* Sneed has an interesting story today…
• To wit: Word is Dem Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool is eyeing a run for the assessor’s seat as an independent — and Cook County Dem Party chief Joe Berrios, who is already slated as the Dem Party assessor’s candidate, may be reaching for a bottle of Bromo Seltzer.
• The scoop du jour: Sneed has learned “friends” of Claypool, a close pal of Axelrod and Gov. Quinn who is rumored to also be eyeing the lieutenant governor spot, are now conducting a phone survey to determine his viability for a shot as Cook County assessor.
He really needs to make up his mind already.
* Yesterday, the Daily Herald ran a guest column by GOP Sen. Chris Lauzen…
3. Pat Brady, the Illinois Republican Chairman, should resign for interfering and taking sides in this Republican primary and for doing nothing to effectively stop his predecessor from spending $5 million to attack his opponents (after having promised to monitor and enforce clean campaigning standards).
4. The Kane County Republican Chairman should resign so that we can credibly begin the work of reconstructing a reformed Republican-led coalition of Republicans, Independents, and disillusioned Reagan Democrats. “Less Government, More Individual Freedom” will be our objective and slogan.
Today, Kane County Republican Party Chairman Mike Kenyon responded…
Kenyon responded by saying Lauzen’s letter is the result of lingering grudges over his loss to Jim Oberweis in the 14th Congressional District Republican primary a couple of years ago. Oberweis also recently won a spot on the Illinois Republican State Central Committee during a vote where Lauzen wasn’t allowed in the room.
“What Mr. Lauzen does is he takes everything to the personal level,” Kenyon said. “That’s his greatest flaw. I don’t think he likes me, but don’t ask me to get into his head because it would be uncomfortable, even though he’s got a small brain.
“He would never come on board and say, ‘Congratulations, Jim (Oberweis). I support you.’ If he could just put all his energy in a positive direction, he’d be great. It’s got to be some sort of a mental problem. He’s stuck in the fourth grade and needs to get out of it. I really do want to get along with him.”
Yikes.
* A Republican controversy has been building in Will County after the recent vote for the 11th District State Central Committeeman’s slot. Illinois Review…
It was during the election for the 11th district State Central Committeeman where problem arose. The race was between Bobbie Peterson and Corey Singer. Both were allowed to speak, but discussion amongst committeemen was not allowed. Corey spoke of getting back to core Republican values. He spoke of encouraging primary challenges. He said we have to stop being Democrat-lite. He spoke directly towards all of the newly involved, energized people who have been working hard against the Obama agenda over the last twelve months. While it is my understanding that Bobbie has worked hard for the Republican Party for decades, Corey’s speech won the room.
The vote was an open roll call. Despite the fact that everyone who voted for Corey was going to be the scorn of the establishment, the weighted vote total was approximately 9000 to 4000 – better than 2 to 1. Considering that many people were probably afraid to not vote for Bobbie, that vote was an absolute landslide for Corey. That is of course until Chairman Kavanagh decided he had the right to exercise votes for not only the vacant precincts, but also for the committeemen not in attendance! That was over 13,000 votes! No matter how the committeemen voted, it didn’t matter. The Chairmen was going to decide the winner.
What happened was that Chairman Kavanagh voted the proxies of the vacant precincts and absent committeemen, which he claimed he had a right to do. Those in the room wanted Singer, but the chairman went for Peterson.
The Herald News follows up today with a story about how a lawsuit might be in the works…
Kavanagh, who works for Singer as a lawyer for the forest preserve district, says it’s over.
But Singer says he’s getting encouragement from Republicans across Illinois and is considering his options, including a lawsuit.
Singer questions Kavanagh’s authority to cast votes for elected committeemen who missed the meeting. Singer said he was ahead even after Kavanagh and Grundy County Republican Chairman Donald Hansen cast votes for Peterson on behalf of precincts without committeemen.
Kavanagh said he cleared his action before the convention with Brian Sheahan , the attorney for the state party.
Kavanagh works for Singer? Hilarious.
* In other campaign news, the House just passed HB 5820, which would provide for the joint nomination of governor and lieutenant governor candidates.
LIVE session coverage...
- 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:09 pm:
I think someone’s pulling Sneed’s chain.
- CircularFiringSquad - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:15 pm:
I love it when you adopt my handle Capt Fax
I thought Claypool was quitting —-yes quitting because he need more cash..
- Amalia - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:20 pm:
phone survey for viability…as in money? or to get help for what he really wants? which is probably not the assessor’s job.
- tubbfan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:38 pm:
Kavanagh is the appointed attorney for the Will County Forest Preserve. Singer is the President of the Will County Forest Preserve.
