By Mark Vargas, Editor at Large
It is impossible to sugarcoat this and tell you that there’s hope for Republicans in Illinois. Not only did we lose every statewide office, but we lost badly down ballot as well.
Illinois Senate and House Republicans suffered debilitating defeats on election night, prompting House GOP leader Jim Durkin, R, to resign the day after the election and Senate GOP leader Dan McConchie, R, to resign less than a week later.
The losses leave Republicans in both chambers irrelevant in Springfield and gives Democrats a comfortable supermajority.
This is unacceptable.
There are a lot of reasons why Republicans in Illinois lost the election – $100 million directed at the campaigns of two candidates leaving a lack of funding for down ballot candidates; a divided GOP; a weak candidate at the top of the ticket whose race was called within minutes of the polls closing; no mail-in-ballot program and weak voter integrity initiatives.
And we can’t ignore the impact the abortion issue had on this election. It energized the Democratic base, labeled pro life Republicans as “extremists” and drove suburban women in masses to vote either early, by mail-in-ballot, or on November 8th.
If Illinois Republicans want to start winning again, it’s going to take a united party; a diversified pool of money and an emphasis on building a robust mail-in-ballot program.
It’s also going to take new Illinois GOP leadership – and it is why I am calling on IL GOP Chairman Don Tracy to resign.
Resign Now.
The people of Illinois need to know that the GOP is serious about rebuilding and putting the best team in place to win.
If Don Tracy can take credit for victories, then he most certainly can take responsibility for losses. And the losses were many.
Virtually the entire House GOP leadership team either lost or retired.
As Capitol News’ Peter Hancock noted, House Deputy Minority Leaders Dan Brady, R, and Tom Demmer, R, were defeated in their bids for statewide office; Assistant House Minority Leader Avery Bourne, R, who ran for lieutenant governor, was defeated in the primary; Assistant Minority Leader Keith Wheeler, R, was defeated for re-election; and Minority Conference Chairman David Welter, R, was also defeated.
Minority Floor Leader Mark Batnick, R, chose not to run for re-election and Assistant Minority Leader Tim Butler, R, is resigning to take a job in the public sector.
To put it simply, this is a disaster.
House GOP Minority Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie resigning their leadership positions isn’t enough.
Don Tracy is a businessman who along with his siblings run the nation’s largest redistributor of food and related products. That business employs 6,000 people in the US and Canada.
Now, do you think they got here by rewarding losing sales teams?
Do you think they got here by consistently rewarding sales managers who fail to meet their quotas?
The Illinois GOP is not a family business. We don’t report to you – you report to us – the people.
The Illinois GOP is now a national joke – and as the Chairman of the IL GOP, you bear responsibility.
The buck stops here. The buck stops with you. Show that you can lead by resigning now.
We can’t win otherwise.
