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* Regarding the Republican gubernatorial primary and the Richard Irvin campaign…
“This is the biggest debacle I’ve ever seen. It’s the biggest screw-up I’ve ever seen and the biggest waste of money I’ve ever seen,” said former Illinois Republican Party Chair Pat Brady, who is doing communications work for candidate Gary Rabine.
Dude is openly pushing an also-ran conspiracy-theorist for the top office in the state likely because his cousin didn’t get slated for secretary of state. He probably doesn’t have a whole lot of room to talk. Just sayin…
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:20 am
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Brady’s credibility is officially out the door.
Still…a point was made.
Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:26 am
Well, if anyone knows about debacles, it’s Pat Brady.
Comment by phocion Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:27 am
“He’s out of line, but he’s got a point.”
There are no heroes in the Republican primary.
Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:27 am
Very nice knife-of-truth twist by Natasha Korecki there. The woman’s a pro.
Comment by Northsider Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:29 am
Is he talking about the Irvin campaign? Or the entire GOP primary?
Comment by Save Ferris Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:30 am
Rich- You are incorrect. I know Pat Brady. He started helping Gary Rabine long before any talks of a Richard Irvin candidacy + talk of a slate. Your comment of “because his cousin did not get a spot in the slate” is distasteful and quite frankly dishonest. I thrive on facts. You should too. I agree Rabine is wacko though
Comment by Mike Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:31 am
The thing about Brady?
Brady never had a real grasp on timing, politics, the pulse of the state… it building a party.
This quote is quite on brand, lol
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:34 am
I don’t see any way the Republican party is redeemable at this point. The field in Illinois this year just shows just what the party is about. Do you want a greedy corporate stooge? How about a white nationalist or conspiracy theorist? I hope you don’t like anyone who deals with actual facts and reality, because that option has been out the window for decades.
Comment by Homebody Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:36 am
“Hey that guy spent more money to lose badly than we did to lose badly. Ha ha.”
Comment by Ron Burgundy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:43 am
=is distasteful and quite frankly dishonest. =
Aww, so delicate your feelings.
Pat Brady is a “never has been” and should probably just shush himself.
Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:44 am
Pat Brady’s credibility is long gone, but he isn’t wrong. I am absolutely baffled at how poorly Irvin/Griffin screwed this up. Irvin clearly wasn’t prepared for prime time. Not to mention whoever decided to try and paint an anti-mask, anti-vaccine farmer from Southern Illinois as a secret Biden/Obama voter should never work in politics again. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered given the extreme swing of the GOP base in 2022, but losing by double digits to Darren Bailey with all the resources Irvin had is pretty mind boggling.
Comment by SouthernCentrist Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:51 am
To Pat Brady’s point…he is not wrong. We never really heard the story of an African American republican that rose from poverty…was in the military…and went on to get a law degree. Irvin is the American dream everyone always talks about. Instead, his campaign handlers tried to re-invent his main opponent Sen Bailey into a democrat. Horribly run campaign instead of telling a great story about their own candidate.
Comment by Nagidam Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:55 am
==whoever decided to try and paint an anti-mask, anti-vaccine farmer from Southern Illinois as a secret Biden/Obama voter==
And for that matter, whoever tried to dress up a pro-mandate, pro-BLM moderate as a standard issue right-winger.
Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 9:56 am
Every time that Pat Brady has a chance to rise above the fray and show why he was a party leader , he doubles down on making himself more irrelevant. His association with the Rabine campaign is the latest example of that.
Comment by Pundent Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:02 am
A post-mortem on Irvin will get to the choices, and many good points in comments.
I’ve felt… Mayor Irvin had the story and the chance. They decided not to run “Mayor Irvin”
That’s as plain as I see it… before “tomorrow” and a post-mortem
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:07 am
== Mayor Irvin had the story and the chance. They decided not to run “Mayor Irvin”==
This exactly. Irvin could have been what Rauner was (or at least what he was in his first primary) - a socially moderate, fiscally conservative republican candidate with a good story to tell, with pluses for being a minority, a popular mayor of a large city, and without the baggage of being an uber-wealthy hedge fund guy. The vocal trump people may not have liked it much and it would have been a close race, but you couldn’t argue that he didn’t have the best shot to draw in moderate independents and maybe some dems to help win in the fall. Instead of framing him in the mold of the most popular politicians in the country (Moderate R governors of blue states), they tried to turn him into a latter-day Vernon Jones. I will never understand what the thinking was on that decision..
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:19 am
Richard Irvin, mayor of Aurora, was a great potential gubernatorial candidate. Richard Irvin, gubernatorial candidate, was the focal point of the worst campaign I have ever seen. That team should never be hired to run a campaign again. And…just because you are a great hedge fund manager doesn’t mean you will be great campaign strategist. Stay in your lane Griffin.
