UIS College Republicans

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The Battle Plan for Winning Illinois

Check the time stamp on this blog posting. This is a college students’ political blog, and thus this post is being put up at a college students’ convenient posting time (closer to sun rise than sunset.) Lack of sleep may play into the generalizations and cocky logic, but seeing the current Illinois Republican strategy in progress, I think there are few qualified to negate this. It should also be noted- I am completely sober. (No Ted Kennedy syndrome here.)

A battle plan. A plan of attack. A strategy for the coming season. Allow me to digress from the analogy of war and switch to something a little more civil. Let’s call politics a sport. A high stakes sport. There is a winner and a loser (or multiple losers.) Nobody dies from losing (I hope, but we’ll leave the Chicago mob mentality out of this); however, there is a definite reward and advantage for the victorious party. On a team there are specialized roles and parts that must be played effectively to have a winning season. In professional sports, you have the owner, the manager, the coach, the coaching staff, the players, and a host of other people to fill in the cracks. Let me break things down piece by piece for a moment.

You have the owner. Now using this analogy you can go two different directions. You could say that the owner is the public - the party voting base. They make up the fans who own joint stocks in the team. In a perfect bi-cameral, republic, this would be the case. In Illinois, I hate to say it, but I’d have to lean towards the second option. The owner is one (or several) wealthy businessmen (and women) who sit up in the tinted press box and call for who gets to be in charge.

The manager is in charge of scouting the players and finding the right politicians to do the job. He works with the coach to figure out a winning strategy and make sure that the right players are on the roster to achieve the goal.

The coach calls the shots in practice and at the game. What are the issues? What are the best ways to get out the vote? How can you compensate for human mistakes?

The players are the ones in the field doing the work. Meeting with their constituents, raising money, and smiling for the cameras. (Will someone please tell McCain to smile a little more?) They don’t see the whole game and season (they aren’t paid to); they are paid to see the field. They can report back to the coach what they see, but they aren’t in a position to call most of the shots. (Now we could pick a sport and delve into individual positions, but that is irrelevant to the big picture here.)

What I see in Illinois is a major disaster in the way the sport is being played. Instead of being a unified party, we are split and dissected on nearly every level. First off, the owner. Who the hell is it? I’m sure Topinka and Ryan could easily tell you who they think is in the back calling the shots, but I’d imagine said person would prefer to keep a low profile. The manager. Seems to have filled out their two week notice, cleaned out their desk, and left town long before the spring primary free for all rolled around. Which player did we need to win? We went for number one in the draft; instead we should have gone for Vince Young dang it.

The coach. What’s the plan? How are we going to win? Knock knock, anyone here? Doesn’t seem to be. Well, isn’t that convenient for this blogging? Humor me while I sit behind the desk for a few moments.

And finally the players. Here is where the chaos goes ape. Kobe in Chicago wants Shaq in central Illinois to keep passing the ball. Whoever else is on the team down in southern Illinois has long since given up expecting anyone other than the other team to ever pass them the ball (by accident if nothing else.) Each level of government keeps shouting up the line orders. Who gets to call the shots? Which ever player brings out more votes in the primary. I guess Kobe gets to run things for a while. Wonder how this will end up. (Looking into my limited edition ESPN crystal ball….. I see a broken team and no championship around the corner.)

With the institution of the massive increase in the minimum wage (I’ll spare the economics lecture for another post), Gov. Blago (may I call him gov. bang-up?) still at the helm, and the debt continuing to increase, the future looks quite bleak. Illinois Republicans claimed to be rallying behind one central cause this election, saving the state. It didn’t work. First of all, it was one pathetic rally. Second of all, how were they going to fix things. Nobody could agree for sure on what the best course of action was, it was just getting Blago out of office.

It didn’t work; why not? No hard work. No organized strategy. No weekly drills and tune-ups designed to get the team with in a reasonable striking distance. And then on game day, there were no well oiled plays being run. No studying of game film, defensive counter measures against the other team. It was a sound beating in every area. Each player seemed more concerned in padding their stats and protecting their individual goals than in risking their necks and fighting with their hearts. The party was divided.

