March 25, 2008
GOP to Local Businessmen: I Love You
What is it about the Illinois state GOP and their mega-crush on local business tycoons?
With Republican Tim Baldermann out of the race to fill Jerry Weller's congressional seat, 11th District committeemen will meet April 30 to pick a replacement on the ballot to challenge Democratic state Sen. Debbie Halvorson. According to Crain's Chicago Business, local concrete magnate Martin Ozinga is the "consensus candidate" among the party leadership.
Ozinga's anointment as the party's pick isn't a done deal just yet, though. The Republican county chairmen who will make the decision are also looking at Harry Bond, owner of Monical's Pizza (People Pleasing People).
With Democrat Bill Foster's recent win in former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's seat, there is a lot riding on the party's choice next month, and Ozinga's ability to self-finance a campaign that is getting a late start is part of his appeal. As president of the ubiquitous concrete company, Ozinga has the resources to quickly launch a campaign. But he doesn't come without baggage. The Mokena-based construction materials company has made tens of millions of dollars off of City of Chicago contracts, and three years ago the Tribune ran a story charging that Ozinga was partnering with black churches to win minority business set asides. Church leaders have said that they were not involved in day-to-day operations of the business. Ozinga told the Tribune that it was a legitimate effort to involve minorities in his business. Federal Election Commission records also indicate that Ozinga gave $10,000 to Blagojevich's campaign in 2005, and that he made a $1000 contribution to Dick Durbin's campaign.
Image via mmmmarshall
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The Illinois branch of the GOP limps from one wealthy candidate to the next.
Ozinga will be sure not to anger any Democrats who could take business away from his sons, i.e., the sons who will be running his concrete business.
We need a Republican who is going to be tough and unhindered by worries about the family business.
Anyway, you can imagine the headline writers rubbing their hands together over potential articles like "Ozinga offers concrete solutions," or "Ozinga cements relationship with (insert name of special interest group)."
Ward: You're on a roll tonite.
Expect corny, concrete puns on Chicagoist should Ozinga get the nod!
The question is, will Ozinga hire a minority to run for office in his name?
Ward: I don't always agree with your politics, but I agree with this: "We need a Republican who is going to be tough and unhindered by worries about the family business."
This state needs a viable GOP again, a party that can compete hard and offer strong ideas. We all suffer from having only one really strong party right now.
@Matilda:
As far as a lot of us are concerned, as bad as the Democratic party can be sometimes, the Bush administration's enthusiastic support for Outsourcing was the breaking point when it came to the very possibility of ever supporting a Republican candidate again.
"Hey kids, you remember those jobs we had you working 60 hour work weeks to put yourself through school to train for, because we thought that grants and loans and stuff were all too ickly socialistic, even during an era during which school tuitions were soaring at many times the rate of inflation, in at least one case because (as the Ivys admitted) tuition had been subjected to price fixing and we thought that antitrust legislation was also icky and socialistic? Remember those younger adult years you never got to have as a result? Well, we've shipped those professional jobs you sacrificed so insanely much to prepare for out of the country, right behind the factory work, and that's cool, because the market will magically produce new jobs to take their place. We're not sure what those new jobs are, but they'll be there. Honest. Any decade, now. We think they might involve slinging bedpans for maybe even as much as $5/hr, but no promises. In the meanwhile, get prepared to kiss your upcoming middle years goodbye as well."
Gee, how amazing that the new kids don't feel like studying in school any more. Under the circumstances, "live for now" becomes a rational economic strategy, but think about the future that such a strategy creates when it comes close to being universal. This is the future that today's Republicans have consistently chosen to create, so in love with their rhetoric that they can't be bothered to take the time to slow down and think about what they've been saying, as they've been busily engaged in making Dystopia a reality.
As I've become so fond of saying, and with such good reason, "enough is enough".
Joseph: But my point is, consider the context.
I agree with you on Bush, but that has not stopped me from voting GOP in certain non-federal elections over the past few years. If you don't, then the local Dems can treat you even more like shit, because they know you will not go anywhere else, no matter what (Green, you say? Good luck with Green-led reform at this point).
And be fair: The Dems, in the 1990s, help lay the groundwork for a lot of our current outsourcing.
Bush is not the everything of the gop any more than howard dean is the everthing of the dems. Nancy pelosi is a whack job but she doesnt effect the races for crook, will dupage or lake co. local offices. voting for the best individual would be nice but somehow everyone is caught up on party line BS. I hope the gop finds someone decent because Halvorson is part of the problem in springfield not part of the ans. in washington.
"And be fair: The Dems, in the 1990s, help lay the groundwork for a lot of our current outsourcing."
Yes, they certainly did. What I'm favoring is not a one party system run by the Democrats, but the creation of a new opposition party. The big question, to which I have no answer at the moment, is who would lead such a party.
Yes, they certainly did. What I'm favoring is not a one party system run by the Democrats, but the creation of a new opposition party. The big question, to which I have no answer at the moment, is who would lead such a party.
Illinois would benefit from a Bloomberg of its own... someone independent enough from both parties to shake up the foundations and wealthy enough to fund his/her own campaign. I don't think a party is the solution right away since the logistics for organizing a state party would supercede any likelihood of picking up seats.
I never liked Perot, but he had a fine idea in creating the Reform Party using his leverage from the 1992 office bid. Had Pat Buchanan not hijacked for his own vicious agenda (or, perhaps, if Perot had picked someone else in 1996... he was getting increasingly nutty), there might have been a new national party.
Yok: I could certainly support a local version of Bloomberg.
In fact, I doubt it would happen, but I would love for Obama to pick Bloomberg as his VP choice.
"I don't think a party is the solution right away since the logistics for organizing a state party would supercede any likelihood of picking up seats."
Agreed, and the local level is the one at which an independent candidate ought to be campaigning. Get enough independents into office, let people start working together, and in time, new parties might arise out of those networks to replace the old.