Month: October 2023

CHICAGO — In a resounding show of bipartisan support, the United States Congress passed a resolution on October 25th, firmly reaffirming the nation’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and unequivocally condemning acts of terrorism, particularly those perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist group. Despite the overwhelming bipartisan support, among the 10 “Nay” votes and 6 “Present” votes were two Illinois Democrats.

Congresswoman Delia Ramirez was among the Democrats who voted against condemning Hamas, while Rep. Chuy Garcia refused to take a stand on the issue by voting present. Being unable to condemn terrorist actions is unconscionable, something even their own party members agree with.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chairwoman of the DNC, said about the vote: “Someone who votes against this I would think doesn’t have a soul.”

“When elected ‘leaders’ like Ramirez and Garcia hesitate to unequivocally condemn terrorism, Illinois should be concerned about their ability to lead responsibly and effectively,” said ILGOP Chairman Don Tracy. “When groups like Hamas take human shields, including Illinoisans, as hostages to use them as leverage, that is terrorism and should not be condoned or forgiven. Shame on Representatives Ramirez and Garcia.”

CHICAGO – The Illinois Republican Party is thrilled to announce that Senator John Kennedy will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural “Bank Your Vote” Gala. The event is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 9, 2024, at the Westin O’Hare in Rosemont.

The “Bank Your Vote” Gala is the first of a new annual tradition promoting the importance of utilizing early voting, vote by mail, and other pre-election day methods to energize the Republican base entering this election year. 

Senator John Kennedy has been a strong advocate for conservative principles in the U.S. Senate, most recently putting Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on the defensive regarding pornography in books available in public school libraries accessible to children.

The Bank Your Vote initiative is a national effort aimed at supporting early voting and Get Out The Vote programs. It’s a unified effort led by the Republican National Committee displaying the commitment of Republicans to facilitating early voting.

In her address to the nation, Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel emphasizes the significance of early voting and its crucial role in our democratic process. Watch the RNC video here.

Stay tuned for more details as the February 9th Bank Your Vote Gala approaches.

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If you are interested in attending or sponsoring the Gala, please click HERE. You can also support this event in several other ways: donating wine to our wine auction, purchasing an ad in our ad book, or by donating an item for our event auction!

Questions? Reach out to Alicia Heffley for more information.

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson cancelled his trip to the southern border, realizing that not only would he be incapable of doing anything about Joe Biden’s border crisis, but also that if he wants to keep doing performative media stunts around the migrant crisis, he could just stay home.  

The Chicago Sun-Times posted a scathing editorial last week, saying Johnson’s handling of the crisis shows “no evidence of a solid, workable plan forthcoming from the five-month-old Johnson administration.”  

From the Sun-Times editorial: 

“Tent camps in a Chicago winter are a bad idea on its face, but that’s not the only problem. GardaWorld had been in line for a $40 million contract to build a similar camp in Denver, but officials there gave the company the boot last May, citing abuse allegations against the corporation and its thin experience with housing migrant populations.” 

Mayor Johnson, though he talked a big game during the campaign, he has abjectly failed to follow through on his promises. Johnson’s campaign website says “Chicago must lead with and live by the promise to be a sanctuary city and welcome immigrants and refugees, and treat them with dignity and respect… We must coordinate efforts with local communities with the infrastructure to support displaced immigrants and refugees, and coordinate efforts at all levels of government to provide humane conditions for everyone.”

Tent cities and cots in airport terminals hardly qualifies as treating migrants with dignity and respect. 

We acknowledge Mayor Johnson for realizing his job is the Mayor of *Chicago* and cancelling his border trip. Now he needs to take action to address the issues squarely in his court, like homeless illegal migrants, crime and failing Chicago schools, something he has proven incapable of doing thus far.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Tribune published an opinion piece from former Congressman Bob Dold on Sunday on the atrocities Hamas has committed against the Israeli people and the apologists for Hamas’ actions in the Illinois Democratic Party. 

See his full OpEd here and check out excerpts below: 

No matter your gender or your race, your age, your politics or your religion, one common thread that unites nearly all of us is the recognition that while war is hell on both its combatants and its unintended victims, warfare that’s intentionally targeted on civilians is not warfare at all. It is genocide. And that is what Hamas, as a terrorist puppet of Iran, attempted to ignite on Oct. 7 in Israel. That must never be forgotten, and it cannot be forgiven.

Yet – just hours after Hamas engaged in a targeted slaughter of everyone from infants to the elderly while raping and kidnapping countless young women – 16 Illinois elected officials issued statements decrying the violence while simultaneously placing the blame for it squarely on the Jewish victims themselves, echoing the words of those who decry not the existence of violence but the existence of Israel itself.

ILGOP Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement regarding 16 Illinois legislators unwilling to condemn Hamas actions in Israel:

“The Hamas attack and slaughter of young people at a concert, and their massacre of families, children, babies, and grandparents in southern Israel is an evil atrocity. There can be no justification for the unprovoked slaughter of innocents, and the hate that permeates ideologies that nonetheless seek to justify evil.

That is precisely what 16 Democrat leaders did earlier this week.

The inability of these elected officials to call out evil as evil, and their disgusting attempt to justify evil, should disqualify these individuals from holding public office in Illinois.

