GOP Chairman is the Job No Sane Person Should Want
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy in 2022. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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OPINION
There are some pretty terrible jobs out there. There are some pretty terrible jobs in politics. But Chair of the Illinois Republican Party may be the septic tank cleaner job of Illinois politics.
It isn’t like Illinois Republicans are completely hapless. Bruce Rauner (though he turned out to be a disaster) won the Governor’s office in 2014. (Indiana Democrats haven’t had it since 2004.) They had a U.S. Senator until 2017. (California hasn’t had a Republican Senator since 1992.)
But unlike blue states like Massachusetts or Maryland or Vermont, which have elected moderate Republican governors in recent years, Illinois isn’t a place where the GOP can just rally behind a centrist and hope for the best.
Illinois’ Republican base is just far too varied. Even without the MAGA infection that has penetrated the brains of Republican primary voters across the state, there has long been an ideological battle of downstate conservatives focused on ideological purity and suburban moderates more focused on winning and governing.
After moderate Judy Baar Topinka won the GOP primary for Governor in 2006, she was abandoned by many downstate conservatives who somehow thought four more years of Rod Blagojevich were better for them than a pro-choice suburban woman. Conservative downstate state senator Bill Brady won a razor thin primary over suburbanite Kirk Dillard in 2010 and managed to blow a race against a damaged Democratic incumbent in November, partially because he scared away moderate women around the state.
Bruce Rauner took advantage of a wave in 2014, but almost lost a primary from his right in 2018 and was demolished in November. In 2022, many mainstream or moderate Republicans had high hopes for well-funded African American Richard Irvin, but thanks in part to $30 million from Governor Pritzker, conservative Darren Bailey won the primary and never stood a chance in November.
I saw John Boehner, who was then House Speaker, at an event back in 2012. He described the job of Speaker as “keeping 218 frogs in a wheelbarrow.” The job of Illinois Republican Party Chairman isn’t keeping frogs in a wheelbarrow, but more like standing between warring factions trying to keep them from launching full scale war against each other.
Former GOP Chairman Tim Schneider, who was party chair from 2014-2021, says the party has a crisis within its own ranks.
"In many cases, I heard Republicans say they'd stay home and not vote in the general because their candidate didn't [win] the primary, and that would teach the ILGOP a lesson,” he said. “Who does that help?"
Anyone who knows Don Tracy, and I’ll admit I don’t know him that well, will tell you he’s an incredibly decent and honorable man. He’s tried to focus his efforts as chairman on fundraising and growing the Illinois GOP’s early voting efforts. Laudable. But he hasn’t been a particularly effective communicator for the party and its goals.
But Tracy has never been front and center as the GOP’s happy warrior. Instead, Chicago TV stations and radio talk show hosts are left to get the Republican perspective from Darren Bailey and Jeanne Ives, and they sure as hell aren’t building coalitions to help Republicans win.
It’s an unpaid, thankless, no-win job. Sounds pretty terrible, right?
But, Pat Brady, who served as chairman from 2009-2013 before he was forced out for his moderate views, defended the job and its importance when we spoke Thursday.
“A lot of good people support an alternative to the [Democrats,” Brady said. “But the base needs to recognize to be relevant meaning winning elections the Edgar/Kirk/Topinka model works better than ‘Chicago is a hellhole.” (Bailey was heavily criticized for repeatedly calling the state’s largest city a ‘hellhole’ in 2022.)
Can the Illinois Republican Party be saved? It’s probably too early to tell, but it certainly has a long road to relevancy.
Whoever the GOP chooses as its next chairman needs to be laser-focused on raising money to combat the heavy Democratic advantage built in from union bucks and a billionaire governor.
But, more than anything, Republicans need a face and messenger that doesn’t scare moderates, suburbanites, or women away. That means distancing the party message from the cult of MAGA and aiming their arrows at over-taxing, over-spending, too-often-corrupt Democrats.
Until then, no matter who has the title of “Chairman” will have a long list of challenges on their agenda for a party that continues to be lost in the woods.