-By Warner Todd Huston
OK, Illinois Republicans, a great opportunity to return the Illinois GOP back to some accountability to YOU is at hand. The Illinois legislature is about to enter its own lame duck session that will run from January 3 to January 11. During this session we have a chance to get a law passed that has quite a lot of support. It is a law that will return the Illinois GOP’s planning committee to your hands via direct elections of its members.
We’ve talked about SB600 many times in the past, of course. This bill would change the way the Illinois State GOP fills the seats on its state central committee, the group responsible for planning the way the state party operates, arrives at its goals, and its assembles its policies. Currently central committee members are placed on the committee by a vote of the Republican ward chiefs, township bosses and committeemen throughout the state. SB600 would change that to provide for the actual voters to elect central committee members instead of allowing the party insiders to appoint them.
Continue reading “
Hey, Ill. Republicans: Want to Have a Say in Your Party? We Have chance To Do It”
Someone sent me the text of an info packet being given to GOP staffers in a series of training sessions on how they are to comply with a requirement to cite exactly where in the Constitution is the justification for the legislation they and their member are writing during the upcoming 112th Congress.
Senator Mark Kirk (R, IL) is raising a red flag over the defense bill because the Democrat led House of Representatives and Democrat led Senate has slipped in a provision that would allow accused terrorists to be housed in prisons in the interior of the United States.
Veteran fiscal conservative Congressman Peter Roskam (R, IL) has announced the names of the 10 Republicans that are joining him on the House Ways and Means Committee, the powerful committee that has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, and programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
On Dec. 11, 2010, I attended a townhall meeting held in the 14th Congressional District featuring Congressman-elect Randy Hultgren and newly minted Senator Mark Kirk. The event was held in the theater of a local high school in Saint Charles, Illinois.
Kirk spoke for a strong defense, he spoke for fiscal responsibility and he spoke against the DREAM Act. For his part, Mr. Hultgren didn’t have much to say past his recently successful campaign talking points. But that is to be expected since he has not yet been to Washington to be involved in the issues in our nation’s capitol. Hultgren won’t take office until Jan. 5. Both men strongly spoke in favor of repealing Obamacare.
If nothing else has proven that Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele is not in tune with the GOP today, his recent statements on the Tea Party movement should serve as exhibit number one. 
I’m pleased that the decision of the people of the 8th District voting on November 2nd has been confirmed. Representative Bean telephoned me earlier this evening and congratulated me for winning the 8th District seat in the United States House of Representatives. I am grateful to each and every individual who cast their ballot for me, and for all of the thousands of volunteers, Tea Party members, regular Republicans, friends and staff people that have made this victory possible. I congratulate Representative Bean on her vigorous campaign and thank her for her six years of public service.
If leftists are good at one thing it is staying on message. Since 2006 when Nancy Pelosi was raised to the dizzying heights of Speaker of the House of Representatives the left has been chanting over and over that the voters wanted the country to take a hard left turn. This month’s election, however, proved that the left’s hoary claim is wrong. And we need to say so, over and over.
A party is a party. Sure, in politics there are internal fights, jealousies, and intrigues, but when the final push to election day is upon its members, a party supports the one carrying the party banner. They may be disgruntled because the man they supported didn’t win the primary, but they hold their tongue and pull the lever for the Party candidate. Many even about face and hit the hustings for the party guy even as they worked against that candidate in the primary.