63 Comments - Pat Hickey - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 7:35 am: Andy McKenna, for a guy on the other team, is a classy and thoughtful leader. Leave it to my party to do all the fratricidal carving up. If Andy were to be a candidate he’d get my vote - an a lot others. - Joe - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 7:52 am: Well, what a disaster. It is kind of sad to see JBT running for cover behind the very SCC members she long held in contempt. Rod is going to come at her with every charge in the book, this is simply good practice for her now. - Anonymous - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:03 am: Can Boob Kjellander expect a similar letter the next time he criticizes another republican for daring to question how he makes millions doing work for Blago? The GOP primary electrorate wants to hear AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” and Andy is giving us Streisand. We’re doomed if this is what they are calling leadership at the GOP. - Backyard Conservative - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:12 am: While I generally agree with Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, do not speak ill of a fellow Republican,issue-based criticisms by candidates are legitimate. There may be some inaccuracies in the ad, but it’s clear McKenna is pompously fronting for JBT, when he’s supposed to be neutral.As for Judy,if she has to hide behind McKenna and can’t deal with her Republican rivals, by ducking debates, how can she deal with the Dems!? ….Oh, yeah, she makes deals with them quite well. My vote is for Bill Brady: http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2006/02/ brady-for-illinois-governor.html - DOWNSTATE - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:14 am: You can not win a race if the party is split.All he is trying to do is is keep the hard feelings down.Do you see AROD going negitive on Eisendrath? No he is just ignoring him and running his campaign.We need to stay positive and back whoever wins this or we get 4 more years of stupid and quite possibly another Dem after that. - roy slade - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:19 am: Andy is doing what must be done as chairman of the party. It appears that Gidwitz is trying to throw crap against the wall- to see what sticks. Keep it clean, keep it focused on our current Governor (and his ethical shortcomings and ill conceived programs). That will win us the election- and possibly bring additional seats in the GA. - Common Sense in Illinois - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:43 am: This isn’t all that complicated. Ron Gidwitz should release the documentation he used to make the charges. If he has it, then shame on the Treasurer for trying to cast factual information as anything otherwise, and shame on the Republican Party for not checking it out themselves before demanding a retraction. However, if Gidwitz doesn’t have the records, he’s toast. - Daniel Darling - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:44 am: This is ridiculous. I know Andy and respect him, but why is he so out in front for Judy? She holds none of the values of Republicans. She is way left and there are going to be a lot of conservatives who will stay home in November if she wins. No amount of sweet-talking will soothe us. I understand the “just win” mentality, because I employ that strategy myself when choosing a candidate. However, we have to draw the line somewhere and Judy is just way over the line with her views. Pingback IlliniPundit.com » Blog Archive » Blog - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:46 am: […] Andy McKenna, Chairman of the State GOP, is trying to referee the gubernatorial Primary, and not accomplishing very much.  Regardless of whether you agree with what he’s trying to do here (and I do, even though I probably won’t vote for Topinka), I’m surprised anyone is taking his efforts seriously.  Remember, McKenna was basically hand-picked by Topinka for the Chairman’s post, and now he’s trying to defend her. […] - Anon - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:50 am: Seriously, if honesty and integrity are sooo important to these guys, then why is the “promise to avoid any ‘misrepresentations’ or ‘distortions’” limited to Republican primary candidates? “Hey don’t lie about our guys, but if you want to go ahead and lie about them, that’s fine.” But then, I guess that just tells us what we already knew about McKenna et al. - Jeff - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 8:56 am: This is the most media coverage Gidwitz has gotten since he announced, he is going to keep fighting this thing in order to keep his name out there. However, no matter what he does he will not come with in 15% of Judy in the primary election. Desperate times call for desperate measures. - ISU REP - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:02 am: I’ve said it before I’ll say it again, this isn’t Alabama, you’re not goning to be able to elect an ultra right wing conservative in IL!!! Why can people not get this through their