Comment by levivotedforjudy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:22 am
In the race for governor of the state of Illinois, Gary Rabine is currently polling in the single digit percentages higher than… me.
I’m not sure if complaining about how bad someone else is at messaging should be coming from someone in that situation.
He’s not wrong, but still.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:26 am
Whose the cousin?
Comment by Payback Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:26 am
Well if he’s been helping since the beginning he would have advised Rabine to have picked a better running mate. Dal Mar is a whack job that helped destroy the CC GOP.
Comment by Long time Independent Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:32 am
Payback—Pat Brady is a first cousin to Rep. Dan Brady who seems to be doing just fine on his own as a candidate for S of S.
Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:53 am
== Whose the cousin? ==
Dan Brady. It is idiotic to think that Pat Brady harbors ill will for this perceived slight. In the end, “The Slate” did not provide any infrastructure and Dan Brady has run a great campaign without them.
Comment by RINO Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:55 am
Now all those “establishment” Republicans, and former Kirk/Rauner staffers, that supported Richard “barely a Republican” Irvin can move to Florida with Ken Griffin.
Comment by Soapbox Derby Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 10:59 am
Saw Jim Edgar on TV last night. They had a snippet of him just for a few moments. He expressed concern that a Bailey ticket will pull down Republicans running farther down the ballot in November.
Comment by DuPage Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:01 am
Jim Edgar voted for Hillary and Biden, I don’t think he can comment on what Republican voters think anymore.
Comment by Soapbox Derby Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:04 am
==Jim Edgar voted for Hillary and Biden, I don’t think he can comment on what Republican voters think anymore.==
If you think the Republican Party owes fealty to Donald Trump then I guess you’d be right. I know lots of Republicans who didn’t vote for Donald Trump but are still Republicans.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:16 am
===Hillary and Biden===
Edgar is not a cultist.
Edgar isn’t one to support an insurrection.
Edgar isn’t one who’d likely support a candidate who embraces racist thinkers or conspiracy theorists.
You’d think those things are a good thing for a party… not encouraging the worst in the country
Now, if you do…
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:19 am
=Jim Edgar voted for Hillary and Biden, I don’t think he can comment on what Republican voters think anymore.=
Maybe not. But Edgar seems to understand what it takes to win in a general election if you’re a Republican in Illinois. Right now Republican voters are allowing purity to stand in the way of winning and then allowing the few electeds that they have whine about being irrelevant.
Comment by Pundent Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:23 am
Seems to me that Dan Brady has been helped in the primary so much by not being one of Ken Griffin’s hand-picked choices.
In his home turf, he has been labeled a RINO by many right-wingers in recent cycles but without the Griffin-Irvin slate baggage he doesn’t seem to have been branded a RINO for this contest.
Comment by hisgirlfriday Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:24 am
Does he really not remember Jack Ryan bowing out late due to a sex scandal only to be replaced on the ballot by Alan Keyes? I am not sure you can get worse than that.
Comment by Benniefly2 Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:24 am
===Jack Ryan===
Jack Ryan *won* his primary.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:25 am
If there’s anyone in the GOP that knows political malpractice, it’s Pat. But as others have said, he’s not wrong and this debacle gives new meaning to the term political debacle. If Irvin finishes in 3rd or 4th, it will be the most expensive per vote campaign since…well, ever.
Worst. Campaign. Ever. Rich, that should be a QOTD. Is this the worst campaign in the history of Illinois or are there better examples of political malpractice.
Comment by New Day Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:28 am
@ Oswego-
January 6th happened AFTER the 2016 and 2020 elections so Edgar had no idea that was going to happen when he voted for Democrats, twice.
He was a leader of the Illinois GOP Party, now he has a voting record like Irvin.
Comment by Soapbox Derby Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:40 am
===January 6th happened AFTER the 2016 and 2020 elections so Edgar had no idea that was going to happen when he voted for Democrats, twice.===
You forgot to mention the racist thinkers and conspiracy theorists.
An oversight, I’m sure, LOL
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:43 am
=January 6th happened AFTER the 2016 and 2020 elections so Edgar had no idea that was going to happen when he voted for Democrats, twice.=
January 6th was the culmination of things that were apparent in 2016 and 2020. And Edgar was hardly the only Republican to recognize that.
Comment by Pundent Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:51 am
Soapbox,
Those of us not easily fooled knew what Trump was long before the 2016 election and the events leading up to 1/6; Jim Edgar was not fooled by a scamming lowlife.
Comment by former southerner Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:54 am
==January 6th happened AFTER the 2016 and 2020 elections ==
What does January 6th have to do with not voting for Trump? Plenty of people knew Trump was a scumbag before that which is why they didn’t vote for him. Not voting for Trump doesn’t mean you aren’t a Republican unless - as I stated before - you believe fealty to Trump is necessary to consider yourself a Republican.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 11:58 am
And Mike Z Is laughing all the way to the bank.
