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* I have always hated Illinois Nazis…
Rauner in February: “There is no room for Neo Nazis in American politics. I condemn this man in the strongest possible terms.”
Pritzker campaign getting more than a little sloppy in their accusations —> https://t.co/19MOdmhS4S https://t.co/qf3ryw3Q68
— Mark Maxwell (@WCIA3Mark) July 2, 2018
It obviously wouldn’t kill Rauner to restate his beliefs, but he did speak out about this months ago.
* From the piece that re-ignited a story which originally broke in February…
Illinois Republicans botched four opportunities to stop an avowed Nazi from representing their party in a Chicago-area congressional district. Now they’re paying the price.
Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier who will appear on the November ballot as the GOP candidate against Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski, has become campaign fodder for Democrats as they seek to defeat Gov. Bruce Rauner. And some Republicans even fear the taint from Jones‘ extremist views poses a threat to the party up and down the ticket.
“First, it’s morally wrong and I think it’s really harmful to the party. The guy’s a complete nutcase. He’s a Nazi,” said conservative GOP state Rep. David McSweeney. “This is an absolute political disaster.”
McSweeney’s comments come just days after the filing deadline passed for qualifying a third-party candidate for the general election — which could have provided a safe harbor for Illinois Republican votes. Prior to that, the party had also failed to recruit a candidate to challenge Jones in the primary election, failed to knock him off the primary ballot and wasn’t able to field a write-in candidate against him in the primary. […]
In the meantime, Republicans have one last chance to save face. They can mount a write-in challenge if that candidate notifies three counties in the district of their intent by Sept. 6.
“They didn’t run anyone against him in the primary. They didn’t file an objection to him, they didn’t find a write-in candidate and they didn’t run an independent candidate,” McSweeney said. “We’ve missed four opportunities. We better not miss the fifth.”
Republican legislator (who I love, btw) who always criticizes Rauner criticizing Rauner again? Check. Chiding the ILGOP for not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of person-hours to find a candidate who is willing to help gather a minimum of 14,559 valid signatures and then run a full-on and completely doomed independent campaign to make sure a Nazi who is going to lose big loses even bigger? Check.
The biggest mistake the party made was not finding a warm body anywhere in Illinois last year to put up against the Nazi in the primary. But they did spend money on robocalls and mailers warning people who the candidate was and GOP primary ballots dropped by about a third compared to four years ago. Do they deserve grief for letting this clown go unopposed? Heck yes they do. But after that mistake, they weren’t left with a whole lot of doable options.
The Democrats are absolutely loving this bind the Republicans have put themselves in…
I'm sorry Mark, but what's repulsive is a governor who doesn't have the spine to call on a NAZI candidate to drop out of a race and hasn’t lifted a finger to stop someone this vile from ending up on his party’s ticket. This never should have happened.
— Galia Slayen (@gslayen) July 2, 2018
* And now the ILGOP says they’re looking to run a write-in candidate in the general. That’s probably the easiest way out of this by far (they only have to notify a few county clerks), so I figure they’ll do it and this story will mostly go away (unless there’s something bad in their new candidate’s history - and you’d better believe the Dems will be looking). But if they don’t find anyone, they could just fall in line with this dude…
Ted Cruz Would Rather Illinois Vote for a Democrat Than a Nazi
In other words, recommend to Republicans in the 3rd that they vote for Lipinski. I mean, if you listen to the progressives, he’s practically a Republican anyway. /s
Thoughts?
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 1:56 pm
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Why snark? He is practically a Republican anyway.
s/
Comment by Keyrock Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:02 pm
That’s obviously the best recommendation.
Shouldn’t Ted Cruz be worried about his own campaign, though? If Beto keeps picking up steam, he will be out of a job.
Comment by Politix Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:07 pm
It was a mistake, but it wasn’t going to be a serious race anyway. They put up Ray Wardingly how many times? I mean, yes, he was an improvement over an actual Illinois Nazi, but it’s not like it is going to have an impact either way.
I’d be happy with everyone forgetting about this clown (no offense to Ray) just to not give him the attention.
Comment by ArchPundit Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:13 pm
It’s bewildering that the ILGOP did Nazi this coming and do something to prevent it.
As it is, the Fuhrer that results from this calamity will be uproarious and well deserved. We can only that, somehow, the GOP makes things Reich, rather than becoming deniers.
