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GOP politics roundup
Friday, Sep 4, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller * The United Republican Fund and WIND radio hosted a Republican gubernatorial candidate forum today. Six candidates showed up and a straw poll of party activist attendees was conducted after the presentations…
The biggest surprise, perhaps, is that Andrzejewski was so organized at that event. It’s also interesting that Sen. Brady, a conservative darling, scored lower than Sen. Dillard and Dan Proft. * Speaking of Dillard, he announced a new campaign manager today. From a press release…
* Conservative Republican US Senate candidate Patrick Hughes recently talked to the Illinois Channel about his campaign. You can watch the full interview here, but I’ve edited it down to his essential line of attack on Mark Kirk…. * Speaking of Mark Kirk, the US Senate hopeful told Illinois Channel that the Veterans Administration is a “great example” of how “the government should be allowed to compete” in health-related issues, which might surprise some of Kirk’s critics on both sides of the aisle since Kirk is so publicly opposed to the “public option” on health insurance… 
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- Love the irony - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:02 pm:
I find it interesting that Adam just spent $5,000 in advertising with WIND, one of the sponsors, just over a month before the event.
- Funny - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:15 pm:
Adam is also an advertiser on Illinois Review which is a blog maintained by Dennis LaComb and Fran Eaton, two people who are contractual employees of the United Republican Fund (see the State Board of Elections campaign disclosure reports for United Republican Fund).
- Greg B. - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:22 pm:
It takes about five seconds after meeting Adam A. to realize he is a hard worker. The guy has a work ethic, that’s for sure.
Tim Peters — a pretty good flag football WR — will be good a fit in the Dillard campaign.
A lot of conservatives are still upset about Brady not dropping out last time for Oberweis. It’s a bum wrap.
- Shore - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:33 pm:
judges are an interesting issue with Kirk. It’s an up or down thing he hasn’t faced up here, and it will be interesting to see him answer questions on whether he’d have voted for alito and roberts.
- WOW - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:46 pm:
Fran Eaton unloads on Dillard at Illinois Review.
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2009/09/does-kirk-dillard-think-prolifers-are-stupid.html
- John Bambenek - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:53 pm:
Who won that straw poll again? I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about him
- VanillaMan - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 4:57 pm:
Congratulations Adam!
Your win forced me to find out who you are. Sorry, but I didn’t use a phone book to do that.
So, you want to be our governor…
Now normally, we don’t see folks go from the Yellow Pages to the Governor’s Mansion, so bear with me as I keep shopping around the other candidates with government experiences. I kinda like candidates that have faced the frustrations within our state government, for similar reasons I like looking for a mechanic who actually, you know, is a mechanic.
NOT that you could do worse than what we had recently - but I expect to aim a wee bit higher than in previous years.
Ya got any experiences, you know, maybe serving on a library board or something? Illinois is full of really great political opportunities for up and comers like you! We have state representatives and state senators, and mayors and commissioners, and agency executives, and there are those people who spray for mosquitoes around the Cook County Forest Preserves…nice entry-level stuff!
But we all like go-getters and once in a while people around here elect folks with little previous experiences, you know, like say, Barack Obama - for starters. You can see how well that’s working out! Like you, the President got his start in books too! So, HEY, maybe we got something happening here!
Congratulations again!
Wishing you the very best of luck,
VanillaMan
- John Bambenek - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 5:01 pm:
You know, I spent the first few months of the year looking for Republicans with the best governing experience. Oddly, I found them all in the same place.
Terra Haute Federal Prison.
xoxoxox
- the down stater - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 5:06 pm:
That’s scientific as heck now isn’t it !!?? And as to the PO’d conservatives on poor ole’ Oby Won…it wasn’t Brady …he’s just a dud candidate. It’s obvious after what 5 times. ??? He couldn’t get elected to party office either so I guess the GOP is nuts too for not stepping aside to make a place for him. Face it, they didn’t want him !
- Love the irony - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 5:17 pm:
So, John, George Ryan is the only name you could think of? …. that would explain a lot.
