As you’ve probably heard by now, Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy announced his resignation last week, apparently effective the day after the Republican National Convention concludes on July 18.
The announcement came after far-right activists forced out the state party’s vice chair, Mark Shaw, and the resignation of the party’s finance chair, Vince Kolber. Both Shaw and Kolber had made unsuccessful bids for the Republican National Committeeman post days earlier, but were rejected by state convention attendees.
After he first won the chairmanship job in 2021, Tracy said, “Regardless of our differences… Republicans are the only hope for turning Illinois around.”
By last week, Tracy was finally forced to admit the obvious.
“When I took on this full-time volunteer job in February 2021, I thought I would be spending most of my time fighting Democrats,” he wrote in his resignation letter. Now, however, “we have Republicans who would rather fight other Republicans than engage in the harder work of defeating incumbent Democrats by convincing swing voters to vote Republican.”
It has always been thus. This is what I wrote almost six years ago, in late 2018: “The far right has been obsessed with gaining control of the Illinois Republican Party for as long as I can remember. They’ve only really held the party’s reins once, in 2002 when Gary MacDougal was handed the chairmanship after then-House Republican Leader Lee Daniels was forced to step down during a federal investigation into campaign work on state time that eventually nailed his chief of staff.”
But MacDougal didn’t last long: “Before the year was out he was replaced by then-Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the only Republican to win statewide during that year’s sweeping Democratic victories. Topinka spent the next few years in almost constant battle with her right flank. But she prevailed and the far right has been shut out ever since.”
When I wrote that story in 2018, Jeanne Ives and the far right were attempting to oust then-party chair Tim Schneider six months after helping broker a deal that made their guy, Lake County Republican Chair Mark Shaw, a state party co-chair with Schneider. Fast-forward to this month, when that very same Mark Shaw was deemed as aloof from the “grassroots” and had to go and Ives is a member of the state central committee.
Party elders have done whatever they could to keep the party out of the hands of the insurgents. The fear was the insurgents would alienate the “donor class,” the wealthy Republicans who only wanted to deal with people who looked and talked like them.
Also, people who spend their lives yelling “No!” and trying to tear things down rarely, if ever, learn to say “Yes” and build things up. It’s no accident that the state party has had 10 different chairpersons in the past 23 years. When you look around the country, though, it’s kind of amazing that the Republican powers that be have held on this long.
Most members of that once-powerful donor class have passed away, retired and/or left Illinois. Kolber, the resigned party finance chair, has contributed more than $1.3 million to campaigns in the past 10 years. The state Republican Party’s latest quarterly report showed that Chairman Tracy, his family’s company and his family members accounted for 76% of all the ILGOP’s individual contributions — $109,600 out of $144,013.
One of the lesser-known, but highly important aspects of state parties is their access to a federal postage discount. By paying for their direct mail through the state parties, candidates can save a lot of money. But that requires a level of trust that the parties will spend the money as intended, which is another reason the people who run things want one of their own in there.
But now, it looks like those perpetually aggrieved outsiders could soon take over the party apparatus.
Palatine Township Republican Chairman and state central committeeman Aaron Del Mar wants to be Tracy’s replacement. Del Mar ran as Gary Rabine’s running mate in the 2022 Republican primary. Rabine finished fifth with less than 7% of the vote.
Del Mar appeared earlier this month on Ramblin’ Ray Stevens’ WLS Radio show where he cracked two jokes about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s weight. Still, that put him in sync with former President Donald Trump, who also recently mocked Pritzker’s weight.
Needless to say, Trump lost Illinois by 17 points in both 2020 and 2016. But, hey, welcome to what looks to be the new Illinois Republican Party.
* The column sparked a harsh back and forth between former Republican Rep. Grant Wehrli of Naperville and current Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City…
- Demoralized - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:17 am:
For allowing your area to be overrun by the left? Did Wilhour ever stop to think that maybe the majority of voters up there simply don’t agree with the ideas he espouses? That never seems to sink in with the radical right wing of the Republican party. They think that if they yell loud enough people will all of a sudden start agreeing with them. The bottom line is that the majority of Illinois voters don’t like them or agree with the. Maybe work on a different platform instead of continuing to vomit out the same nonsense.
- DuPage Saint - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:18 am:
Let these people run whatever is left of the GOP maybe my grandkids will help with a normal party. I have no idea what they want it certainly is not what the Republican Party was founded on. Forget Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and that pinko Eisenhower let’s go all Joe McCarthy and Father Coughlin that will turn out the suburbs
- Norseman - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:29 am:
Far Right’s 50,134th verse, same as the first. “We’ll only win by running far right candidates.” And they keep LOSING.
Although, I have to say, they did defeat GOP moderates to turn the party into the terrible MAGA party it has become.
- VK - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:33 am:
You can physically feel every Democratic operative in the state fully transforming into the Jack Nicholson nodding meme/gif as they read that exchange.
- James - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:34 am:
Thier is not a future for the republican party in Illinois. This is a blue state from now on. The only hope to moderate Illinois again would be for republicans to vote for Glen Poshard / Brandon Phelps style Democrats again. When those downstate dems thoughts and concerns had to be a part of the Democratic Caucus meetings, the party had to moderate itself. The Democratic party of Illinois now has none of those voices. So what Kansas is to Republicans Illinois is to Democrats.
- JS Mill - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:41 am:
Grant Wehrli and Blain Wilhour calling each other arrogant and unlikeable is that moment of zen I have been looking for today.