heads…If Blago had to face Oberweis or Brady he wouldn’t need to campaign he could just spend his warchest on his victory celebration. I just love the rational of well that candidates too moderate for me, so I suggest instead we nominate this other guy who alienates about 80% of the population of IL. Yea, REAL smart politics right there. - VanillaMan - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:17 am: Andy McKenna is right. The rest of you guys who love a mean ugly primary need to find a life. Voters are sick of name calling from old white guys with too much cash. - HoosierDaddy - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:21 am: ISU REP– define “ultra right wing” please. Some of us conservatives get tired of the seeming inability of liberals to say the word “conservative” without attaching several modifiers to it. I don’t think any of the four major candidates for governor qualify as “ultra right wing” when compared to the rest of the country outside of Massachusetts and the media. In fact, only Brady and Oberweis are conservative at all, and they are both certainly within the mainstream of the Republican Party nationally, which, by the way, received almost 52 percent of the popular vote in the presidential election and controls 55 seats in the Senate (a feat impossible for an “ultra” anything party). - the Patriot - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:41 am: McKenna should stop embarassing himself and just endorse Topinka. We all know she supported him in his senate bid, she gave him the nod for chairmen, and now he is supporting her. quid pro quo. Pretending she is clean to get her through the primary will only push a vulnerable candidate through to be hammered by Rod. If she can get through with the truth about her positions then so be it. But not airing them now, gives them more shock value when Rod does it. It will also give the appearance of another republican scandal because the chairmen is trying to downplay them. He makes the whole party subject to her problems by protecting her. Judy wins, Rod wins and Illinoisans lose. McKenna will not understand why the party is worse off after he leaves then before he started. - Team - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:46 am: Thanks Vanilla Man…but if you think this first ad was ugly, you don’t know anything about politics or campaigning. - ISU REP - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:49 am: Perhaps that’s maybe your idea of the “mainstream” Republican party, but not mine. Perhaps the generation gap is a good explaination of why we have differing viewpoints. I consider those to be “ultra right wing” when they put more emphasis on things like abortion, school prayer, etc…Flame issues that should really have no place in government. I strong believe in separation of church and state. Not more government, but less. I guess my generation is less concerned with the trivial matters and more focused on balancing budgets, shrinking debt and government, as well as growing business. I’m a capitalist Republican I make no qualms about it, but when people start spouting off as this is what the bible says about government or this is what God says, that’s when I classify them as ultra right wing. Part of their own little worlds where they are right and everyone else is wrong. Of those 55 Senators I would say a greater majority fall into my camp than what I have defined as ultra conservitative, who I guess could also be called social conservatives if you prefer that label instead. I elect my officials to govern, based on their actual abilities not who has the most gold stars for attending church or how many times they can plug God into a speech. - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 9:52 am: I can understand McKenna’s anger with Gidwitz. Judy is going to win the primary (whether we like it or not) and a Republican should not say what Gidwitz said (in McKenna’s opinion). But, if you are Ron Gidwitz, you must do what you can just to get a .1% chance of winning the primary. What will McKenna do, if for some outragously crazy reason, Gidwitz wins the primary? Will he apologize, feel stupid, and endorse Gidwitz? Or will he wave a Keyes flag?… There is room for desent in the GOP, McKenna has to accept that and realize that he may one day be handing an endorsement to someone whose initials aren’t JBT… - Cassandra - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:01 am: And now, to emphasize how Ron can relate to the common man, we hear that his family is planning on selling a Picasso that could fetch $50 million! - Rum - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:13 am: Rich, this is great… the fact you posted this letter. - Truthful James - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:20 am: Andy Panda speaks. Who knew? If one can not criticize another candidate for performance in an elected office or POV, then everybody is running in place, and a primary is not necessary. And we can merely sign off on the tablets Jim Thompson brings down from Mount Sinai. The Republican party in Illinois is organized along the