GOP threatens lawsuit over open election plan

SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Republican Party will go to court if a Republican-sponsored plan pending in the General Assembly changing how the party chooses its leadership becomes law, GOP Chairman Andy McKenna told state lawmakers Thursday in a letter obtained by the Daily Herald.

Saying he was "deeply troubled" by the "misguided and unconstitutional" proposal, McKenna said "the Illinois Republican Party will vigorously defend its rights under the United States Constitution."

At issue is a proposal that would give Republican Party primary election voters the power to elect members of the Republican State Central Committee. Currently, party ward and precinct leaders choose the state committee.

Republican state Sen. Chris Lauzen of Aurora is pushing for the change, which was approved this week by a state Senate committee. Four of the five votes necessary to move the proposal to the full Senate came from Democrats. However, Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont is a co-sponsor of the plan.

The fact that Democrats are supporting the plan bothers McKenna.

"Political parties in Illinois have a right to freedom of association - in other words they have a right to be free from exactly this sort of meddling," McKenna said. "The Illinois Republican Party takes its First Amendment rights seriously and will not cede those rights to any governmental entity nor to any opposing political party."

But Lauzen must rely on Democratic support to pass his plan since Republicans only hold 22 of the 59 state Senate seats. Lauzen said he will keep working toward passage.

"How can it be unconstitutional to restore what was there in the beginning?" Lauzen asked. Before 1988, Republican primary voters elected the party's central committee. Democratic primary voters already elect their central committee.

McKenna said the Illinois Republican Party has retained the Washington, D.C., law firm Patton Boggs should a court fight become necessary.