Machine candidate Robin Kelly defeated conservative Paul McKinley in the special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., in Congress that was held yesterday in Illinois’ Second District.
While McKinley was able to win 2/3 of the counties included in the district, the city of Chicago provided enough “turnout” that Kelly received 70.5% of the vote to McKinley’s 22.3% overall.
McKinley said, “We have not been defeated. We have won. Not only have we won, we have opened a door that can’t nobody shut….I hope that those who sit in the shadows of the corrupt Machine — I”m putting you on notice, that every ward, every committeeman, every person that’s running, we’re going to run somebody against you. The Machine doesn’t get a break no more.”
In contrast, Kelly said:
Watch us take on the NRA, the Tea Party, and anyone else standing in the way of our safety. Watch us mobilize families and turn grief into action just like the families of victims of gun violence have done in powering this campaign each and every day.
McKinley’s numbers are in fact quite promising given the mismatch in funding and cold shoulder given McKinley by the Illinois GOP.
The next election for this seat will take place in just 8 months, and McKinley has built name recognition that could prove quite powerful in the general with higher turnout.
And New York Mayor Bloomberg flushed upwards of $2.2 million into Kelly’s campaign, aided by Daily Kos’s constant fundraising, contrasted with McKinley’s $10,000 in donations, along with a series of ads placed by the Tea Party in the finals days of the campaign.
The result was a contest between a truly grassroots effort and a New York-funded Machine.
But, if new information obtained last night proves to be true, there may have been even further subterfuge of McKinley’s campaign going on behind the scenes, from the very party he sought to reinvigorate with new life in the form of Illinois GOP political consultants. Rebel Pundit reports:
Despite a full-on assault from local media outlets, led by the Chicago Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart and Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery, McKinley also won two out of the three counties in the second district—taking Will County 43 to 41 percent and smashed her by 10 points in Kankakee County, 50 percent to Kelly’s 40.
In addition to the media effort that saw to it McKinley didn’t step out of his place as an activist, Breitbart News has learned from elected Republican Party officials that members within the Illinois GOP’s consulting class worked behind the scenes to derail McKinley’s campaign and fundraising efforts.
Legal Insurrection reported in the past on Valerie Jarrett supporter/Republican consultant Chris Robling’s attacks on McKinley for his recurring guest role on the show of local Fox’s Mike Flannery. Robling, who said on-air that McKinley was “not a real Republican,” later admitted to know nothing of the candidate or his platform.
As I walked into the room last night, I was just able to catch Fox’s Flannery barraging McKinley with a series of bizarre questions about Rahm Emanuel being Jewish and lines of questioning about various forms of narcotics and race. Is this what Flannery deemed important to inform his viewers of on Election Night? I’m still waiting to see if Flannery releases the full footage of his news-byte-seeking questioning.
Nevertheless McKinley, who heralded last night as the beginning of a movement, has brushed the local media’s Machine-covering and the festering Illinois Republican Party’s lack of support of his race off his shoulder. While the Republican establishment may not be interested in supporting minority candidates with conservative principles, his supporters, who crowded into the second floor of a local church community center to celebrate this Republican’s challenge of the Machine, are undaunted.
I spoke with several of the people who had gathered there who said to me that, as inner-city black Republicans, they’re used to being ignored by the party and by the media, but they are ready for revolution in their community. One man told he had been so inspired by McKinley that he flew in for Election Night from Georgia. Because of McKinley’s example, he sought out his first Tea Party meeting. To his surprise, he said, “they weren’t racist!”–and he has been attending ever since. He now plans to mount a similar campaign of his own in a Democrat stronghold in Georgia.
A young girl who was hanging around the community center joined us as we awaited results. At the beginning of the night she told me “I’m a Democrat,” and when someone said, “why?” she said, “Because I’m black,” and then smiled sheepishly. She spent the rest of the night talking with all of us in the room about issues, and stayed until the final results came in.
That’s minority outreach; that’s worth more than the entire RNC report.
In a race that left attempted to spin as about guns–Robin Kelly was caught on tape by Rebel Pundit saying she’s “all about banning guns“–a different story emerged, of a nascent movement in the the roughest areas of Chicago to reclaim their representation from The Chicago Democratic Machine.
The establishment of the Republican Party of Illinois has proved it wants no part of such movements.
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Republican establishments can be just as complicit in the oiling of the machinery as any democrats. It’s time to start cleaning house and the local and state levels.
