By DOUG IBENDAHL • May 20, 2009
Below this introduction is a list of just some of the bad and/or embarrassing acts deliberately committed by our State Republican Party in recent years. The list is limited to just the time Andy McKenna, Jr. has been State Chairman (McKenna took over in February 2005).
The summary clearly shows an organization where there is no accountability. This is not an organization that is even trying to win – it’s only about a few trying to cling on to whatever remaining power they can.
Job one of the State Central Committee is to oversee the State Party’s operations, and to ensure that this kind of destructive, unprofessional activity doesn’t occur. But it keeps happening – over, and over, and over again. And make no mistake – things have been getting worse at our State Party, not better.
Here is what the Illinois Republican Party has been up to, and here is how it’s been spending your hard earned contributions. This is what happens when you take the Illinois Republican Party away from Republicans. This is why passing SB600 is so important.
Threatening frivolous litigation
McKenna’s outfit is so opposed to the idea of Republicans getting back their right to vote - it’s retained a Washington, D.C. based law firm and is threatening to sue the taxpayers of Illinois if SB600 passes. The law firm retained by McKenna is predominantly controlled by powerful Beltway Democrats. The presumably large bills for threatening this frivolous litigation are of course being paid by unsuspecting Republicans who donate to our State Party. Aren’t Republicans supposed to be against frivolous litigation?
Party Officials attacking Republicans
It should go without saying that the job of any party official is to help Republican candidates and to serve Republican voters. But in Illinois our corrupted system for selecting the top State GOP officials produces hatchet men like our new National Committeeman Pat Brady who has mostly been assigned to attacking leading proponents of the SB600 reform. Andy McKenna similarly spends most of his time repeating lies about SB600 and insulting its supporters.
Rigged conventions
With a system that gives us no leaders on the State Central Committee, there has been no one to keep the worst propensities of the Illinois GOP’s corrupt players in check. The state conventions held every four years have turned into jury-rigged disasters that only serve to further demoralize the Republican faithful. The 2004 state convention was awful (with Bob “Individual K” Kjellander jammed into another term as National Committeeman). The convention of 2008 in Decatur was even worse. This time the rigging began months in advance and many reform-minded Republicans were simply told they couldn’t be delegates or alternates – despite the fact that over two-thirds of the slots remained vacant. Good Republicans who did make it to Decatur experienced more rigging and more disrespectful treatment at the hands of McKenna’s private security squad. Many delegates finally walked out. The thing that all of our state conventions have in common is that another wipeout at the polls follows a few months later in November.
Refusal to clean house
The Democrats got rid of their albatross Rod Blagojevich. They led the impeachment. Meanwhile McKenna and his outfit have never lifted a finger to clean their own house. Bob Kjellander for example was allowed to serve out his full term as National Committeeman, despite the fact that he had been identified by the Feds as “Individual K” long ago. McKenna protected Kjellander at every turn. Only when Kjellander’s latest four year term came to an end did we get his replacement, Pat Brady. This has proven to be a marginal improvement at best, and a result only guaranteed by yet another rigged state convention.
Meddling in primaries
There is a long history of the State Party franchise and resources being misused to back the favorites of the bosses in primaries and in party elections. Judy Baar Topinka for example got an unfair leg-up in the 2006 gubernatorial primary. McKenna tried to deny that the State Party was taking sides, but his claims were discredited by Topinka’s own running mate and by McKenna’s own actions. More recently, McKenna lobbied on behalf of one of his loyal stooges, Randy Pollard, when Pollard was seeking the State Senate seat vacated by Frank Watson. Fortunately in that latter case, the County Chairmen involved rejected McKenna’s scheme to install an unsuitable hack into a public office. These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg. This has been a longstanding problem that has discouraged many good people from running for office. It’s why there is no Republican bench in Illinois.
Ethics Cynically Ignored
In 2005 McKenna’s outfit adopted a “Code of Ethics” for the State Party organization, but then refused to enforce it where National Committeeman Bob Kjellander was concerned - despite Kjellander’s disturbing and ongoing noncompliance. That same year, 12 grassroots organizations publicly called upon McKenna to simply enforce his own organization’s Code of Ethics. And then in December of 2005, Ron Gidwitz, Jim Oberweis, and Steve Rauschenberger sat in a closed meeting with McKenna where they called upon him to do the same. Even after Kjellander was named “Individual K” by federal prosecutors in another individual’s plea agreement - McKenna still refused to act.
Still More Double Standards on Ethics
McKenna and his State Central Committee pressured the candidates in the 2006 gubernatorial primary to abide by another new policy, a Code of Conduct. But McKenna only sought its enforcement against Topinka’s challengers. Topinka and her accomplices were given a free ride to say or do anything. Even when a long time Topinka ally (and a leading homosexual activist from Chicago) called Cardinal Francis George a “bigot” due to the Catholic leader’s opposition to gay marriage, McKenna didn’t say a peep. The so-called Code of Conduct was just another cynical gimmick – a sword to be used against Topinka’s opponents, and a shield to be used by her when needed.
