Posted on 04/13/2009 11:33:22 AM PDT by chicagolady
Illinois' Republican chairman acknowledged Sunday that his party's often-bitter 2006 primary for governor "was not constructive" in helping nominee Judy Baar Topinka challenge wounded Democrat Rod Blagojevich's bid for a second term.
Andy McKenna also criticized Democrats in the legislature for being "small-minded" by helping push legislation that would let primary voters rather than party officials decide the Republicans' top leaders.
Speaking on WGN-AM 720, McKenna said Republican leaders and donors don't want to see a repeat of the four-way 2006 GOP primary for governor that he contended produced a weakened Topinka who was unable to challenge a better-funded Blagojevich despite heading an administration under investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
It amazes me how many Oberweis fans continue to insist that the eeeeeeeeeevil State Senator Bill Brady is all to blame for 2006, and if not him, Obie would have coasted to victory and taken out Blago in November (despite it being a terrible year for GOP candidates across the board and not one Republican in the country defeating a sitting RAT Governor). They continue to insist Obie would have won statewide, even after seeing he twice failed to win a "safe" GOP district that just about any Republican should be able to carry even if they stayed home in bed and phoned in the entire campaign.
Of course the polls say otherwise about Obie's statewide prospects, they repeatedly showed that Oberweis was the WEAKEST of the major GOP candidates in the 2006 primary (Oberweis, Brady, Topinka, Gidwitz), and was losing to Blago by over a 10 point margin in head-to-head hypocritical matchups.
In all fairness, Jim Oberweis is actually a pretty nice, decent guy if you meet him in private, but he's just a very poor political candidate and can't get elected dogcatcher. The Oberweis groupies are in complete denial about this. They simply cannot accept that Oberweis ever does anything wrong in his campaigns, and election after election, demonize and blame all the other GOP candidates who ran against him in the primary(Jim Durkin, Jack Ryan, Bill Brady, Chris Lauzen) for Jim's failures. It's amazing. No matter how many times he loses, they will continue to blindly support him.
I am absolutely convinced that if Jim Oberweis announced tomorrow that he wants to run for some high office in 2010, his fans would immediately demand every other Republican on the planet stay out of the race and endorse Oberweis, and they would begin accusing anyone who failed to do so (no matter how solid their conservative credentials) of being an secret member of the RINO combine.
I have never seen a candidate that inspires such blind, foolish loyalty, despite never holding any office in his life. I just can't figure it out. At least Harold Stassen's supporters gave up on him around his fourth campaign or so.
I agree with you. I attended an RALC meeting, in Nov. 2005, and Oberweis was the guest speaker. He said, “Brady should drop out of the race, because he’s taking votes away from me.” I thought that Oberweis should have dropped out of the race, since he was taking votes from Brady. Oberweis lost statewide primaries in 2002 & ‘04, so he should have known that he would lose, in ‘06.
Forgot to ping you on my post #21. You should see what’s it like trying to talk common sense into Illinois conservatives who worship Jim Oberweis.
There’s a reason I consider him the IL equivalent of Slick Willard, that cult of personality worship. But he’s like Rhode Island’s Myrth York for handing what should be safe seats to the opposition. In fact, I’ll go on the record saying if Oberweis had been the nominee in ‘06, he would’ve lost by a WIDER margin than Topinka did (and she lost 49.8%-39%). And she was so embarrassing, I endorsed Randy Stufflebeam.
I’m supporting Bill Brady again for Gov.. I hope to god that Oberwies does not run.. I’m sure he is a nice guy, but he can’t win.. To be honest I prefer a downstate person to be Gov than someone from the Chicago area.
The Milk Dud did get Hastert’s endorsement for the IL-14 special election. He claimed he could self-finance his race and save the NRCC money. The Milk Dud did blow $3 million to attack Lauzen in the primary. When the general election came around, he begged the NRCC to dump $2 million for him. The NRCC complied and he still lost. Oberweis is just sour milk.
Illinois conservatives really need to get their act together. Too often, cosnervatives break down into petty fights and back stabbing. For example take the Chicago Tea Parties. Conservative activist, Dan Proft, and WIND 560 AM host, Cisco Cotto, are bad mouthing the Chicago Tea Parties on Apr 15th because they were not picked to be the M.C. for the event. Talk about childish.
the ice cream is good ... very very good
Although I volunteered for Brady, in 2006, I hope that he’ll drop out of the ‘10 race. Too many Illinois Republicans ran, statewide, lost, and ran in another statewide, race, hoping that the first campaign will help the second one. However, they usually lost the second race.
Al Salvi ran, statewide, in 1996 and ‘98, and lost both races. Jim Oberweis ran, statewide, in 2002, ‘04, and ‘06, and lost all three races. Steve Rauschenberger ran, statewide, in 2004 and ‘06, and lost both races. If Brady runs for governor, he’ll lose again.
I agree that Illinois conservatives need to get their act together. I hope that, this year, the majority of Illinois conservatives will join the Illinois Center Right Coalition. Please read our site, www.illinoiscenterright.com.
I don’t know it is too early to tell.. Al and Steve had a case of bad timing. Well Obie, he just can’t win.. I think any candidate has chance of beating a rat this election. If they do it smart..
Who is running on the GGOP side for Governor in IL. I believe Quinn may seek re-election but Lisa Madigan may pose a primary challenge. Quinn’s success will depend on whether he can push his tax increases. So far Jim Edgar is willing to give him political cover.
Did you notice that Senator Brady recently voted with the McKenna crowd to defeat Senate Bill 600 and actually took the floor to speak against the bill that is the vehicle to give Republicans an opportunity to vote for State Central Committee members and to double the membership of the State Central Committee? I believe that we could do a lot better than Oberweis but the record suggests that Brady is no good and certainly deserves NO conservative primary votes in 2010. He is a back-stabbing turncoat who entered last time to get Topinka nominated, as some of us noticed at the time.
Maybe we should draft Sen. Chris Lauzen to run for Governor ?
Yes, I noticed that Brady changed his mind and decided that he opposes direct elections. I was in the navy for 21 years, and I was near Baghdad, Sept. 2004-Mar. ‘05. In May 2005, I was in a press conference, with Senators Brady and Lauzen, in the Illinois Capitol. They explained SB 600, and I told reporters that I helped spread democracy, in the Middle East and returned to find that Illinois Republicans have less democratic elections than the Iraqis. Brady was a major sponsor of that bill, so I’m surprised that he changed his mind.
That’s a great idea. If you think that Senator Lauzen should run, statewide, please email him at admin@lauzen.com.
Do either of you guys know anything about businessman Adam Andrzejewski who is a candidate for Governor? My mom told me she heard him talk at some church event and liked him.
One of his campaign employees told me that Adam is conservative. He’s pro-tax cuts, pro-life, pro-gun rights, anti-illegal alien, and anti-affirmative action.
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