West Cook News

Jeffrey Leef chalks up rumblings of the Republican endorsement process being “rigged” in favor of Gov. Bruce Rauner to politicians being politicians.

“You have to remember that the Illinois Democratic Party does not hold exclusivity rights on distributing patronage jobs and dirty politics,” Leef told the West Cook News. “Republican voters must acknowledge that optics matter, not only for Democrats but for the GOP.”

GOP leaders at a recent Palatine Township Republican Organization endorsement session charged that Chairman Aaron Del Mar, a longtime Rauner supporter and 2016 appointee of his to the Illinois International Port District, argued he wasn’t required to provide other group members with rules for the meeting.

Eyebrows were also raised when Rauner won the Cook County Republican endorsement over Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), despite her winning 55 percent of the city vote.

“If members of the Cook County Republican Central Committee in fact have been granted special benefits by Gov. Rauner, realistically, how could any endorsement vote be valid,” Leef, running against U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, a Democrat, in the 7th Congressional District, said. “Not unlike what is seen these days on a national level, the Illinois and Cook County GOP have a solid track record of both incompetence and gutlessness.”

Leef said another recent example of that is the “What can we do?” response and attitude the party has taken to dealing with the campaign of “Nazi and Holocaust-denier” Arthur Jones, now running unopposed as a GOP candidate for Congress in 3rd Congressional District in the upcoming primary.

As for the latest allegations of GOP dirty politics, Leef said they are fairly consistent with his view of Rauner, who he sees as “thirsting for “acceptance” from the liberal media and Democrats.

“So, regardless of the veracity of these allegations, voters need to demand and vote for the changes in local government that we deserve,” he said.

The 7th District includes much of the West Side of Chicago and parts of Bellwood, Maywood, Oak Park, Berwyn, Westchester and River Forest.