- Kane Conservative - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 5:29 pm:
it always seemed odd when campaigns announce their leadership team and include staff, but anyhow…I wasnt in the room, but I think it would have been fun to watch Dillard try and explain his Obama love to these party activists…if these numbers show anything (and they really dont) its that a bunch of conservatives are again seeking the office…its only a matter of time until Dillard suggests a game of bags to see who should be the one candidate who stays in the race
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 4, 09 @ 7:49 pm:
Sorry, but did Hughes say that “If *Kirk’s* the nominee,…*Kirk* will have no chance to win in November?
I’d argue that if Hughes is planning to redefine “mainstream” to pull off a win in November, he’d better get moving, rather than just repeating over and over again that he’s “mainstream” and Kirk is not.
- Game Changer - Saturday, Sep 5, 09 @ 12:58 am:
This is the first testing of grassroots opinion after a long Spring and Summer of work. Andrzejewski passed with flying colors. Brady was a huge failure after 5 years of campaigning. Those are the two big storylines of the day.
- Blunt Speak - Saturday, Sep 5, 09 @ 10:20 am:
The conservative summit just reinforced the United Republican Fund’s (URF) insignificance. The straw poll winner was a guy who has zero chance of winning a student council election let alone a Governor’s race. They had $12,000 in the bank at the time of their last financial disclosure report with the State Board of Elections. When was the last time the URF had an impact on an Illinois electoral contest?
- More Blunt Speak - Saturday, Sep 5, 09 @ 10:30 am:
The bloggers over at Illinois Review might have a different (very skewed) opinion of the United Republican Fund. Interestingly, Dennis LaComb and Fran Eaton are the founders and editors of Illinois Review and are contractual employees of the URF (see the URF’s state disclosure report). Thanks Rich for providing an objective venue for Illinois residents and voters to read about Illinois politics. That so called conservative crossroads site is a joke compared to your Capitol Fax.
- The Prophet - Sunday, Sep 6, 09 @ 7:24 am:
Jim Oberweis is okay. He just wanted to start at the top too badly is all. Eventually, he will realize that in any firm (unless you are the boss’s kid) you usually start at an entry-level position and work your way up. Unless, of course, you are that rare whizz kid who truly excells at what he does best. Oberweis would probably make a good state representative or state senator at this point in time.
Was the audience at this URF and WIND radio function composed mainly of conservative individuals? That would help explain why Brady and Dillard didn’t fare so well in the straw poll. I will have to admit that it will now cause a few of us to learn a little more about this guy named Adam Andrzejewski. I don’t know anything about him but my daughter (age 38) who is normally never interested in politics said that he is a really good guy and a very viable GOP candidate and, “Dad, you should learn more about him.”
I also noticed that Dan Proft is steadily moving up in these polling numbers to where he is now in the #3 position. It will be interesting to see which of the GOP candidates continue to gain traction in these polls and which ones sputter and slip along the way.
- David Ormsby - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 3:11 am:
With those 462 votes the GOP was able to identify its conservative base.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 8:53 am:
the best governing experience. Oddly, I found them all in the same place.
Terra Haute Federal Prison.
You really need to redefine your definition of the word, “best”, don’t you?
- Joe - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 1:47 pm:
I love the sarcasm and faux irony that some of the writers have used. By trying to denegrate the significance of the URF poll you are actually giving credence to it. Who else on the Republican side do you want? Some state senators who have not been able to come up with any alternative other than a few buzz words here and there like “limited government” and “fiscal responsibility”? A fresh face who actually created jobs in the private sector doesnt sound half bad. A comparison to Obama from Vanilla Man would be embarrassing for someone who had knowledge of good government, a misguided slip by someone whose candidate was spurned but its clear that he just wanted to have opportunity to sound cute and chose your forum to do so.
- full disclosure - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 8:19 pm:
There were less than 75 people at this thing and some weren’t even conservatives. They used some screwy cummulative voting system where people got multiple votes. That’s why it sounds like there were a lot of people there, if you just look at the votes, but there wasn’t. Each attendee had 6 votes as I understand.
Plus Adam advertised for months on the URF blog. I would have thought he would get more people to a URF event.
Bottom line. A meaningless poll.