GOP hopefuls court local faithful

From: Pioneer Press
August 13, 2009

By DAVID CONARD dconard@pioneerlocal.com  

Competition for the 2010 Republican Illinois gubernatorial nomination, like the 90-degree weather, was hot at a Young Republicans barbecue at Citizens Park in Barrington Saturday.

“If you think this is hot, this is nothing like what we’re going to put the Democrats through in the general election (in 2010),” state Sen. Bill Brady, R-44th, told the crowd.

The event, organized by the Lake, McHenry, DuPage, and Kane County Young Republicans, attracted about 200 people.

Brady, along with Hinsdale resident Adam Andrzejewski, Wheaton resident Dan Proft and DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, are all declared candidates for the Republican gubernatorial primary and spoke to the crowd.

All the candidates said the indictment of former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the difficulty the General Assembly had in passing a budget until mid-July gives the Republicans an opportunity to recapture state offices.

“I think there is a great opportunity for the pendulum to swing back,” Proft said. “The opportunity is there for a revolt against the Democratic central planners.”

Asked if they thought voters would remember former Republican Gov. George Ryan, convicted in 2006 on federal corruption charges, the candidates seemed to think either their anti-Ryan credentials or their new ideas would overcome that stigma.

“We need to prove in our party that we are clean conservatives,” Andrzejewski said. “The patronage wing of my party needs to marry the reform wing of our party or we will continue to lose statewide elections by landslides.”

“I think I’m the only one, Democrat or Republican, who stood up to George Ryan,” Brady said.

Brady said he had voted against Ryan’s Illinois First legislation as a state representative in 1999.

Schillerstrom said his 11 years experience as DuPage County board chairman has proven he can say no to wasteful programs, and corrupt policies wouldn’t continue if he’s elected governor.

“Not if I’m elected governor,” Schillerstrom said. “It has to be somebody from outside of Springfield.”

“It’s not simply not going to change as a Republican governor, it’s going to change with Dan Proft as governor,” Proft said. “A lot of my colleagues are content to go along to get along. They had their chance to exercise leadership in Springfield, and they have chosen not to do that.”

All the candidates said they were against the 2009-10 state budget passed in July. Brady said he had voted against the budget in the Senate.

All candidates were also against Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed income tax hike, saying they would seek to cut the budget to balance it.

Proft, Brady, and Schillerstrom said they’d seek to move more Medicaid patients to a managed care system, which they said would provide better care and reduce costs.

All three also want to move newly hired state employees to a state pension system similar to a 401(k) plan, where employees get state contributions but not a guaranteed pension.

If elected, Andrzejewski said he would institute a forensic audit of state expenditures, which he believes would show about $3 billion to $5 billion in redundant or wasteful spending in the state budget.

Andrzejewski also said he would eliminate the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which he said would save the state about $850 million. He would also seek to require state employees to pay more for health insurance, which he said would save $200 million.

Proft said he would seek to sell the state lottery because he doesn’t believe the state should be in the business of gambling, and he said that would help raise money to cover the budget after January.

Brady said the state must “live within our means.” He said the $2.5 billion dollar state budget deficit represented less than 5 percent of total state spending.

The barbecue was organized to help unite the party, according to Lake County Young Republicans President Collin Corbett.

“Different (organization) presidents started talking about getting everyone together,” Corbett said. “One of the major problems we have is uniting together to fight a common foe.”

Corbett said the barbecue would help local residents know about the organization.

“Young Republicans are out there; We’re all over the place,” Corbett said.

Lake County Young Republicans Secretary Lauren Fleming said it was unfair to characterize the Republican Party because of George Ryan or former President George W. Bush.

“A lot of young people are post-Reagan era, so all they know as Republicans are George (W.) Bush and Dick Cheney,” Fleming said. “The fundamental beliefs about fiscal responsibility and transparency (are) what this country was founded on.”

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