Rank-And-File outsmart Pompous Pooh-Bahs at IL GOP state convention

“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” – Abraham Lincoln

That Lincoln quote is so accurate that even the worst-of-the-worst in the Illinois GOP seem to recognize its truth. And that’s despite the fact few of them come across as big students of history.

Fear over what good people could accomplish if empowered with a vote derives from some innate sense all petty potentates seem to share.

That innate fear was on full display this past Friday & Saturday at the Illinois Republican State Convention in Collinsville.

This state convention was the most shamefully rigged and disrespectful to the Republican rank-and-file I’ve seen yet in the nearly 30 years I’ve been paying attention to this stuff. And I have always been the first to acknowledge there were certainly problems when I was the state party’s lawyer 25 years ago.

But I learn from experience and when I see things are infinitely worse today, I work for meaningful positive change. I don’t double-down on a failed system which the average 5-year old can see has been a catastrophic disaster for the Illinois GOP.

Unfortunately, that is not yet an attitude universally shared. And we’re now to the point where dishonesty, self-dealing and unprofessionalism are officially off the charts.

And it all centers around a desperate desire by the pooh-bahs to keep the rank-and-file disenfranchised and voiceless in their own state party. The lengths some on the state central committee (SCC) and their bootlicks have been willing to go to keep Republicans from having a vote again has a lot of people scratching their heads.

State chair Don Tracy, who also served as convention chair, is just one example.

Failed & Divisive state party chair seems resigned not to resign

Don Tracy took the stage on Saturday and made it clear it would be yet another bad year for GOP candidates in Illinois. Low Energy Don offered no new ideas or inspiration. It was just the same old pablum.

Seriously, Tracy made Joe Biden look like Jack LaLanne (Google him, youngsters).

And if Tracy mentioned Donald Trump even once, I missed it. And of course he said nothing in support of Trump who is battling the most despotic form of Democrat lawfare right now – all because Trump fights for us. That’s obviously an alien concept to Don Tracy. And there wasn’t a single Trump sign in the convention hall. The one big asset our GOP has going for it, a man who does energize, inspire, and expand the party, was mostly avoided at this convention by the pooh-bahs.

Don Tracy could have come out of this past weekend a huge hero. He could have actually led for once. He could have gone down in history as the state chair who finally got it. All he had to do was stand-up for Republicans (the people he is supposed to be working for). Tracy could have announced we’re going to respect our voters for a change. He could have said he now sees the error of his ways and now agrees we should restore a vote that never should have been robbed from us in the first place.

Had Tracy done so, I would have been the first to publicly thank him. His countless lies to his Republican constituents in the past would have all been forgiven. Instead of continuing to spout gibberish about the Illinois GOP being unified, he could have actually united the party.

But of course that didn’t happen this weekend. Tracy instead went out of his way to double-down on his divisiveness and dishonesty. The state GOP is now the most divided I’ve ever seen it. And it has certainly had strong divides in the past. The state party is also the deadest in history.

Now to the extent history remembers Tracy at all, it will be for being the 9th useless state chair this young century who actively chose to keep the Illinois GOP in the ditch and incapable of beating the Democrats in any significant race.

This has intelligent people wondering, what the hell is going on? Surely, this can’t ALL be attributed to gross incompetence and breathtaking stupidity. I mean why would anyone go to such lengths to publicly demonstrate such hostility to Republican voters, especially since it’s in Don Tracy’s own self-interest to change his ways?

A lot of people, me included, wonder what might be hiding in the state party books that has some so terrified of any accountability and transparency being restored?

Or maybe it’s just the highly overpaid consultants the state party now employs who are getting rich off of Republican contributors who simply don’t know any better. No doubt those consultants fear the Republican rank-and-file becoming tuned-in and informed, as that might very well lead to the end of the gravy train. Heaven forbid Illinois Republicans finally demand a housecleaning at the state party like the RNC was finally forced to perform earlier this year. My guess is Tracy is such a weak and ineffectual leader, he can’t function even as a figurehead without consultants, even lousy ones, telling him what to do.

