PALATINE TOWNSHIP – Repercussions continue over the Palatine Township Republican Organization's endorsement session Tuesday night as angry Republicans publicly air their frustrations over how the meeting and voting was handled. Members are demanding more transparency about the process, as the endorsement session determines the sample ballots Republicans will receive before the March 20th primary.
Illinois Review published Chairman Aaron Del Mar's response per his stipulations. Today, Rep. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) – who Del Mar mentioned in his response – requested the opportunity to respond to Del Mar in the same manner.
Morrison points out the majority of proxy ballots he viewed Wednesday from non-Palatine residents were delivered to the meeting by Schaumburg Township Republican Chairman Ryan Higgins and political consultant Joe Calomino.
Morrison's response:
I was in attendance at last night's PTRO endorsement session to help support Jeanne Ives. The room was packed, and tensions were high, which led to some heated exchanges. In my opinion this could have been largely avoided by improved transparency, mechanics and execution of the endorsement process. Everything I am expressing here, I have related to Aaron Del Mar on the phone and/or in person.
At the start of the meeting Aaron gave a cursory summary of the endorsement rules (primarily on the allocation of weighted votes and the tabulation of those votes behind closed doors, which has not been done before). When challenged by PTRO members in the audience about why the votes would be counted in secret, he brashly dismissed them and said that it was his organization and his decision. As a side note, today he apologized to me in person for essentially losing his cool in that moment. But I believe he also owes an apology to those he shouted down.
After it was announced online that Bruce Rauner had won the endorsement with 73% of the vote, both I and several other PTRO members had serious questions about that outcome, especially since there was such strong in-person support that night for Rep. Ives. For example, what was the vote break out to get that result (what were the exact number PTRO board member votes, precinct captain votes, member votes, member proxy votes)?
I contacted Aaron Del Mar this morning by phone and asked for that data. He provided me the numbers of proxy votes over the phone but could not directly answer how many of those proxy votes were from Palatine township residents. He offered to meet me over at the PTRO office to see the ballots and count for myself.
While he did indicate that he had a time limitation today due to family obligations, and I did too, all I wanted was a quick enough glance at the ballots to determine roughly how many proxy ballots there were for Rauner or Ives and on whose behalf were those ballots cast. Based upon an approximately 30 minute review, and without a complete re-counting of each ballot, I’ve come to the following conclusion, which I think is a fairly accurate and reasonable explanation of the 73% result for Rauner:
The greatest influence on the vote was from 200+ proxy ballots delivered by PTRO member Ryan Higgins (who lives in Schaumburg, serves as the Schaumburg Township Republican committeeman, and is the 8th Congressional district State Central Committeeman), and PTRO member Joe Calomino (who lives in Lake in the Hills, is campaign manager for judicial candidate Susanne Groebner, and was there to help secure PTRO’s endorsement for Susanne).
The overwhelming majority of those proxy ballots were cast for Bruce Rauner, and a handful were checked for Jeanne Ives. Each proxy ballot had an individual name, and many ballots had addresses listed under that name. The overwhelming majority of proxy ballots with addresses listed were non-Palatine Township addresses including Chicago, Niles, Schaumburg, and even Woodstock. There were some proxy ballots that checked “no endorsement” or “abstain” for some of the races, including Governor, which explains discrepancies between the total number of ballots, ballots cast for Ives or Rauner, and ballots cast for the Attorney General and judicial races.
Aaron told me that each person who voted, either in person or by proxy paid a $25 PTRO membership fee by cash, check, or online via PayPal. So, upon the next report from the IL board of elections, expect to see a sizable boost to PTRO’s campaign coffers.
Here’s the bottom line:
When Palatine Township Republicans receive their PTRO sample ballots later this month, they need to understand that last night's endorsement process involved voting that was open to anyone from anywhere who was willing to chip in $25 to the organization. The majority of these brand new members voted by proxy ballots submitted last night by non-Palatine Township residents Ryan Higgins or Joe Calomino.
I do not know how all of the other local GOP organizations conduct their endorsement sessions, but the “paid straw poll” method has been used in other jurisdictions besides Palatine this election cycle to determine official GOP organization endorsements. This is misleading at best and can easily lead to committed outsiders having an out-sized influence on the process. In my opinion, that’s what happened at PTRO last night. So for Palatine voters and throughout Illinois, I would highly recommend that voters do their homework on candidates beyond their local GOP's “sample ballot."
