Adam Andrzejewski and Judge Don Lowery join call for Illinois GOP to respect the law in SCC elections
Posted: February 24, 2010
By Doug Ibendahl
In a joint statement issued today, former Republican Gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski, and Judge Don Lowery, former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, called upon the Illinois Republican Party to simply follow Illinois law and thereby disallow the voting of vacant precincts at the upcoming GOP county conventions on March 3rd.
Andrzejewski states, "In the election of Republican State Central Committee, certain County Chairmen vote their own ‘vacant precincts' to consolidate power. This creates a strong disincentive to build our party. If County Chairmen can cast the votes of the empty precincts - why do the hard work of filling them? . . . Let's welcome our new committeemen and respect our existing ones."
"What we need today, in advance of the March 3rd Republican Party conventions, is a ruling by Chairman Pat Brady and the Illinois Republican Party that voting the vacant precincts will no longer be permitted," Andrzejewski continued.
According to Judge Lowery, who served for 26 years on the bench of the Illinois Circuit Court, "For a county chairperson to vote vacant precincts as his/her own vote, apparently in contravention to the applicable law, would bring into legal question the validity of the election of a State Central Committeeperson elected with those invalid votes."
A vacant precinct is one not represented by an elected Republican Precinct Committeeman. The Illinois Republican Party has directed GOP County Chairmen to personally cast the weighted votes contained within these vacant precincts in the elections for the members of the Illinois Republican Party's Central Committee. This directive has the potential to severely dilute the voice of the elected Precinct Committeemen. In the past, the practice has typically allowed incumbents to easily secure another four year term.
The process to select the 19 members of the State Central Committee (one from each U.S. Congressional District) will occur immediately after each county GOP organization selects a County GOP Chairman. County conventions to choose these GOP officials will take place concurrently in the 102 county seats across Illinois on the evening of March 3rd.
For more about next week's GOP county conventions and the vacant precinct issue, see here and here.
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party. He is Co-Founder of Republican Young Professionals (RYP).
