As TA readers know, we were one of the first sources to report that Dee Beaubien, widow of former State Representative Mark Beaubien, was considering a run as an independent in the 52nd State Legislative District. This all developed in the wake of conservative David McSweeney's emphatic primary victory over Kent Gaffney, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Mark Beaubien's term after his untimely death last summer.
Dee Beaubien's decision to run has placed many local Republicans, both within and without the 52nd District, in a bit of a quandary. Dee and her husband had lots of friends and supporters, some of whom are now being torn between their instincts to support the official GOP nominee, and their personal feelings towards Dee. For the conservative members of the district, it's a no-brainer: McSweeney was always their guy. But for folks who supported Gaffney and/or are Beaubien fans, it places them in an uncomfortable position, perhaps.
Significantly, House Minority Leader Tom Cross and other establishment Republicans such as Ed Sullivan, Jr., have already pledged their support to McSweeney (despite their support of Gaffney in the primary). It remains to be seen where other prominent Republicans line up, but I will say that the field of GOP supporters who showed up to Dee Beaubien's campaign announcement was remarkably thin.
One thing that Beaubien will probably not lack is funding, as she is the chosen candidate of Personal PAC.
Personal PAC is also the sworn enemy (and vice versa) of State Senator Dan Duffy, whose Senate District encompasses the 52nd Legislative District.
All I can say at this time is, stay tuned for further developments....
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6 comments:
Apparently Elizabeth Coulson was in the audience.
Interesting that Mark Beaubien was elected for multiple terms in this hot bed of republican splendor. I suppose Dee should do well, I spite of that "poor" republican turn out. I was there...were you?
Here we go again, Republicans destroyed themselves from within.
Santorum, Gingrich. At least some of the earlier candidates knew when it was time to pull out.
Now we have this kind of nonsense. OK, I'm not a right-wing conservative but I vote REPUBLICAN whether I totally agree with the candidate or not. What's wrong with a big tent. Shame on this woman.
Sometimes the way Republicans treat each other factor into decisions being made like this. I ended up in the middle of one particular nasty battle in 2005-2006 when I chaired a late Senator's campaign for reelection, but the bitterness of the McSweeney/Beaubien camps may actually outdo that ugly civil war.
For years, the Beaubiens were subjected to some rather vicious attacks and labeled RINO for daring to have views that contradicted the views of the attackers, who were far to the right of the political spectrum. One group routinely published magazines with some pretty ugly smear job articles about the late Rep. Beaubien.
Now the far right is outraged that Dee Beaubien is running against one of their standard bearers?
Why is everyone outraged? After poking a bear and antagonizing it for well over a decade, now some are shocked that the victimized bear has started to rear up and begin roaring and biting? So in response, they lash out when the victimized bear lashes out over their provocations?
The lack of a learning curve of some in our Republican party is pretty troubling.
Here is hoping some saner heads in the GOP in that region prevail.
Louis G. Atsaves
Lou - Let me simply say, "DITTO"
mcsweeney is an underachieving flake but elections have consequences and he won. If she had a problem she should have run in the primary. The party needs to use its energy to defeat Democrats, not have a second primary round. If she feels the system needs to be changed she can always propose in future elections to do what california now does which is that the 2 people regardless of party who do the best in primaries square off in the general election.
I would also caution against trashing mcsweeney as a conservative. The moderate republican wing over the last 30 years has basically quit on the party and in many cases either left and become democrat, left and condemned it, stayed and not gotten off its ellen to do anything or just moaned and whined from the sideline. We didn't win the house in 2010 because of moderates but we lost it in 2006 in part because moderate leaders in the house didn't have the balls to stand up to conservatives in the house or senate or white house until it was too late.
As for personal pac, if we had a real party with real leadership in Illinois and congressmen who didn't strip naked for national magazines while getting their inner bro on the pro abortion groups wouldn't be a factor. the state's number 1,2,3,4,5, and on issues are jobs and we need actual leaders who aren't nuked but those kinds of distractions.
FOKLAES
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