Republican leaders fight to give voters a voice, against their own leadership

State Sen. Chris Lauzen is in a fight, unbelievably, to give Republican Voters the right to directly pick their own leaders on the GOP "Board of Directors," the State Central Committee.

I say unbelievably because the biggest foes of changing the existing law which allows Republican committeemen in the 19 Illinois Congressional Districts to select their State Central Committeemen and Women, rather than give that vote to Republican votes, are some of the Republican Party's own leaders, like State GOP Chief Andrew McKenna.

Lauzen has introduced Senate Bill 600 to change the practice and let Republican voters directly vote on selecting the State Central Committeeman and State Central Committeewoman in each of the state’s 19 Congressional Districts. The two posts are equal and have given women equal voice in state politics. Democrats already directly vote for their counterparts. It’s only the Republican voters who are denied that right.

Former Gov. Jim Thompson, who didn't blink at donating his legal services to help his corrupt pal former Gov. George Ryan, took away the right of Republican voters to select their leaders in 1988 in a move to consolidate his own power. If you had to trace the total collapse of the Republican Party to any single move or person, it would be to that date and to that former governor.

Now, State Sen. Chris Lauzen and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno are planning to push for the adoption of a bill that would restore the right of Republican voters, taken away by Thompson in 1988, to directly elect the State Central Committeemen and State Central Committee Women (co-equals in a system that has empowered woman leadership in Illinois) and McKenna has threatened to file a lawsuit if the bill is passed.

The Republican Party Chief, McKenna, wants to prevent Republican voters from deciding who should represent the party? No wonder the Illinois Republican party is an absolute mess. McKenna has been arguing that the state voters should get the right to elect the U.S. Senator, demanding that the seat held by controversy-plagued U.S. Senator Roland Burris should be decided in a special election -- give the voters a voice, he says.

But when it comes to giving Republicans a voice in who should be leading the Republican Party, the voters of him, he doesn't want the Republican party members to vote.

Tragic.

Listen to Lauzen's podcast interview from Radio Chicagoland last Monday on WJJG 1530 AM Radio by clicking here. Get more information at Lauzen's web site at http://www.lauzen.com/.

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.radiochicagoland.com/

The Olympics and the "benefits" to the Southwest Side

After I have written three columns addressing the absence of any significant role for the Southwest Side of Chicago in the 2016 Olympics, Congressman Dan Lipinski and Ald. Mike Zalewski, naturally, have been trying to spin a different angle.

Let's be honest, that they "might" use the Bridgeview Stadium for soccer games is a no-brainer. All the thanks for that goes to Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek who is responsible for bringing int he stadium against much odds and opposition.

But the truth is that while two Southwest suburbs will get tokenism and a little something, (Palos will get some bike Path racing -- wow! Big Deal), the majority of the capital improvements and new infrastructure will go to the rest of Chicago, NOT the Southwest Side.

Here's a great feature by writer Chuck Salvatore on Lipinski and Zalewski's "rah-rahing."

Personally, I think the Southwest Side is, ONCE AGAIN, getting screwed because our elected officials were ONCE AGAIN asleep at the switch.

They're going to be rebuilding in East and south Side of Chicago. Whatever residue the Southwest Side gets will be people zipping through, to and from, Midway Airport. Maybe. So we'll get some CTA congestion. But none of those tourist dollars will make their ways into the starving pockets of Southwest Side Chicago businesses that have been long abandoned by the state Chamber of Commerce and our government.

Hell, Mayor Daley sent a message out loud and clear when he moved to the "South Loop" suburb-in-a-city years ago abandoning Bridgeport, once the firewall of Southwest Side clout. These days, the clout is just a memory.

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