By Jennifer Nevins -
The Illinois GOP has a rocky path back to higher electoral ground in 2020. And so, it might help if the Party’s leadership hobbled over to the side of the road and ejected the most annoying rock in its shoe.
Consider a portion of a recent tweet issued by disgraced former IL GOP Chairman Pat Brady:
Stupid is as stupid does. Looking for someone to support for President in 2020 as it won’t be this goof.
The “goof,” of course, is the President – for whom over two million of us fellow goofs voted in 2016.
After receiving a barrage of pushback, Mr. Brady followed up with this:
Trump cost us 2 congressional seats and as many as 4 house seats last election. I think my focus is correct.
Geez Saint Louise.
The 2020 electoral bloodbath-in the minds of Pat Brady and others like him- has precious little to do with poorly run campaigns from entrenched candidates unwilling or unable to effectively combat their extremist opponents. Nor do the defeats have anything to do with muddled messaging directed towards changing local demographics. And the demoralized Republican base we have all heard about? Forget about it. That is simply a nasty rumor spread by sore Jeanne Ives' fanatics.
A whole lot of ink would have to be spilled in order to properly enumerate all of the ways Brady’s pinning of the blame on Trump doesn’t hold water. So let’s consider just one example. In 2016, Congressional District 14 Representative Randy Hultgren-after some initial hesitation- publicly announced that he was “proud” to cast his vote for Trump.
He went on to win the race.
Fast forward to 2018. In the race’s waning days, he – like Peter Roskam – sought to put as much daylight possible between him and Trump-his reluctant appearance at a Trump rally notwithstanding.
He went on to lose the race.
To hear the ex-Chairman tell it, voters accepted Hultgren’s support for Donald Trump on the heels of a rollicking campaign filled with colorful language and personal peccadillos. In 2018, voters rejected Hultgren’s support for Donald Trump on the heels of a string of executive policies that resulted in one of the healthiest economies the nation has ever had.
Frankly, this rationale is so addled, I’m not convinced it even makes sense to Brady. Then again-logical thought is quite beside the point for all bitter, envy riddled political has-beens who sit on the cusp of irrelevance.
It’s not as if the Party has not faced similarly terrible losses before-and it’s not as if Brady hasn’t come up with similarly stupid solutions to the problem. In 2013 – toward the end of his tenure as Party Chairman- Brady refused to ascribe the 2012 losses to their true primary source: widespread gerrymandering. He instead put the losses down to social conservatism and urged the Republicans in the statehouse to embrace pro-same sex marriage legislation. This caused a damaging party rift.
(Pat Brady subsequently resigned amid the fallout-although you wouldn’t know this from his brazen commandeering of whatever stage or microphone misguided Republicans or the media continues to offer him.)
Undaunted, in 2016 he was back at it again, as he was allowed,-without proper standing- to propose a revamp of the party platform to remove the marriage plank. As everyone knows, the measure was soundly defeated and he retreated to his St. Charles domicile with his ACLU-funded tail between his legs.
The result of his progressive crusading? A further divided party too engaged in internecine warfare to focus on winning races. It is not an exaggeration to say that Pat Brady the failed Party operative is like a barge captain who after ramming into a bridge, hollers from the shore about how to repair it.
So how do we regain a piece of the ground we lost in 2018? Simply put, by fixing the mistakes of the past: savvy campaigning, better messaging, and perhaps most importantly-outreach to private union members whose economic self- interest makes them ripe for a strong commitment to border security and businesses. Ironically, President Trump showed us the way forward as he captured more union votes than any Republican candidate since Reagan in 1984.
Perhaps the problem here is that it is precisely Trump who set the best example of what to do. One gets the feeling that Trump could offer Illinois a sack of Congressional seats and Brady would refuse them simply because it was Trump that was holding the bag.
Despite the division he has sown – both in the past and in the present – Pat Brady is still given a platform among respectable people. He still speaks at Republican fundraisers. GOP leaders still take his calls.
The question is this: Will they still take his advice?
He can support Kamala, Spartacus, Pocahontas, Beto, Crazy Bernie, Old Joe … There’s a dozen so far and I still expect Crooked or Moochelle or Orca to jump in.
