Chicago Young Republicans thrilled with Election Results

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Release from the CYS...

Victories Show that Illinois is Ready for Real Reform

This has been a great night for Republicans across the county and right here in Illinois. After more than a year of tough campaigning, the 2010 Election results are in. The Chicago Young Republicans are thrilled that Mark Kirk has won the Illinois Senate seat recently held by President Barack Obama. This is a real repudiation of the current president and his policies since leaving Illinois for Washington.

The CYRs are also excited that the GOP has won a majority the U.S. House of Representatives and that our state will be sending at least three, and hopefully four, new Republicans to D.C. including Adam Kinzinger, Randy Hultgren, Bobby Shilling, and we hope Joe Walsh. We especially congratulate Bob Dold on his victory in the 10 congressional district, his first run for public office.

While we do not yet know the final result in the gubernatorial election, the CYRs want to congratulate Bill Brady on running a strong campaign based on principles and reforming our broken state government. We hope to congratulate him on a win before too much longer. In the meantime, we can give a hearty congrats to Judy Baar Topinka on winning the Comptroller election and Dan Rutherford who will serve as our next State Treasurer after his victory.

The CYRs look forward to working with our newly elected representatives at all levels of government to put Illinois back on the right track to good governance and prosperity.

We would also like to congratulate all the amazing local Republican candidates who ran strong campaigns that represented the Republican philosophies of limited government, personal liberty, free market principles and limited taxation.

The CYRs were proud to help all Chicago area Republicans in the last few months by fundraising, calling voters, knocking on doors, dropping off literature at homes and placing yard signs.

This election is only the first step in a long process to bring reform to Chicago, the surrounding suburbs and the state of Illinois. The CYRs will continue to boldy lead that effort in Chicago.

Join today! Become a member of Chicago-land's "fiscally conservative, socially moderate, strong on defense" club. Only requirement? A registered Republican between the ages of 20 to 40. chicagoyrs.com

Adam Kinzinger Victorious in Illinois!

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Republicans win IL 11th Congressional District

Victory Speech for newly elected Republican Congressman and US Air Force Veteran Adam Kinzinger. He is also a libertarian-leaning Tea Party Republican. Kinzinger beat longtime incumbent Debbie Halvorsan in what was considered to be one of the toughest most hard-fought battles for Congress in the U.S.

Kinzinger received a great amount of support from both the Chicago Young Republicans and the Illinois Republican Liberty Caucus.

Historical trend of Black Republicans in Congress coming back

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by Michael Zak

Grand Old Partisan salutes Allen West (R-FL) and Tim Scott (R-SC), who were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. When they take their seats in January, it will be the first time since Rep. Gary Franks (R-CT) and Rep. JC Watts (R-OK) in the 1990s that more than one African-American Republican served in Congress. Prior to that, in 1891 there were three African-American Republican congressmen: Rep. John Mercer Langston (R-VA), Rep. Henry Cheatham (R-NC), and Rep. Thomas Miller (R-SC).

See the Grand Old Partisan blog for more information about the heritage of the Republican Party.

The book Back to Basics for the Republican Party shows Republicans how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of the GOP.

Note - Michael Zak has been a frequent guest on LR's radio show "Libertarian Politics Live."

Time for Republicans to get serious about solutions

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by Jeff Wartman

On Tuesday, the American people put their trust in the Republican Party.

We now have a majority in the House of Representatives and gained seats in the U.S. Senate and among the Governorships.

This was all made possible because of overreach in Washington -- out of control spending, massive debt, and an economic situation where the average citizen is having trouble seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.

As Republicans, we need to fight for an agenda of ideas to get the economy rolling again. Without deficit reduction and a healthy private sector, recovery will be difficult.

The time for obstructionism and "just saying no" to President Obama is over. If we do not come to the table with ideas to create real solutions for real people, the American people will throw us out as quickly as they put us in. Just as quickly as the American people put their trust in the Republican Party, they'll take it away in two years. President Obama, the Republican Congress and Democrat Senate all need to sit down at the table, bringing ideas and solutions.

The Republican Party has ideas. We have a plan. Let's get started.

Jeff Wartman is an active member of the Chicago Young Republicans, IL RLC, a former member of the Libertarian Party of Illinois, and was a volunteer campaign worker for Mark Kirk for US Senate.

MAINE REPUBLICANS CELEBRATE MASSIVE REPUBLICAN WINS!

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Republican leaders giddy, and even a bit cocky over results

From Eric Dondero:

There has been an absolutely huge shift in politics in the State of Maine. Though the final results were tighter than expected, Tea Party Republican Paul Lepage won over Independent Elliot Culter with 40% of the vote, to Cutler's 38%. Maine has not had a Republican Governor in nearly two decades.

Perhaps even more dramatic, Republicans gained the State Senate with a projected 23 seats out of 40. They have not controlled that body since a brief period in 1996.

