Top Republican rallies the troops in DuPage
With a chance of a special Senate election hanging in the air Friday, the new national Republican chairman railed against Democrats who dominate Illinois and implored top state GOP officials to get to work at regaining power.
"The people of this state deserve better," RNC Chairman Michael Steele told a banquet hall full of Republicans in DuPage County, often considered the center of GOP politics in the state. "This is the party that can give them better."
Steele pointed to the potential special Senate election as the first battle a re-energized Illinois Republican Party must win, turning President Barack Obama's old Senate seat over to the minority party.
"The people of this state need and deserve better representation in the United States Senate than what they have right now," Steele said to cheers from the near-700 attendees, including much of the state's new and old GOP guard. While there remains little sign that embattled U.S. Sen. Roland Burris will step down, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn called on him to do so Friday and urged lawmakers to approve special election legislation.
Meanwhile, Republicans have clearly been energized by the Burris and Rod Blagojevich scandals, hoping they will be foremost on voters' minds during statewide elections in 2010 or the potential special Senate election.
"Absolutely - it is going to help us," said a grinning James "Pate" Philip, the retired veteran Senate president and Wood Dale Republican while glad-handing with attendees at the Oakbrook Hills Marriott Resort in Oak Brook.
Before his keynote speech, Steele told reporters and party leaders it would not just be attacks on Democrats that will allow them to win the solid blue state. Much as he is trying to do on the national level, Steele said Illinois Republicans need to unify and broaden their appeal and better explain their solutions to the economic collapse.
Illinois Republican Chairman Andy McKenna and other top GOP brass have been preaching much the same.
"We have to unite our party," DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin, a state senator, told attendees.
It is clearly a message welcomed by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a Highland Park Republican and a likely candidate for U.S. Senate, who spoke at the DuPage event Friday night.
Hailing from the North suburban 10th District, Kirk disagrees with the party's stances on several social issues like gun control, abortion and gay rights.
But perhaps as an indication of the push for unity, it was U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, a Wheaton Republican, who invited Kirk to the event in his home county.
Roskam is also considering a run for Senate and said Kirk "has a bright future in the statewide GOP, and DuPage Republicans need to get to know him."
Like Steele, Kirk blasted Democrats and called the state the most corrupt in the nation under their leadership.
"As people of the state of Illinois," Kirk said, "we know that we can stand up and we can recover."