Replies

If the GOP gets their butts kicked this November, the old country-club guard will blame the newly-minted conservative leaders in the party (even though the current damage killing the party was caused by their heros George Ryan and Lee Daniels) Thus, we will need some isolated conservative victories in November to prevent the Judy Baar Topinka types saying "we're the only ones left standing! Republicans need to be MORE liberal! We warned you!"

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