- Bubs - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:38 pm:
The “Chairman Voting Rule” is imposed by the GOP State Party. It has been in effect for a long time. It is not in the Illinois Election Code.
Similarly to SB600, which will be thrown out as unconstitutional as soon as it passes (if ever), an attempt to attack the Chairman Voting Rule in court is unlikely to get past the pleading stage, unless on some constitutional ground.
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that political parties are akin to private clubs, and are not subject to government dictates on how parties conduct their internal leadership election procedures.
State regulation of primary elections for public office is another matter.
- Carl Nyberg - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:38 pm:
Before Claypool decides on whether to run for Cook County Assessor he should meet with Bob Grota, the Green Party candidate.
Grota is exceedingly well versed in property tax assessment issues. He’s a little odd, but the guy knows his stuff.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:44 pm:
===Kavanagh is the appointed attorney for the Will County Forest Preserve===
Not for long…
- Cubs2010 - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 1:47 pm:
Claypool would put the Gov in a tough spot, choosing between the Party (Berrios) and his old friend (Claypool). If Claypool really wants the Gov to win reelection he sits down, but we already have seen Claypool may not have the mental capacity to take that many things into consideration at once.
- ABCBoy - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:10 pm:
I’m not a resident of the Fox Valley/Kane County area, but I’ve heard from MULTIPLE sources that Senator Lauzen has a lot of personality “issues.” His clashes with the rest of the party out there don’t seem to stem much from his conservatism but rather his arrogant “my way or the highway” attitude. The guy first ran on the virtue of term limits, but now he’s running for his 5th term. He’s mostly just upset that he isn’t a US Senator by now and he’s blaming everybody around him except himself.
Nobody wants a “sell out”, but it seems like he simply doesn’t have the temperament to even be a passibly effective legislator. Zero ability to choose his battles to advance 1-2 important causes, etc. The purist mentality is more aptly applied to a grassroots organizer or activist, not to a legislator.
From what I understand, the big reasons he wins time after time is he’s incredibly charming to his constituents for the 10 minutes he talks to them and is a great campaigner. But most voters don’t bother to even check to see if he as any meaningful legislative accomplishments so they go for the superficial dog & pony show.
- Jow Blow - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:15 pm:
i heard castillo endorsed raja for lg? is that true?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:21 pm:
===i heard castillo endorsed raja for lg? is that true? ===
Yes. Does it matter? No.
- Will County Woman - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:30 pm:
shameful behavior on the part of kavanaugh.
- Lakefront Liberal - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:34 pm:
I really hope that Claypool really is contemplating a run for Assessor as an independent and that he actually does it. As well-qualified as the Green Party candidate might be, it would take someone of Claypool’s stature to actually win. Even better, his run would really seperate who in the Cook County Dem party wants good government and who wants to keep the corruption gravey flowing.
- Will County Woman - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:38 pm:
run Forrest, run!
- Downstate Hack - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:40 pm:
The rule allowing chairmen to cast votes for vacant precincts or absent committeemen eliminates the disparity between downstate GOP primary voters and Cook County GOP primary voters. In Cook, ward and township committeemen cast votes for all Republican voters as there are no elected precinct committeemen. This rule was designed to ensure that all downstate Republicans are represented as well.
Same rules adopted and re-adopted for decades, and now Jack Roeser yanks Chris Lauzen’s chain and the rules should be changed?
I hope Cory Singer challenges the rule in court. It will be laughed out as Illinois courts give wide latitude to parties to govern themselves, and this can be cleared up once and for all for the kooks.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:42 pm:
Chris Lauzen needs love. When he doesn’t get it, he goes into a jilted lover tizzy and starts ripping up his old prom dresses. His rages and grudges are legendary enough to bully people into doing what he wants or at least not confronting him without adequate back up.
I say have a cage match between him and Former NY Congressman Eric Massa!
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you ready to RUMBLE?!”
“In this corner, from Illinois - weighing 800 pounds in shoulder chips and bad karma - that lawsuit queen of Northern Illinois - Chris “GRUDGEMEISTER” Lauzen!”
“And in this corner, weighing 250 pounds - that Navy Tickler, Rahmbo-Wrestling Snorkler - Eric “NAKEDASAJAYBIRD” Massa!
- Bubs - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:49 pm:
I bet most of the the local GOP would support “Independent” reformer Claypool over Machine Democrat Berrios, notwithstanding Joe’s many “friends” in the Republican leadership in Cook County (a/k/a the “Cook County Combine,” which puts the one in Springfield to shame.)