lines of the Communist party of the USSR. No direct voting for the Central Committee. The party line has always come down from above. At least the old CPSU had ocasional purges when a high official consorted with the enemy. When Bob Kjellander broke the Senate Republican caucus on the $10 Billion Pension Bond scheme for ARod and got paid $818K from Bear Stearns for this act of treachery, nothing happened. The chorus of defense from the top of the Party was “nothing illegal.” The voices at the bottom were not heard. - zatoichi - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:26 am: Thought this stuff was pretty typical politics. In the prelims, everyone plays nice because “we are all on the same team”. Then the first mudball is slung and the gloves come off. When the eventual #1 is chosen, the former antagonists are suddenly pals and family again going against the slimeballs from the other side. Seems the GOP is in the mudball throwing stage right now until the #1 is finalized. Nothing new. - Wait a second.. - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:31 am: I actually think this letter helps Gidwitz. It will help him as he continues to make his case that he’s not part of the establishment, that he’s his own man, whereas JBT is the establishment candidate, and they are clearly demonstrating by taking this public position that she’s their candidates. In this battle, Gidwitz is the clear winner. - Reagan Democrat - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:51 am: Of course Rich got the letter JBT gives him first look at everything. (Poll numbers, when she will anounce etc,,) It is amazing considering how liberal Rich is. Did Andy fire that guy who sent that negative newspaper story about Jack Roeser Titled “Oberweis connected to tainted cash” or something like that, to all the reporters across the state under the heading “Have you seen this?” No the guy still works there. That goes to show you what is really going on. Andy was also the handpicked guy to challenge Senator Fitzgerald by the combine. Pat Hickey Andy did run and came in 4th while spending almost as much as Jack! 4 million $$$ That shows what the rank and file voter in the GOP thinks of him - Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 10:57 am: Reagan Democrat, the letter came to me (and other reporters) directly from the state party. - Establishment Republican - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 11:06 am: Good job Andy! - 23eyes - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 11:20 am: ISU rep is RIGHT ON TARGET!!! Hoosier Daddy needs to understand, that goofs like Brady and Obie cannot get elected in IL. Brady is against abortion is ALL cases. Brady supports NO restrictions on guns. Obie similiar views. Leave Jesus, Yaweh, God and Holy spirit out of public schools and separate from politics. I have teenage daughter, if some slime ball rapes her, old Billy -boy would tell her to have that baby. Right, I’m gonna vote for him. I with you ISU rep, you are the future of IL GOP, kooks, who force religion should move south (not Cairo, south like Kiln, MS) - Jack Barnes - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 11:21 am: Rich, RD makes an interesting point. Often I wonder if you use this blog to promote JBT and attack her opponents. What’s in it for you? - SenorAnon. - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 11:33 am: Boo. Hoo. That is so bush league. If Gidwitz had gone on the attack against Oberweis, would the paper man have chided him thusly? Doubt it. - ISU REP - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 11:53 am: JBT getting attacked is news, because she’s the front runner…The cow magnate getting attacked, would be confusing, a waste of money and extremely funny - Short Term Memory - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 12:00 pm: If you recall, Andy sent out some sleeze mail against Jack Ryan…which gave him 4th place. If the Gidwitz people knew what they were doing, they would have Andy’s mail ready and available to the press. - Rockin Ronnie - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 12:06 pm: Since when is the Republican Party concerned about accuracy in their ads? Oh … only when Republicans are distorting records of other Republicans? Recall that ad against Glenn Poshard with a bunch of black gang-bangers coming around a corner, then distorting Poshard’s record on crime and guns. Maybe good ‘ol George will enjoy his time in prison with some real gang bangers and the Republicans continue their fall in Illinois! - 4% ain't enough - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 12:22 pm: Judy’s problem is that she has never had to face the heat. Judy and her advisors have taken a 1-day story and made it into a weeklong expose by whining and crying about it. If she can’t handle this, wait until she is looking into the barrel of Blago’s $20 million cannon. Maybe Andy will write a letter to Rod. The fact is that Judy HAS signed off on the debt. She usually takes a month, questions whether its a good idea, and then goes along. She had a fiduciary responsibility