Updated July 30, 2004: 12: 10 am, revised 12:30 pm
Judy Baar Topinka "guarantees," the Republican Party will have a U. S. Senate Candidate by Tuesday, Aug. 3, to oppose Democratic Senate Candidate Barack Obama.
Of course, it is widely perceived that the State GOP Leadership Triad, along with most other political professionals, do not think the Republicans can win this U. S. Senate seat, even if some of the top name "could be candidates," who are not on the State Central Committee list, were to become candidates. The more interesting question, though, is does the GOP Leadership Triad want to win this seat?
And, oops, the first publication of this blog entry mistakenly included State Senator Steve Rauschenberger on the list of potential senate candidates that the State Central Committee is considering. If the Committee is considering Steve, it would be contrary to Rauschenberger's public statements that he withdrew his name from consideration, as well as contrary to statements of Steve's intentions that he made to this journalist this week. Also, John Cox was inadvertently omitted from the list of primary candidates under consideration by the State Central Committee. My apologies for any inconvience caused by those errors.
Judy Baar Topinka sets another deadline, this coming Tuesday, for the State Central Committee to decide on the replacement for withdrawn Republican U. S. Senate Candidate Jack Ryan. The Committee is scheduled to meet, starting at 12:00 pm on Tuesday, Aug. 3, at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago. The Committee will first interview multiple candidates and then deliberate and choose a Republican
U. S. Senate Candidate, said Chairman Topinka and her spokesperson, Jason Gerwig, last night.
Illinois Treasurer and State GOP Chairman Judy Baar Topinka speaking at last night’s Illinois GOP Summer in the City Fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower:
Judy Baar Topinka: …although he [Democratic U. S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama] speaks well and he did a nice job on his talk [Democratic Convention keynote speech], it is a little short on issues and those issues are what are the day to day concerns of people--…that’s what we are going to have to start looking at and that is why it is so important that we have a good Senate candidate, one who is conversant about these issues and who can handle a debate and we have vetted all these folks so they have had to go through a vetting process. There are going to be no surprises. So, Tuesday [August 3, 2004], guaranteed, there will be a [Republican U. S. ] Senate candidate, so stay tuned …God, folks, it has been a long haul.
*****************************************************
Judy Baar Topinka: There are at least four or five states out there that have not even had a primary, yet, so, you know, time wise, we have plenty of time and we have plenty of time, too. What’s nice is, half the battle is already there because they don’t have to go through a primary so we can save all that money. They are also going to get a little bump because this is all exciting- then we are going to have a [U. S.] Senate candidate, so you get the name recognition. You know, I am cheap and as a Treasurer, I save money and I intend to save money on this as well, while making sure we get money to go at—
Jeff Berkowitz: But, your candidates, your candidates are behind, any one of them, at least twenty points and at least five million dollars in the hole—
Judy Baar Topinka: So.
Berkowitz: How do you make that up, you know anyone who can [raise $50,000 per day]?
Topinka: We start. You have to have a candidate first and we will.
***********************************************************
State GOP Chairman Judy Baar Topinka, July 29, 2004, Summer in the City fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower, Chicago, IL
**********************************************************
Although the press conference was too short for the press to get around to asking Chairman Topinka to list all of the candidates before the State Central Committee, all indications are that the the primary candidates on the list include General John Borling, 2% in the Senate primary, fifth place ; Jim Oberweis, about 25% in the primary, second place; John Cox, who ran third among three candidates in the 2002 Senate primary and dropped out of the 2004 Senate primary; the Edwardsville, IL downstate developer Robert Plummer, who reportedly is ready to kick in $5 million to get elected to the Senate and Liz Gorman, rookie Cook County Board Commissioner. Orion Samuelson, early morning farm reporter on the radio, may put himself on the list, and he would join secondary candidates Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell and Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, who received 1% of the vote in the Senate primary, or about 6,000 votes statewide. The secondary candidate list- Kathuria, Barthwell and Samuelson, as well as two to four additional anonymous candidates, is very unlikely to include the eventual State Central Committee choice. Unless, of course, the anonymous candidates are surprize stars, which no one seems to be betting on.
Judy did hot have an answer for the question as to how the eventual candidate will deal with the polling deficit and funds to spend deficit, relative to the extrememly strong financial position and polling preference of Democratic Senate Candidate Barack Obama, other then to suggest that the candidate somehow would start to make that up when there is a candidate. A Party of Faith or a Party of Blind Faith?
Further, it looks like no one in the state GOP leadership Triad [Topinka, Kjellander and Edgar, to a much lesser extent] is too concerned about the absence of a credible candidate among their list of candidates to oppose Barack Obama. That is, no one in the state GOP leadership seems interested in "recruiting," or knows how to recruit solid candidates like Fitzgerald or Rauschenberger to run. It is widely perceived that the State GOP Leadership Triad, along with most other political professionals, do not think the Republicans can win this U. S. Senate seat, even if some of the top name "could be candidates," who are not on the State Central Committee list, became candidates. The more interesting question, though, is does the GOP Leadership Triad want to win? More on this later.