Great article and to the point. The Illinois Republican Party is very much in need of new leadership!
Pat Brady was the worst GOP chairman in the country and he continues to show us why – he is as thick as a brick. He will never learn how to win from Trump because he suffers from TDS.
A straight-talking, conservative-populist party that makes a genuine outreach to blue collar voters is what the ILGOP needs to become. This is not rocket science but apparently it is too complicated for Brady to comprehend. Enough with the low-energy, country club RINO’s.
In my opinion, Pat Brady was and is, the poster child for accelerating the destruction of the ILGOP. The current chair is only putting the frosting on the cake.
Pat Brady is one of the biggest losers of all time. Everything he touches goes to pot. So it’s good that he’s keeping up his bitter little crusade against this President of the United States. You can bet it means huge landslide win for Trump next year.
In 2020, we need to rally opposition to Pritzker’s Graduated Income Tax Amendment Referendum in order to defeat it and to motivate Republican turnout, so we can crack the Supermajorities in Springfield.
Nevins is doing a great job of keeping Brady relevant.
Good article
The Illinois “establishment” GOP needs a reboot to go back to conservative values along with supporting my President, Donald J. Trump.
As I’ve said before, the Illinois Republican Party needs to get back to the platform promoting conservative values, limited government, traditional marriage, legal immigration, less taxes, pro 2nd amendment, zero tolerance of corruption, support President Trump, fix the pension, balanced budgets, and LESS TAXES.
This will promote freedom, liberty, and opportunity for all.
Jennifer Nevins discussed this on the Stephanie Trussell Show last Saturday, heard every Saturday 3-6pm (LIVE) on the 50,000 watt WLS 890-AM talk radio. Link to rebroadcast and podcast is below. She’s on around 5:15pm so scroll through, then listen for my segment around 5:32pm, nevernind, just listen to the whole show, Stephanie is great.
http://www.wlsam.com/stephanie-trussell/podcast/
Wonderful article. Pat Brady sits in the same realm as the Democrats. His view is entirely skewed. It was Rauner who was the lead ticket, the weakest of any incumbent Governor in my lifetime. He ran his primary like a Democrat and lost the general election at that time. Further, not many are talking about this but the real cause for losing seats is the mass exodus of Democrats from Chicago and Cook County. They’re fleeing the high cost of living and settling in collar counties. Look at DuPage and Lake Counties, both used to be strongly red, not any more, but a deep purple. Those people fleeing the high cost of living in Cook County and Chicago brought their ideology with them to the collar counties. I know it doesn’t make sense to continue voting for the party that ran you out of where you used to live, but you can’t combine ideology with common sense. It seems Democrats vote Democrat and never make the connection to the cost of living in Democrat Counties. Randy Hulgren was a bit of an exception, as the 14th covered such a huge territory and he was beat up every single day with video from his opponent. I swear it felt like Randy Hultgren was AWOL through the general election. I personally told him he needed to produce a good amount of video to cover his territory and he ignored it. His opponent spent 4:1 as well.
Actually isn’t Pat Brady……….. Joe Walsh’s new side kick??
This is what I believe, too Gerard. The party needs to become a heck of a lot savvier in whom it chooses to direct it firepower.
We should be the Party of skilled labor. The public unions won’t go along-but the private unions know what is at stake.
Ah, Mark. People like you always think that if you ignore a destructive force it will go away.
I agree. Both Hultgren and Roskam ran lazy campaigns.
I’m looking at moving now so I really don’t care what he does. Better for the surrounding states that he passes it.
Yes-they are very good friends. They admitted as much on their last appearance (key word last) with me on Chicago Tonight.
Pat is a good man. It’s s shame that JT Nevins doesn’t see how Trump is the problem.
One other item of note:
Jennifer Nevins is running for the open position of the Illinois State Central Republican Committee.. If this group wants to shake things up and start moving forward, she would be an excellent advocate for the Illinois GOP.
Perhaps some others involved in the process with the state central committee would like to weigh in here.