There is an interesting idea in trying to claim the election was lost either by moderates, or by the popular scapegoat-conservatives. I blame neither. In 2004 Illinois ran ultra conservative Alan Keyes against heavily financially backed (and media favored) Barack Obama. Republican voter turn out- 1,390,690 votes. Now fast forward, 2006 election results- Judy Baar Topinka (the moderate/liberal) 1,368,682 votes. Now the popular argument is a lot of people didn’t come out and vote….but who were they? Who didn’t vote? Got a name? Know someone who didn’t vote?

So do you know someone who didn’t vote? Well, I guess we just found our problem now didn’t we? I blame you. I blame you, and I blame them. One can make the argument that conservatives or moderates run the election in Illinois, but I really have to scratch my head and wonder. What if there really are just 1,350,000 (plus or minus) dedicated republican voters in Illinois? If that’s the case, we will lose every single time. It’s time for a new strategy.

(Putting on my coaching hat, red feather and all.) It’s plain and simple, in a state where in this last election a little over three million people got out and voted, you need one thing to win. More votes. You don’t even need that many. A 300,000 vote swing would be nice, but realistically- go for 600,000 new voters. You have (last time I checked) over 11 million people living in Illinois. Go out and recruit one 1 out of 22 people to become a Republican and vote. Right there, Baam, election won!

Now I understand it is not quite that simple, but I have a three step plan I would like to see initiated. I have the utmost confidence (especially at 3:00 a.m.) that this plan is a fool proof way to take the state.

1. Reorganization and emphasis at the county and city precinct level. Word should go down the ranks (not up) to recruit more voters. It doesn’t start with a mass issue based assault, its city council members and county precincts going door to door, walking precincts talking to people. “Do you like what we’ve been doing?” “What would you like us to emphasize more here at this level of government?” “Can I encourage you to vote this republican into office again this year?” “Thank you, my phone is always ready for any suggestions you might have.” Don’t expect lots of people to suddenly jump on your band wagon because you have an issue dangling in front of their face like a fake carrot. Give them something immediate they can effect realistically, their neighborhood. Then their city. Then their district, then as they climb the ladder….. their state.
2. Unify behind an idea, not geography. The betterment of Illinois. Yes, Chicago that means you need to concede a lot more than you currently do. It also means, though, that the parts of central Illinois that have it quite well off need to remember southern Illinois and the other forgotten corner of Illinois called the Quad Cities. The winning idea won’t be, vote because Blago will be the end of us all (that is a likely possibility, but it won’t win elections) the idea, or better yet, the ideal should be, look how much better we have, can, and will make things. Show light on the local level and then build up.
3. Push for, and over turn the idea of registering for your party at the primary. Illinois is simply too corrupt to support this kind of structure. I have talked to countless numbers of people who refuse to vote in the primary, and express great concern voting in the fall election because they fear losing their job. People do get fired for picking a party contrary to the one in power. It’s the illegal and unethical trickle down effect in our current (and previous administrations.) If you could open the primaries, you could free up state and union workers to vote their conscious (whichever way it may swing) instead of vote for their immediate employment. Morally, it’s the right call. Now I’ve seen first hand the benefit that comes from being able to focus just on getting your party out to vote from these records. It’s cheaper, simpler, and less confrontational…..but come on. It hasn’t worked. We are getting are asses kicked at it. Take away the strongest weapon the other side has and play on an even field. Plus, would it hurt to pressure more non-voters to get out and vote? I think not. Exercise your democratic right dammit.

So a battle plan. That’s it in three easy steps. More voters, more unity, more freedom. If that isn’t a platform a party can get behind, then I want nothing to do with that party (And apparently neither do 9.5 million other Illinoisans.)
So what do you say Illinois? Wanna play ball?

(Voter statistics taken from-)
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/IL/S/01/index.html

http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2006&fips=17&f=0&off=5&elect=0

David Clary
UIS CR’s first vice-chair

posted at 1:42 AM by David C