Comment by 4 percent Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 12:12 pm
Soapbox, before both elections Trump declared he liked to grab women by their privates. No decent person would vote for him after that.
Comment by Big Dipper Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 12:31 pm
Z made money, but his reputation just took a big hit, and his financier just left the state . . .
Comment by Soapbox Derby Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 12:31 pm
“January 6th happened AFTER the 2016 and 2020 elections so Edgar had no idea that was going to happen”
And Jan 6, 2021 was the very first indication that Trump was a morally reprehensible and completely unacceptable presidential candidate, rite?
– MrJM
Comment by MisterJayEm Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 1:01 pm
===What does January 6th have to do with not voting for Trump?===
Courting the Proud Boys and 3%ers, the party welcomed those who wanted and involved in an insurrection.
Edgar, like me, as I will only speak for me, saw Trump as an unacceptable choice for President.
For me, in very large part, the elements Trump courted as allies.
To bring this back,
Irvin, while this campaign is a head scratcher, isn’t Rabine or Bailey, folks also courting the same elements Trump embraces, and thereby making the ILGOP a safe haven to those bent on taking down democracy
Yeah, it’s a debacle, as a stand alone campaign, but the party here in Illinois isn’t distancing itself from these awful elements, the party merely ignores the damage they bring.
That’s the debacle, actually.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 1:09 pm
==This is the biggest debacle I’ve ever seen. It’s the biggest screw-up I’ve ever seen and the biggest waste of money I’ve ever seen,==
Apparently he has forgotten about Alan Keyes.
Comment by Just Sayin Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 1:09 pm
“Mayor Irvin” might have had a chance 16 years ago. That was the year Topinka almost lost to The Abominable Milkman.
The GOP has been slowly shifting from moderate to conservative. Or you might say rather quickly since tens of thousands of patronage workers and their families stopped pulling GOP ballots just to keep their jobs after Republicans lost control in 2002.
There were almost 30K GOP ballots for governor cast in Sangamon County in 2002. In 2018 that number was down to 16K, even with a sitting GOP Governor facing a tough primary.
Trump calcified the conservatism of the IL GOP and made it unshifting, but it was already happening. “Mayor Irvin” would have been clobbered in this primary. The GOP is a cult now, the cult has a belief system, Mayor Irvin’s supports gun control, abortion rights, mask mandates, BLM, cannabis and most importantly does not support Trump.
Probably the only Republicans voting for Irvin are the ones with no tv’s, and the only thing we are waiting to see today in the GOP Governor’s race is whether Bailey wins more or less than 95 counties, and whether Bailey hits 50%.
Comment by Juvenal Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 1:49 pm
Speaking of debacles, where’s Carol Moseley Braun these days?
Comment by Soapbox Derby Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 2:03 pm
===Carol Moseley Braun===
Likely with a couple pensions and a speaking engagement or two for fun money, probably better than most of us
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 2:05 pm
Highly doubtful CMB is invited to give a paid speech to anyone these days. Thanks for the chuckle Oswego!
Comment by Soapbox Derby Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 2:08 pm
===Highly doubtful===
CMB has 2 booking agencies and just this January spoke to WILL for an hour during the King holiday.
When have you been booked for an hour with WILL?
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 2:15 pm
Alan Keyes. And Judy avoiding being seen with him whenever possible. Are any of the committee of 19 (or whatever it was I remember it had 19 members and was chaired by Judy) still in politics? Or are they all retired or otherwise moved on? I seem to remember Syverson being involved in some way.
Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 3:27 pm
==Likely with a couple pensions and a speaking engagement or two for fun money, probably better than most of us==
As most likely does Pat Quinn too. Despite bringing in Squeezy and saying he was “put on earth” to fix pensions, and always perpetually campaigning and passing out petitions.
Comment by Just Sayin Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 4:09 pm
Dan Brady the big winner today. Would not get bullied out of the race by Mike Z and friends. Will likely win by 30. Still the best GOP hopeful.
Z the biggest loser. Train wreck Irvin campaign was his brain child. Disaster that was the Rauner Administration was on his Chief of Staff watch. Zzzzzzzzzzz - exit stage right.
Comment by Do It Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 4:41 pm
===Z the biggest loser===
The checks cash the same.
If Proft isn’t out of campaigning, it’s doubtful this will “take out” Z, all this might not even change his rates, lol
You run campaigns long enough, you’ll lose and win.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 4:52 pm
Griffin should’ve supported Dillard. He would’ve run the Primary and give Pritzker a run for his billions!
Comment by GOPer Tuesday, Jun 28, 22 @ 5:58 pm