-By Warner Todd Huston
Doug Ibendahl of RepublicanNewsWatch.com has been a leading advocate of the current iteration of a bill that would give Illinois’ Republican voters the opportunity to actually vote in the leaders of their own party. It is currently called SB35 but has been for sometime identified as SB600.
SB35 would reverse the way the members of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee are placed on the governing body of the state party. Currently these folks are appointed to their positions by the affirmation of all the state’s local committeemen. The actual voters have no direct say. Curiously enough, the Democrats do have direct elections of their central committeemen but Republicans do not.
Recently a state representative contacted Mr. Ibendahl for some info about the bill. This is Ibendahl’s letter, which can be seen HERE.
Dear Representative,
I’m sure you must be as amazed as I am regarding the lengths a few selfish players will go to protect a corrupted system that’s been a disaster for Republicans and for our Party. It’s sad that a few are so obsessed with trying to make sure Republican voters have inferior rights compared to every Illinois Democrat.
Here is the additional information you requested regarding the State GOP and SB35.
The IL GOP’s State Central Committee (the “SCC”) held its last quarterly meeting on March 9th in Springfield.
Here is the bylaw amendment the SCC passed in closed executive session:
“Proxy voting at county conventions shall not be permitted except that the newly-elected County Chairman of any county shall cast the vote for any precinct (in the case of Cook County – any ward or township) not represented at such county convention in the same proportion that the elected Precinct Committeeman, City of Chicago Ward Committeeman, or Cook County Township Committeeman shall have cast their votes.”
Incredibly, while some are shamelessly claiming they “took care of” the so-called “vacant precinct problem” – in reality the SCC locked in the destructive practice in their bylaws on March 9th.
Read the new bylaw language again if necessary – but note that it clearly directs County Chairmen to vote vacant precincts. In fact it now says County Chairmen have no choice. The bylaws now say that County Chairmen shall cast the votes for vacant precincts.
I wrote a story about that meeting, based on my interviews with 2 tea party friends who attended (I wasn’t there myself) – IL GOP officials make desperate attempt to keep their title.
Even more shameless, the voting of vacant precincts by Republican County Chairmen is already prohibited under Illinois law – even under the bad system our party currently follows. Any reasonable reading of the following provision of the Illinois Election Code makes it clear that only elected committeemen should be voting for SCC members at the county conventions: In other words, any attempted bylaw change is irrelevant. As any first year law student knows, when a statute is clearly on point regarding an issue – no internal rule or policy can override. Statute always trumps an internal rule or bylaw.
10 ILCS 5/7-8(a). At the county convention held by such political party . . . Each elected ward, township or precinct committeeman shall cast as his vote one vote for each ballot voted in his ward, township, part of a township or precinct in the last preceding primary election of his political party. [Emphasis is mine.]
And frankly even if the above referenced statute didn’t exist – simple common sense and decency would demand that no one official (a County Chairman) be allowed to swamp the weighted vote of an individual elected committeeman. But our SCC just endorsed the impermissible practice.
This latest dishonesty and nonsense is just one more argument for passage of SB35. We’ve got a State GOP now that won’t level with Republican voters about even the simplest things.
With SB35 and the return of direct elections, most of the silly games and attempts to rig the system all go away. Proper incentives replace the horribly destructive ones inherent in our current system for picking the SCC.
Perhaps most shameful of all, under the statutory alternative our party currently follows (the bad law Democrat and Republican lawmakers forced on us over two decades ago without notice) – the game’s already incredibly rigged in favor of the SCC incumbents and a failed status quo. This whole scam about voting vacant precincts was invented years ago when some incumbents feared the system still wasn’t rigged ENOUGH. They looked for extra help. And that’s typically done by working in cahoots with certain County Chairman pals. In some cases the County Chairman and the SCC member have been one and the same.
The point is, we’ve got a bad system now – but our party can’t even follow the statute governing that bad system. They’ve had to go further – and they are doing it in violation of Illinois law.
SB35 simply reverses that bad law that shouldn’t have been forced on Republicans in the first place – and which the SCC won’t even comply with when they decide it still doesn’t satisfy their purpose.
I would also note that the issue of “vacant precincts” is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s wrong with our current system. The overriding problem could be summarized as lack of accountability. An SCC that decides on its own not to follow a law simply because they feel it’s not already rigged enough in their favor – is just one example. An SCC that allows its Chairman to endorse in a primary without saying a peep – as Pat Brady was allowed to do for Mark Kirk last year – is just one other example.
Direct elections means that the SCC members will know they will have to face Republican voters in a real election on a date certain. Just that knowledge will make even our current group of 19 marginally better SCC members overnight.
Don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions or would like to discuss more. But let’s get it done. I urge you to sign-on as a co-sponsor of SB35 this week.
Doug Ibendahl
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.