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The Circular Firing Squad goes to the mattresses

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Illinois

Jeanne Ives may have lost her insurgent March primary battle against incumbent first term Governor Bruce Rauner, but she doesn’t intend to go down quietly — not without waging a war over the future of the state party apparatus first.

“We’ve got a fight going on,” Ives (R-Wheaton) said buoyantly on Wednesday, as she spoke about her plans to oust Rauner’s pick for the state party chairmanship, Tim Schneider.

“They want all controversy to go away, which would make sense from their standpoint,” Ives said with an air of defiance. “They are trying to pretend like there is a unified party and the truth is that they have dismissed the conservative voters who came out in droves to vote for me in the primary. They essentially want to have what looks like a unified party and not any controversy, but the truth is that we will not, our voices will be heard one way or the other.” […]

Ives and McSweeney are working publicly and privately to elect Mark Shaw, a local party operative and attorney from Lake Forest, to the state’s top party position. Ives says Shaw would introduce “fresh ideas” to a party at war with itself.

“One of the things I would like to see the party spend more time on is grass roots party development with actually working to work and train precinct committeemen,” Shaw said in a phone interview Wednesday night. “We tend to have a lot of high priced consultants that the average candidate in the local race can’t afford in their campaign. How about helping them raising money so they can buy some signs, some cards, put together some basic social media presence and help them go door-to-door?”

There’s a lot more to this story, including the likely upcoming court battle, so click here to read the rest.

But, here’s my beef: If the insurgent Shaw wants the party to focus on “grass roots” development, then why the heck were he and his allies so disorganized during the party county conventions last month?

* From a story about last month’s county-level meetings…

Among other charges, [Shaw supporter Bob Winchester] is expected to challenge the use of votes by acclamation in some counties — a move that gives the candidate with more than half of the votes the entire final tally, which violates party rules and may violate state law. […]

Results of the election show that Winchester received zero votes in nine of 33 counties, including four of the 10 most populated, a result that Shaw and others said would be impossible. […]

In all, 22 of 33 counties voted by acclamation, representing 63 percent of Rose’s vote and 59 percent of Winchester’s.

Just sayin’, but even a little bit of organizing could have prevented many of those acclamation votes.

* Related…

* IL GOP conservatives expect to pick new party leader Saturday, May 19th

* Tim Schneider Faces Challenge For State Party Leadership Post

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 10:29 am

Comments

Happy some of the Republicans have a spine to stand up against the governor.

Comment by Mama Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 10:43 am
===…little bit of organizing could have prevented many of those acclamation votes.===

If your going to organize a coup, leave nothing to chance.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 10:45 am
That unifyin’ thing is goin’ great.

If Rauner was smart, he would have tested the Uiehlein/Ives faction by seeing if there was a compromise party chair they could agree on.

But Rauner is not a compromise kind of guy.

They might not want to play ball with him at all, but he could say he made the effort.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 10:50 am
Let the crazies have the party, then the Democrats will have spend about $10 whole dollars to sweep everything in November.

Comment by Just Me Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 10:57 am
Many of the same group of crazies who for years argued JBT was bad for Republicans. Just let that sink in.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 11:07 am
“Let the crazies have the party, then the Democrats will have spend about $10 whole dollars to sweep everything in November.”

Maybe, but I’m old enough to remember November 2016…

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 11:21 am
Best line: “Peraica and Proft, both strident tea party conservatives who have long yearned for a smaller state government, are hardly strangers to losing elections and then swiftly protesting the results.”

Comment by Reality Check Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 12:07 pm
Mark Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 12:34 pm
47, that’s so weird because so is his brother Raymond.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 12:42 pm
They should be arguing about how to grow the party. Ask what would get their children and grandchildren to vote Republican.

My three children are lost to the Republican Party of today.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 1:23 pm
What a disaster. So Bob Winchester hires the same lawyer who represented the Cook and Chicago Republican parties and tried to defend the purging two years ago of most of the duly elected black GOP ward committeemen in Chicago. In that litigation the lawyer said political parties are “private” and so they can do whatever they want and the court shouldn’t be involved. That “argument” failed and the circuit court ruled in March that the local party scheme “violated the fundamental right to vote.”

Now the same lawyer wants to run to court when a long time incumbent on the state central committee gets his ox gored in the closed internal selection process Winchester himself has long embraced? Pretty rich.

The Ives faction is clueless. First they run an awful campaign and lose a very winnable primary against the weakest GOP incumbent maybe ever. Now they want to grab the helm of the state party apparatus so they can also get blamed for the coming November disaster. Jeanne Ives should just step up and be honest. Just admit she wants Rauner to lose. Stop playing these passive-aggressive games where she says she’s voting for Rauner, but then runs around fighting these little side battles which are clearly intended to make certain Rauner loses by the biggest margin possible. Just be honest and say you don’t support Rauner and won’t vote for him. In her defense I would say that’s a principled position given the over-the top lies he told about her. I could respect that. I can’t respect the immature passive-aggression.

Comment by just an fyi Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 1:47 pm
==I can’t respect the immature passive-aggression.==
That about sums Jeanne Ives in a nut shell.

Comment by Memo From Turner Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 4:13 pm
This acclamation voting thing is interesting. If one candidate gets a slight majority of that county’s popular vote, they get ALL of that county’s weighted votes for state party chairman? Sounds just like the ELECTORAL COLLEGE. Either way it’s democracy pillaged and plundered.

Comment by Conventional Wisdom Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 4:34 pm
The GOP civil war continues.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 6:57 pm
Just ask Shaw where the IRP funding will come from for November if Rauner’s guy isn’t running the show, and his checkbook slams shut.

Comment by Right Field Thursday, May 10, 18 @ 9:57 pm