Bill Brady Promotes Tea Party Rally, Doesn't Mention Tea Party

By Kevin Robinson in News on Oct 26, 2010 2:00PM

Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady sent out an email Monday inviting supporters to join him in Will County's Homer Glen for the "final stop on Brady's suburban ‘Clean Break Express' tour." What Brady's email failed to mention is that the event is hosted by the Will County Tea Party Alliance.

This isn't the first time that Bill Brady has attended a Tea Party event, but with the election just around the corner and Brady in a close race with Democrat Pat Quinn, aligning himself with the local Tea Party leaves him at risk of alienating more moderate voters.

But Brady's move to disassociate himself from the Tea Party while still trying to get their votes belies a larger issue that Republicans up and down the ballot will have to contend with on November 2: how Tea Party activists that have organized and turned out in droves to support Republican candidates and those newly-elected Republicans will reconcile a relationship that is less than mutual. In Illinois, for example, a Republican governor will still have to contend with a General Assembly that's firmly controlled by Democrats. A movement based on reaction to attempts to shift the focus of government in the worst recession since the Great Depression might find that hope and change don't come as quickly as they had dreamed. And while preaching patience in the realm of public affairs is par for the course even for the most change-minded elected official, how Governor Brady will manage his relationship with a Tea Party that is prepared to demand swift and decisive action from the candidate they backed may be in for a rude post-inaugural awakening. How they'll handle Brady in the governor's mansion could be a different question entirely.