than they are further left than ALL the other IL Republicans in Congress (even the pro-choice ones!) AND they are to the left of THREE IL Democrats (including liberal Jerry Costello!)
There are some risks because a 3-way race could help a Democrat win, but Kirk's 2000 victory and sizeable leads in the current race make me believe that district has gone from tossup to being brainwashed by Kirk devotees. Conservatives always vote for Kirk in the general because they have no other choice. As long as we can give them an honest, qualifed, dynamic alternative and let Kirk and a Democrat candidate try to outliberal each other for the left-wing constituency, we can theoretically win the district.
Sometimes the selection of moderates in the primary was not due to the GOP establishment rigging it, but conservatives not working hard enough to get involved. Take the 5th district GOP primary-- NO ONE paid attention to it, the media or the voters. Mark Augusti, a middle-of-the-road Republican, spent the most money and edged out conservative William Hurley for the nomination, 41% to 40%. That's right, a 1% margin of victory. Hurley had been former congressman's Michael Patrick Flangan's Chief of Staff-- he was obviously the better choice but the "default" Republican won by marginally spend a tad more money to get his name out to the Republican voters. No one bothered to check what he stood for.
Many freepers will just say "oh well, we can nominate Hurley next time in 2004". True, but 2002 is the only chance we had to run a conservative in an OPEN race for the 5th district. Next time, Rahn Emanual is likely to be the incubamt. So 2002 gave us a very slim chance of winning the general election in the 5th district....2004 gives us virtually no chance.
As it stands, MOST of the congressional slate this year is conservative candidates. As I indictated, we have a skeleton majority in the party positions now. Let's hope it lasts.
U.S. CONGRESSIONAL NOMINEES
Ray Wardingley, 1st District (Conservative)
Doug Nelson, 2nd District (Conservative)
Tony Lopez-Cisenros, 4th District (Conservative)
Mark A. Augusti, 5th District (Centrist)
Henry Hyde, 6th District (Conservative) Incumbant
Mark Tunney, 7th District (Moderate)
Phil Crane, 8th District (Conservative) Incumbant
Nicholas Duric, 9th District (???)
Mark Kirk, 10th District (RINO) Incumbant
Jerry Weller, 11th District (Conservative) Incumbant
David Sadler, 12th District (Conservative)
Judy Biggert, 13th District (Moderate) Incumbant
Speaker Dennis Hastert, 14 District (Consevative) Incumbant
Tim Johnson, 15th District (Conservative) Incumbant
Don Manzullo, 16th District (Consevative) Incumbant
Peter "Pete" Calderone, 17th District (Conservative)
Ray LaHood, 18th District (Moderate-Consevative)Incumbant
John Shimkus, 19th District (Consevative) Incumbant
For a supposed lifelong "Republican" who supported O'Malley, you sure seem obsessed with promoting EVERY candidate with a (LP) designation next to their name on the ballot. You don't even bother to see if they support conservative issues. Hmmm...
I live in the 1st congressional district and I am supporting conservative REPUBLICAN Ray Wardingley over the LP candidate (who doesn't even bother to campaign or tell people where she stands!) , although if I lived in Mark Kirk's district he would NOT get my vote.
Unfortunately, Kirk's district is a TWO-way race between him a Democrat clone. The 8th district is home to Congressman Phil Crane, the MOST conservative Republican in the entire Illinois delegation (he scored a perfect 100% from the American Conservative Union for the last FOUR years). Crane has my support, and the support of just about every Republican here for that matter.
So the LPI is putting up opposition against Crane but didn't bother recruiting anyone against Kirk in the 10th district. Since they draw most of their fiscally conservative voters from disgrunted Republicans, it would have been much wiser to leave Crane alone and go after the RINO. Oh well, that's LP logic for you.
With everybody except those who know him best -- his former colleagues in the Illinois State Senate .
He stands as much chance of getting re-elected in 2006 as Carol Mostly-Fraud.
You're right.
He's more of a self-absorbed jerk with delusions of grandeur. He and his daddy (the banker -- why not ask where his money came from) just know that Petey will be The Prez some day.
dts, you sound as though you know Petey personally. I know him from his days in the State Senate. How 'bout you?
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