But it’s impossible to know the true motive of people you can’t trust.

Everyone knows Don Tracy is only state chair today because he has inherited wealth from the company his parents founded. The deal is obviously Don gets to have a title and pretend he’s a bigshot, as long as he keeps the state party lights on.

And I’m sorry to have to say it, but in my humble and non-expert opinion, there is something seriously wrong with Don Tracy. And I wouldn’t be saying it except for the fact he keeps lying to us and wrecking our party. Worst of all, he refuses to use the big platform he was handed to stand-up for Donald Trump. More examples below. We can keep him in our prayers, absolutely. But the guy’s gotta go. Honestly, after this past weekend, I have no idea how he even pretends to lecture or preach to Republicans on anything.

In any case, the good news is the pooh-bahs played into our hands.

We separated more wheat from the chaff in Collinsville.

We’re going to update the list of people who sold you out. My intent is to make all of these people famous, so you don’t waste your time voting for them if and when they run for something where they DO want Republicans to vote.

Next is a quick summary of how any semblance of accountability was smothered with a pillow on Memorial Day Weekend.

And then read on for how that sell-out played a significant role in one of the most historic demonstrations of Illinois rank-and-file power, ever. The only unfortunate part is it was only on a very narrow issue. But definitely a very important one.

Even with the incredibly restrictive convention rules and sleazy actions to try and thwart ANY rank-and-file voice from been heard, regular Republicans registered an enormous victory for decency and good. It was inspiring to watch. I’m proud to have played even a very small role.

But first, here’s why we still don’t have a vote in our own state party.

Delegates get first-hand education, from the Pooh-Bahs themselves, on exactly why direct elections must be restored

The convention Platform & Resolutions Committee (P&R) spent a couple of hours on Friday tediously reading a mishmash of resolutions that maybe 2 people will ever even glance at after this convention. There were around 75 Republicans in the P&R room observing. Strict silence from the observers was demanded. No non-member of the P&R committee was allowed to speak at any time. And this was the only “open” meeting the P&R committee ever held.

A few persons came up to me afterwards and basically said, “Doug you were right.” If they didn’t get why restoring our vote was so important before, they do now.

At the end of the P&R committee meeting, its chair, Laura Pollastrini, claimed her committee had “serious” discussions about direct elections. Apparently in one of P&R’s top secret meetings over the past few weeks, a straw vote was taken. According to Pollastrini, there were NO votes for restoring direct elections. And 12 votes of members who oppose direct elections. Pollastrini gave no details on how this “vote” was taken or even what exact question was asked. Pollastrini gave no indication that the actual proposed Resolution which would have restored our vote (and which P&R had for weeks) was discussed, much less voted on.

Pollastrini was shamefully vague, but it sounds like she just went around the horn at one of the top secret meetings and asked the members if they supported direct elections. As everyone on that P&R committee was chosen by the 17 members of the SCC which 99.999% of Republicans have zero say in picking, it’s hardly surprising that their picks for P&R would be mostly weak individuals who could be “persuaded” to keep Republican voters disenfranchised in their own state party.

So on Friday the P&R committee didn’t even have the decency to record a vote on the restore direct elections resolution. Which just means all members have to be lumped into the same spineless pool. When the pressure was on, in the end, not a single person on the P&R committee stood up for Republican voters – even though as recently as a few days prior to the convention some were still saying they would, at a minimum, be a YES vote to put the Resolution on the floor on Saturday for ALL delegates to decide.

Bottom line, the full delegation which met for the one and only time on Saturday did not even get to vote on the one thing which would go a long way towards getting the IL GOP out of the ditch it’s been in for many years.

So the big message communicated from this convention is that the Illinois GOP is SO hostile to the idea of Republicans voting that it wouldn’t even allow the delegates to vote on whether Republicans should have a vote.

Yes, that’s the “unity” Don Tracy and some others crow about these days.

Great news for Illinois Democrats indeed. They obviously still have nothing to worry about in Illinois.

But that shameful news leads to news of the enormous win over the weekend for the good guys.

All of the lies and repulsive behavior finally came home to roost for Don Tracy and his handlers.

