NORMAL, IL: Conservatives in Illinois’ 18th congressional district are fighting back the political establishment, and its candidate, Obama Secretary Ray LaHood’s son Darin, by promising to produce a conservative alternative for the GOP primary.
Schock, who resigned on Tuesday, will likely be replaced in congress by the Republican who wins the special election primary, tentatively set for June 8 2015.
“We’re forming an organization of donors, business leaders, and citizens that are concerned that our government is out of control,” said McLean County elected board member Mark Johnson. “Today we filed paperwork with the FEC and begin our fight.”
Johnson will lead The Grassroots Speak PAC, joined by Ken Wilber of Wilber and Associates PC, Chris Gramm of Stivers and Gramm LLC, and Ian Bayne, a talk show host on Bloomington’s Cities 92.9 FM talk station.
“We need a candidate who wants to take on Washington, not be Washington,” said Gramm, who has been active in Republican politics in Bloomington and will work closely with Wilber, who will serve as the informal finance director.
“We need fighters who represent us against the excess of government,” added Bayne. “Our freedom is shrinking, our wages are shrinking, our businesses are shrinking, and our government keeps getting bigger. We have had enough of the political ruling class.” Bayne, who has been hosting the morning program on Limbaugh affiliate Cities 92.9, is also a small business owner in real estate valuations.
Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock just announced that he is resigning because of the mounting troubles over his illicit spending.
A recent survey of the wealth of members of Congress revealed that, on average, it would take the combined wealth of 18 American households to equal the wealth of a single member of Congress. While this is an averaged statistic and individual cases vary, a review of the wealth of members of the Illinois delegation to Washington proves the rule rather than the exception.
We do a lot of carping on blogs and in the media about what our Representatives in Congress do, of course. But once in a while we should praise them when they get together and do something right.
The Illinois Republican Party held its 2012 Party Convention this weekend. On the docket was addressing some asked for rules changes and picking a slate of delegates to the GOP national convention to nominate Mitt Romney to carry the Party’s banner in the upcoming presidential election. My ultimate analysis is that this was a status quo convention, but signs show that the status quo might not be too long for this world.
For such a blue state, Illinois has some rather good Republicans in Congress, but on one issue many of them consistently fail. That is in their unfortunate support for Big Labor. The issue of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) is a perfect example of this penchant to support issues dear to the hearts of Big Labor.
So, it was claimed to be the end of the world if Congress didn’t vote on the debt bill. But not every Illinois Republican voted to support GOP leader and House Speaker John Boehner’s bill. Let’s see how the Illinois GOP delegation voted, shall we?
This is why Illinois politics is called “the combine.” It’s because all too often there doesn’t seem to be a whit of a difference between Republicans and Democrats — not always, but all too often. They even donate to each other’s campaigns. 
Last week, the House of Representatives passed