<-------------- >
Ersatz selection Demonte <----------------------------------------- > People's choice Donovan
The 2008 Illinois Republican Party convention was generally well run and organized. Most of the delegates were pleased with the proceedings as most votes were not close. Several orders of business needed to be resolved at the convention, including a vote for National Committeeman and Committeewoman.
The vote for National Committeeman was pretty straightforward. Pat Brady won the position at the nominating committee level with 15 votes against Steve Rauschenberger's 4 votes. A candidate must have at least 7 to get to what is called a "minority report" or essentially a floor vote.
The vote for National Committeewoman on the otherhand was an unmitigated disaster. Carol Smith Donovan received 9 votes on the first vote, Demetra Demonte won 6 and Kathy Salvi won 4.
Everything so far is fact. Now, if the DuPage county delegation is to be believed, there were a couple incidents which vastly influenced the outcome.
While the DuPage county delegation is certainly partial to Mary Jo Arndt and her endorsed candidate (Donovan), they were truly upset at these two events in particular.
The first was a procedural manuever. The State Central Committeemen (SCC) select appointments to all the convention committees. When a couple appointees decided to go off the reservation and vote against the selection of their SCC, the SCC decided to change their appointee as should be their perogative.
Several last minute replacements were made. Judy Diekelman of the 2nd district replaced a commitee nominee. Bob Alejandro of the 4th district couldn't attend the meeting, but was able to appoint Kathleen Cordes in his place the morning of the convention, but Deb Detmers was not permitted. This was a very suspect development and indeed changed the outcome of the election, but it is still not as bad as the next manuever.
According to the DuPage delegation, Tom Cross (who supports Demonte), sent word to one of the nominating committee members that they would lose their state appointed job if they did not switch votes. If this is true, he must hang around Chicago Democrats too much.
[Tom Cross' office called to deny any wrongdoing in the vote. They stated any of these comments must have been made as a result of disappointment as there is no factual basis to the claim]
Subsequently, Demonte won the tainted second vote 10-8-1. Although a significant number of delegates were unaware of these shenanigans, Demonte was almost rejected 358-270 by the floor vote.
Additionally, speaking of vote totals, for some reason there were about 200 less votes counted in the National Committeewoman's race than the immediately preceeding National Commiteeman's race. The standing vote count was not optimal for accuracy as some thought the results were 50/50 or less to approve Demonte.
With such a wide discrepancy in a close election, why didn't a roll call vote take place (as called for by the agenda). The state party rules dictate that all votes for this election must be unanimously voted for each delegation. In a 5-4 split decision, the entire 9 votes would be cast for one candidate. The election as conducted did not follow this rule. DuPage alone had over 200 delegates and with Cook and the other half of the delegations standing, certainly the Demonte rejection vote was well over 500.
Chris Lauzen switched his vote from Donovan to Demonte on the second vote for reasons only he knows. Steve Daglas, originally for Salvi and executive director of the Cook GOP,refused to vote for Donovan on the second ballot despite his comittment. And also despite the years of financial support Donovan gave to NTRO, Tolbert Chisum's proxy voted for Demonte.
These voting patterns reinforce previous Cook GOP Chairman Gary Skoien's contention that if party loyalty is not rewarded, no one will do anything for the party.
During Demonte's acceptance speech, nearly a third of the delgates, led by DuPage, Cook, and Chicago left the convention center in protest.
With all the controversy surrounding Bob Kjellander's tenure as National Committeeman, it is difficult to see how Demonte will be able to feel satisfied with the heavy-handed method a couple party insiders forced her through against the wishes of the party. Maybe the men should stay out of the women's race.
Comments:
written by Biggie Smalls, June 11, 2008
Its Kjellander all over aga
