Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky
We’ve been discussing how those fleeing Cook Countians have been turning the Collar Counties blue at a one to two percent pace every even year election for quite some time now. In those same columns I warned the Kane County Republican Party that if they didn’t put the absurd feuds aside, drop the asinine dysfunction, and focus on winning elections, they’d go out with the kind of whimper that wouldn’t begin to approximate a bang.
And that’s exactly what’s happened. For all intents and purposes, the KC GOP no longer exists.
Though the seeds of this spurious self-destruction were sewn some 15 years ago, their recent Chris Lauzen led Trumpist implosion has hastened that demise by at least a decade. And the carnage has been so complete that even if the KC GOP reversed direction today in an effort to become relevant again it will never happen.
The problems started with a lack of anything approximating real leadership.
Yes! I know! More often than not political parties are defined by their internal bickering and pointless dissention. It’s the nature of the political beast. That means the successful Party is generally determined by a leadership that can get the warring factions to work together at election time. And Kane County Democratic Chairman Mark Guethle has done an amazing job of herding those crazed cats.
Meanwhile, we had Ken Shepro on the Republican side, and though he understands the political playing field better than most, he’s the antithesis of a dynamic leader and he refused to lift a finger to help anyone but himself. He did so little as Republican chair that he managed to lose his own County board seat to a nobody.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it does. Because as I’ve explained to him directly, newly minted KC GOP chairman Andro Lerario has all the brain power of a gnat, and trust me, that’s an insult to gnats everywhere. And Lauzen, who’s slipping in every mental gear, somehow thought installing Lerario would be a good idea.
When Andro isn’t embracing the latest Facebook conspiracy theory and/or hoax, he’s leading the pack of sniveling Campton Hills election denier hyenas who are pursuing Republican county clerk Jack Cunningham at every turn. You see Jack, the last KC Republican who can beat Democrats by a landslide, made the mistake of winning a $2 million grant that would be the envy of election authorities everywhere. But with no proof whatsoever, Andro and his idiotic ilk are insisting it’s dark money as they protest in front of the clerk’s office on a daily basis.
I’d say, “You can’t make this stuff up,” but that ironic declaration has lost all meaning in the post-COVID era.
But the best and most damning evidence of Lauzen’s and Lerario’s complete incompetence is that no Republicans are running for those coveted countywide offices at a dismal Biden approval rating time when they should be cleaning up.
I’ve had Democrats call me to ask me why no Republican is running for chairman because, in their words, “No one can stand Corrine Pierog anymore.” Even more inexplicably, no one’s challenging against auditor Penny Wegman when her sum total of financial experience consists of overdrawing her checking account. The most vulnerable Dem candidate is state’s attorney Jamie Mosser who’s made a slew of more than questionable decisions. So, how is it that no Republican attorney is willing to take her on in a county that still boasts a Republican voter majority?
I’ll tell you why!
Not only does the KC GOP fail to offer candidates any financial or volunteer support, but Lauzen and Lerario are so busy pursuing pointless feuds, baseless theories, and helping Trump destroy the Party that no one will touch either one of ‘em with a ten-foot pole. And I don’t blame them one bit.
So, what was their response to this dearth of candidates? They sent an email blast asking local Republicans if they want to run for state’s attorney, auditor, circuit clerk, or chairman. My God! That’s what you do when you’re a youth soccer coach looking for players, not leading a political party at a critical juncture in electoral history.
I generally enjoy seeing one of my long-term prophecies come to fruition, but not this one. Particularly when you consider the Dem’s woke antics and their addiction to spending our money, that rapidly fading KC GOP influence is a truly terrifying proposition. And the truth is it’s never coming back.
Great job Kane County Republicans!
