Republican Party Ousts 13 Committeemen in Chicago

CHICAGO, IL — The Cook and Chicago Republican Parties ousted 13 “Republican” ward committeemen Wednesday in a move to end Democrat control over several Republican ward organizations.

Among those expelled were two individuals placed by House Speaker Mike Madigan in the 13th and 23rd Wards, an individual placed by Alderman John Arena in the 45th Ward, and an individual placed by Alderman Emma Mitts in the 37th Ward. In each case the petitions for the “Republican” candidate had been circulated by precinct captains for his or her Democrat sponsor. In Madigan’s district, the “Republican” committeeman had circulated petitions for Madigan’s fake Republican opponent in 2014.

In the 20th Ward, the “Republican” candidate is the mother of the Democrat Committeeman.

In several cases, the “Republican” candidate had never voted in a Republican primary. Many had life-long Democrat voting records.

In one case, a committeeman was expelled for having committed multiple felonies, including solicitation of murder.

At the end of 2014, Madigan and former Democrat Governor Pat Quinn signed into legislation changes to the election code which tranferred control of election judges from the Republican County Chairman to local Republican ward organizations. The changes gave Democrats incentive to run loyal Democrats for Republican ward committeeman so that they could control all of the election judge positions in the polling place. By law, the ward committeeman from each party is allowed to appoint half of the election judges. Complete Democrat control would bar Republican party representatives from a polling place, opening the door to voter fraud.

In response to Madigan’s moves, Republican committeemen made changes to the bylaws of the Cook County Republican Party disqualifying any committeeman who had taken a Democrat ballot in a recent election.

“For first time in generations, the Chicago Republican Party is free of Democrat influence,” said Chicago Republican Party Chairman Chris Cleveland. “It’s a new era for aggressive Republican action against Chicago Democrats. We’ve had enough of the corruption.”

“It’s an outrage that an open Democrat would try to head the Republican Party in a ward,” said Cook County Republican Party Chairman Aaron Del Mar. “Fortunately, we’ve put a stop to it.

“The city and county parties worked together to make this happen.”

For more information, contact: Chris Cleveland @ 312 339 2677 mobile
chris.cleveland@chicagogop.com