By Illinois Review
The Illinois Republican Party routinely claims that they do not have enough money to support individual candidates – especially the conservative grassroots candidates, but disclosures reveal that during the 2022 election cycle, the state party spent over $954,000 on three political consulting firms as Democrats dominated the election and expanded their super majority control throughout the state.
Disclosures also reveal that during that same period, the state party spent over $731,000 on salaries. Records show the IL GOP sent $437,500 to Axiom Strategies, $285,196 to COR Strategies and $231,347 to Validus.
But the money spent did not advance Republican causes, but rather it advanced Republican losses – as the party spent nearly one million dollars to hire the state’s best and brightest political minds and consultants. And what was the result of their efforts? As the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board pointed out in a Nov. 11, 2022 editorial,
“Republicans lost every state constitutional office – governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer – and 14 of 17 congressional seats. In the General Assembly, not only did the GOP fail to gain any ground on Democrats’ supermajority, Democrats notched a record number of seats in the Illinois House. And in the Illinois Supreme Court, where Republicans had an opportunity to gain two seats…they came up short. Democrats now have a comfortable 5-2 edge in the state’s high court.”
Validus partner and co-founder Nick Klitzing is the former Executive Director of the IL GOP and he served as the Deputy Campaign Manager and Special Counsel for the Bruce Rauner re-election campaign in 2017. A review of Klitzing’s personal X account reveals anti-Trump posts. The Republican political consultant also bashes former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, writing in 2020 that the mayor caused “extraordinary damage to our democracy by lying and pushing wild conspiracies on conservative media.”
In other posts, Klitzing praises Never Trumper former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, writing, “So proud that @RepKinzinger represents Illinois!”
Klitzing even endorses an anti-Trump, pro-choice Chicago Democrat in 2019, writing,
“As a Republican in Chicago, I don’t always love my choices in city elections. But I enthusiastically voted for @AnnaValenciaIL for City Clerk. I’ve known Anna for 15+ years. She is a great leader and true public servant. She deserves your support. #VoteValencia #TeamValencia”
In 2018, Valencia endorsed Democrat JB Pritzker for governor, writing, “I am proud to support JB for governor and to fight alongside him for the future of Illinois.” And in response, Pritzker noted,
“I’m honored to receive the endorsement of Clerk Valencia. Anna is a strong voice for women’s rights and economic opportunity here in Chicago and across the state. As governor, I will work with leaders like Anna to protect a woman’s right to choose, support women and minority-owned small businesses, and work to close the gender pay gap. We will also fight the hateful attacks we’re seeing from the Trump and Rauner administrations.”
And in 2022, Gov. JB Pritzker endorsed Valencia in her bid to become Illinois’ Secretary of State, stating that she “represents the bright future of the Democratic Party.”
But Republican political consulting is a lucrative business in Illinois, regardless of one’s winning record. Last April, this publication revealed that the Richard Uihlein-funded People Who Play By The Rules PAC, in quarterly disclosures, paid three political consultants $142,000 while spending just $3,700 to support conservative school board candidates during the April elections. Sadly, the candidates lost, but the real winners were the consultants who paid themselves generously.
The founder, president and treasurer of the PAC Dan Proft, a Florida resident and host of the Naples-based radio show Chicago’s Morning Answer, received the majority of the consulting fees, totaling $75,000 to Starfish Consulting LLC, while the rest went to a consulting firm owned by Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, who was paid $26,000 through Fahrenheit Consulting Group, while $41,000 went to a consulting firm owned by Michael Koolidge (TMKS, LLC), who also serves as the PAC’s communications director and chief spokesperson.
During the 2022 Illinois gubernatorial campaign, Uihlein donated $42 million to Proft’s PAC. And just weeks before the election, the Illinois political consulting class, including the PAC, were out promoting a single poll that showed Republican nominee Darren Bailey within “striking” distance and only two points behind Pritzker during the final stretch of the campaign. But on election night, the governor’s race was called at the exact moment the polls closed, with the Associated Press declaring Gov. Pritzker the winner at 7:00 pm CDT. Pritzker would defeat Bailey by 12 points – a far cry from the 2-point margin that the Republican consultants were out promoting just days before.
The Illinois Republican political consulting class is busy getting ready for the 2024 election, and promising major Republican victories in a state dominated by the Democrats. But if history is any indication, the real winners will not be the local candidates – but rather, the well-paid political consultants.
The next election is November 5, 2024.