- ABCBoy - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 2:52 pm:
“Chris Lauzen needs love.”
This is true, but unfortunately you don’t get it by DEMANDING it from people. It seems his primary reason for going on the war-path with somebody is simply whenever anybody disagrees with him and/or won’t support him 100% of the time. Even if a person agrees with him in terms of ideology, he incapable of handling dissent as anything other than an absolute outrage and worthy of permanent scorn.
It baffles me that the guy has choosen a profession that has disagreements inherent within the fabric of the job.
He obviously tries to bully people to get his way in the short-term. But this never works in the long-term. In order to advance politically much beyond a state rep or state senate seat, one needs to build allies and coalitions. Does that require sticks occasionally? Yes. But it also requires carrots.
Ultimately Chris Lazuen is a selfish individual and isn’t willing to partake in the give & take required to build broader coalitions. Even his explosive anger problem prevents him from keeping much of a “small but loyal” base for very long. I imagine his staff/supporter turnover is pretty high. It doesn’t like he’s got 20-30 competent & long-term supporters out there. He hoodwinks a group of people into being extremely loyal for a short time, eventually turns on them with his temper, and then burns any connections with them.
It’ll be his ultimate political undoing.
- Sub Man - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:02 pm:
I think that Lauzen is chronically upset because he has the distinction of being the ONLY opponent of Jim Oberweis’ to let Obie win an election.
When the real spotlight was on Lauzen, when he ran for Congress, he withered and the voters saw him for what he is. It was best displayed the Trib dared to question his using his elected position to get Rose Bowl tickets. He said politics is a “crappy, crappy business”. I love that.
- Pat Collins - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:04 pm:
Chairman Kavanagh decided he had the right to exercise votes for not only the vacant precincts, but also for the committeemen not in attendance!
State Rep. Tyron, McHenry county chair, voted his proxies the way the majority of elected committemen voted.
Certainly that way is very respectful of the people on the front line, as well as respecting the results of an election.
SB 600 ruled unconsittutional
I think not. After all it merely sets up the R party to be the same as the D.
- ABCBoy - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:15 pm:
I believe in DuPage, Dan Cronin simply split his proxy votes in proportion to how the present committeemen voted. That’s probably the best way to handle the current situation.
As for SB600, my thoughts on that are:
1) I can see the merits of having directly elected centrall committee members. On balance I think it’s fine and I don’t see merit in the argument of “it will cost more/create more inter-party animosity w/ more races.”
2) That being said, I’m unsure how popularly elected folks would significantly change the composition of the committee. The only folks who would be able to win a race the size of a congressional district will either be wealthy or already well-known politicians. Thus, the central committee composition won’t change much anyway.
3) I don’t like the idea of Springfield and/or the Democratic party telling the GOP how to run it’s affairs. I could easily be FOR the direct election of central committeemen, but it should be done at a state convention or via a GOP primary referendum.
4) If there would be directly elected central committeemen, I would want a compromise provision to “Madigan-proof” the process. Basically create a threshold trigger. Something like if the GOP can’t hit, say, 35% or 40% of the vote in a particular congressional district, then that particular central committee member for that district shouldn’t be directly elected and instead will be appointed. Otherwise Madigan coudl easily put up stalking horse candidates in these hard D districts in the city and plant Democrats onto the R state central committee.
With those caveats–a party-initiated & ratified procedure, as well as the Madigan-proof provision–then I could easily go for directly elected central committeemen.
Although, even if THAT issue would be settled to the satisfaction of the Jack Rosers of the world, I’d assume it’d only be a matter of 6-10 weeks before they started fomenting yet another GOP circular firing squad.
- CLJ - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:19 pm:
==I thought Claypool was quitting —-yes quitting because he need more cash..==
He figured out there is cash to be made as Assessor.
- Springfield - DB - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:48 pm:
Illinois Politics at its finest as usual.
“He’s stuck in the fourth grade and needs to get out of it. I really do want to get along with him.”
- Jabba - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:56 pm:
Kavanagh is an old timer who is practical and loyal. If I’m Singer, I take it with graciousness and hang tough. Dick still carries a pretty big stick in Will GOP politics, like him or not, and I imagine Singer can still salvage something down the road if he moves on.
If he kicks and screams too much, he may find GOP politics lonely.
- Pat Collins - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 3:56 pm:
“He’s stuck in the fourth grade and needs to get out of it. I really do want to get along with him.”
Not the way I would handle it, if I really wanted to get along with someone.
- Bardo2 - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 4:07 pm:
Sign me up for ANY credible challenge to Joe Berrios. This guy seem to symbolize all that’s wrong with politics.