and she abdicated her responsibility. - the Patriot - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 12:39 pm: I am tired of McKenna and his hacks telling us to support JBT because we cannot elect a conservative state wide. They claim they are mainstream republicans when in fact they are mains stream general public or better known as democrats. Since Judy, Andy, and the moderate(liberal) mainstreamers have had control of the party we have won, count them 1 major state wide election since Jim Edgar left office and they gave us George have you seen my cell mate Ryan. They define mainstream as more like the democrats which does not motivate the base of the party to work in an election. Maybe we should give someone not so mainstream a chance and see what happens. A few more years of “mainstream” leadership and the Illinois repupublican party will be playing third fiddle to the Democrats and the Green party. Somebody has to tell the truth on Judy. Ron cand do it now or Rod will in April. Go get Ron, more of the same my friend, more of the same. - Bubs - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 1:03 pm: The most interesting aspect of the letter is that the Illinois Republican Party has affirmatively stepped into the role of referee, and is trying to tell a gubenatorial primary candidate, (and Ron Gidwitz at that), where to get off. It remains to be seen whether the letter is just to support Topinka, which would be temporary, or whether it is evidence of a fundamental reemergence of the IRP. The leading role of the IRP was first reduced under Jim Thompson, and has been virtually non-existent for the past 8-10 years. As a result, Republican politics has slowly devolved into the Wild Wild West, with unemployed millionaires running rampant, and to a large part running the show. Under McKenna, the IRP is getting back on its feet financially. If this continues, the power and influence of the State party will only grow. - heet101 - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 1:07 pm: Gidwitz is a blundering boob. Obviously the shine from his chrome dome is blinding him to the fact that he will suffer a spectacular defeat in March. - ISU REP - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 1:11 pm: Patriot: So you’re saying Keyes was a moderate? Give me a break….The fact that you think a majority of the candidates that have run for statewide office have been so called moderate is a joke, The ONLY moderate who actually ran won. Considering the so called conservative base might be 5% of the population of Illinois that doesn’t bode very well. Apparently we need to have a lesson in how politics works again….Mainstream candidates win…can anyone guess why?! BECAUSE MORE PEOPLE AGREE WITH THEIR IDEAS. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. The only place the fire and brimstone routine plays is in the sticks, while the rest of us so called “liberal” republicans shake our heads. You cannot nor will you ever win a state wide office in IL with an extremely conservative candidate. That little area known as Chicago and the collar counties pretty much negates that. You need to be able to energize the moderates and those who haven’t made up their minds. If the so called “base” is as loyal is it is supposed to be the “R” next to the candidates name should be enough. - scoot - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 1:42 pm: Kudos to the Chairman and Congressman LaHood. Gidwitz joins the likes of O’Malley and Oberweis in my opinion. Nice try Ron, stick to business. - Beowulf - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 2:07 pm: Honestly, I feel as if Andy McKenna wants to hold our hand and walk into the voting booth with us so he can make sure that we vote for Judy. Andy McKenna is treating the GOP voters like half-wits that can’t figure out who to vote for by themselves. The more McKenna & Company defend Judy Barr Topinka, the more that she looks like Howdy Doody without the freckles. Red hair and strings attached to her that McKenna and Kjellander can pull when it suits their purpose. If Judy were smart, she would tell McKenna to go hide in the coat closet until the GOP primary is over. McKenna & Kjellander are sending out the message that Judy hasn’t the ability or smarts to speak out or take care of herself. I wonder if they help her go to the bathroom when she needs to go too? They are killing her with their attempts at kindness. - the Patriot - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 2:39 pm: Wow did someone actually bring up Alan Keyes to infer the party is on the right track. Alan Keyes was a wacko Judy brought in after running out Jack Ryan and failing to a replacement. The conservative Jack Ryan won the primary until Judy bailed on him. The fact is the republicans are in the minority in IL and in many other states. Choosing liberal republicans forces the conservatives to stay home and the democrats to vote democrat. A conservative candidate will bring in the republican base that allowed Jack Ryan to Hammer a mainstreamer McKenna who even had party support. It also allows the democrats