* Congressman Adam Kinzinger has a GOP primary opponent…
On Tuesday, David Hale, founder of the Rockford Tea Party, announced he is running in next March’s GOP primary against Kinzinger, who has been in Congress since 2011.
Over the past week, Kinzinger has made a number of national TV appearances backing President Barack Obama’s call for military action in Syria. The Air Force veteran said he has offered to help Obama make the case.
It was Kinzinger’s position on Syria that prompted Hale to enter the race. […]
He founded the Rockford Tea Party in 2009 and helped organize the petition drive for the Winnebago County Board to pass a concealed carry ordinance, collecting 11,000 signatures. The board ultimately rejected the ordinance.
Amanda Norris, president of the Sauk Valley Tea Party, said she welcomed opponents of Kinzinger, whom she called a “real disappointment.”
“He [Hale] is very passionate and strong-willed. Sometimes that works against you in the political sphere. He’s on the right side of issues,” Norris said.
As an incumbent with nearly $500,000 in his campaign coffers, Kinzinger is the favorite to win.
“The money is an advantage,” Hale said. “I don’t pretend that I’m a formidable candidate as far as publicity and money goes, When it comes to ideas and when it comes to how government works, I’m head and shoulders above Adam Kinzinger.”
* Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jesse White is announcing his reelection tomorrow…
…there is no sign of a Republican challenger on the horizon.
Jayme Odom, executive director of the Illinois Republican Party, said new party chief Jack Dorgan is attempting to draft a candidate.
“The chairman is still talking to multiple people,” Odom said Tuesday.
Republican observers say it’s pretty obvious why no one is jockeying for the position.
“I think you have to admit it would be a tough one to win,” state Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, said Tuesday.
Discuss.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 1:51 pm:
How is Kinzinger a disappointment?
“Well, in ‘Purity’ Adam …”
Yikes! If we in My Party can NOT see Adam Kinzinger as a positive that the ILGOP is going in the right direction, by the “Reagan Rule”, then the “Right” is quite clueless what a good Congressman is, and an even better Republican Congressman looks like.
Jesse White is running, but who do we have in My Party to take Jesse and Lisa on?
(crickets)
“The Slytherin House Republicans - Take on Kinzinger, leave Jesse and Lisa alone.”
Purity over building …
- Mokenavince - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 2:14 pm:
Kinzinger is as far right as could be. Who is this guy Atilla the Hun?
I think the GOP is going off its rocker.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 2:16 pm:
Wow. Kinzinger takes a pretty typical position for a conswervative, former military officer turned politician (bomb Syria), and he gets primaried for it?
Up is down, white is black, Tea Party Republicans are anti-War. They’ve gone so far to the right that they are now 180 degrees from true north. When Adam Kinzinger isn’t conservative enough for Illinois, there is something very wrong with the Illinois GOP.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 2:17 pm:
Sorry, 2:16 was me.
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 2:20 pm:
Hey maybe “government and ideas” guy Hale could take on Jesse White and leave Kinzinger alone. For the good of the Party and all that.
- Skeeter - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 2:20 pm:
Nationally, he Tea Party has handed the U.S. Senate to the Democrats in 2010 and 2012.
Now the local Tea Party wants to see what it can do to hand Congress to the Democrats in 2014.
Democrats need to start funding the Tea Party. I may well write a check to Hale.
- dupage dan - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 3:13 pm:
I understand the need for a grass roots organization to stake out certain boundaries regarding their fundemental beliefs, especially at the beginning of efforts to garner publicity and support. Not being a member of the tea party, I can’t imagine what they are thinking regarding spreading their word and influence after some of the early wins.
It’s hard to imagine why they would target Kinzinger. I know, he consorted with the enemy (grounds for the comfy chair, no) but that is the name of the game.
Purity and perfection - enemies of the good.
- And I Approved This Message - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 3:34 pm:
The Congressman sides with President Obama on Syrian policy and even offers to help him make his case. Oh…the horror. How dare he? Obama Derangement Syndrome is epidemic in the Right Wing of the Republican Party (and sometimes in the Center as well.) It devours everything in its path and there is no known cure. Beware.
- Hipshot - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 4:49 pm:
If Kinzinger was voicing his constituents demands, then its not a problem. But if he decided he doesn’t have to listen to his constituents and voted his own mind, then he doesn’t deserve to be elected. Those rep’s aren’t voted into office to vote their conscience, but to vote ours. Period.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 4:55 pm:
===Those rep’s aren’t voted into office to vote their conscience, but to vote ours.===
Says who?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 4:57 pm:
===Those rep’s aren’t voted into office to vote their conscience, but to vote ours. Period.===
“A representative owes the People not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion.”
- Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)
“Period”
Representative Deomcracy …is hard!
- A guy... - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 5:03 pm:
Congress is designed to be a Representative Democracy in general, but that assumes those represented have all of the information to advise their member. In times of conflict, when things are moving quickly and information changes swiftly, you do need to rely on the conscience of your member. That’s part of what should be taken into account when casting a vote for them. History will tell you Winston Churchill made tough and almost completely correct decisions under pressure. He was a hero. Then he lost an election in parliament. His conscience was important to the whole world. I’ll give Kinzinger a little credit in that he’s all over the media explaining why he’s taking the position he is.
- DeKalb County Reader - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 6:11 pm:
I don’t have a problem with Kinzinger straying from the perceived conservative line, whatever that is. In fact, it is interesting to note that the Old Right that opposed FDR was anti-war in the 30s, and Republicans opposed Harry Truman’s
police action” in Korea. VP candidate Bob Dole even had a bitter quip in the 1976 campaign about “Democrat Wars”. (Of course, he and Ford lost that one.)
My problem with Kinzinger is that he is a Member of Congress and is a knee-jerk supporter of executive power. He’s never met a military operation he doesn’t support–whether Congress has given the constitutionally required approval or not.
As a congressman he can give his vote to the President–but he should not support a President doing an end run around Congress, as he did with the Libya action. He doesn’t understand that he must jealously guard congressional power.
Of course, along with military spending comes tremendous increases in federal spending, so any of his talk of fiscal responsibility is merely hot air. He has no credibility on the issue.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 11, 13 @ 8:26 pm:
===Those rep’s aren’t voted into office to vote their conscience, but to vote ours. Period.===
For crying out loud, I just spotted that.
Willie posted the appropriate quote.
Is it really possible for someone to want to mix it up in American democracy and not know Edmund Burke from The Edmund Fitzgerald? Or Jim Edmonds?
Where do you anchor yourself?
- PublicServant - Thursday, Sep 12, 13 @ 6:55 am:
Hipshot is why the Repubs are nearing oblivion. Keep up the good work Hippy!
- james taylor sr - Friday, Sep 13, 13 @ 9:24 am:
Adam Kinzinger was once the congressman for us folks in Kankakee County and he was not a man of his word, at least not to the black voters who helped elect him. He also shold be investigated for the way he handled his campaign funds. Unlike Jesse Jackson, Kinzinger developed a rather unique way of keeping his campaign cash himself. He developed a company along with the help of his campaign aid and produced his own campaign materials and of course paid the company he held an interest in for those ads. Had Jackson conferred with Kinzinger maybe he would not be headed to jail. Adam Kinzinger is not a man to be trusted, he is a man who looks out for his own interests first and those interests are dollars for himself. Were the Federal Election officials to investigate his campaign finances the also may well be headed to the same place as Jackson and the two former Illinois governors called home.