* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
Illinois Republicans are really having a rough year. Their party’s governor, Bruce Rauner, is trailing by double digits. Four U.S. representatives are in real danger of losing their seats. The state House and Senate Republicans are being vastly outspent by the Democrats. And to make matters worse, their candidates include a Nazi, two conspiracy theorists and an accused harasser. A former candidate was caught up in a bizarre sex scandal.
You probably heard about the Nazi. The Republicans couldn’t find anyone to run against Democratic Congressman Dan Lipinski last year, so perennial candidate Art Jones ran in the primary unopposed. “If I really believed the Holocaust had taken place, I wouldn’t have joined the Nazi Party,” Jones explained to the Daily Southtown.
The Republican Party promised to find and support a write-in candidate, and one did emerge. But the candidate, Justin Hanson, is pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ, anti-NRA and against repealing Obamacare. He told a reporter recently that the party hasn’t yet provided him any help.
Then there’s Bill Fawell, who’s up against U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos.
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- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 9:39 am:
Rich, truthful columns like this only serve other conspiracy theorists who claim you work(ed) for Mike Madigan;)
- Rusty Bridges - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 9:57 am:
Wow who’d have thunk that turning the IL GOP over to a nursing home bust-out artist might not go Well?
- Last Bull Moose - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 10:10 am:
Another argument for multi-member districts like we used to have in the Illinois House. When there is no chance to win, nut jobs with an agenda take the stage.
- DuPage Saint - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 10:10 am:
Well when Rauner is in Italy enjoying the wine, what is left of the Republican party in Illinos will go down to defeat for a generation. No money, no money coming in no leaders and a huge turf battle trying to find the only pure candidates.
- Jocko - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 10:39 am:
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “I don’t agree with their fringe ideas, but I do approve of their policy not to raise my taxes.”
- Soothsayer - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 10:40 am:
DuPage Saint, the defeat of the GOP for at least a generation may not be unique to Illinois.
- ste_v_en - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 10:48 am:
Since 2016, Democrats and their allied organizations have outraged, outspent, and outworked Trump aligned Republicans everywhere. There is a good chance after 2020 the party will be right back to 2008 all over again.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 11:11 am:
There’s a small part of me that wants to think…
Rauner thought the IPI would handle the government shop… Besler and Proft would handle the political shop…
… and when, as a white male, Bruce Rauner needed to dismiss the IPI folks, and Besler and Proft got aced out soon after…
Rauner had no plan for the governing AND political.
No one minding either store… and the ILGOP flounders, the SGOP is starving for cash, the governing is hurting, as it has been for 4 years…
Now I’m supposed to be shocked, with no real adults minding both stores, Diana Rauner orchestrating messaging for both shops, that the state GOP… is behind being in a shambles?
When Raunerism ends, come January or January 2022, I’ll be around to help build the party from the dirt up.
Who else will be there?
Proft, for sure. Uihlein. Those seeking purity.
This fight for the party goes full tilt…after Raunerism.
Where will you be, if you think you’re part of the vanishing, Kasich-style, GOP?
- revvedup - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 11:37 am:
The headline sounds like the lead-in to a “xxx walks into a bar and…” joke, but it is no joke. Why the Rep. party didn’t back Ives, in light of the lack of any other viable candidate, remains a mystery. At least she had a strong base; the others are just taking up space. Then again, being a moderate Illinois Republican seems quite the challenge.
- don the legend - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 11:41 am:
Another type of candidate is the phony republican incumbent who picks and chooses what Rauner actions they can’t and won’t tolerate. Then support him any way.
Case in point. My current diocesan newsletter has an article on the continued battle over HB 40. Peter Breen says he’s upset and going to appeal all the way to the supreme court. But Breen still is in Rauner’s corner.
OW consistently points out this hypocrisy with HB40, gutting of higher ed funding, workers comp reform tied to union busting, sabotaging the grand bargain.
If the GOP is greatly wounded they only have to look in the mirror as to why.
- Deadbeat Consverative - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 12:22 pm:
“Rough Year” implies that this is an anomaly. For years we’ve seen the GOP view mendacity as a virtue. At what point does it become the GOP identity?
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 12:29 pm:
Evidence that Rauner didn’t really buy the state GOP as a vehicle, but rented it.
And you don’t care for a rental like you do your own wheels.
- Joliet Jake - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 12:53 pm:
The Blues Brothers never go out of style.
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 12:55 pm:
===Where will you be, if you think you’re part of the vanishing, Kasich-style, GOP?===
Lived that already. So now I’m basically voting for almost all democrats out of spite until the GOP regains some semblance of sanity. I’m not holding my breath yet. Hard lessons have to be learned before republicans will change their tune.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 1:09 pm:
===Lived that already. So now I’m basically voting for almost all democrats out of spite until the GOP regains some semblance of sanity. I’m not holding my breath yet.===
Thus might be 2018 in a nutshell as well.
- FormerParatrooper - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 9:25 pm:
OW are you sure there will be anything left to rebuild? Rauner set fire to the ILGOP, and the fringes set up shop in the ruins. How do we evict them?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 1, 18 @ 9:32 pm:
- FormerParatrooper -
The rebuild will be very difficult, I’m not gonna sugar coat it, but there are voters in the collars, downstate, Labor… looking, searching, thirsting… for moderated “moderate-right” candidates willing to be thoughtful to GOP ideals but be Reagan Republicans knowing Illinois can’t and won’t elect far right extremists statewide.
Scavengers rarely get to own the field, they can’t consolidate leadership.
Proft/Uihlein/Ives types… they don’t scare me after Rauner.
They’ve exposed why even Rauner couldn’t trust them.
We’ll get this figured out.
That I can promise.
Be well. Have faith. Know it can happen. It’s going to take time is all.
OW
- NorthsideNoMore - Tuesday, Oct 2, 18 @ 7:59 am:
OW you’re spot on about the moderate GOPers in this state. I’m not who will be here to rebuild though ?