Free Republic

CHICAGO - Former Republican congressman and conservative radio host Joe Walsh says he's "seriously looking into" a primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk next year. He told Illinois Review he will decide within the next two months. Citing Kirk's lack of support for Jim Oberweis' 2014 challenge to Dick Durbin, Walsh told the Daily Herald: "As far as I'm concerned, he [Kirk] left the Republican Party." The usual political pontificators speculate that Walsh is merely looking to boost ratings, and will ultimately not run. "It's about him and promoting himself and promoting his positions. He's just not viable,” said...

PPP's final polls for Governor in Florida, Michigan, and Illinois find incredibly tight contests in all three states. Florida is the closest. Rick Scott and Charlie Crist both have 44%, with Libertarian Adrian Wyllie polling at 6%. PPP usually has a policy of not releasing poll results to the decimal, but when we find a tie on our final poll of the cycle somewhere we make an exception. Crist is at 44.0% to 43.8% for Scott- in terms of raw respondents to the poll that's 526 for Crist and 524 for Scott. Wyllie may be playing a spoiler role for...

A South Side pastor who is highly visible in Chicago’s black community endorsed Republican candidate Jim Oberweis on Thursday in his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. The Rev. Corey Brooks, pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, said some Democrats had taken the African-American vote for granted and that black voters shouldn’t rule out candidates simply because of their party affiliation. Brooks, who is known as the “rooftop pastor” because he once slept for three months atop a shuttered motel to protest violence, cited Oberweis’ views on education and job creation as well the state senator’s visits to...

An immigration overhaul may not have enough GOP support to pass the House, but the idea has found some Republican support in Illinois. Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is slated to join a number of prominent Illinois Republicans and CEOs on Tuesday to call on GOP leaders to pass a national immigration overhaul. Republican Reps. Aaron Schock and Adam Kinzinger are also scheduled to give video testimonials on the subject. The event is hosted by the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, and it’s being held at the prestigious Chicago Club in the heart of the Windy City. Among the guests...

Sen. Mark S. Kirk’s decision not to campaign this year against his in-state Democratic colleague should come as no surprise. While Kirk has said he will support the Republican ticket in November and has committed to actively assisting the party’s gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner, the Illinois Republican told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet that he won’t be stumping for Republican Senate nominee Jim Oberweis. Kirk said he wants to protect his working relationship with Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin by “not launching into a partisan jihad.” But there are other equally compelling reasons not to hit the campaign trail against...

In the race for U.S. Senate, Republican challenger Jim Oberweis is getting shunned by two top Republicans - one local, one national. Dick Durbin is such a favorite for reelection that Republican Senator Mark Kirk says he’s not even planning to campaign with fellow Republican Oberweis. “I’m going to be protecting my relationship with Dick and not launching into a partisan jihad that hurts our partnership [in which we] both pull together for Illinois.” And at his side at an unrelated news conference was Republican Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, in town for a fundraiser, who took a...

Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza Jim Oberweis' loss in the 14th U.S. Congressional District in Illinois is being reported as a huge defeat for the Republican Party by the national media and it is. However, the dominant press is saying the results of last Saturday's special election, to fill the remainder of former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert's term, was an indication of things to come in November. Most reporting claims overall displeasure with Republicans resulted in the victory of Democrat Bill Foster over Oberweis, a wealthy dairy magnate. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reason Republicans...

At the end of a political campaign it's not uncommon for a candidate to grasp at straws, but Jim Oberweis literally proposed drawing straws to decide who should stay in the race for the Republican nomination for governor, two of his rivals said Saturday. On the Democratic side, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) extended his feud with his son-in-law, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, by featuring primary challenger Edwin Eisendrath at a bingo game of senior citizens in the ward. But Mell stopped short of a formal endorsement. As the GOP candidates for governor fanned out across the state on the final...