Rigged Party Elections
The last time all the seats on the State Central Committee were up was in 2006. Since we don’t have direct elections yet, these selections weren’t made of course by Republican voters as part of Primary Election Day. The selections happened at County Conventions across the state approximately a month after the Primary that year, on April 19th. The State Party provided instructions for these “elections” in advance to County GOP organizations that specified procedures inconsistent with Illinois law. Although prohibited by law, County Chairmen were told to personally cast votes representing vacant precincts (those not represented by an actual Precinct Committeeman). This allowed several incumbents on the State Central Committee to be easily “reelected.” The rigged nature of the rules also discouraged other potential challengers from even placing their names into consideration in the first place. Many potential challengers saw the whole thing as a waste of time, a process where the results were already in the bag. In one case, Dennis Wiggins who held the title of both Kane County GOP Chairman and State Central Committeeman was essentially able to “reelect” himself to the State Party post last time. That was the case because around half of Kane County’s precincts had no Precinct Committeeman. Under the rules made up by McKenna, Wiggins had almost half of the majority vote he needed even before he walked into his own County Convention that night. Incredibly, our current system has been rewarding County Chairmen for not fulfilling one of their key responsibilities – recruiting good Republicans to be Precinct Committeemen.
Re-Rigged Elections
As described above, desperate measures were taken the last time the State Central Committeeman spots were up for “election” on April 19, 2006. Every trick was pulled to give the incumbents a leg up. But incredibly, despite all the rigging, one of the oldest of the old guard still lost his State Central Committeeman post in the 3rd U.S. Congressional District. Ironically, it was one of the few contests where the winner won fair and square. The vacant precinct issue never came into play in that particular contest. No matter. On September 21, 2006 - as the next November tsunami was fast approaching the Illinois GOP - McKenna stopped everything to re-rig that 3rd District “election” for State Central Committeeman. The defeated incumbent just kept complaining and finally McKenna decreed there would be a do-over. No legal basis was ever given. The good news was the original loser (the old incumbent) lost AGAIN. The bad news was that in the chaos created by McKenna, a person with essentially no history in Republican politics (even as a voter) - but with close ties to the corruption plagued town of Cicero - made it onto the State Central Committee. That person who got on the State Central Committee thanks to McKenna’s election tampering is Craig Pesek. While it’s been widely known from the beginning that Pesek appears to not even reside in the 3rd Congressional District (a legal requirement) – McKenna and his State Central Committee do nothing.
Keeping the Party of George Ryan
There is still one of George Ryan’s former Deputy Governors on the State Central Committee. That’s Bob Winchester. Until just recently, 2 of the 19 on the State Central Committee were former Deputy Governors from the George Ryan administration. But the second stepped aside a year or so ago. (That person was replaced by Deb Detmers who had worked for George Ryan.) Some of the other current 19 were Ryan appointees to boards or commissions. And then there is Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar who joined the State Central Committee on April 19, 2006. Two days later Claar was quoted in the Bolingbrook Sun commenting on the recent conviction of his friend George Ryan this way, in part: “I cannot believe George Ryan was convicted. Most, if not all, of what I read was circumstantial at best. . . From what I have been reading about the jury it sounds like most of the jury pool is, in fact, guilty of what they are suggesting George Ryan is guilty of.” Mr. Claar’s unhappiness with Ryan’s conviction on all 18 counts was probably understandable. Claar was one of the founding donors to Ryan’s defense fund in the amount of $5,000. Another interesting aside regarding Claar is that according to Illinois Issues, while Claar was in San Diego at the 1996 Republican National Convention, Claar’s home was raided by state police as part of a two-year investigation into tollway land deals. Michael Sneed of the Chicago Sun-Times also reported about an investigation in 1999. We must note that Mr. Claar has never been charged with any wrongdoing. But the point is, if voters still view the Illinois GOP as the Party of George Ryan - guess what - they’ve got a good point.
Helping the Democrats
Our current system regularly puts people in charge of running our State Party who have been generous campaign donors to Democrats. Claar has given some to several Democrats. Jack Dorgan has given a LOT to Democrats. And then of course there is Skip Saviano who actually IS a Democrat. That’s pretty clear from his votes and from his political ties. Saviano keeps an “R” by his name but that’s just a leftover from the old days in Illinois when Republicans had the best spot at the trough. Saviano regularly helps Democrat candidates, even over excellent Republican challengers. Check out the photo here where he’s even got a joint campaign banner with a liberal Chicago Democrat. In 2006 Saviano campaigned for that liberal Democrat over an outstanding Republican candidate in a State Senate race. One of the most absurd “arguments” made during this SB600 debate has been the old saw that somehow if Republicans get back their right to vote – we’ll get Democrats on the State Central Committee. The fact that Skip Saviano is typically the one promoting that lie makes it even more absurd. The truth is very different of course. It is in fact the corrupted system we currently use that has been an open invitation to Democrat infiltration from top to bottom.