“Stand and be Recognized” and then sit down and comply

At the start of the convention on Saturday, Tracy asked all veterans in the delegation to stand and be recognized. All well and good of course. Same for elected public officials. Same for PCs who Tracy now pretends to care about ever since a couple of weeks ago I explained how the corrupt system he still supports actually disenfranchises in a major way the “votes” of all PCs.

But rather than tell the PCs the demonstrable truth, Tracy resorts to more dishonest games.

All of these “stand and be recognized” calls came across as a cheesy ploy by Tracy to give the delegates a false sense of security that he was a straight shooting nice guy who could be trusted, and not someone who would turn around and screw them at the first sign it was time to screw them.

Let’s just say that “strategy” didn’t work out so well.

By far the most interesting “stand and be recognized” call was when Tracy asked everyone who was attending their first state convention to stand. By my unscientific estimate AT LEAST 80% of the delegates stood.

That was a big hint that the pooh-bahs didn’t get a full contingent of their people there, i.e., the usual hacks and bootlicks. But in their defense, Tracy’s handlers had obviously been very busy frantically working to keep us disenfranchised in our own state party.

Keep in mind, there were only around 482 delegates in attendance, and 17 alternates.

There were 1,220 delegate spots available, and an equal number of alternate spots. That’s a fill rate of just 20%.

Did anyone from the state party ever communicate that there was a vast number of spots still available? Of course not, but you already knew that.

But that’s been pretty typical. Most Republicans go to one and decide it’s a waste of time and money. In many cases, the IL GOP never sees them again. That’s how rigged these things are. Friends have chided me in the past for encouraging them to go. My response has always been the same, every Republican needs to attend at least one. That’s the only way to appreciate how destructive to GOP prospects these things truly are. If you don’t see it with your own eyes, you can’t fully fathom.

Tracy no doubt expected the rest of the convention to go as smoothly as the “stand and be recognized” prelude. But what Tracy did not know was that delegates he couldn’t control had been busy for weeks organizing their own effort to ensure their voice would not be completely squelched.

First sign the Pooh-Bahs’ plotting was going off the rails: Loud NAYS on the convention rules

Don Tracy was clearly stunned upon hearing the thunderous NAYS when delegates were asked to approve the 2024 State Convention Rules and Procedures by voice vote.

This was the first agenda item where the delegates were allowed to register approval or disapproval to what was being spoon-fed to them. Delegates are expected to just rubberstamp what their “betters” previously decided for them.

Hundreds of good people had different ideas.

Don Tracy did not take this rejection well. He proceeded to go out of his way to make a total fool of himself and openly demonstrate to the world what a dirty dealer he truly is.

After stuttering around in the wake of overwhelming rejection of the rules by delegates, Tracy STILL went out of his way to display astonishingly horrible judgment. For some inexplicable reason, Tracy decided to go out of his way to destroy whatever smidgeon of respectability he still had left. And he did it in plain sight. It’s still hard to fathom, but Tracy stood at the podium and declared the AYES had it on the voice vote for approving the rules. This despite the fact even he had to know this was an incredibly corrupt ruling. Everyone knew the NAYS were much louder. It wasn’t even close.

Suffice it to say such shameless skullduggery did not sit well with the peasants. It was also the insulting nature of being told something everyone knew was false. People do have ears. It all triggered a bit of a peasant uprising.

Tracy looked shell-shocked and eventually whispered in the ear of the Parliamentarian Craig Burkhardt.

I have no clue what Tracy hoped to get out Burkhardt, but I know Burkhardt has always been a straight shooter who always plays things down the middle. Burkhardt started out as a Springfield lawyer and is now a big player in D.C. No way is that guy tarnishing his excellent reputation by putting his thumb on the scale for the benefit of Don Tracy or anyone else. Burkhardt has been the Parliamentarian for every IL GOP state convention since 1986. It’s probably the only smart thing our state party continues to do. No doubt Don Tracy and some others don’t see it that way after this past weekend.

