* It kinda makes me choke to say it, but DeVore is right about this…
You wanna win as a Republican in the suburbs? You gotta do what you gotta do. Plain and simple.
* And yet, when it comes to prominent Republican women accepting campaign contributions from the IEA - which has backed Republicans for decades here - he calls them RINOs…
There’s a word for this sort of double standard.
…Adding… Aaron Del Mar interrupted a massive whine-fest about the ILGOP to speak some hard truths about Republican candidates today…
Well, here’s the thing too, Colin, and I get to your party thing, and I’m on the State Central Committee, and I see a lot of dysfunction and infighting, more time spent on that than fighting to get our people through.
But also, I think you need to go back more granular than that, and talk about personal accountability from each of the candidates. Right? Each of the candidates have to be able to put their own money in. You can’t depend on any party to be able to do that, especially not the Republican Party. So you have to put your own money into it. You have to go to your friends, your family and fundraise.
You have to knock on the doors yourself. You have to split up your team and do it. You have to have the fundamentals of getting the right campaign, using your money wisely.
That is a bigger issue, because if we can do that individually, that will lift all of our ships.
And a lot of these candidates that I’m watching, I wasn’t even looking at some of the races on the numbers. I’m like, dude, they’re not doing anything. They’re gonna lose. Like nobody knows who they are. They didn’t even get lawn signs, or they didn’t want to fundraise. They didn’t want to do any of the pieces that it takes.
So we need to start getting candidates that will take personal accountability for their campaigns instead of trying to lean on a party that’s not going to do it for them.
Winners do the work.
- Demoralized - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 9:27 am:
Anyone else find it ironic that Devore called someone a narcissist?
- H-W - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 9:30 am:
So is DeVore a Republican again this week, or was that last week. Mr. DeVore flips around so much it is hard to tell if he is independent or republican. If he wants to influence politics, he really needs to choose an aisle. Standing in the middle and pitting everyone and each side against each other is not a winning strategy in this state. There are only so many haters to go around, and he already captured that vote. It was insufficient last time.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 9:50 am:
Working with Democrats is only OK when it’s someone he likes. Making deals is only OK when it’s someone he likes. Reneging on campaign promises is only OK when it’s someone he likes.
MAGA in a nutshell.
- Henry Francis - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 9:50 am:
DeVore is not a republican or a lawyer, he is an opportunist. He trolls folks in an effort to make himself relevant and money.
He and the rest of the maga folks really don’t have any sort of guiding principles or integrity. It’s just shameless cash grabs.
- VK - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:25 am:
Rules for thee but not for me.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:32 am:
Several decades ago the GOP decided that it was easier to be against government and against things than to actually be in favor of something. Being against things doesn’t require a specific policy proposal. It doesn’t require knowledge. It doesn’t require skill, experience, or even any kind of intent.
DeVore is just practicing the GOP’s special brand of intellectualism, he is being against things. He is the standard, he is the rhetoric, he is the voice that they have cultivated and encouraged people to support.
He’s against the folks who are holding institutional leadership positions within the Illinois GOP. The specifics don’t really matter and this is the kind of stuff that the Republican base has been trained to hone in on.
He is their chicken and he is roosting.
- Jerry - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:40 am:
When DeVoray starts calling the big, beautiful tax cuts “Welfare for the Wealthy” I’ll say he stopped gaslighting.
- Garfield Ridge Guy - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:48 am:
These comments are a bit wrong-headed. It’s actually better to be right 50% of the time (even if you’re inconsistent) than it is to be right 0% of the time (even if that’s internally consistent). We would all be much better off if our politicians were more prone to flip-flopping.
- Homebody - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:50 am:
DeVore is a Republican, so by default that means he only has whatever convictions that are personally beneficial to him in the moment. You don’t agree with DeVore. You agree with the sentiment that DeVore has chosen to wield today. He doesn’t actually have a meaningful belief system tied to those words.
