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Cook County GOP Chairman Sean Morrison is attempting a first time ever-seen tactic to overrule or undermine all of the Republican Township Committees that chose to endorse counter to his primary picks with a sample ballot that hit mailboxes Friday. In the mailing, Morrison writes in a small box a comment that leads unknowing Republicans to believe that any other ballots - possibly including local township organization ballots - are illegal. Wheeling Township GOP Committeeman Ruth O'Connell told Illinois Review, "This mailing undermines the work we've been doing in Wheeling Township and my authority as a committeeman. We endorsed Jeanne...

Does integrity count anymore? It is a question worth asking. More importantly, it is a question worth answering. On Wednesday, retired General and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton made an astounding public remark. After having completed a spell-binding speech at Foothill College in Los Altos, Calif., as to the events of 9-11 and his 38 years serving in the United States military, Shelton was asked a question that brought a disquieting hush across the crowd. The Los Altos Town Crier newspaper put the events this way: "What do you think of Gen. Wesley Clark, and...

Erika Harold, who was crowned Miss America in 2003, announced last summer that she would be running for the Republican nomination for Illinois’s thirteenth Congressional district. As Miss America, she spent her reign promoting her messages of bullying prevention and abstinence. If elected, she would become the first female African-American Republican in Congress.

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Erika Harold is a Harvard educated lawyer, a former Miss America, and a conservative Republican who's now running for Congress. Her beauty queen credentials have gotten her lots of attention, but an email that surfaced today could get her a lot more. Harold is running against incumbent Rodney Davis in a primary next March. Since she is bi-racial, GOP activist Doug Ibendahl wrote that she'd be good for the party. "Just be a great face for the Republican party," Ibendahl wrote. "We could actually do, in Illinois, we could do more than talk about diversity....

A 33-year-old former Miss America says she plans to challenge first-term U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis in the 2014 Republican primary. Erika Harold announced her campaign Tuesday at Urbana High School. She grew up the Illinois city and recently moved back there from Chicago.

After voters sent a former "Saturday Night Live" star (Sen. Al Franken), a hit recording artist (former Rep. Sonny Bono) and an astronaut (former Sen. John Glenn) to Congress, a former Miss America Pageant winner wants to try her hand at lawmaking. Erika Harold, who won the Miss America crown in 2003, passed the first hurdle this week in becoming the Republican candidate to replace Illinois Rep. Tim Johnson, who dropped out of the race two weeks after winning the GOP nomination in March. The GOP county chairman tapped Harold, a Harvard Law School graduate who now works as a...

CHICAGO -- In anticipation of her stint as delegate to the Republican National Convention next week, former Miss America Erika Harold will appear on Fox Cable News Hannity and Colmes tonight. The show airs at 8:00 PM CST. Harold will speak as one of the evening headliners at the NRC on August 31, sharing the spotlight with First Lady Laura Bush, California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Harold, who lives in the Champaign-Urbana area, may be a former Miss America, but the 2003 title-holder is busier than ever. Harold will be a law student at Harvard...

CHICAGO — Erika Harold may be a former Miss America but the 2003 title-holder has been busier than ever. Harold will be a law student at Harvard this fall. But before heading off to Cambridge from her home state of Illinois, she has a scheduled stop in New York where she'll be a delegate to the Republican National Convention. She'll be there as President Bush formally accepts the party nomination. Some Republicans hope it will be the first of many campaign events for the former beauty queen. "I would be very interested in considering the possibility of running for public...

CHICAGO — Erika Harold (search) may be a former Miss America but the 2003 title-holder has been busier than ever. Harold will be a law student at Harvard this fall. But before heading off to Cambridge from her home state of Illinois, she has a scheduled stop in New York where she'll be a delegate to the Republican National Convention (search). She'll be there as President Bush (search) formally accepts the party nomination. Some Republicans hope it will be the first of many campaign events for the former beauty queen. "I would be very interested in considering the possibility of...

Convention Contact: Leonardo Alcivar (212) 356-2004 NEW YORK - Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and Bill Harris, CEO of the 2004 Republican National Convention, today announced a second group of program speakers to address the nation from Madison Square Garden at the 2004 Republican National Convention. The 9 names include four U.S. Senators, three Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including the Speaker of the House, a lieutenant governor, and Miss America 2003. “It is an honor to announce the addition of these outstanding Americans to the 2004 Republican National Convention program. For the past three and a...

Ex-Miss America a delegate to GOP convention January 12, 2004BY LESLIE GRIFFY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Former Miss America Erika Harold has a lot in common with conservative columnist Ann Coulter and Florida's Republican Representative Katherine Harris. All three women will speak at the American Conservative Union's conference this month. And they've each been named "Republican Babe of the Week" by a New Jersey-based Web site geared toward young, conservative men. Harold, of Downstate Urbana, may appear on a ballot soon, too. Wednesday she became an Illinois delegate to the Republican National Convention, a move that could mark the start of...

He lays dormant for weeks or days at a time. Then out of nowhere, he trains his sights on a target, carefully fine tunes the focus on his scope, and pulls the trigger. The only difference in him and the guy that eluded police for weeks in the D.C. area is here in Chicago the sniper does it publicly and has gotten away with it for years. After all he's a radio talk show host and no matter what comes out of a radio talk show host's mouth its excusable right? Thusly this Chicago sniper shall be called Cool Kat....

<p>There she goes, out of the closet and ahead of the curve(s). Who says an Atlantic City bathing beauty is all looks, legs and perfect teeth? Erika Harold is all of that, and then some. But Miss America 2003 has a little attitude, too.</p>

Miss America 2003, Erika Harold, yesterday said pageant officials have ordered her not to talk publicly about sexual abstinence, a cause she has advocated to teenage girls in Illinois. Top Stories      "Quite frankly, and I'm not going to be specific, there are pressures from some sides to not promote [abstinence]," the 22-year-old woman from Urbana, Ill., told The Washington Times.      In her first visit to Washington since winning the crown Sept. 21, Miss Harold resisted efforts by Miss America officials to silence her pro-chastity opinions.       "I will not be bullied," Miss Harold said yesterday at the National Press Club,...

"Oh just go listen to her Kevin, give her chance," came the considerable urging of my friends. So Saturday night, there I am, finding myself winding the back roads of Rosemont, Illinois, trying to get to "the event" for the weekend - Amy Grant and Vince Gill live in concert. Arriving just on time, getting to my seat which was about 18 rows back center stage, I had just enough time left to say "Hi" to a few friends sitting nearby. One of whom could not resist. "Kev! Surprised to see you here!" "Well, hey, the opening act looks good,...

September 23, 2002, 10:15 a.m. On Saturday night, more than ten million people watched the crowning of the best woman to repair the tarnished image of the nation's premier beauty pageant. The new Miss America may soon do the same for conservatives. There are no topless photos floating around of the new Miss America, Erika Harold, because she'd never put herself in that position — she is a leading advocate of abstinence and embraces her own virginity with enthusiasm. Miss Harold is a collection of contradictions: A Miss America who refuses society's conventions about beautiful people basking in promiscuity, an...