"illinois republican"

Continuing with the discussion, let me report to you what often happens on the inside of many of these political planning meetings in campaigns, party, or independent organizations: To varying degrees, committees meet, plans are drafted, events are held, and when it’s all over, still not enough voters have been impacted.

Yesterday I began excerpting sections from a note sent to me by a newly elected Republican Precinct Committeeman. He’s like so many new activists, worried about the direction of their government, and now in motion because they fear for what kind of country their children will inherit.

Last June this column posted a few exchanges with a smart young lady who raised some very good points about what is often the difficulty and undesirability of getting involved in a local Republican organization. This past Monday I received a note from a brand new Republican Precinct Committeeman and his comments are worth highlighting. He has agreed to let me post what he wrote. Because of the nature of his comments, he requested anonymity. Not everyone takes constructive criticism well, especially when it’s posted on an oft-visited website.

The fact that almost half of those same voters choose the moderate Ron Gidwitz or the liberal Judy Baar Topinkaon primary election day ’06 was easy enough to understand: those voters never got the message that Topinka and Gidwitz weren’t conservative. Still too few conservative statewide campaigns in Illinois successfully get their message across properly. Often it’s a lack of resources, often it’s just plain incompetence.

Yesterday I noted 5th congressional district Rosanna Pulido’s 24% showing in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Rahm Emmanuel. That result only surprised a few dreamers.

The path to victory for Republican Party platform principles in Illinois is through the construction of ward, township, and county GOP organizations that are doing their part. We need committed people serious about having a presence in the community. We need the active recruitment of candidates, participation in the local public debate, and constant activity that reaches voters at the neighborhood level.

Evidently voters in Chicago aren’t as upset with tax-raising and corrupt Democrats as we were being told by our Republican Party leadership. Here are the results of the 5th Congressional district race as of yesterday’s Chicago Tribune:

572 of 578 precincts reporting:

Democrat Mike Quigley 30,122 60%

Republican Rosanna Pulido 10,513 24%

Green Party candidate Matt Reichel 2,868 7%

With all the focus on the presidential race it has been easy (and frankly a pleasure) to ignore the Illinois General Assembly – especially its Republican ranks. I read that on election day our state house caucus shrunk by three members to 48, and the state senate held at 22.

The words “improvement requires willingness to change” come from the title of an article written by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush for the Reason Foundation’s “Innovators in Action” report last year. Without a doubt…