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By Paul Drabick
Thursday October 17th marked a major milestone for the Republican Grassroots movement in Illinois politics. Behind Enemy Lines, podcast duo Terry Newsome and Paul Drabik teamed up with a local political advocacy group called DuPage Freedom Federation to host a Lincoln Trump dinner. Special guest speakers included, former runner up on The Apprentice, and Special Advisor to President Trump: Tana Goertz. Additionally, author of the book “Rules for Defeating Radicals” Chris Adamo, spoke at the dinner. In his work, Chris offers an antidote to Saul Alinsky’s seminal treatise: “Rules for Radicals.” His strategy was featured in the General Michael Flynn and Boone Cutler book, “The Citizen’s Guide to Fifth Generation Warfare.”
In contrast, the establishment Illinois GOP group held their annual Reagan dinner across town. The keynote speaker was a registered Democrat. The Gipper would have likely joked about such a contrast. Sources who attended both dinners confirmed the grassroots attendance outdrew the establishment Republicans.
The goal was to challenge the local establishment Republican party. The grassroots success was highlighted by acquiring a speaker one degree of separation from President Trump in deep blue Illinois. The result was a divided Illinois GOP leadership. The co-chair of the Illinois GOP, Aaron Del Mar, and Republican National Committeeman, Dean White, also attended the event. More revealing was the appearance of local candidates who either spent all night at the grassroots dinner or split their time.
The attendance of candidates signals the lack of influence from a dying Republican establishment in Illinois. The candidates clearly acknowledged the influence of Illinois grassroots. See the link to their candidate websites:
Laura Hois – DuPage County Board
Hope Mercado – Circuit Court Judge
Nicole Prater – DuPage County Recorder
Jeremy Wang – DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk
Chad Koppie – U.S. House Representative IL District 8
A seeming paradigm shift has taken shape as two major Illinois GOP operatives, Del Mar and White, spoke at the grassroots dinner. Del Mar’s impassioned plea to let them produce results was met with a mix of skepticism and cautious acceptance by the crowd. Both speakers pleaded for the infighting to pause during the final stages of the Presidential election cycle. While White suggested the crowd should vote for Republican candidates, in the same breath he admitted that “we have no money…” and “the big donors look at us (sic) they don’t want to uh… bet on us because we can’t get along, we don’t know how to win.”
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