I’ve attended one of these meetings in the past and to tell the truth, the Party does not take much effort to make what goes on there relevant to anything in the general electorate. Then,. after the public session they shoo everyone out and have the private leadership meeting and the public is not invited.
Anyway, this year Doug Ibendahl attended the one held in Bolingbrook and posted a report on Republican News Watch.
Here is an excerpt…
Tea Partiers and Conservatives Disrespected at State GOP Meeting
-By Doug Ibendahl
Pat Brady, donning ski pants, chaired the quarterly meeting of the Illinois Republican Party on Saturday morning at the mega-fancy Bolingbrook Golf Club a/k/a the “Roj Mahal.” The nickname refers to Roger Claar, the Mayor of Bolingbrook and the driving force behind the club’s construction.
Claar is also one of the 19 members of the State Central Committee that’s supposed to oversee the Illinois Republican Party. That’s the senior board that met on Saturday. That’s also the same board 99.99% of Illinois Republicans get no say in choosing – not until we get SB600 passed.
While these meetings are in theory open to the public, our State Party does little to encourage attendance. There’s very little publicity in advance. Plus there’s typically not a lot that happens at these meetings. In any case, a dozen regular Republicans attending as spectators would be about average.
Some positive news from Saturday is that a group of black Republicans attended and three spoke about the need for the Illinois GOP to do a better job of reaching out to minority communities.
Cedra Crenshaw, who this year challenged the incumbent Democrat in the state senate district that includes most of Bolingbrook, went first and focused much of her remarks on the need to pass SB600. “SB600 is not a panacea, but it will go a long way to healing internal problems which keep the party from recruiting and expanding its base,” said Crenshaw.
Isaac Hayes who challenged Jesse Jackson, Jr. for Congress this year, and Frederick Collins, the Republican candidate for Cook County Sheriff, also addressed the State Central Committee. Both talked about how the Republican Party must do a better job of helping black candidates in predominantly black districts if we want to grow the party. “It is as much good politics as it is continuing in the historical tradition of the Republican Party to reach outside of our base,” said Hayes.
However, if the Illinois GOP is truly serious about minority outreach it’s going to have to do a lot more than provide a few minutes at the podium for three former candidates to speak…..
Read the rest at Republican News Watch.