to choose a candiate which represents the morally conservative part of that party which has to happen for a republican to win. Ever hear of Peter Fitzgerald. A conservative Republican can win outside of chicago and win a state wide election. No Union democrats are going to vote for a pro gay marriage pro-abortion Judy. How can anyone argue that choosing middle of the road candiates is working. You may consider yourself a moderate, but there are not enough moderates republicans to win an election. JBT has no grass roots organization downstate. rod still wins the city and if conservative democrats don’t vote R downstate he wins by 5%. The only moderate candidat to run was George Ryan and the chicago democrats chose him over a Southern Ill Poshard. - Bubs - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 2:57 pm: The mud slinging at JBT, be it from Patriot, or the Roeser punks, RYP (Ruin Your Party), or others, is always the same empty, subjective drivel, regurgitating the same false facts, no matter how many times they are refuted. Boooorrrrrrring! - Truthful James - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 3:52 pm: Well, Mr. Miller, you certainly have unearthed your republican readers. Bubs — if you weren’t so well informed you would be bigoted. You probably think that Jim Thompson is still a Republican. He plays both sides of the street. Guy’s gotta make a living, what with the Hollinger directorship going south. Jim Edgar has his own drum to bang as he sits it out in Charleston, but he won because he projected himself as a conservative, small government Republican. let the Cellinis and the Kjellanders reap the boodle. If Andy Panda wants the conservatives to come back, he will have to as a gesture, send Bob K off the plank. But he would not want to offend Karl Rove. Gone are the days when the big corporate leaders were all Republican and looked inward to the State they loved. Half of the biggest are now owned by out of state corporations, looking for temporal advantage. As long as taxes are at an acceptable level (Workman’s Comp and Unemployment) as long as the unions keep strikes under control, they will stay here. Otherwise, it’s off to foreighn lands. - Jake - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 3:54 pm: Patriort…let’s not re-write history. JBT didn’t run JACK! out of town, nor did she bring in Alan Keyes. That was Rauschenberger and it’s been well documented. - Rick - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 4:31 pm: Patriot, keep believing that Judy brought in Alan Keyes-your conspiratorial view of history is hilarious. And yes… I seem to remember a Peter Fitzgerald. Didn’t he endorse Steve Rauschenberger for Governor in the primary? That really seemed to help. - Beowulf - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 4:41 pm: Jake is correct or at least partially correct. Judy did not bring in Alan Keyes. I am not a Judy supporter but I have to give her credit when credit is due. She was never an Alan Keyes fan. I am a Steve Rauschenberger supporter and yet, I will have to admit Steve and several other well-meaning Republicans really made a terrible mistake when they invited Mr. Keyes to Illinois. I am sure that if they had to do it all over again, they would have torn up his party invitation. But, they were human and as such, they made a knee-jerk reaction to the Jack Ryan fiasco. When you are falling off a cliff, you reach out and grab the first thing that you can lay your hands on. Please try to forgive them for making a mistake. I and many others have. Desperate times often require us to take desperate measures. On the other hand, Judy could/should have come up with another GOP candidate to replace Jack Ryan but she didn’t. That would have required leadership on her part. It was easier to throw Jack Ryan a concrete block when he asked for a life preserver. It was easier to play the role of the “Monday Morning Quaterback” when Alan Keyes turned out to be a loveable “whack job” and say, I knew you should not have done that. My grandfather used to call those individuals “Alibi Ike” when they always let somebody else make the tough decisions. They could take the credit if the decision turned out correct but they could wash their hands of it, if it turned out wrong. Judy is simply an”Alibi Ike” personality who lacks the ability to make the tough decisions. That is why she never spoke out against George Ryan. That would have taken leadership abilities when there were none. A nice lady who was a nice fit for treasurer but not for governor. Andy McKenna is trying hard to pound a square peg into a round hole. - Reagan Democrat - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 5:05 pm: Jake Who was in charge of the party? Who made the party the laughing stock of the country? It took how many weeks to replace Jack! He announced in June he was stepping down. The offered it to Rauschy and McKenna (both turned it down) but not the guy who came in second. Judy says it was because Oberweis made demands for a commitment for help. Oberweis did ask for the committment but that was 6 weeks