Illinois GOP is trash. They know democrat Brady is our enemy, that make the Illinois GOP my enemy. Get ready for war you traitors
Trump 2020 will get my vote.
RINOS are the problem…. Brady is Madigan’s boy
I am not familiar with your comedy act. When you are not appearing on this stage, where do you perform?
Bruce Rauner was 10% less popular in Illinois than Donald Trump. Very hypocritical that ILGOP cried about conservatives critiquing Gov Rauner, but at the same time continue to subvert, undermine and brutally criticize the GOP President.
That will be the only Republican I vote for in 2020.
In the real world. You should check it out some time.
Total agreement.
We need leaders who are Republicans.
All the the Brady’s are why I will never call myself a republican. They are democrats pretending to be something else. GOP will continue to lose elections.
In Trump we have a FIGHTING Republican President.
I have worked in campaigns for conservative Republicans since Barry Goldwater ran for President. I have seen the media’s attempts to destroy Goldwater, Reagan, and now Trump, because the Left so fears strong, conservative, FIGHTING Republican candidates, who tell the truth.
Candidates like Romney and the Bush clan are ineffective because they insist on following a ‘gentleman’s code’ that the Democrats have long abandoned (if they EVER held to it). It’s like taking boxing gloves to a gun fight.
In President Trump, we have a winning candidate who knows how the dirty in-fighting is done, and how to counter-attack. He does so without fear of media opinion because he knows the media is not neutral, cannot be trusted to be an impartial referee. That’s why he is successful and that’s why clowns like Brady hate him.
I have been squawking about Brady for years. I am glad Ms. Nevins and so many others now see Brady for what he is: the Judas Goat attempting to lead the Illinois Republican Party to it’s destruction.
But Brady is NOT a good Republican. Present Establishment Republicans ARE the problem in Ill.
As another note – Ill Establishment Republicans are who they are – For themselves only!
What world would that be, D? Why don’t you come out and identify yourself? I hear that Brady is good and mad at this article. For all we know, you are him. Or perhaps his almost as useless relative Dan.
D’s Comment shares an IP address with several made by grotesque liberal Rauner apologist Stevie A.
When the Republicans assembled in Peoria for their state convention, the establishment RINOs were well positioned to foist a platform upon the party that was loaded with leftist nonsense that was contrary to the party’s pro-life and traditional family values. Brady and his underlings were prepared to railroad the platform through, but, in the space of a few hours, conservatives caucused outside of the meeting hall and the next day the liberals were defeated soundly.
Pat Brady needs to exit the GOP and go across the street to join his Democratic friends.
Oh good, I was worried that he re-joined the Democrat party after sucking his current host dry.
The Republican Party in Illinois is like a ship without a rudder. We should be the poster child for the word insanity. I’ve got a novel idea what about selecting candidates who have the potential to win. We keep taking advice from old stodgy so called leaders who still think the Rolodex is high tech. Obama used social media when most Republicans didn’t even know what it was. Trump was the first candidate to take it to the Dems. Using their own warfare. Most Republicans still think politically correct is vogue. Of course there are party leaders who won’t support Trump cause if he is right they are irrelevant.
Some of the 33 comments got sccidently deleted so I encourage you to repost your comment. This has been a good comment thread duscussing the future of the Illinois Republican Party..
As stated earlier I believe Jennifer Nevins would make an excellent addition to fill the empty spot on the state central Committee..I hope she is given careful consideration.,
As somebody who tries to follow politics in Illinois,,I know of nobody else being considered., Perhaps all done behind closed doors.
We need people on leadership who support my president Donald J Trunp
And will promote a conservative less tax pro America agenda.,
The people are fed up! WE HAVE REACHED THE ENOUGH IS ENOUGH STAGE! This will continue to happen until they give us a true conservative candidate. They just don’t get it and don’t want to give up their pedestals they have put themselves in. They are no longer in charge and we are no longer buying their crap and acting like we have nothing to say about it and they can’t deal with it. That’s what happened to get candidate Trump elected and that’s what happened to make Rauner lose! Yes we all lost with Pritzker but until this bites them in the ass they just won’t stop to look at the truth!