Jeff Berkowitz, host of "Public Affairs," can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
Judy Baar Topinka "guarantees," the Republican Party will have a U. S. Senate Candidate by Tuesday, Aug. 3, to oppose Democratic Senate Candidate Barack Obama.
Of course, it is widely perceived that the State GOP Leadership Triad, along with most other political professionals, do not think the Republicans can win this U. S. Senate seat, even if some of the top name "could be candidates," who are not on the State Central Committee list, were to become candidates. The more interesting question, though, is does the GOP Leadership Triad want to win this seat?
And, oops, the first publication of this blog entry mistakenly included State Senator Steve Rauschenberger on the list of potential senate candidates that the State Central Committee is considering. If the Committee is considering Steve, it would be contrary to Rauschenberger's public statements that he withdrew his name from consideration, as well as contrary to statements of Steve's intentions that he made to this journalist this week. Also, John Cox was inadvertently omitted from the list of primary candidates under consideration by the State Central Committee. My apologies for any inconvience caused by those errors.
Judy Baar Topinka sets another deadline, this coming Tuesday, for the State Central Committee to decide on the replacement for withdrawn Republican U. S. Senate Candidate Jack Ryan. The Committee is scheduled to meet, starting at 12:00 pm on Tuesday, Aug. 3, at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago. The Committee will first interview multiple candidates and then deliberate and choose a Republican
U. S. Senate Candidate, said Chairman Topinka and her spokesperson, Jason Gerwig, last night.
Illinois Treasurer and State GOP Chairman Judy Baar Topinka speaking at last night’s Illinois GOP Summer in the City Fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower:
Judy Baar Topinka: …although he [Democratic U. S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama] speaks well and he did a nice job on his talk [Democratic Convention keynote speech], it is a little short on issues and those issues are what are the day to day concerns of people--…that’s what we are going to have to start looking at and that is why it is so important that we have a good Senate candidate, one who is conversant about these issues and who can handle a debate and we have vetted all these folks so they have had to go through a vetting process. There are going to be no surprises. So, Tuesday [August 3, 2004], guaranteed, there will be a [Republican U. S. ] Senate candidate, so stay tuned …God, folks, it has been a long haul.
*****************************************************
Judy Baar Topinka: There are at least four or five states out there that have not even had a primary, yet, so, you know, time wise, we have plenty of time and we have plenty of time, too. What’s nice is, half the battle is already there because they don’t have to go through a primary so we can save all that money. They are also going to get a little bump because this is all exciting- then we are going to have a [U. S.] Senate candidate, so you get the name recognition. You know, I am cheap and as a Treasurer, I save money and I intend to save money on this as well, while making sure we get money to go at—
Jeff Berkowitz: But, your candidates, your candidates are behind, any one of them, at least twenty points and at least five million dollars in the hole—
Judy Baar Topinka: So.
Berkowitz: How do you make that up, you know anyone who can [raise $50,000 per day]?
Topinka: We start. You have to have a candidate first and we will.
***********************************************************
State GOP Chairman Judy Baar Topinka, July 29, 2004, Summer in the City fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower, Chicago, IL
**********************************************************
Although the press conference was too short for the press to get around to asking Chairman Topinka to list all of the candidates before the State Central Committee, all indications are that the the primary candidates on the list include General John Borling, 2% in the Senate primary, fifth place ; Jim Oberweis, about 25% in the primary, second place; John Cox, who ran third among three candidates in the 2002 Senate primary and dropped out of the 2004 Senate primary; the Edwardsville, IL downstate developer Robert Plummer, who reportedly is ready to kick in $5 million to get elected to the Senate and Liz Gorman, rookie Cook County Board Commissioner. Orion Samuelson, early morning farm reporter on the radio, may put himself on the list, and he would join secondary candidates Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell and Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, who received 1% of the vote in the Senate primary, or about 6,000 votes statewide. The secondary candidate list- Kathuria, Barthwell and Samuelson, as well as two to four additional anonymous candidates, is very unlikely to include the eventual State Central Committee choice. Unless, of course, the anonymous candidates are surprize stars, which no one seems to be betting on.
Judy did hot have an answer for the question as to how the eventual candidate will deal with the polling deficit and funds to spend deficit, relative to the extrememly strong financial position and polling preference of Democratic Senate Candidate Barack Obama, other then to suggest that the candidate somehow would start to make that up when there is a candidate. A Party of Faith or a Party of Blind Faith?
Further, it looks like no one in the state GOP leadership Triad [Topinka, Kjellander and Edgar, to a much lesser extent] is too concerned about the absence of a credible candidate among their list of candidates to oppose Barack Obama. That is, no one in the state GOP leadership seems interested in "recruiting," or knows how to recruit solid candidates like Fitzgerald or Rauschenberger to run. It is widely perceived that the State GOP Leadership Triad, along with most other political professionals, do not think the Republicans can win this U. S. Senate seat, even if some of the top name "could be candidates," who are not on the State Central Committee list, became candidates. The more interesting question, though, is does the GOP Leadership Triad want to win? More on this later.
Jeff Berkowitz, host of "Public Affairs," can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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