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Jerry Clarke Announces for 13th Congressional District – He is the Wrong Choice for the GOP

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jon Zahm is hoping that the powers that be will draft Kyle McCarter to fill the about to be vacant — and redistricted — 13th Congressional seat now that Representative Tim Johnson announced that he isn’t going to run for reelection after all (despite that he just won the nomination only a few weeks ago).

With Johnson stepping down but the primaries already over, this means we have no candidate. That being the case the candidate that faces the Democrat in November will be appointed by the State Party to run for the office.

This week we’ve discovered that Jerry Clarke, a little known congressional aide, has announced that he wants the appointment and many assume the establishment GOP will just hand it over to him despite that Clarke has no electoral history and no real resume other than being buddies with the establishment types.

Party Chairman Pat Brady told the press that he will be “fair” with this process, a process that includes his cousin, Dan Brady.

“I’m managing this process … and it’s going to be a fair, open and transparent process and we’re going to thoroughly vet all these candidates and choose the best one,” Brady said. “We’re going to ask each of these candidates to submit to us a plan on how they intend to run their campaign, how they’re going to raise money … how they’re going to run their race. I think those are fair questions to ask anybody who’s going to run for a congressional seat as a Republican.

“We want to and we intend on winning this seat and we want to make sure that we have a candidate who can get it done.”

But over at Tea Partisan they say, “Jerry Clarke is part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Jerry Clark is a State Central Committee member and aide to Rep. Randy Hultgren. Apparently several of our State Central Committee people are Congressional Aides. That’s how incumbents control the Party. It’s an inherently corrupt setup.

Zahm has started a website to track the info he comes across for the 13th debacle titled The Race for Congress in Illinois’ New 13th, or more simply, http://illinois13.com/.

Here is the text of Zahm’s first post on the site:

Here are Facebook posts I shared with my 1800 “friends” over the last few days about the insider power play that Tim Johnson and Jerry Clarke are trying to pull off to engineer a nomination to Congress outside of the reach of the voters of the 13th Congressional District.

I could not imagine a worse choice for Congress than this overpaid Federal employee whose entire political career has been touched by scandal (Lee Daniels’ political operation), his mismanagement of campaigns (Jim Ryan and Bill Brady), and a ridiculously high salary ($14,000 a month) working for a Congressman from a district hours from his “home.”

Jon A. Zahm
Do not allow an unelected insider to be appointed to this seat in Congress. Support a proven conservative who is also a proven vote earner in the region.

Draft Kyle McCarter for Congress
Thank you all for taking the time to be on this page. We are at a critical moment in our state and nation’s history, and we need good conservatives capable of making the smart decisions to bringing our fiscal house in order. Kyle McCarter is the man for the job. Please invite your friends to also “Like” this page too, and together we can make a real difference in electing good representatives to office.

Jon A. Zahm commented on The Telegraph

Clarke would be the absolute worst pick for the GOP. He is a highly overpaid $14,000 a month government employee who did a poor job running the Brady campaign against Quinn. Clarke was caught up in the Illinois House Republican scandal that resulted in his direct supervisor going to prison.

Former aide to seek congressman’s job
www.thetelegraph.com

Jon A. Zahm
Funny that $14,000 a month government employee Jerry Clarke is touring the 13th Congressional District Monday in his bid to be handed the Congressional seat of quitter Tim Johnson. Clarke should check with me and the other 800,000 people in the 14th District, who he works for, to get permission to run around playing politics. Or maybe check with the people of the 15th Congressional District who he represents as State Central Committeeman. Folks need to ask Clarke some questions about the Illinois House Republican scandal he was embroiled in that resulted in his direct supervisor going to prison.

Jon A. Zahm
Here is a biography of Jerry Clarke from 2009. Since that time he has taken in $120,000 for running that horrible campaign for Bill Brady against Pat Quinn, and $14,000 a month as the overpaid Chief of Staff to my northern and western Illinois Congressman Randy Hultgren while purporting to live in the Urbana area

State GOP Central Committeeman Jerry Clarke (District 15) | Republican News Watch
republicannewswatch.com

Jon A. Zahm
”Reform Congress”? In another article Clarke wants to “rein in spending.” This guy has been one of the fattest pigs at the trough taking in $14,000 a month as a Federal employee working for my Congressman in another district far from his “home.” If the insiders appoint this guy we will potentially lose the seat to the Democrats.

Jerry Clarke | Former Chief of Staff Wants to Replace U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson
www.myfoxchicago.com
Two GOP candidates said Monday that they would like to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson on the November ballot, while the state Republican Party said it will start vetting potential successors right away.

Jon A. Zahm

There are much better options available. Here are 3…State Senator Kyle McCarter, with a background in business and a record as a reformer in Springfield speaking out against insiders and cronyism. State Rep. Adam Brown with a background in farming, youth and energy, and a conservative record in state government. Jim Bob Morris, a retired professional football player and a businessman with 11 corporations, including two sports teams, who brings a strong private sector background.

The list of candidates is growing but currently stands at five (with Kyle McCarter being a sixth if he’ll throw his hat in the ring).

Jerry Clarke, aide to U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren
Adam Brown, first-term State Representative from Decatur
Mike Tate, State Rep from Springfield
Rodney Davis, an aide to Congressman John Shimkus
Dan Brady, State Rep. from Bloomington
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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.