By DOUG IBENDAHL • November 2, 2010
Republican State Central Committeeman Roger Claar refused to put one of the GOP’s rising young stars on his endorsement mailer. A copy of that letter is below.
Cedra Crenshaw is the Republican challenger for Illinois State Senate in the 43rd District. She’s taking on Democrat incumbent State Senator A.J. Wilhelmi.
What makes this especially disgraceful is that Claar is one of the 19 members of the Illinois Republican Party’s State Central Committee. Claar is Crenshaw’s representative on the State Central Committee, and most of the town of Bolingbrook, where Claar is Mayor, is located within the 43rd State Senate District.
Claar has a long history of backing Democrats over good Republicans. But Claar will help bad Republicans. He was one of George Ryan’s close allies for example.
Anyone still opposing SB600 really needs to have their head examined. Seriously.
What makes this even more shameful is that Roger Claar was at one time (and may still be) in charge of the State GOP’s minority outreach efforts. And it gets worse, Claar not only snubs Crenshaw (an African-American conservative woman) in his letter, he also fails to endorse Republican candidates Steve Kim and Roberto Enriquez.
In other words, “Mr. Minority Outreach” is refusing to help pretty much all the minority GOP candidates. Unbelievable.
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.
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