=Also, people who spend their lives yelling “No!” and trying to tear things down rarely, if ever, learn to say “Yes” and build things up.=
Yep.
- low level - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:44 am:
I used to compare the GOP infighting to what Dems went through in the 70’s-80’s. No longer. Now I see they are much, much worse.
- Kippax Blue - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:47 am:
Now I know why tigers eat their young.
- vern - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 11:58 am:
=== So what Kansas is to Republicans Illinois is to Democrats. ===
Kansas, fwiw, currently has a moderate Democratic governor. Moderate Dems regularly win statewide in red states, and moderate Rs do the same in blue states. If the “grassroots” wing of the ILGOP knows any counterexamples, feel free to chime in. I can’t think of one.
- Northsider - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:03 pm:
It’s the Peoples’ Front of Judea vs. the Campaign for Free Galilee all over again. And again. And again. And again, etc.
Guess I’d better get more Cretor’s Mix from Costco on the way home today.
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:12 pm:
The party is going to continue to go down the path of.
“You’re not MAGA, I am MAGA,
oh yeah, I am so MAGA I got it tattooed on my chest,
oh yeah I have MAGA tattooed on my chest and renamed all of children Donald, including the girls!
Oh yeah…”
The best hope they have now is wealthy moderate Republicans running for something and some massive Democrat infighting.
- Jerry - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:14 pm:
Jokes about Governor Pritzkers weight, eh? Do these same people where the bubbles come from when you pass gas in a full bath tub.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:19 pm:
Its 2024, and the Illinois GOP is more conservative than they were a generation ago.
That is why they are completely irrelevant in Springfield.
Illinois is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun safety.
Suburban Cook and the suburban collar cities and villages are pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun safety.
The GOP cannot win those suburban districts with candidates that are anything less than outspokenly pro-choice.
They cannot win statewide with a candidate that is anything less than outspokenly pro-choice.
And in the meantime, business groups, CEOs, and wealthy individuals that traditionally supported Republicans are much better off donating to moderate Democrats.
- Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:20 pm:
Yeah, that’s the problem with zealotry.
There’s always someone more extreme than you.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:24 pm:
PS If you are looking for someone to blame for Grant Wehrli’s loss, don’t blame Grant Wehrli or Mike Madigan.
Blame Trump, he was at the top of the ticket, and he was destroyed…for good reason.
Absolutely nothing that Wehrli could have done to prevent it, and absolutely little chance of Democrats losing that race.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:36 pm:
The party has no ideas or policies. It is all about unquestioning loyalty to one person.
- Skeptic - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:42 pm:
“I’m right, and if everyone would just do what I say, they’ll see just how right I am.” I’m sure everyone has dealt with that person at their workplace, right? And he/she was considered obnoxious, disrespectful and universally disliked, and because of that, most (if not all) of their ideas were pushed aside, right? That’s who Blaine reminds me of.
- JS Mill - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:49 pm:
=Did Wilhour ever stop to think…=
No. Never.
- Finch - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 12:56 pm:
I’m not going to let this little spat intrude on my obsessive following of the Twitter feed of Ed Burke’s sentencing. It is sweet and it is good.
- BCOSEC - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 1:03 pm:
While in college, I noticed almost all of my Chicago suburban friends were Reagan Republicans and supported Bush 1 in 1988.
That has completely flipped. Most aren’t exactly fired up by the Democratic Party, but they are pretty much unanimously opposed to MAGA.
Downstate, MAGA dominates. But most of the people live in the burbs. Add in the college counties, which were red before, but are now mostly blue, it’s clear that outside of Chicago, the growing places are now blue and the shrinking places are now red, with very few exceptions.
- btowntruthfromforgottonia - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 1:08 pm:
The people who helped run Tracy off don’t want a GOP.
They want a “MAGA” Party
- btowntruthfromforgottonia - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 1:13 pm:
They’re mad because they can’t win in CHicago and Cook County and don’t do well in some suburbs.
All the Democrats there have to do is tie the GOP up there to the rural downstate MAGA screamers.
Moderate voters up there won’t touch them with a 10 foot pole.
- Oldtimer - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 1:23 pm:
After Wehrli lost, I remember Mark Batinick pointing out that Trump did not carry a single precinct in Wehrli’s district. That’s an incredible burden for down ballot candidates to try to overcome. Expect more of the same this fall.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 1:42 pm:
==When those downstate dems thoughts and concerns had to be a part of the Democratic Caucus meetings, the party had to moderate itself. The Democratic party of Illinois now has none of those voices.==
Not quite true. The Downstate Dem caucus is small, but its voice is present and does result in position shifts within both caucuses.
- Oldtimer - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 1:57 pm:
Showing my age here. When I started working at the legislature, there were almost 30 House Democratic members from Downstate. Downstate members made up nearly 40% of the caucus.
- Otto's Shoebox - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 2:20 pm:
Wehrli was massively outspent and running with Trump at the top of the ticket and he almost won. GOP might want to look at what he did to even make it close.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 2:35 pm:
===GOP might want to look at what he did to even make it close===
His family helped found Naperville. Not sure there are many like that around.
- Skeptic - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 4:58 pm:
“Downstate members made up nearly 40% of the caucus.” Back when coal was king.
- It's Just a Pill - Monday, Jun 24, 24 @ 5:21 pm:
Guys, Guys…You’re both awful.