MUNDELEIN – With less than three weeks until the November 8th election that most pundits say will be an anti-Biden Republican Wave nationwide, Illinois is such a strong blue political island among Midwestern red states that it appears the state’s Republicans are bracing to be crashed as it is once again passed by.
The IL GOP simply cannot raise money – although Chicago financiers are a favored place for out-of-state Republicans to visit and fill their coffers to win races elsewhere. Why that is a reality is another story – but the fact is that while they are wooing qualified conservatives into the process, the IL GOP has a history of abandoning candidates that jump in to help the cause.
Take, for instance, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kathy Salvi. She’s challenging Democrat incumbent Tammy Duckworth, whose voting history and comments show she is as Leftist and radical as the US House’s “Squad” – which supports defunding police, unrestricted abortion through and including birth, Marxist ideology and – on and on.
Salvi, who saved the Illinois GOP ballot from being headed by downstate conspiracy theorists Peggy Hubbard and Bobby Piton, has been abandoned and shunned by not only US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leading fundraiser Senator Rick Scott, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee which raises funds for Republican candidates.
Salvi has run almost half of her campaign on her personal retirement funds that she’s loaned to run for the U.S. Senate. She’s energetic, enthused, passionate and well-spoken. Her arguments and strategy are well-thought-out. She does well in discussions with supporters and opponents.
There’s no one than Salvi that could be a better challenger to Duckworth at this time. Kathy Salvi is a hard-working candidate. And still, she’s unable to get support from either the NRSC or the IL GOP.
All because she’s running in Illinois.
The gatekeeper for the NRSC – Chicago’s own Republican Ron Gidwitz – admitted thus to Lynn Sweet.
“We have scarce resources like everybody else does,” Gidwitz said. “And so we’re spending them where we have the greatest likelihood of success. I have not seen polls showing Kathy within the margin of error.”
In other words, Salvi hasn’t used enough of her own financial sources to get close enough to win the badly-needed US Senate seat, so she gets zilch support or encouragement from national sources.
Does she at least get a badge to wear that says “SUCKER” from the NRSC and the IL GOP?
The Salvi campaign says their polls show Salvi within the margin of error – and some Salvi insiders suggest a surprise could be in store with the expected Red Wave on November 8th. Salvi is polling within 4 points in a northwest Chicago congressional district – a significant number. Other polls aren’t as hopeful.
But the Salvi campaign needs funds to get out their message contrasting to Duckworth’s – and time is waning.
So if the NRSC isn’t going to help Salvi in the closing weeks of this campaign, who could or would?
While conservative billionaire Dick Uhlein is writing check after check (close to $50 million now) to a PAC attacking Pritzker, his administration and his down-ballot, Uhlein’s funds are not finding their way towards Salvi – and again, the question is why.
Why?
Lynn Sweet’s column introduced more questions than answers about the attitude being displayed towards Kathy Salvi’s candidacy.
Why would anyone ever run for office in Illinois when smooth-talkers pull qualified candidates into the race, encourage them with vague promises, only to leave them high and dry after setting their careers on hold for months?
Any idea why the Illinois Republican Party is so defunct in a year when it should be shining and showing the way out of the Democrat-created mess we’re in?
Where is the IL GOP leadership?
Once again, there isn’t any.
It’s complicated, indeed. But why would the leadership ever be trusted by a qualified, viable candidate again?
Kathy Salvi is a viable candidate and she is owed an explanation and an apology for how she’s been treated in this election.
Shame on you, Ron Gidwitz. Shame on you, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy.
If Salvi by some miracle pulls this out, you cannot and must not claim you had anything to do with it.
In the meantime – You keep going, Kathy Salvi.
Illinois conservatives are behind you.
