Read the Chicago Tribune’s reporting on the 1986 Illinois GOP convention that robbed your vote

A report of what happened at the 1986 Illinois Republican State Convention where 99.999% of Republican voters in Illinois were officially disenfranchised in their own state party.

“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.” – Theodore Roosevelt

The Chicago Tribune article copied below this introduction from Saturday, July 29, 1986, is a report of what happened that day at the Illinois Republican State Convention held at the O’Hare Expo Center (now called the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center) in suburban Rosemont.

It was on that day that 99.999% of Republican voters in Illinois were officially disenfranchised in their own state party. That’s the day that any semblance of democracy died in the Illinois Republican Party.

With it of course also died any semblance of accountability. That was the whole idea.

That state convention was the final step in a shameless power grab which the old party bosses had been brewing up for some time. Direct elections by Republican primary voters would sometimes put grassroots persons on the state party’s governing board, the state central committee. They would sometimes beat the boss-backed candidate – and the bosses didn’t like it.

The late Mary Jo Arndt mentioned in the article is just one example. Another example was the late Bob Redfern (who I knew personally), from downstate Fairfield.

Both beat the bosses and served on the state central committee. The bosses eventually said, fine, we’ll just get rid of real elections. That will teach the peasants!

The bosses rammed through legislation in Springfield the year before (1985) to enable the power grab. A new alternative for picking the state central committee was added to the law.

A new alternative had to be added to the law because the original drafters of the Illinois Election Code never imagined that any political party could be so arrogant and so breathtakingly moronic as to gleefully take away the right to vote from their own voters.

That’s the system we have now, the one that totally cuts Republican voters out of their own state party while fully empowering the bosses to do whatever they want, free from fear of ever being held accountable by the pesky Republican rank-and-file.

Everyone in the state legislature knew the new alternative would only be chosen by the Illinois GOP. Democrats made it clear during legislative debate in Springfield that they would keep trusting their voters. They were sticking with democracy, and a couple of them actually warned that the Illinois GOP was abandoning its voters at its own peril.

The state convention of 1986 was just to officially rubberstamp the consolidation of power. It had to be approved by majority vote of the delegates in attendance.

The article below quotes an attendee who described some of the rigging: “It was terrible; they did it at the last minute. Twenty-two delegations had already left.”

Bob Redfern also attended that convention, and he described to me a similar disgrace. Even the delegates who hadn’t departed yet didn’t know what was going on. The kill democracy resolution was presented as just some boilerplate, harmless housekeeping matter and was quickly jammed through with no explanation or discussion.

It’s incredible that I still sometimes hear from sad souls who say, “Oh but if we let all Republican primary voters have a vote again, a grassroots person will never get on the state central committee.”

Come on folks, get a clue. The ONE AND ONLY REASON Republican voters had their vote taken away was SPECIFICALLY to prevent a grassroots candidate from ever getting on the state central committee again.

Please people, stop allowing incompetent party hacks to treat you like gullible rubes who just fell off the turnip truck. You don’t deserve it.

A brazenly rigged state convention in 1986 robbed Republicans of their vote. Almost all of the old bosses responsible for that disgraceful affair are now dead and gone.

But unfortunately, a new crop of selfish slugs is always willing to take their place. Will they be successful in rigging our state convention later this month in Collinsville for the purpose of enshrining the rotten fruit of the rigged convention of 1986 which has rendered the term “Illinois GOP” synonymous with losing?

We’ll soon find out.

The Resolution which would simply reverse the colossal mistake of the 1986 rigged convention and restore your vote, as well as a list of supporters and opponents, can be found HERE.

I personally invite anyone who is serious about unity and building an Illinois GOP that can actually win again someday in Illinois, to join the growing list of great people who are standing up in support of our right to vote again in our own state party.

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GOP SPLIT ON COMMITTEEMEN CRITICS SAY RULES CHANGE SHUTS OUT WOMEN, BLACKS

By John Schmeltzer | Chicago Tribune

Published: July 29, 1986

A decision to change the way state central committeemen are selected has caused some grumbling among members of what appeared to be a united Illinois Republican Party.

The decision to take the office off the primary election ballot, which opponents say is aimed at shutting women and minorities out of the party, was adopted by a nearly 2-to-1 margin as the convention ended over the weekend at the O’Hare Expo Center.

“I wouldn’t say it would be impossible (for a woman to be chosen),” said Frances Killey, immediate past president of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women. “But there is only one woman on the central committee now.”

“It was terrible; they did it at the last minute,” said June Meskin, first vice president of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women and a resident of Wheaton. “Twenty-two delegations had already left.”

Critics of electing state central committeeman, including State Senate Minority Leader James “Pate” Philip (R., Wood Dale), long have argued that the unpaid office–which in effect is a seat on the party’s board of directors — ought to be taken off the ballot. They successfully supported a plan adopted last year by the state legislature which allowed political parties to choose whether to popularly elect or to have party committeemen pick the state central committee members.

“All we heard was unity, unity, unity, from the governor on down,” said Meskin, who was a Du Page County delegate to the convention. “I really feel Republicans are now split.”

The opponents charged the decision abolishing the election ballot procedure was aimed at Mary Jo Arndt of Lombard, who is the Republican state central committeeman for the 6th Congressional District. Arndt, the only woman on the 22-member state central committee, embarrassed Philip in 1982 by defeating his choice for the post.

“The decision was regrettable,” said Arndt, declining to comment further about the decision.

But Philip argued that Arndt has as good a chance of being re-elected as she does now.

“We’re talking about three years from now,” he said. “Who can say what will happen between now and then?”

Critics also said that the decision was the opening gambit in a bid to have all delegates to the Republican National Convention chosen by the state party convention.