later, after Obama was the Key note speaker at the Democratic convention. BTW didn’t Judy ask for the same thing?? Andy, Judy and it seems Brady are on the home team. I say Brady because he and Judy are allowed to attack and not be held to account. The funny thing is they are the two people who signed the code of conduct - Rick - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 5:47 pm: RD, Judy attacking? Who, when and where? Really, this is just another conspiracy theory fit for the Art Bell show. Hilarious. - Bubs - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 5:50 pm: RD - I heard the RNC didn’t want Obie-Wan, based on the immigration ad. Oberweis’s positions were at odds with Bush, the Bush campaign didn’t what to deal with it during the Presidential race. Oh, but I forgot, it’s always Judy. - Reagan Democrat - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 6:49 pm: The people who work for the party are working for JBT. Remember when the party sent out the story about Jack Roesers fine with the title, “Oberweis takes tainted money!” They sent it out across the state to political reporters with the title “Have you seen this?” What happened to the guy who did it? NOTHING Bubs Keyes attacked Vice pres Cheney’s daughter. He was against the Bush approach to illegals too. The reason Oberweis was passed up was the same reason there was a primary. The party wants someone they can control,or who has no chance of winning, and can’t have someone who dosn’t owe them campaign money. Look at what Senator Fitzgrald did, people are still going to jail. This is why this election is so big thye are hanging on by their fingernails. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 6:54 pm: Gidwitz’s ad is hardly hard hitting. McKenna is crying like a girl and Topinka is hiding behind his skirt. And all they’ve accomplished is to get some free media for Gidwitz. Way to drift off message for five days. I guarantee you that someone is juicing up the printing presses to let downstate Republicans know exactly where Topinka stands on abortion, taxes and gay rights. “Andy, you want something to cry about? I’ll give you something to cry about!” - Truthful James - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 7:22 pm: Andy Panda needs to level the playing field, but not by burying the other candidates. He is a member of what John Kass calls “the combine”. Judy B is not a dowager empress born to rule by aome sort of divine right. Her selection by men in white shoes in smoke filled rooms allows them the satisfaction that reform is not on the menu. Yet, that is what many people in Illinois want. And with her and ARod forming a Punch and Judy show, it won’t even be good theater. We deserve better. ARod is spending billions to buy his way back in — postponing the payment to be lumped on the back of our children. Jobs go out and illegal aliens flock in. Nothing has been done to free the underclass on Daley’s plantation. We have lost three generations of children to lousy education — graduates who fit no jobs. It is so bad that we have to do remedial social education to make the parents able to monitor the progress of their children and provide an example. See the Trib magazine last Sunday. The last of the old folks who did benefit from an education worth having are dying off. When there example is lost, who will point out to the children that education is an economic and social good. Ans when we reform the system — as it must be reformed — to create graduates who can compete in a twentieth century world economy, where will those jobs be? Who would have thought that one determined man could worm theough the layers of corruption and boodle as Patrick Fitzgerald has? This election for governor is important for the moral climate in Illinois and it appears that we are getting more of the same old stuff. The Emil Jones and the Mike Madigans have their way with the budget and ARod is happy spending for special projects with money that could have deen forecast last year — money which was rolling in because of the Bush tax cuts. And here we sit, trying to inflict a thousand cuts on people with whom we disagree — bring them down to our level. By so doing we endure that no one man or woman is strong enopugh to lead — which means thatit will be business as usual for the fat cats, lobbyists and lawyers. In observing this Blog over the long haul, I see that nearly all of the respondents are — in different ways — for reform and not the status quo. No candidate is a perfect icon. But politics is degenerating into a dark and dirty pit with a bottom we can not see. I only know that as we sink, the state — our beloved State of illinois — disappears from our view and nastiness is its own reward. - NIEVA - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 7:30 pm: If you look around at the republican guv. field I for the life of me just can’t see a winner. - Anon - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 7:55 pm: His letter is pretty funny coming from a guy who played such ugly, dirty political antics during his own primary run for US Senate. Anyone remember