- Um, no - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:51 am:
Norine Hammond has a very conservative voting record, works her District relentlessly and is a truly lovely human being.
The irony with Devore is that he is the true RINO in this dynamic.
An unelectable opportunist whose 15 minutes were up a long time ago.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 10:54 am:
DeVore criticizing others for going scorched earth.
That’s the opossum calling the raccoon a varmint.
- JS Mill - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 11:50 am:
=DeVore is just practicing the GOP’s special brand of intellectualism=
Anti-intellectualism actually.
- Suburban Mom - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 12:16 pm:
extra gross for DeVore to put “in bed” in scare quotes like that to hint that she’s actually sleeping with Democrats.
Hey, DeVore, tell me the five categories of defamation per se in Illinois. You’ve got at least two, maybe 3, in that comment.
- Specifico - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 12:18 pm:
“Even worse, it takes a sorry excuse for a human being to overtly attempt to deceive people.” Tell me you lack self awareness without telling me you lack self awareness.
- Siualum - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 12:49 pm:
I’m a little surprised he used the word “prescient”. Didn’t expect his vocabulary to be that far reaching.
- Annon3 - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 1:14 pm:
Proof that many things can be true at same time, Mr. DeVore can be right in his observation about the state of the Suburban GOP, he can have a double standard, be a hypocrite, and a grifter all at the same time, he is a man of many talents.
- ANON - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 1:16 pm:
Norrine’s only problem will be Trump’s tariffs, which are drying up foreign grain markets. She should embrace Sen Grassley’s legislation. Tariffs are taxes, and only Congress has the power to tax.
Other than that, lots of luck!
- Homebody - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 2:45 pm:
Ironically, Del Mar is committing the same sin as those who blame poor people for being poor. There are systemic things that individuals can’t bootstrap their way out of.
In this case, a municipal (R) candidate can’t make up for the fact that their party as a whole is finally completely mask off as selfish, destructive, and frankly stupid. They do dumb things for dumb reasons, with massive, catastrophic effects. Look at the leftward swings across the Wisconsin Supreme Court election as well.
The “best” Republican candidate is still a Republican. And voters are correctly (though in my view belatedly) rejecting the entire party.
This is very reminiscent of the I believe 2008 or 2012 GOP post mortem which basically said “hey here are all the reasons independents don’t want to vote for us, maybe we should change those things” and they did none of them. Instead they went even farther to the insane right.
How is a GOP municipal alderman candidate supposed to run as a sane option when voters can see the chaos their party is causing at the top?
- Frida's Boss - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 2:59 pm:
Rumor was a Township Supervisor candidate was using yard signs from his Rep race this past November for his Township race this spring.
Putting in the work is necessary; I’ve seen candidates win races because of family and friends who helped knock and drop lit, write postcards, etc. You can run these smaller local campaigns for little money, but you had better work your tail off.
Can you do it for bigger races, like Congress? Only if you have vast personal resources to help you. Jim Oberweiss is a prime example of doing it all on his own dime and infrastructure.
- ModerateGOP - Friday, Apr 4, 25 @ 4:12 pm:
At the end of the day, all the fundraising and door knocks in the world aren’t going to change the public’s perception of the GOP as extreme on all the social issues that dominant politics today. There used to be a time when the GOP suburban delegation had many pro-choice candidates/elected officials. We have none today. Focusing on the trans sports stuff isn’t going to win a single swing district for the GOP. And that will have a ripple effect on other candidates on the ballot. It’s time we get back to focusing on the issues people actually care about and talk about on a daily basis. The House Freedom Caucus agenda simply doesn’t work outside of southern Illinois.
- walker - Monday, Apr 7, 25 @ 9:58 am:
Aaron is correct. Especially in a local, usually low-turnout race, walking precincts and talking one-on-one with voters can overcome national images and concerns.
It still amazes me how much harder Democrats work the doors versus almost every Republican candidate.