We call on Governor Pritzker and all Democrats of good faith to disavow this statement and to call on the individuals that made it to either withdraw and apologize or retire from public life.

Hate should have no home in Illinois — and the Democrat Party should not be a safe haven for those who would justify the slaughter of innocents.”

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson announced this week that he will travel to the southern border to “assess” the migrant situation, the same week that it was discovered Governor JB Pritzker is asking President Biden for additional resources to fix the problem Pritzker himself invited.

While Mayor Johnson’s attention should be focused on resolving the crisis here in Chicago, he will instead be heading to a border where he has no jurisdiction, no authority, and no way to fix (or should we say exacerbate) Joe Biden’s failures.

Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement in response:

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and that is exactly what we have seen from Democrats Pritzker and Johnson as the migrant crisis has grown worse and worse. Mayor Johnson’s border trip won’t fix the Biden migrant crisis, just add more lip service. Governor & Mayor – it’s time to admit that the Democrat Party’s failure to secure the border has put the well being of Chicagoland and its citizenry in harm’s way.”

2020
“We’ve replaced personnel. We put in new policies and procedures. And, very importantly, we have outside advisors and monitors that are helping us to figure out what more needs to be done.Because this is maybe the important thing that government does it protect the most vulnerable people, the defenseless people in our society and the kids who are in the DCFS system, as well as the many who don’t get identified to DCFS.” – Governor Pritzker, January 2020

Fast forward 3 years.

2023
Chicago Tribune: Marc Smith, head of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s embattled child welfare agency, announces resignation
“Marc Smith was appointed to director of the state’s Department of Children and Family Services by Gov. J.B. Pritzker shortly after the governor took office in 2019. The announcement of Smith’s impending departure comes a little more than a week after the state’s auditor general issued a scathing report on the agency that among other things cited significant delays in reporting abuse and neglect to local prosecutors, other state agencies and to officials at children’s schools.”

We wonder what irrevocable damage to Illinois and individual crime victims will be as apparent as his DCFS failure now is when 3 years from now, we look back on Governor Pritzker’s signing of the [Un]SAFE-T Act.

CHICAGO — After months of campaigning on lofty promises and challenges to red states dealing with the worst of Joe Biden’s border crisis, the plan that Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plans to handle the migrant crisis in Illinois has become clear: there was no plan.

Now, tensions flare among Democrats as Illinoisans are fighting for their own recognition in a state that has prioritized political points for JB Pritzker over the wellbeing of its own residents.

Take a look at the aftermath of Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson’s “plans.”

Politico: Tensions flare as migrant buses ramp up
There’s finger-pointing: Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa lashed out at Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday, saying it’s “shameful” that the state isn’t doing more to help. “I get frustrated because I wonder how many of Gov. JB Pritzker’s senior staff are scouting locations on a daily basis to make sure that we’re living up to our responsibility as a sanctuary state,” Ramirez-Rosa said during a heated five-hour meeting of the council’s immigration committee.

Ramirez-Rosa was responding to Pritzker questioning the city’s plan to build tented cities for the non-stop flow of asylum seekers.

.The underlying issue: Neither the city of Chicago nor the state of Illinois have the money reserves to handle the migrant crisis and the federal government has done little to help.

From the mayor’s office: “Local governments aren’t equipped with the amount of coordination and capacity needed to meet the moment,” Pacione-Zayas said. “When you’re talking about thousands of people daily, there’s no way our local government can staff up. It’s like asking somebody to make creme brulee by rubbing two sticks together.” She said the crisis could imperil some programs supported by the new mayor.

NBC Chicago: Chicagoans, aldermen question city’s response to migrant crisis
A small group of protesters gathered at Daley Plaza, demanding answers from Mayor Brandon Johnson regarding the city’s $29 million deal with the security company GardaWorld to build winterized base camps for migrants.

“I don’t think winterized tent city is going to solve anything,” said participant Nino Brown.

“I’m very torn by this crisis, because I think this crisis is eating away at the good will of the people of the city of Chicago,” Ald. Pat Dowell, of the city’s 3rd Ward, said. “I think the more buses we see, the more anxious we get.”

With resources stretched thin and the need for even more funding, some aldermen say the line needs to be drawn.

“We need to say we can’t take no more, why won’t nobody say that out of their mouth, out of this administration,” 20th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor said. “We can’t keep taking buses.”

Associated Press: Hundreds of migrants live inside Chicago O’Hare International Airport as city grapples with how to house them
Hidden behind a heavy black curtain in one of the nation’s busiest airports is Chicago’s unsettling response to a growing population of asylum-seekers arriving by plane.

Hundreds of migrants, from babies to the elderly, live inside a shuttle bus center at O’Hare International Airport’s Terminal 1. They sleep on cardboard pads on the floor and share airport bathrooms. A private firm monitors their movements.

Like New York and other cities, Chicago has struggled to house asylum-seekers, slowly moving people out of temporary spaces and into shelters and, in the near future, tents. But Chicago’s use of airports is unusual, having been rejected elsewhere, and highlights the city’s haphazard response to the crisis. The practice also has raised concerns about safety and the treatment of people fleeing violence and poverty.