NEW TRIER – The New Trier Township – political home of Governor Bruce Rauner – has a new Republican Party committeeman.
After the resignation of New Trier Township Republican Committeeman Danielle Mergner, Cook County GOP Chairman Sean Morrison appointed Kathleen Myalls to succeed Mergner.
“It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Kathleen Myalls to the post of Republican Committeeman for New Trier Township. Kathleen’s qualifications and dedication to the Illinois GOP make her an outstanding candidate for the position, and I look forward to seeing the great work she will do,” said Morrison.
Myalls is a private attorney at Interpublic Group of Companies since 2001 and has served as the company’s Assistant General Counsel since 2004.
She ran for State Representative in 2014 against Democrat Laura Fine and for New Trier Township Trustee in 2016. She also Joan McCarthy Lasonde’s campaign to unseat Jan Schakowsky in the 9th Congressional District.
"I am thankful to Chairman Morrison for the opportunity to serve the citizens and voters of New Trier Township. I look forward to energizing the Republican base and supporting local candidates throughout the Township," said Myalls.
The appointment takes effect immediately.
Did Cook County GOP change its bylaws? A vacancy is supposed to be announced and posted on the Cook County GOP website so all interested parties can apply for the position.
Whether the appointment was procedurally correct or not, this is New Trier’s third appointed committeeman since June 2015 (Levine, Mergner, Myalls). From 1970 when Dave Brown was first elected to June 2015 when Bill Cadigan resigned to take a post on the Board of Elections, there were three committeemen (Brown, Chisum, Cadigan).
Because of Kathy’s connections with IPI and IOP, is it correct to assume she’s an unabashed Ives supporter?
This is a departure from Cook County GOP bylaws, which require a vacancy to be posted for applicants. Three appointed committeemen since 2015? Yeesh.
Well, if she’s an unabashed Ives supporter, anything’s an improvement over what they’ve had in New Trier.
They’ve stood for nothing for so long, that they had to shut down their long-time headquarters in Kenilworth and find themselves on the verge of becoming – like the Evanston GOP – a 3rd party, behind the Democrats and the Greens.
Rauner backer Blair Garber gets in bed with Morrison to put in pro-Ives Myalls and violates a law in the process. This is why the ILGOP is such a joke.
One has to hope that the game of musical chairs in New Trier is over and that after the primary there is some type of continuity in the township. There is a contested race in New Trier for committeeman in March.
Having an appointee is not ideal. Del Mar secured the chairmanship, in part, because the appointed committeeman from New Trier was abruptly disqualified from voting for chairman.
The Illinois legislature should pass a bill that will state that Cook Co. primary voters will vote for precinct committeemen, like the voters of Illinois’ other 101 counties. If they did that, the township chairman would be elected by the township’s precinct committeemen, not appointed by the county party chairman. Some famous politicians, who agree with me are State Rep. David Harris, State Rep. David McSweeney, former Barrington Township Committeeman Gene Dawson, and 11th Ward Committeeman Carl Segvich.
The primary voters have the final say so. There will be a contested race for committeeman in New Trier Township in March.
The county chairman only gets to appoint committeemen where there are vacancies (i.e. no candidate was elected or the committeeman from a ward or township resigns the office before the next election date). In this case, the previous committeeman resigned and the chairman filled the vacancy.
Curiouser and curiouser. An objection has been filed to Myalis’ opponent and Garber notarized the objection and the objector’s attorney is Christine Svenson (taking time out from her judicial subcircuit campaign in Palatine). She is most infamous for representing the employee in the harassment suit that derailed Rutherford’s gubernatorial campaign.
Too Little, Too Late?, I already knew all of the information that you typed above. I hope that all Illinois voters know that information. I still think that Cook Co. voters should be able to elect precinct committeemen, like the voters of Illinois’ other 101 counties.
Has anyone every seen a copy of the by-laws? I know a few committeemen who say they haven’t. The rules are whatever Aaron, Liz and Sean say they are.
The objector is Christopher Woehrle, whose wife ran for Township trustee with Myalls and Bob Costello in the slate NTRO supported despite not going to membership for an endorsement.
Kathy got 6.9 percent of the vote with Woerhle and Costello coming in behind. NTRO closed its office sometime over the summer. Woerhle wound up on the Illinois Board of Investments, whose chairman, Marc Levine was NTRO Committeeman before Mergner.
Ironically, NTRO bragged about Kathy’s ticket as healthy competition allowing voters to choose instead of having others choose for them.
https://us13.campaign-archive.com/?u=0d2f3f2a9f2c5e93d3b0cab38&id=96b46ac41a&e=bea8ca96ee
What’s changed?
There was a Federal case just resolved with the bylaws as the centerpiece. Alex Kaplan posted the relevant piece on social media. The Cook County GOP page references this provision in previous vacancies.
The other committeemen who say they haven’t seen the bylaws are neglecting their duty.