* We’ve discussed much of this stuff before (click here and here for background), but Kristen McQueary’s new column is about the appointment of Helene Miller-Walsh to replace disgraced former Rep. Nick Sauer on the ballot…

Mark Shaw, Lake County GOP chairman and co-chair of the Illinois Republican Party, and Chris Geissler, Barrington Township GOP committeeman, interviewed nine candidates to replace Sauer, according to Shaw. They selected Helene Miller Walsh. She is now the representative of the 51st District and faces Democrat Mary Edly-Allen on the ballot. […]

So when Lake County Republicans announced that his wife secured the seat appointment, it took Democrats about five minutes on her Facebook page to find a series of strongly worded posts too — not the N-word but charged posts on Muslims, immigration and Chicago violence, to name a few. […]

For its part, the Illinois Republican Party shifted questions about her appointment to the “local committee” that made the decision to choose her. That committee was made up of two people. One of them is Shaw, co-chairman of the state party.

No, this is not a hands-off moment for Illinois GOP leadership. This belongs to them. It’s going to be a fiasco.

* So, why would Illinois Republican Party Co-Chairman and Lake County GOP Chairman Mark Shaw appoint Miller-Walsh? There are a lot of reasons, but one is that he may also be a fan of conspiracy theories. Check out this Lake County Republican Party Facebook post…

Um, no…

A day after a competitive video gamer shot and killed two people, wounding 10 others, at a Madden video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, a group of far-right news outlets announced that they had found the Reddit account used by the shooter, who they said used the pseudonym “Ravenchamps.”

But the groups were wrong.

“Ravenchamps” did not belong to the shooter, who the police say was a Baltimore resident named David Katz and who killed himself in the shooting. And the announcement caused considerable trouble for the real person who owned the account. […]

This is not the first time Gateway Pundit has misidentified someone who committed an attack or mass shooting. The site said the Charlottesville car attack was conducted by an “anti-Trump protester” who in reality was hundreds of miles away at the time of the attack. The site also named the wrong person in the Las Vegas mass shooting, and spun an elaborate conspiracy based on an anonymous Twitter post which identified the wrong person in a mass shooting at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in January 2017.

* And the original GP story’s headline has finally been changed to reflect reality with this little notation at the bottom…

UPDATE: An anonymous Reddit user was mis-identified in an earlier post.

…Adding… The Lake County GOP has removed the Facebook post.

       