- Whatever - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 4:08 pm:
Lauzen behavior = no wonder GOP can’t win big elections.
- Bubs - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 4:41 pm:
Pat Collins,
The Election Code provision directing the Democrats what to do internally is unconstitutional as well. The government simply cannot dictate in that area. No one has ever bothered to challenge the Election Code provisions since those Supreme Court cases came down, but when they do the statute will fall.
- just sayin' - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 4:48 pm:
Good to know the IL GOP is still as corrupt, dysfunctional, and silly as ever.
Pat Quinn can sleep well tonight.
- Say What? - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 5:54 pm:
Kavanagh did what was allowed based on the Illinois Republican Party by-laws. He also let everybody know a couple of weeks before the Will County GOP Convention that he was going to throw his huge block of 13,889 “vacant” precinct votes (which, incidentally, represented 51% of all Will County precinct votes cast that night) to his 14 year state central committeeman incumbent and friend Bobbie Peterson. Obviously, he felt that she was far more qualified for the position than Singer. Chairman Kavanagh controlled 51% of the Will County vote total so the rest of the Will County precinct committeemen may as well have stayed at home that night. He controlled the vote and election that night. Kavanagh (perhaps) handled it all rather poorly but he handled it legally, definitely boldly, and without apology. The flaw lies in the Illinois GOP by-laws which were predominantly set up to maintain power within the Illinois GOP with the entrenched GOP incumbents. It’s called “power politics”. It works and it is perfectly legal. Pleasant or ethical or moral? Maybe not but “it is legal”.
Bobbie Peterson will never step down from her political position of power. It simply won’t happen. Why should she? Just because the precinct committeemen’s vote totals in the six counties comprising the Eleventh Congressional District showed that she was given a clear mandate by the precinct committeemen that she was no longer wanted, that has nothing to do with it. The new Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady will have to be the “Go To Guy” who will decide whether the Illinois GOP becomes the new and improved Illinois GOP or simply the “More of the Same” Illinois GOP. Bobbie Peterson was the one who nominated Pat Brady to replace Andy McKenna. It will be very hard for Pat Brady to be “unbiased” on this one.
- scoot - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 6:09 pm:
Wow, I hope Claypool does this!!
- LincolnLounger - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 6:13 pm:
Congressional districts that include the City of Chicago are ripe for Democrat meddling if the GOP enacts direct election of State Central Committeemen.
We already have Democrat-front groups circulating petitions for “Republican” candidates for the Board of Review and the legislature. It wouldn’t be long before candidates like these would be put up for the State Central Committee, and they would probably be elected in direct elections. Remember when the Republicans nominated “Spanky the Clown” for Congress and nearly nominated a Nazi for Congress.
Why would Republicans want to give zealots like Roeser and Lauzen the opportunity to get in the middle of SCC elections and have to spend big money on intra-party elections?
- Montecore - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 6:23 pm:
Puhleeez, “Kavanagh carries a pretty big stick in Will County politics.”!!! Really? Two-thirds of Will County precinct committeemen voted for Singer AGAINST chairman Kavanagh’s wishes. They are NOT afraid of him. In face, those two-thirds will be after Kavanagh two years from now. Cory Singer spoke truth to power and will be remembered as the one trying to get the GOP out of the DEEP rut Kavanagh and Petersen have drove us in. Republicans in Will County have LOST every contested election under Kavanagh. Just like the IL GOP went from all offices to none while Petersen presided on the state central committee. Kavanagh/Petersen = LOSS.
- NICE KID - Friday, Mar 12, 10 @ 10:02 pm:
Say what you want about Bobbi Peterson… but I would not trust Cory Singer for all the tea in China. Kavanaugh made a smart move and if Singer files a lawsuit, it will get tossed. Most of the republicans and all the democrats in Will County hate him.
- The Rest of the Story - Saturday, Mar 13, 10 @ 10:53 am:
Regarding Lauzen and Kenyon
The rest of the story is the hostility that exists because Lauzen called ex Speaker Hastert out on his $40,000 a month post congressional expenses. No matter what anyone may think of the guy those that hate him threw everything at him this election cycle and he still won the primary with 70% of the vote. Dillard’s campaign co chair and Kenyon are miffed that the reform minded voters may move away from the status quo. Show entire article and comments that are usually posted to read entire contents of the article/issue.
- The Rest of the Story - Saturday, Mar 13, 10 @ 10:57 am:
The posts are on the blog. Read further for a bit more background if readers are interested.
- 26th ward - Sunday, Mar 14, 10 @ 11:18 pm:
At this point, I’ll be happy with anything to make Joe Berrios spend lots and lots of money.