GOP banks on Web site

Illinois party hopes new endeavor will help it rebuild ranks

By Eric Krol
Daily Herald Political Writer ekrol@dailyherald.com
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Illinois Republicans might not have any statewide offices, much campaign money or media interest, but they now have a new Web site, Internet attack ad and a few ideas.

Such was the gist Monday night at the first of a series of forums GOP chairman Andy McKenna Jr. is holding to try to rebuild a party that controlled the state for the quarter-century before 2003.

About 200 Republicans packed a small room at the Lisle Hilton Hotel to listen to McKenna unveil a new Web site -- WeAreIllinois.org -- a low-cost online ad that uses newspaper clips to rip Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and proposals to make it tougher for the state to raise taxes and borrow money.

For a party that's lost every statewide election but one the past eight years, some in the crowd might have been left with this question: Is that it?

"If we can't be successful in getting people excited about ideas, we're not going to win more elections," said McKenna, who will conduct a half-dozen downstate stops the next month. "If you look at other models, something like (1994's) 'Contract With America,' it began in a pretty disorganized, unstructured way like this. ... Eventually as they got closer to the election, ideas crystallized."

Illinois Republican Chairman Andy McKenna Jr. talks Monday at the Hilton Hotel in Lisle about revitalizing the party. (Bev Horne/Daily Herald)

McKenna reported the party has raised $1 million since January, the first time that's happened in a nonelection year, he said.

Unity was the buzzword thrown out Monday, but it wasn't abortion, gun control or gay rights that provided the night's only public split. Instead, Aurora state Sen. Chris Lauzen, a potential congressional candidate who drew the most applause of any official, stood to talk up his legislation to require a direct election of GOP state central committeemen. It would help free up control of the party, argues Lauzen, a conservative often at odds with the GOP establishment.

McKenna said it's an issue most don't care about and afterward mentioned the fear Chicago Democrats could win seats.

Perhaps the sagest comment of the evening came from someone who wasn't even there. In a videotape message, U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale observed that chairman McKenna "has one of the toughest jobs in America right now."

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