* Northwest Herald…

A state lawmaker is lambasting Gov. Bruce Rauner after Illinois’ top leader met in private during the weekend with members of the McHenry County Republican Party.

Rauner spent part of his Saturday at an invitation-only roundtable at the McHenry County GOP’s Crystal Lake headquarters – an event featuring a who’s who of party insiders, including McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim, McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally and County Board member Jim Kearns.

But state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, took issue with someone else in attendance at the meetup: the local Republican Party’s new chairwoman, Diane Evertsen, who at one time served as president of the Minutemen Midwest – an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center designated a “nativist extremist” group.

“The governor should apologize for meeting with a known extremist,” said McSweeney, who heard about the meeting after it happened.

McSweeney pointed to Evertsen’s association with Minutemen Midwest, which the SPLC named several times on its annual list of nativist extremist groups between 2007 and 2010.

* A blog popped up in 2010 that saved deleted posts by Evertsen like this one…

An invasion is taking place. Whether by means of legal or illegal immigration, the third-world hordes are invading the first world, and they are taking no prisoners. If this is not stopped now, America within one generation will be a third-world sewer.

Invaders from the Orient, Asia, Africa, Central and South America are invading the first world, and they are intent only upon conquest. (cut) Americans have been duped by the left-wing notion of a “proposition nation” and by myths about third-world assimilation, neither of which will occur. Historically, nations have been built upon blood and soil, kith and kin, ancestral rites, and genealogical ties. A real nation is but an extension of a tribe, and this realization should be shared by all traditionalists, conservatives, paleolibertarians, patriotic liberals, union democrats, and moderates. The “creedal nation” (one only has to believe in propositions to be a good citizen) is a lie; it is but a Trojan horse to implement the third-world invasion of America.

That’s quite a county party chair they have up there.

…Adding… DGA…

Yesterday, the Northwest Herald reported that Governor Bruce Rauner recently met with McHenry Country GOP leaders, including Diane Evertsen, former President of the “nativist extremist” group Minutemen Midwest. The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled them a “nativist extremist” group from 2007 to 2010 for writings that warned of a “conspiracy afoot to merge the U.S. and Mexico” by a “shadow government” and claimed “most Mexicans…are not Western; genealogically, they are Asiatic, and they despise the West.”

Rauner’s clandestine meeting is not out of line with his overall record - Rauner’s done little to push back on President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and refused to protect the 42,000 DACA recipients in Illinois facing deportation. But Rauner’s cozying up to the far-right risks alienating other Republicans like state Representative David McSweeney who called on the governor to apologize for agreeing to the meeting.

“Bruce Rauner is showing his stripes by cozying up to anti-immigrant extremists and silently supporting Donald Trump’s agenda,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “After failing to protect Illinoisans from President Trump, Rauner’s giving the far-right a voice in Springfield.”

…Adding… Democratic Rep. Sam Yingling…

Instead of negotiating in good faith to pass a state budget or working to reduce local property taxes, Bruce Rauner spent last weekend meeting with the former leader of Minutemen Midwest, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled a “nativist extremist” group. There’s no place in for the fear-mongering tactics and conspiracy theories these extremist groups espouse in our state, and I applaud Representative Dave McSweeney, a Republican from McHenry County, for demanding an apology from Bruce Rauner, the head of the Illinois GOP. I join my colleague across the aisle in demanding an apology from this failed governor and hope other local elected officials and candidates will as well.