Two Plainfield Republicans are considering challenging House GOP Leader Tom Cross in the February 2010 84th House district primary, the Plainfield Sun reports this am. Both Plainfield township trustee Tony Fremarek and village trustee Garrett Peck said they were unhappy with Cross because he didn't hold to Republican values.
Cross said he'd held firm on fighting Quinn's income tax increase this spring and brushed off the campaign donations he's gotten over the years from abortion providers Planned Parenthood by citing three conservative groups with which he works -- Family PAC, Concerned Christians and Project Reality.
Thursday, questions were being raised as to whether a deal between Cross and Gov. Quinn was in the works for eight possible Republican House votes for the income tax hike when the General Assembly returns next week. Cross' spokesman Kevin Artl said there was no such deal, and spelled out a slightly different take on the story widely circulating Thursday...
"The Governor met with Rep. Cross and told him they'd seen news reports of up to eight Republican House members who have said they might vote for the income tax hike," Artl said. "Tom said, 'You're probably right about that,' and that's all there was to that."
The IBEW 150 put out a press announcement Thursday about the governor's intentions to sign HB 255, this year's capital bill that's partially funded by higher tax rates on liquor, soft drinks and candy bars as well as an historical expansion of gambling by legalizing video poker and internet lottery sales.
Cross' office said there was no deal on the capital bill for eight GOP income tax hike votes because the governor's support for the capital bill was never an issue.
Who are the eight possible GOP votes? We've searched the web over the past few weeks, and have found these possibilities -- State Reps. Bill Black (Danville), Raymond Poe (Springfield), Bob Biggins (Elmhurst), Rosemary Mulligan (Park Ridge), but there's likely to be up to eight.
Whether you live in their districts or not, you might want to give those GOP reps a call before next week's tax hike vote. There's a couple of Democrats who refuse to vote for a tax hike, making the solidarity of the Republican caucus even more crucial as they return to Springfield.
And the Illinois Churches in Action are pleading for calls to the Governor's office to get him to veto HB 255 (the capital bill) and reject the unprecedented gambling expansion it contains.
I called Mr. Cross once several months ago, and he did call me back, personally, right away.
But the problem is that he didn't take the time to try and understand what I was trying to tell him. He was in between meetings, and was more than happy to offer that I "work with Froehlich" when I was trying to tell him that Mr. Froehlich was part of the problem. And we all know what's happened to Mr. Froehlich since then.
Personally, I just don't appreciate that Mr. Cross was happy to throw me "to the wolves" - i.e. Democrats. As if I called Republican leadership because about my tax issue because I wanted him to ignore me...?
Posted by: David Jenkins | Friday, July 10, 2009 at 10:35 AM
I think it is time for a Phone BLAST to our State Senators and Representatives since it sounds like to me some of them are caving in.
Posted by: John Poshepny | Friday, July 10, 2009 at 05:29 PM