35 Comments - Eagle - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 8:44 am: Good lord. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 8:54 am: More and more the alleged GOP needs a strong gubernatorial candidate, because if it’s Bailey and one of these “folks”, midterm of a Dem president or not, things look bleak, and that’s me being polite… and the Raunerite/Trumpkins would deserve the pummeling too. - En Err Gee - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:00 am: Nothing beats a good Tim Arview reference in the morning. Haven’t even finished my first cuppa Joe lol - DMAC - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:04 am: The question I would like AmVet to answer is why they are hosting a partisan event. Partisan politics goes againsts its core principals. - JoanP - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:13 am: @DMAC - It does not appear that AmVets itself is hosting the event. The post is the venue, and I expect that, like many such organizations, they rent out their space. - Back to the Future - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:19 am: The note says the event is sponsored by two groups at an AmVets hall. The AmVets are probably only renting out the space and not doing the hosting. As to OW’s comment, he is right on the money. If Pritzker, the current State Treasurer and Alexi are on the November ballot the R’s could make a big comeback if they field a reasonable group of candidates. Of course, that is a big “if”. As to Senator Duckworth, I just don’t see a reason for anyone to vote against her. IMHO she is a remarkable person. - SuburbanRepublican - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:24 am: Wasn’t David McSweeney planning to run? - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:27 am: Hey, Chopper Jim is about due to fire up the troops and launch an air assault on Soldier Field. - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:27 am: Much like the line from Animal House re the Toga Party, the A listers are too well to attend. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:28 am: ===David McSweeney=== Are you saying that’s an upgrade? Check out his twitter history. Dunno if it’s all that much of any upgrade, given how McSweeney has presented him self these later years… and he is someone I’ve nominated for a Golden Horseshoe in the past, but that was then… now… (Tips cap to - Back to the Future -) - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:34 am: ===… the current State Treasurer and Alexi are on the November ballot the R’s could make a big comeback if they field a reasonable group of candidates=== This is the sweet spot for a comeback if the alleged GOP see being relevant is more important than being old, angry, rural… and white. Both Pritzker, and in this post, Duckworth, the monetary commitment AND reasonable and appealing candidates necessary to make a run to beat them, it’s still a time of watching, and the A team of candidates aren’t in the picture for either. - NIU Grad - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:36 am: Alan Keyes better be keeping an eye on his phone. He might be getting a call soon… - So_Ill - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:44 am: Is there an “A team” in the ILGOP? - Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 9:51 am: There are quite a few Hubbard signs in my area… right next to the “Pritzker sucks” signs… and the Trump 2024 signs. Nothing like having political signs in your yard 24/7/365. - TheInvisibleMan - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:19 am: To be fair, this probably *is* their A team. Unfortunately, This is what passes for top notch in todays ILGOP. - Saved Data - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:24 am: What is the motivation to run for these offices again? - John Lopez - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:35 am: When current IL-16 wiped out in congressional remap and Adam Kinzinger needs to run for something, he’ll jump into U.S. Senate race since he’ll easily win primary. He has enough millions in FEC account for seed money for Senate race. - Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:36 am: At a largely rural Republican gathering a few weekends ago… Just the idle chatter about who will run for Gov and how they have to be a shoe-in over JB was cause for its own level of concern. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:38 am: Twenty years ago, an electable Republican political team was sent to prison by a kangaroo court for the crime of being moderate. These men and women promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Illinois underground. Today, still wanted by the few Republicans left in state government, they survive as political soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…the A-Team. - Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:39 am: I’m still waiting for Jeanne Ives to decide whether she wants to be governor, senator or grifter. - GOP Manner - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:41 am: The GOP needs someone with manners. Someone who doesn’t call people names. I nominate the humble man who is very optimistic from Kendall County to shake the GOP field up. - The Way I See It - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:44 am: I would think any “A-list” republican would realize that they are going to get swamped with Pritzker money driving the Democratic turnout and that they are going to get zero help from Washington/the national party, so they are choosing to sit this one out and avoid taking the shellacking that is coming. - Edyrdologist - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:49 am: Sometimes it seems like the ILGOP looks at its sister parties in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina etc. who-because they have gerrymandered their purple state legislatures into deep-red/voter-proof bodies-get to act like raving lunatics with little-to-no electoral consequences and get befuddled as to why they can’t do the same. So instead of accepting the reality of being in a deep blue state they can’t gerrymander (at the moment), they go all-in on the raving lunatic part either in the hope will win over an imaginary conservative majority in the state or just to satisfy their own desire for ideological purity. How else can you explain such shabby initial candidates against a Dem senator with soft approval ratings holding a seat the GOP held 5 years ago in what’s shaping up to be a good midterm cycle nationally for them? - SuburbanRepublican - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:05 am: @Oswego Not an upgrade in the slightest. He would add to the circus of today’s GOP. