-By Warner Todd Huston
Glenview resident Phil Collins is running for the 17th District’s State Rep seat (District Map) and he’s racked up some great endorsements so far for a first time run for office.
Collins has been endorsed by Tony Castrogiovanni, the vice chairman of the Cook Co. Republican Party; Eric Wallace, a co-chairman of the Cook Co. Republican Party; Ken Arnold, a former 3rd vice chairman of the Lake Co. Republican Central Committee and 8th Dist. congressional candidate in 2006 and ’08; Peter Karlovics, a former chairman of the Warren Township, Lake Co. Republican Party; Liz Eilers, the secretary of the Illinois Center Right Coalition and Central Illinois Field Director of Adam Andrzejewski for Governor; and the Chicago Minuteman Project.
An impressive list of endorsements for a first timer, for sure. But one name you’ll notice is missing in that list is that of incumbent State Rep Beth Coulson (R). Coulson announced that she is not running for reelection to her State Rep seat and will instead seek Mark Kirk’s Congressional seat since Kirk is abandoning that seat to run for the Senate. As she leaves her stint in the state legislature, Coulson made it known that she is supporting another candidate for the 17th, Hamilton Chang. And because Coulson is the incumbent, the state party under Pat Brady is backing her choice.
And so the dirty tricks begin.
Instead of simply stating their support and looking forward to the contest, the state party has engineered a dirty tricks squad to attack the legitimacy of Phil Collins’ nominating petitions. Collins informs me that he has been told that an aide to House Leader Tom Cross named Kevin Artl had copies of Collins’ petitions made so that they could research the signatures to challenge them. Collins wonders if Artl perpetrated this political campaign work while he was on the clock working for the state because if he did that would seem to be illegal.
Collins also notes that the person that has filed the protest to his petitions just happens to be the next door neighbor of Hamilton Chang, his party endorsed opponent. That is probably just a coincidence, right?
And what of the state party chairman announcing an endorsement of a primary candidate? Collins wonders, “I thought that the state party chairman shouldn’t endorse, before the primaries.”
Collins hasn’t received the objections in the mail, though. So he is still waiting for official notification by the Board of Elections.
For more info check out Collins’ campaign website.
Others running for the 17th State Rep seat:
- Hamilton Chang, Republican
- Leobon Gameng, Republican
- Daniel Biss, Democrat
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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