Illinois GOP hopes McCain-Palin will help local races
MINNEAPOLIS -- On the heels of his acceptance speech, John McCain is flying into Chicago Monday to rake in some much-needed campaign cash.
And while he is town, Illinois Republicans better get a good look at the Arizona senator, because he won't be coming back much.
"What we are expecting is that Obama will be absent from Arizona, and McCain will raise quite a bit of money in Chicago, but it will be a big surprise if Illinois really goes into play," says U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a Highland Park Republican.
Yet, that does not mean McCain's campaign is dead in Illinois.
McCain's Illinois campaign co-chair, state Rep. Jim Durkin - who knows about uphill races having been trounced by Sen. Dick Durbin in 2002 - is planning to use McCain's popularity in some parts of the state to boost local races.
"We are not just putting on a campaign to put on a campaign," says Durkin, a Western Springs Republican. "John McCain is helping us to win some races, too."
The addition of abortion rights opponent and gun rights proponent Sarah Palin to the ticket is expected to give an added boost to lawmakers running in particularly conservative districts.
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus told Illinois Republicans attending the Twin Cities convention Thursday that before Palin, getting social conservatives excited about the race "was like pulling a mule."
"But now I tell you they are on board and fired up," said Shimkus, of Collinsville.
In those areas, which are mostly downstate, Durkin says you can expect to see McCain-Palin signs right next to the local Republicans running for office.
"I'm not going to put them in areas where we have no chance of competing," Durkin says.
Indeed, Illinois voters have proved to be huge Obama fans in the last several elections.
Obama swept the state in the 2004 Senate race against the fly-in candidate Alan Keyes with more than 70 percent of the vote. Even in the traditionally Republican collar counties, Obama garnered more than 60 percent of the vote against Keyes, up to 69 percent in Lake County.
The pattern largely held in the presidential primary. Obama won 65 percent of the vote against Clinton.
On the Republican side, McCain barely garnered 50 percent in a three-way race.
The vote totals were even more surprising than the win margins.
Obama garnered more than 1.3 million votes statewide in the Democratic primary, more than every Republican candidate got in the GOP primary combined.