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AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke
Will County GOP Chairman Dick Kavanagh violated Illinois law on Wednesday night at the county convention when he openly stole an election from its rightful winner and handed it to one of his fellow establishment Republicans--Bobby Peterson.
State Central Committee candidate Cory Singer comfortably won the race against Peterson in Will County by around 5,000 votes when Kavanagh stepped in and illegally voted all the vacant precincts (as well as the precincts with absent Committeemen) for Peterson, steam-rolling over the election process and senselessly disenfranchising the party base.
This demoralizes those whose job it is to get out the vote...at the worst possible time.
It is precisely why the State Central Committee should never have been allowed to invent this fraudulent power in the first place (and why SB600 so urgently needs to become law). As I have noted, this is blatantly illegal and is now being abused with impunity. The people who are supposed to elect our leaders are being stripped of their voice so that corrupt party elites can protect themselves from the will of the people.
At the very least, Will County needs to make an example out of Kavanagh in 2012.
Will County GOP:
330 Republic Avenue
Joliet, IL 60435-6520
(815) 744-8683
Comments
Singer beat Peterson in Mclean county not Will county... I am sure this was just a case of the fingers typing faster than the brain...ROFL But please fix it.
Ignore my previous comment, I was not reading it correctly... I am sorry
this is another example where the rules are only enforced if the rhinos want it there way in will county and the other few Republican bastion counties left. Isn't that why bobbie let Halverson win , she does live by Bobbie... Bobbie did sell alot of land for big money to the state for the airport/intermodal. Who bought the land democrats or state agencies controlled by Democrats. This Bobbie thing is about control of money and jobs, not Republican ideals
So is there going to be a court challenge or just a bunch of editorials blasting the Will Co. Chairman? I agree the election was stolen completely, but one thing is to complain about it, it's quite another to do something about it.
So is there going to be a court challenge or just a bunch of editorials blasting the Will Co. Chairman? I agree the election was stolen completely, but one thing is to complain about it, it's quite another to do something about it.
So is there going to be a court challenge or just a bunch of editorials blasting the Will Co. Chairman? I agree the election was stolen completely, but one thing is to complain about it, it's quite another to do something about it.
McLean Co. Chair John Parrot took the right stand, the principled stand, and did NOT vote vacant precincts, even though it would have "helped" his choices for SCC.
And Heath, note that Singer did beat Peterson in Will by a huge margin (over 2 to 1) when only the legal votes are counted. It was the County Chair there who threw the thing back to Peterson by voting vancant and even absent precincts.
An error in judgement was made by the two GOP chairmen of Will & Grundy Counties. I ask that Ms. Petersen recognize that she has shredded the political credibility of these two good men and ask that she now "suddenly retire" in order to preserve the political integrity of the Grundy and Will County Republican Parties. No young candidate will ever run for future office based on the stacked deck that he is now aware will be dealt out. Where is Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady at? Please "Un-Fix" the "Fixed" Illinois GOP Party. Never has the need for SB600 been more clearly shown to be needed. Will County and Grundy County are the "Poster Twins" for Chris Lauzen's SB600.
Um, call the police have him arrested. - Seriously
Dick Kavanagh should definitely resign. I don't know how he shows his face around self respecting Republicans in the future.
Bobbie Peterson should also step aside and give that post to the rightful winner, Cory Singer.
If Kavanagh and Peterson really cared about the GOP they would do the right thing and hit the road, and don't come back no more, no more, no more, no more.
The premise for the article is wrong, therefore the conclusion is wrong.
Illinois state law says that precinct committeemen shall vote their precinct's weighted vote. That happened. The law allows, or more specifically does not forbid, county chairmen from voting unrepresented precinct voters. This is allowed by state law so that Cook county chairmen will not be able to wield disproportional influence.
There is a reason the Lake County suit was thrown out. The protesters should get better legal advice, otherwise they'll continue to make fools of themselves.
The Chairman should not resign.
Illinois Lawyer should be disbarred, if in fact he even is a lawyer, and if he is, he should get his law school tuition back.
And note dummy, Cook County only has one gop chairman, just like every other county. I don't even know where you get "chairmen." Do some study before spouting off and embarrassing yourself.
Why was Doug Ibendahl, when he was the Illinois republican party general counsel, for allowing Chairmen to vote vacant precincts?
Why was he for it before he was against it?
Is he just trying to eek out some billable hours?
Ibendahl clearly lays out all the reasons this is undeniably illegal in the article Moon linked to. Nothing I've heard refutes any of that.
And even if it weren't technically illegal, it still disenfranchises the Precinct Committeemen--who were clearly the people meant under the law to elect the leaders.
If you have to hide behind bogus legal technicalities to justify stripping the party base of its power to remove corrupt incompetents, you've got bigger problems then whether or not it's technically legal.
"Undeniably illegal"? Why did the judge throw the lawsuit against it out of court, even after allowing the complaint to be amended?
Why should the Cook county and township chairmen be able to do it, but none of the other 101 counties in Illinois? How many Illinois congressional district include Cook county precincts?
Why was Ibendahl for it before he was against it? What special relationship does he have with Cook county republican officials that he is pushing?
Admittedly, the practice of voting vacant precinct may be bad policy, but there is not a slam dunk legal case against it.
Joe Kordik said on Mar 09 2010, 01:58 PM:
Election law states that the county convention has to be held 29 days after a primary election and that 30 days after the election the county central committee chairman can appoint people to the vacant precincts. The idea behind this is to keep the chairman from having too much power. What Chairman Kavanagh did was not only disenfranchise the precinct committeemen of Will county but also the precinct committeemen of the entire 11th congressional district. Cory Singer lost the election in the entire district by 2800 votes. If you do the math, one person controlled that election; Dick Kavanagh
No Way Jose,
Nothing you've said refutes anything Ibendahl brought up in the article Mr. Moon linked to. All you've done is claim that some judge agreed with you and that your logic must therefore be valid.
That's a fallacy. Judges aren't incapable of being wrong, biased or corrupt.
Try actually DEBATING your point.
I am all for putting up candidates that will replace the current board. Feel free to hit me back at john.iacobucci@comcast.net would be glad to work with you on this.
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