27 Comments - wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:49 am: The GOP governor likens himself to Ahab. The Lake County GOP peddles Gateway Pundit lunacy. One GOP congressional nominee is a Nazi, another is a 9/11 conspiracy nut. Party of Lincoln, 2018. - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 11:51 am: Darn disgusting to purposely misidentify someone like this for political gain. I remember a man wearing a women’s march pink “cat” hat was purposely misidentified as the Vegas shooter. - Archpundit - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:05 pm: Anyone can make a mistake, but Gateway Pundit has an uncanny ability not to learn from those mistakes. Despite this, he’s probably the most cited site of however you describe him behind Breitbart. - Lake County Mom - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:06 pm: Nazis, indicted candidates, conspiracy cranks, a woman who claims to have been abducted by space aliens… Both Democrats and Republicans have supported less than savory characters, but Republicans seem intent on making such people a permanent fixture in their party. It’s time Republicans across the country have a come to Jesus moment. Our country needs a strong two party system, and Republicans are turning over the reins of the GOP to racists, nut jobs, and criminals. - Jocko - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:07 pm: I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that Gateway Pundit is so wrong when it comes to big events or that the Trump Administration awarded them press credentials. - AnonNice - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:11 pm: When Mark Shaw was asked about Russian hacking, he talked about Hillary’s emails. He’s comfortable with conspiracy theories. - PublicServant - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:12 pm: I see this post as part of a vast socialist conspiracy to attack the credibility of the GOP in general, and Gateway Pundit in particular. Oh and did I mention sanctioned by the deep state. I’d write more, but a silent black helicopter has just appeared outsi… [transmission ends]/s - TheInvisibleMan - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:16 pm: To paraphrase Ferris Bueller; “The world moves(changes) pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around, you could miss it.” I’m sorry if anyone is surprised by this, but this is what the republican party has turned into in the past few years. There’s nothing ’shocking’ or ‘new’ here. This is what they are, and each one of them emboldens the next one. I suppose it’s a similar process to what’s going on in the Catholic church. It’s taken decades for people to finally wake up to what is happening in the church with abuse. There’s a kind of momentum where every day members will go along with the group they’ve belonged to for as long as they can remember - no matter what they do. There’s always an excuse to pretend it’s not “happening in your area” and to brush it off. Some of the republican campaign events in the southern part of the state are indistinguishable from a supremacist rally - and it’s all right out in the open. The last republican I voted for was Tom Cross. Because of what that party has become in small increments over the last few years, they will never get another vote from me. - Gooner - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:17 pm: This isn’t just a Lake County thing. The guy is Co-Chair of the state party. For all the talk about “MADIGAN!” the simple truth is that the GOP has problems state-wide because too many leaders are too out of touch with the rest of IL. We’ve talked about IL seeming like two states, with some downstate areas feeling more like Alabama than a midwestern state, but the fact is that there are not enough of that kind of voters to carry an election. If the GOP is going to use Alabama like tactics, and they are going to nominate candidates who would win in Alabama, they are going to continue to lose in IL. - Pundent - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:42 pm: =So, why would Illinois Republican Party Co-Chairman and Lake County GOP Chairman Mark Shaw appoint Miller-Walsh?= Because he believes this is a accurate reflection of who the constituents of the 51st district are and/or want in that seat. It will be up to the voters to either validate or repudiate that. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:51 pm: Yeah, the appropriate headline is “What the heck is going on in the Republican Party?” From the President, through Congress, and in state races, it sounds like the Know Nothings c. 1856. - allknowingmasterofracoondom - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:51 pm: Real republicans in Lake County are lost. We have nowhere to go. Mike Shaw will finish the complete annihilation of the GOP in Lake County. - OneMan - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 12:56 pm: Stuff like this is the reason why I no longer identify as a Republican when the pollsters call, nor do I consider myself a Republican. They have truly lost their minds. - Joe Bidenopolous - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:06 pm: ===Real republicans in Lake County are lost=== Just a reminder for whenever anyone talks about “real” Republicans… 90% of self-identified Republicans *approve* of the job Trump is doing (source: Gallup) and 55% of Republicans support separating infants and children from their parents at the border (source: Quinnipiac). That’s the GOP today. Shaw isn’t a symptom, he’s the base. - Pundent - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:10 pm: =Shaw isn’t a symptom, he’s the base.= Sadly I believe you are correct. The only question is how much has that base expanded or contracted. I guess we’ll see in November. - allknowingmasterofracoondom - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:39 pm: The post was still up as of 12:41 PM today, I saw it. - paddyrollingstone - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:42 pm: In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. H.L.Mencken - Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:46 pm: Title should read what the hell is going on with America? and the answer is a legacy of white supremacy losing its %#@$-ing mind over the inevitable demographic swing of this country. As that continues the lunacy of the GOP leaders will only peddle more conspiracy theories- from misidentifying murderers as their political opponents to calls of white genocide - AnonNice - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 1:54 pm: @Joe Bidenopolous is right. Doug Bennett, anti-choice, pro-Trump Republican won the GOP nomination in IL-10. Lake County GOP loves pushing Proft’s phony news. Gun raffle. This is where the party is. Just like removing Trump wouldn’t change the base, getting rid of Shaw wouldn’t suddenly make Republicans normal again. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 2:04 pm: If a Trump supporter does something bad all Trump supporters can’t be blamed. If a person who doesn’t like Trump does something bad, all people who don’t like Trump can’t be blamed. True this headline turned out to be false, but the premise behind it is also false. Lake County GOP insults people by putting this up. - Loop Lady - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 2:18 pm: Yeah that’s a pretty bad decision to slate Walsh’s wife…I presume she has her own positions on the issues, but her obnoxious husband is going to be an even bigger mouthpiece if she wins…BTW, saw Durkin on Chicago Tonight last night speak of his pal John Mc Cain…he said he admired McCain’s independence an tries to be independent as well…just wondering if Durkin was at the press conference with the rest of his GOP pals who have already decided to be against JB’s tax policies… - Northsider - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 2:35 pm: Helene Miller-Walsh, her husband, and their fellow travelers are today’s Republican Party. Such is the company Kristen McQueary chooses to keep. - Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 2:51 pm: And Rauner saw fit to appoint Mark Shaw to the Board of the TRS. Splendid. - Anon0091 - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 4:53 pm: “just wondering if Durkin was at the press conference with the rest of his GOP pals who have already decided to be against JB’s tax policies…” Yes, he was the featured speaker. Oh yea, and: “If CNN followed Gateway Pundit’s lead in updating misidentified reports, Wolf Blitzer would say nothing but “This just in - we’ve made more mistakes” Actually VM, unlike Breitbart, Fox, Gateway Pundit, when CNN makes a mistake, it identifies it right away. That’s how real media organizations work. - Pundent - Tuesday, Aug 28, 18 @ 4:57 pm: =unlike Breitbart, Fox, Gateway Pundit, when CNN makes a mistake, it identifies it right away. That’s how real media organizations work.= The constant cries of “fake news” are nothing more than an attempt to discredit real media organizations. It’s in the same vein of “don’t believe what you hear and see, only what I tell you.” When the Gateway Pundits of the world are embraced as new sources democracy is lost. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 29, 18 @ 2:58 am: Oh her name is “Miller Walsh” and she is Joe Walsh’s wife… Good thing she started using the Miller name a week ago, it REALLY makes people not realize. Geez. Weird how the county chairman with the worst ideas for the suburbs is running the county chair association. When the house of cards fall Shaw I’ll be done… so something good will come out of something bad - DMC - Thursday, Aug 30, 18 @ 9:32 am: I have some history here. Husband #1. She was a proud to be Jewish progressive. Husband #2. It’s Joe Walsh. What else can you say? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.