Comment by AlfondoGonz Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:19 pm
–The biggest mistake the party made was not finding a warm body anywhere in Illinois last year to put up against the Nazi in the primary.–
Ridiculous laziness. Rauner’s spending millions of his own dough on that crew, a minimal effort was in order.
Instead, the lazy translates into embarrassing national headlines.
How’d Ted Cruz get involved? Did he clear out all the wack-a-doos in the Texas GOP already, and was looking for something to do?
He might want to take a closer look in his own backyard.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:20 pm
I appreciate a politician who has the guts to publicly state the obvious. ‘Our guy is worse than their guy’. Why should that be so hard? Refreshing alternative to the unconditionally partisan politics that are becoming the norm.
Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:21 pm
McSweeney just loves to hear himself talk. But the more he talks the more one thinks about the likes of Ives, Proft and Peraica. Please Dave do something constructive and quit with the constant finger pointing
Comment by Long time R Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:34 pm
===they did spend money on robocalls and mailers warning people who the candidate was…===
Hmmm, has it occurred to anyone else that perhaps this warning actually helped him win? Yes, he’s a bit more extreme than most Republicans, but in the Trump era, isn’t it possible that some GOP voters wanted to nominate him?
As you sow, so shall he reap. Everyone, especially Republicans, needs to condemn everything this Nazi stands for. I hope he gets zero votes in the fall, but I suspect he’ll get thousands, many of which will be cast by those who know exactly who this guy is.
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:35 pm
===actually helped him win?===
Um, he was unopposed. Try to keep up.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 2:56 pm
I stand corrected. Surely some of the 20,000 Republicans who voted for him knew who they were voting for.
Is that better?
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 3:08 pm
… I agree with Ted Cruz… that is something I never thought I would have to write… I don’t know how I feel about this…my view of the world is threatening to crumble around me…
Seriously though, this dude really needs to get 0 votes. Vote for Bugs Bunny if you want to.
Comment by Perrid Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 3:25 pm
I consider Lipinski to be closer to what the GOP used to be more than I consider him a modern Democrat.
Comment by Stark Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 3:51 pm
Maxwell can go pound sand. The guy who says there’s good people on both sides of the white supremacy debate has an 87% approval rating among republicans. The gop governor nominee in Virginia frequently marches with folks waving swastika flags along with the stars and bars. Long time GOP rep King from Iowa constantly quotes and re-tweets stuff from these people. A body could spend all day listing white power examples from far right politicians, activists and media figures. Bruce himself might be a moderate, but the newly-empowered majority of his party definitely is not.
Until Pritzker is marching in the streets with Lou Farrakhan and Joe Biden starts tweeting quotes from Stalin, spare us this “blame both sides” malarkey.
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 3:54 pm
The Dems ought not keep up this line of baloney. I promise it’ll come back to haunt them.
Rauner could easily cut a slate of commercials and run them widely and often…telling people to vote for Lipinski or no one at all in that race. I wouldn’t be surprised.
It’s not quite in the same category of letting 2 LaRouchies on the statewide ticket or the Scott Lee Cohen dealio. It was a “given up for dead Congressional race” like 6 or 7 others.
They were lazy in a race they wouldn’t win and couldn’t win…Bad form. Shouldn’t have happened. The Lemonade comes when the Dems overplay this issue and Rauner comes out super strongly (Cruz style) to condemn this guy. It may actually help him.
Comment by A guy Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 4:24 pm
The Raunerite Party has three functions;
1) Be the funneling tool to keep money parked at times for the caucuses, the county organizations, etc.
2) Be a secondary mouthpiece for Rauner, so when vertical integration was in vogue, they could be that 2nd, 3rd, 4th place to pass on the messaging.
3) Be the negative mouthpiece to anything Madigan or those who are against Rauner to link them to Madigan.
There’s no recruitment, no voter registration, or the building of an organization of people… unless they are on the payroll of pols’ political organizations (rewards), or need to be on the program, then are placed in a chart.
That’s how you get a candidate that’s a Nazi.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 4:39 pm
In all fairness, trying to knock him off the ballot for the primary was not likely to work. Several people reviewed his petitions, and while he was a bit thin on numbers (turning in only about 33% over the signature minimum), I think the reviewers came to the conclusion that he would have survived a challenge.
Comment by titan Tuesday, Jul 3, 18 @ 8:18 am