Similarly, the State House has also gone Republican. It appears that the GOP will control 77 seats, out of 140.

Maine Public Broadcasting Network, a publicly-subsidized news service out of Portland reports:

The first thing Maine Republicans did the day after being swept into office was to gather all the victorious legislative candidates at the State House and hold a news conference in the Hall of Flags that was more like a pep rally. "This press conference starts out by, 'A funny thing happened last night,'" he said, to laughter and cheers.

Outgoing House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, who is termed out of the Legislature, says he and his fellow Republicans are "proud, excited and humbled" by the choices voters have made, "because we recognize the awesome obligation and the important obligation we have and the trust that the people of Maine have given us. And I am proud to say that Republicans have been ready for this for quite some time. We are ready, willing and able. We have the talent. We have the passion. We have the commitment and we will deliver."

Senate Minority Leader Kevin Raye, who has indicated he'll run for Senate President, says Republicans are under no illusions that their job will be easy. The state faces a budget deficit of about a billion dollars over the next two years. "We face daunting challenges. We have a big mess to clean up," he said. "We can do it. You got it! Yes we can!"

Raye says Republicans are determined to change the culture of state government so that the state of Maine is a place that values prosperity and working people.

Former Maine state legislator and current Republican Liberty Caucus State Board member Stravos Mendros described a conversation he had with another legislator who happened to be at the state capitol the day after the election:

Democrat staffers were literally crying all over the place. In all the hallways, and offices of Democrat reps staffers were balling, and blabbering. These guys have had their secure legislative jobs for 30 to 40 years.

Mendros and the ME RLC played a major role in legislative races across the state, particularly in the Lewiston/Auburn area.

Snap back

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by Clifford F. Thies

The Republicans certainly scored an enormous victory in the mid-term elections of 2010. But, did this victory represent yet another change in the electorate or merely a snap back?

First, it is not unusual for a party that is wiped out in one election to make a snap back in the next. Talk of the demise of one or the other major party is almost always rubbish. The only time a major party actually did disintegrate, leaving the country with only one major party, was in 1816. All around the world, where countries are democratic, you find two or more major parties, or coalitions of parties, invariably coalescing about a “left-right” political axis. Those who argue that the members of the other major party should be held in suspicion, as though they were “enemies,” or should be relegated to the back of the bus, or have political opinions based on fear and the inability to think straight reveal only their own ignorance of how democracies work.

If this was indeed a snap back election, it obviously questions the lurch to the left engineered by the Democrats following their prior victories. But, it also questions the drift of the Republicans into “big government conservatives,” the succumbing of many of them to the corrupting influence of power, and the decision to invade Iraq and to allow mission creep in Afghanistan, that lead to the prior Republican defeats. The snap back is to the principles of limited government under the Constitution. Not to the failures of the prior administration.

While the election of 2010 can be viewed as a snap back in terms of Republicans versus Democrats, the election was also one of continuing change. In this election, we saw the emergence of significant numbers of women and minorities as leaders of the Republican Party. In both majority-white and majority-minority districts, Republicans elected women, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians.

Nobody stepped aside to allow these people to win their elections. In South Carolina, where Nikki Haley was elected Governor, a political rival described her parents, who are Indian Sikhs, as “turbin-heads.” In Idaho, a Republican running for the U.S. Congress was described as soft on Mexican drug-pushers because he is Hispanic. No party has a monopoly on hatred. There are those in each party who will play the race card, or the immigrant card, or the gender or the religion card. But, the heritage of this country has been, for more than 200 years now, to make the promise real, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. We are continue to work on this on redeeming the promise.

With the mid-term elections now concluded, it is time for the winners to get about the work of the American people. Here, in Virginia, we have seen the ability of a new Governor, working with a divided state legislature, to balance the state budget without raising taxes, and start the economy of the state on the road to recovery. With regard to our President, the ball is now in his court. Does he want to work with a divided Congress, or use the Republicans in Congress as his new excuse for a depressed economy? About this choice, I’ll just say: Nobody is re-elected President on the campaign slogan: “Things could be worse.”

"Republican rout" in Florida sweeps all three cabinet posts

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From Eric Dondero:

In addition to the monumnetal win of Rick Scott for Governor, and Jennifer Carroll for Lt. Governor, Florida Republicans picked up all three cabinet posts. Leading the statewide wins Attorney General-elect Pam Bondi.

From TBO (Tampa Bay Online):

TAMPA - Republican Pam Bondi led a GOP sweep of the state's three Cabinet posts by edging her more experienced opponent in the race for attorney general.

Former Congressman Adam Putnam defeated former Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox to succeed outgoing Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson. In the race for chief financial officer, Jeff Atwater completed the Republican rout. Both took double-digit leads into the election and pulled ahead early.

Bondi was supported by Sarah Palin, and received her financial support for the race.