And that fair dealing is exactly what we witnessed. At Tracy’s request it was Burkhardt who came to the podium and explained the need for a standing vote of individual delegations. It’s unclear if that was the ruling Tracy expected, but it doesn’t matter. That’s what he got.

And Tracy got the message. When the vote on approving the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman came up several minutes later, Tracy at least didn’t try again to corruptly ramrod the much lower voice vote through.

Despite all the pre-rigging, delegates deny Mark Shaw an undeserved promotion

The huge win was Dean White defeating senior party pooh-bah Mark Shaw for the national party post of National Committeeman.

I can’t recall anything similar ever happening at one of our state conventions.

Dean White’s supporters did a brilliant thing by collecting more than 50 signatures from county delegation chairs on a resolution which called for opening up the process for choosing the new National Committeeman & National Committeewoman. The resolution called for turning the choices over to the full delegation.

Under our state party’s unbelievably restrictive convention rules, the signatures from a minimum of 50 delegation chairs is the only way the delegates can put something on the floor for consideration on their own. Otherwise, everything is strictly according to the agenda. In other states where the GOP devotes its efforts to something other than just screwing its own constituents, state convention delegates can introduce something new for consideration by all delegates with just a motion & second from the floor.

And consider what an impressive feat getting 50 such signatures in a small window of time truly is. Supporters have to go around in the hotels trying to track down delegation chairs. Some can be caught at the cocktail parties Friday night. But many attendees don’t even arrive until Saturday morning. And all resolution signatures have to be submitted no later than 2 hours in advance of the convention’s opening at 11:30 AM on Saturday. Oh, and you have to provide 750 copies of everything to the state party by that 9:30 AM Saturday deadline.

But Dean White’s group did it – only to then learn on Saturday morning that Mark Shaw’s peeps focused their time on “convincing” delegation chairs to rescind their signatures. Once these rescinded signatures were taken away, there were only 49 signatures, one short. And by this time the rescinded signatures could not be replaced. It was now after 9:30 AM and the window was closed.

Mark Shaw, by the way, like Dean White, is currently a member of the SCC. Like all SCC members, Shaw is term limited and has just 2 years left on his final term, so he was looking for another undeserved promotion to the national party spot.

And when I say “undeserved” I’m being gracious. Years ago Shaw was Lake County GOP chair. After multiple terms he left Lake County much bluer than he found it. If the PC vacancy rate in his county was ever less than 40% during his tenure, I would be very surprised. In fact, I seriously doubt Shaw would even be on the SCC today if he hadn’t relied on manufactured votes from those vacant precincts for his own benefit and to swamp the legitimate votes of PCs. Shaw was also the only one of the 3 candidates for National Committeeman who did NOT support restoring direct elections. Starting from back last summer I had multiple long phone conversations with Shaw about direct elections. He would never commit to either side. Multiple email requests over several succeeding months also produced no definitive answer. That’s why we finally had no choice but to put him on the OPPOSE list. In Shaw’s defense, he’s hardly the only spineless wonder on the SCC. Our current corrupt system for picking SCC members is a magnet for spineless weasels who have no clue how to build a winning party. More about them in a future piece.

Anyway, with the signature number pushed to below the 50 threshold thanks to some less than savory methods I highly suspect, Shaw’s minions clearly assumed the fight was over before the Saturday session even began.

Apparently, none of them realized the best and most direct method of stopping Shaw was to make certain the NAYS were much louder than the AYES when Don Tracy asked the full delegation to rubberstamp the nominations provided by the 17-member convention committee on National Committeeman & National Committeewoman. Shaw had a narrow majority on that committee in his camp.

When delegate approval was sought for National Committeeman & National Committeewoman on the floor, the Dean White supporters were ready, and they pounced. The NAY voice vote was overwhelmingly louder.

Mark Shaw’s people clearly weren’t ready. Dean White’s people brilliantly kept them occupied on efforts to kill a resolution, by hook or by crook. And while state party pooh-bahs huddled in a backroom plotting their next crooked move, the Kane County delegation led the way in fanning out across the convention floor. Going delegation to delegation, the Kane County delegation made certain everyone was clear on the procedure for rejecting the recommendation from the National Committeeman & National Committeewoman convention committee.