Proud Republicans banned from using the word Republican
This one sounds like fiction, but unfortunately it’s not. Back in 2007, McKenna and his State Central Committee adopted a policy they call Official Use of the name “Republican.” You can view it here. Basically it says you can’t use the word “Republican” unless you agree to publicly support all Republicans nominated or elected to public or party office. Put aside that some members of McKenna’s own State Central Committee have been in gross violation of this very policy. The policy wasn’t adopted for the people who adopted it. It was adopted to try and punish some good reformers who were making waves. The State Party attempted to use it to shut up two proud GOP organizations. But basically everyone laughed at McKenna’s awkward strong-arming and the whole matter went away. However, in McKenna’s mind the policy is still the law of the land because it’s still posted on the State Party’s website. So think about what this means. As just one example, if you didn’t provide “public support” to Bob Kjellander, McKenna says you can’t use the word “Republican.” Even more insane, according to McKenna and our State Central Committee, Sara Palin would not be allowed to use the word “Republican,” given her record and courage in taking on the GOP’s corrupt good-old-boys in her state. You know it’s time for change when we’ve got a system that keeps McKenna hanging around, but tells Sarah Palin she better not even mutter the word “Republican” within the borders of Illinois.
The Grassroots Betrayed
The biggest GOP-related grassroots project in anyone’s memory was the Protect Marriage referendum and the related petition drive in 2006. Over 11,000 volunteers got active and helped circulate petitions. Whether someone personally agrees or disagrees with the underlying issue, the fact is the project was supportive of a key National Republican Platform issue. President Bush and the Republican Congress were also working on a parallel track in Washington on the identical issue at the federal level. Even if a Republican leader personally disagrees with the issue, you don’t abandon Republican volunteers in the field who are supporting a quintessential Republican cause. But that’s exactly what McKenna’s State Party organization did. Not only did the State Party abandon the base, McKenna’s staff had the audacity to lie about the motive behind the betrayal. McKenna’s organization even refused to do anything as simple as posting a link to the project on the State Party’s website. This was an appalling betrayal of the Republican base and reflects an attitude that Republicans in other states could scarcely even imagine. No where else has there been a State GOP so hostile to Republicans and their causes. While thousands of volunteers were giving 110% to the Protect Marriage project, McKenna’s outfit refused to give even 1%.
Three more we can’t forget
I said I would keep this summary limited to the period of Andy McKenna’s tenure as Chairman. But there are three other historic cases of awful judgment by the State Central Committee that have to be quickly mentioned. Right after the November election of 2002, the State Central Committee supported a coup led by Bob Kjellander whereby Judy Baar Topinka was jammed into the State Chairman post (case of awful judgment #1). At that very same meeting in late 2002, Topinka and the State Central Committee actually went out of their way to say they were REFUSING to endorse that courageous reformer Peter Fitzgerald for reelection as U.S. Senator (case of awful judgment #2). And finally, who can forget that after the State Central Committee abandoned Peter Fitzgerald, and then Jack Ryan in 2004 – they, and they alone picked Alan Keyes to fill the U.S. Senate ballot spot – apparently after doing no due diligence (case of awful judgment #3). So forget about David Axelrod and all of those handlers – it was our own unaccountable State Central Committee that did more to send Barack Obama on his way to the White House than anyone.
Conclusion
Our current system for picking the members of the State Central Committee has allowed a few to forget about their duty to Republicans. The behavior detailed above is what you get when accountability is taken out of the equation. This is an organization where a few are only serving themselves.
What we’ve got now could be described as AIG and Fannie Mae on steroids.
The record above speaks for itself. There is no honest argument against SB600. Every phony excuse or lie from the opposition comes from someone who is putting their own selfish interest ahead of what’s best for the Republican Party and for Republicans.
SB600 is about fostering an organizational culture where the officials are motivated to work for Republicans (we’re like the shareholders) – and not just themselves. Anyone with any real business experience gets this (unfortunately too many of our GOP elected officials have no such experience).
If you haven’t already done so, contact the members of the State House (Republicans and Democrats) and tell them to vote YES on SB600. You’ll find all the phone numbers and e-mail addresses here.
Time is of the essence. The vote in the House could take place any day now – and next week is the final week of session. It’s now or never to fix the Illinois Republican Party.
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.
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