Robin kelly: “I’m all about banning guns…”
As a U.S. citizen protected by the 2nd Amendment I’m all taking up arms to prevent tyranny.
The Republican establishment in Illinois is about as useful as the political consultations of Karl Rove or the economic and internet predictions of Paul Krugman.
Excellent summary Anne. The Republican party in this state is a #$%^ing joke. From RINO Kirk all the way down to dog catcher, they’re nothing more than Machine-lite wannabe, slightly less-so statists.
Also, I didn’t realize that the next election is only 8 months away. That’s gives Kelly plenty of time to be indicted for something.
Illustrating Chicago’s Murders, Homicides, Violence and Idiocy at heyjackass.com
[…] Bloomberg buys a congressional seat, with Republican and media helplegal Insurrection (blog)In addition to the media effort that saw to it McKinley didn't step out of his place as an activist, Breitbart News has learned from elected Republican Party officials that members within the Illinois GOP's consulting class worked behind the scenes to …Voters to choose Jackson Jr.'s House successorGateway Newsall 72 news articles » […]
Liberal Democrats in Chicago can all go to Hell, but they are already there.
To be honest, McKinley did better than anyone could reasonably expect. The margin of his loss will not worry Democrats; but it will be the cause of a meeting or two amongst the Institutional Republicans, who will wonder how he got the vote he did despite their opposition.
To win an election, you have to have two things as a prerequisite:
First you have to have an electoral system where the vote count is relatively honest.
Second, you have to have an opposition party that really wants to defeat the other side.
Neither of those conditions apply in Illinois, or to be honest in much of the country anymore.
Does anybody here have any doubts at all that if McKinley was a serious threat of coming within 20% of Kelly’s vote count that the Democrats would not have automatically created enough votes out of thin air to pad their margin? Or that the Illinois Republican party would not have continued to studiously look the other way as it happened?
When was the last time that the Illinois Republican Party actively fought the Chicago Democrat machine; committing time, effort, and money in a serious attempt to win an election?
From the beginning, it would take divine intervention for McKinley to have won, even before there was any argument as to the merits of the candidates.
And that set of conditions is being replicated nationwide.
Was the effort worth it? Yes, for two reasons. First, by getting a larger vote than could reasonably be anticipated, it makes the Vichy Republicans nervous, and may make them even more blatant in trying to collaborate. Which in the long run will weaken their grip.
Second, while there was no hope of victory; when it no longer becomes possible to pretend that electoral politics as currently constituted are valid, those in opposition to a functional one-party state can make the argument that they tried to follow the rules, and that the rules are rigged and no longer legitimate.
Pretending that the Institutional Republicans will defend the Constitution in any way is a mug’s game.
Subotai Bahadur
Last time Pubs fought the machine seriously in Cook County? Couple decades back when they got James O’Grady elected Cook County Sheriff.
He later was indicted, and deservedly so.
It’s disappointing to see the Pubs fail to support McKinley, but it’s not unexpected — the ‘Combine’ that runs state government, as it’s called, consists of the highest order hacks in both parties. They divvy up the spoils according to whoever is on top at the time, but they don’t work to up-end the Combine.
Mr. McKinley, with very little in the way of resources, started to shake the beliefs of black Americans with regard to the goodness of the Democratic party. Imagine the Koch Brothers putting money into such an effort, and finding a few dozen more McKinley’s around the country.
The RINOS are as threatening to us as the leftist loons trying to enslave us. The only difference is that the RINOS are holding OUR party hostage. We do have the power to take the party over — we hold the money. All we’re missing is the collective will.
“Bloomberg buys a congressional seat” is a ridiculous assumption.
I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Bloomberg’s contributions made any difference at all. This is a Chicago Machine seat in a Chicago Machine district won by a Chicago Machine candidate. Bloomberg shows up to try to take credit for something he had ZERO effect upon.
People can blame the “GOP Establishment” all they want, but I can understand how the fire to fight is hard to maintain after 50-something years of rigged outcomes against you.
McKinley deserves high praise for his courage and determination and message of redemption, and for daring to speak the truth about the Machine. But anyone who thought he ever stood the chance of an ice cube on a rock in Death Valley is so hopelessly naive as to need supervision online.
Anne was almost perfect in her final statement, “The establishment of the Republican Party of Illinois has proved it wants no part of such movements.”
All she needed to do to be perfect was to omit the words, “of Illinois.”
Amen. They haven’t the courage to back a Paul McKinley but fall all over themselves swooning over Mark Sanford. They haven’t the guts for a real fight.