Another day, another Republican pie fight...
Two of the six contenders for the Republican replacement nomination in IL-13, State Senator Kyle McCater and Truck Driver Sam Spradlin have alleged that Rep. Tim Johnson staged his post-primary pullout from the IL-13 race in order to benefit Jerry Clarke, Johnson's former chief of staff and current chief of staff for IL-14 Rep. Randy Hultgren.
McCarter was quoted as making these remarks by The News-Gazette, a Champaign-based newspaper:
"It's not right. This is not right," said state Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, who told a Republican luncheon gathering in Bloomington that he is interested in the congressional seat. "You know what's really insulting about this? It didn't just happen. There was talk of this happening a year ago, and it's a real insult to the people. Like I said, their vote was taken away from them.
"I think we're used to politics as usual. The politics as usual is that you manipulate the system to put certain people in positions of power. That's not the way it ought to be. The people should decide who is going to be speaking for them. Remember, this power that (politicians) have, they don't own it. It's only borrowed from the people who elect them. We forget that. But when you have people in back rooms who decide they are going to put in place who they want so that they can control them and they can control what happens in this country, that's wrong."
Spradlin ripped into the Illinois GOP's replacement nomination process
in a 5-minute video posted to Spradlin's YouTube account. One thing I've noted from Spradlin's remarks is his comparison of this current GOP debacle to the GOP replacement nomination fiasco in the 2004 IL-Sen race after Jack Ryan was implicated in a sex scandal and withdrew after winning the GOP primary in that race. Alan Keyes was selected by the Illinois GOP as the replacement nominee, and
we all know who beat Keyes in the general election.
I live about 30 miles outside of IL-13, but IL-13 will likely determine which party controls the United States House of Represenatives in the 113th Congress. IL-13 Democrats have a legitimate candidate in David Gill. I am asking that Democrats in IL-13 get behind Gill, because the result in the IL-13 general election will have massive ramifications well beyond the district's borders.