By DOUG IBENDAHL • June 20, 2013
On Wednesday morning, Republican News Watch published the racist email rant we received from Montgomery County GOP Chair Jim Allen. By late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Allen had officially been cut loose from Rodney Davis’ congressional campaign, and on Thursday Mr. Allen was forced to relinquish his county chairman post.
This is all very positive news of course. One bad player is off the field and can no longer level vile attacks against good people - at least not in an official capacity. It will be difficult for Mr. Allen to inflict further damage on our party.
We at Republican News Watch are very mindful that this kind of quick closure pretty much never happens and we don’t expect the same in future battles. It only happened in this instance because Mr. Allen’s rant was so over-the-top reprehensible that even the worst party bosses couldn’t circle the wagons this time – and certainly not after so many news outlets ran with the story across the country.
We published Mr. Allen’s despicable email for a simple reason. The guy is a bully and the only way to deal with bullies is to stand–up to them. We all know that what Mr. Allen penned in his email is just a tiny fraction of the garbage being dumped on Erika Harold and other good Republicans “under the radar” – by people who have the nerve to call themselves “fellow Republicans.” This nonsense isn’t new of course. It’s been going on for as long as I’ve been paying attention - but it’s getting old.
Enough is enough. If you want to defame good people and further destroy our party, then we’re going to call you out. Republican News Watch for years has been pushing for the restoration of some professionalism and accountability within the Illinois GOP. Mr. Allen apparently didn’t think we were serious. Now he knows better.
Until his resignation today, Jim Allen was the face and voice of the Republican Party in Montgomery County. To make matters worse, Allen has enjoyed the right to vote for his representative on the Illinois Republican Party’s State Central Committee (the senior governing board which runs our state party). Meanwhile, 99.99% of the Illinois Republicans reading this have no such right. And if you really want to get annoyed, consider that unless Jim Allen also resigns his precinct committeeman post (no word on that yet), he STILL gets a vote for his top state party representative and you don’t. (And by the way, anyone who thinks any member of our current State Central Committee would ever stand-up for Erika Harold or anyone else absent intense pressure from the press, is nuts.)
After this week, it has officially become unconscionable for any Republican to continue to oppose this past due reform.
When good Republicans have lesser voting rights than someone who resorts to racist attacks, we have a serious, serious problem.
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.
END
TWITTER