That resolution the pooh-bahs were so concerned about turned out to be moot and unnecessary. And to be perfectly honest, as the resolution would have been new business, its consideration would only have come AFTER the original agenda’s business was dispensed with. Part of that original business was approval of all of the subcommittee reports, including the one on National Committeeman and National Committeewoman. So unless Mark Shaw’s nomination was rejected at the beginning of the convention (which is exactly what happened) the result would have already been in stone by the time later in the convention consideration was sought for the resolution to open the process up again. It would have been too late. The National Committeeman & National Committeewoman picks would have already been declared official. The Parliamentarian would have had no choice but to declare the resolution out of order when it was brought up later.

When the NAYS were MUCH louder on the Mark Shaw vote, Tracy himself called for a standing count of the YEAS and NAYES. Don Tracy likely would have tried ignoring reality and simply ruled the AYES had it. But after failing to get away with that ridiculousness just a few minutes prior on the voice vote for the rules, Tracy had no choice this time but to call for a standing vote himself.

This revealed the votes against Shaw were nearly 3 to 1.

This meant the committee on National Committeeman and National Committeewoman had to go back to a separate room and reconsider their original recommendation.

Incredibly, most on that committee still refused to accept the writing on the wall. That committee came out with a new report which STILL backed Shaw over White. Even one of the sleazier members of that committee had the good sense to point out to the committee how they were all just going to embarrass themselves (although I would say that train left the station long before). If they went back to the full delegation with the same rejected recommendation, the committee would just be back in the same room in short order.

And that’s exactly what happened. The full delegation again overwhelmingly rejected Shaw, this time by a standing vote of 314 to 102. So the committee had to meet separately for a second time that day.

This time the committee finally threw in the towel and chose Dean White, but it was still a close vote. And wow, a majority, the original Shaw supporters, were not happy campers about having to listen to their Republican constituents. How dare those pesky peasants!

Oh well.

The hostility and pettiness some on that committee directed at regular Republicans for having the nerve to reject their undeserving choice was palatable. That’s how out of touch our state party is today. It’s a direct result and foreseeable consequence of the rank-and-file being disenfranchised in 1986.

When the question was brought back to the floor, Shaw finally had the decency to drop out and endorse Dean White before another full vote was taken which surely would have had him losing again by an even bigger overwhelming margin. He also asked the full delegation to make it unanimous by acclimation. I do question Shaw’s sincerity about that face-saving move, but the only thing that matters is regular Republicans, by sticking to their guns, were able to force Shaw to finally do the right thing.

And STILL one member of the SCC remained too nasty and bitter to demonstrate some unity and graciousness in defeat. She single-handedly blocked the call for unanimity. That was Laura Pollastrini, who, as described above, made such an unprofessional joke of the P&R committee she chaired.

Yes, such GREAT people our current system is putting on our state central committee.

And I’ll just say this about Dean White, he does strike me as an honest, decent man with good intentions. I don’t sense some outsized ego there. Plus he’s brand new to politics, just came on the field around 2 years ago. So zero chance he’s been captured by the culture yet. But he has a LOT of work to do in order to prove he deserved the support of the hundreds of outstanding people who worked tirelessly to save his ass. And frankly he could benefit from showing a bit more spine too. But I’m cautiously optimistic he’ll be a voice for positive change. We all need to wish him well.

Meanwhile, my strong hunch is that the party pooh-bahs are taking no positive lessons from the clock-cleaning regular Republicans delivered on Saturday.

If anything, the pooh-bahs are kicking themselves for leaving even a crack in the door which allowed the Republican rank-and-file to have ANY voice at this convention. They aren’t planning to loosen the rules, they’re surely planning to make them even MORE restrictive next time. Not sure that would even be possible, but if there is a way to further squelch the voice of their constituents, I’m sure they’ll find it. It’s about all they do.

Anyone who still doesn’t understand why our vote must be restored for our state party’s central committee, the governing board, really needs to do us all a favor and find a new hobby. I mean come on, seriously, no one can truly be that oblivious.