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:07 am: === So instead of accepting the reality of being in a deep blue state=== (Sigh) Illinois is NOT a deep blue state. It’s not. Sorry. No. The Republicans in this state have made themselves toxic, first with Rauner, now with Trump. You had Ives and Oberweis running in the suburbs and both got beat, not because it’s now magically “blue”, look at the options those districts had. Foster, Schneider, Krishnamoorthi… three districts… can’t find a reasonable Republican that can reflect Illinois to take these members on… and win. === How else can you explain such shabby initial candidates against a Dem senator with soft approval ratings holding a seat the GOP held 5 years ago in what’s shaping up to be a good midterm cycle nationally for them?=== Duckworth… Polls well Disabled veteran Suburban base Votes her state in the Senate Visible on TV and back home Enough cash to scare a reasonable candidate Did I miss anything? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:09 am: === Not an upgrade in the slightest=== I don’t think I thought McSweeney *was* an upgrade. At all. Did you read what I wrote? - Frank talks - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:36 am: Going to be interesting for sure. I’m guessing reasonable GOP candidates are holding cards close to the best for now. Petitions don’t start until January. Maybe by end of summer there will be some more reasonable folks who come out? - Edyrdologist - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:42 am: =Illinois is NOT a deep blue state= Illinois hasn’t voted GOP nationally in over 30 years, has elected a GOP governor once in 20 years, and has had Democratic majorities in both chambers for almost 20 years now. Not sure why it’s a stretch to call it a deep blue state. It has certainly become that way because the GOP has toxified itself-and the GOP could certainly make some gains by moderating its policy positions and running stronger candidates more in tune with the mood of the Illinois electorate- but I don’t think those are contradictory points. As far as Duckworth, not saying she’s super vulnerable (would sort of contradict the deep blue state point) but on paper (GOP-friendly national midterm, first-term senator whose approvals ratings are in the mid-40s last I saw) should elicit a better grade of challenger than the Timothy Arviews of the world. The fact that she doesn’t is quite telling about both the strength of the GOP statewide as well as their current ideological position. That’s all. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 11:51 am: === Illinois hasn’t voted GOP nationally in over 30 years=== Since 1988, Illinois has not voted with the majority of voters for president only once… 2004 That doesn’t make it blue, it makes it a bell weather state to a majority of voters. Between GHR and Rauner was 12 years, and before Rod… 26 years, GOP governors. Admitting a party is toxic doesn’t mean that same state is “deep” anything. - Justin - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 12:31 pm: That is a very weak field for the ILGOP in the Senate race to face off against Duckworth, with hardcore MAGA Peggy Hubbard the most recognizable of the bunch. - Edyrdologist - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 1:10 pm: ===Since 1988, Illinois has not voted with the majority of voters for president only once… 2004=== Sure, but while the national majority was 48% (2000), 52% (2008), 51% (2012), 48% (2016), and 51% (2020), in Illinois it was 54% (’00), 61% (’08), 57% (’12), 55% (’16), and 57% (’20). Not sure you can call the state a bellwether when it’s consistently voting 6-to-9 percentage points to the left of the country overall. ===26 years, GOP governors=== I don’t think a winning streak largely in the previous century when political conditions/the ideological composition of the parties/demographics of the state were quite different has much bearing on whether Illinois can be classified as “deep blue” (in a partisan sense) in 2020. California has a very similar history in that regard as the birthplace of the modern GOP with largely Republican governors/presidential wins in post-’45. Would we not classify it now as deep blue? ===Admitting a party is toxic doesn’t mean that same state is “deep” anything.=== Unfortunately, given how strongly negative party polarization impacts voting behavior now and the rapid decline of split-ticket voting, that is exactly what it means. - cover - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 2:02 pm: = The GOP needs someone with manners. = Today’s GOP voters have made it clear they want someone without manners, Trump’s crudity is a positive feature for them - even as it repels suburbanites who used to form the party’s backbone. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 2:41 pm: === Sure, but=== I’ll stop you there. If anything, being a bell wether to the majority since 1988 does not make Illinois “deep blue” but it does indicate that Republicans seemingly can’t find majority wins for president with the “beauty contest” === in the previous century=== GHR, Rauner… Rod, Quinn… now Pritzker. Dismissing the idea that Rauner won, GHR won… they still won. ===California has a very similar history=== Illinois is not California. Let’s stick with Illinois ===rapid decline of split-ticket voting=== That’s the toxicity, not the politics of being anything Red or Blue… - Practical Politics - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 2:59 pm: Didn’t Hubbard make a false alarm about school security in the last primary? Weak candidates. - Pundent - Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 7:27 pm: =So instead of accepting the reality of being in a deep blue state= Didn’t keep Bruce Rauner or Mark Kirk from being elected. In Illinois it comes down to the candidate. Always has. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.