those nasty mailers he sent out? What a hypocrite! - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Feb 17, 06 @ 11:49 pm: After thinking about this letter all day, I have realized that this is exactly what Gidwitz wanted. He has gotten his name out, showing a clear contrast between him and Judy. Although it may not win the election, it is certainly a boost in the polls. We’ll see… - The Conservative - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 12:36 am: I am not a supportor of Gidwitz but on this he is correct. JBT is no Republican and should she win many of us will not support her in the general. I have been a loyal Republican all my life, however there comes a moment when it is better to not support someone that supports those things you find offensive and better to loose than win a hollow victory. We Republicans cannot support, those that are in favor of Abortion, special rights for Homosexuals and those that would come against the second amendment. Enough is enough. - Beowulf - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 9:33 am: Lovie’s Leather is correct. Gidwitz is trying to show us all that he is not the normal plain vanilla ice cream (whoops, sorry Mr. Oberweis-wasn’t meant as a pun)that many of us think of him as. Gidwitz is suddenly realizing that he had better get the message out that he is different and he isn’t afraid to mix-it-up with the “combine”, Judy, or anybody else. It is a wise political strategy, albeit about a month too late, in my opinion. Pretty hard to reach all of your audience in only 4 weeks but I don’t blame him for trying. My guess is that Gidwitz figures he has spent enough of his own money that he figures to go down swinging rather than be manipulated by the Illinois Central Committee into “playing nice” for Judy’s benefit. “Better to live one day as a lion as a lifetime as a lamb.” I respect Gidwitz for that. - steve schnorf - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 10:11 am: Dog: she stands about where most Illinois voters and your guy stand on the issues folks here keep talking about; human rights, choice, and taxes; right smack in the mainstream of Illinois voters. She supports human rights, defends choice but hates the need for so many abortions, and opposes higher taxes. - ISU REP - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 1:44 pm: Conservative: You’d rather have Rod in office again than vote for someone whose completely agree with your “social” views? Riddiculous…I’m glad this is the past of the party thats dying out. This is why we lose elections its not 1920, whether you like it or not people are homosexuals and some will want to have abortions. I thought republicans were the party of smaller government yet you want more government oversight, unless it has to deal with your guns. Because I know I love nothing more than using an semi-automatic rifle with hollow point bullets to go deer hunting. The fact is Republicans will show up if they care about their party and want some change from Rod. I guarantee you the candidates the Republicans will be running in the future will be more in the mold of Gidwitz/JBT moderates than the Oberweis/Keyes/Brady conservatives. You just cannot win a moderate state with overly conservative candidates. The religious zealots can stay home and stay out of the system, which in the end would benefit it completely. People don’t want closed minded idealogues who govern via what religious doctrine, that may have worked in the past, but will doom a party in the future. - B Hicks - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 2:42 pm: From January, 2003, Illinois Issues “There are only three options that I can see,” says state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the only Republican constitutional officer. “You raise taxes, you make severe cuts or you do a combination of both.” That pretty little thing. Have the options changed, Judy? - steve schnorf - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 2:55 pm: They haven’t changed and they won’t change - Bill Miteff - Saturday, Feb 18, 06 @ 7:47 pm: McKenna has the “cohones” to tell it like it is. Gidwitz is far behind and will joing the Blair Hull of Nofame for wealthy men who tried and failed to buy office. It was a good move to come out early and blast a grossly inaccurate and overfunded TV add. My guess is that real leaders like Speaker Hastert were happy that McKenna had the guts to keep the fire on Rod - not each other. - Tony Soprano - Sunday, Feb 19, 06 @ 7:12 pm: The Conservative - What special rights? Most of the ’special rights’ you are refering to include discrimination. I dont support gay marriage but dont think anyone should be discriminated against. Thank goodness you were not around for the Emancipation Proclamation. At least admit you are a bigot. - Wumpus - Monday, Feb 20, 06 @ 10:19 am: Wow, like I care what the IL GOP has to say. They are largely buffoons, perhaps improving now. But JBT was endorsing dems and leaving the Fitzgeralds high and dry, who cares if her feelings were hurt. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.