Still flying high, we hear from Aakash Raut, Chairman of the University of Illinois-Springfield College Republicans, about his group's part in local election victories last Tuesday . . .
"It has been one week since Election Day, when Springfield Republicans did better than most had predicted, particularly in the City Council races. For the first time in 12 years, a majority of the City Council will be Republicans; in addition, independent-minded Democrats prevailed in most of the other races, against their party-establishment opponents.
Many people were caught off guard, by the results, in which virtually every competitive race ended in the GOP's favor. One factor which helped provide the difference on Tuesday was a local grassroots student effort, on behalf of the Republican candidates. Many election observers had not taken this into account, in predicting what the election outcome would be, but after the results were in, some local leaders noted that this factor could have made a pivotal difference, in several of the close races. . .
The following is a report about a lesser-known aspect of the Republican victories one week ago, in the Municipal Elections...."
Conservative Student Movement helped boost GOP to victory
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
It has been one week since Election Day, when Springfield Republicans did better than most had predicted, particularly in the City Council races. For the first time in 12 years, a majority of the City Council will be Republicans; in addition, independent-minded Democrats prevailed in most of the other races, against their party-establishment opponents.
Many people were caught off guard, by the results, in which virtually every competitive race ended in the GOP's favor. One factor which helped provide the difference on Tuesday was a local grassroots student effort, on behalf of the Republican candidates. Many election observers had not taken this into account, in predicting what the election outcome would be, but after the results were in, some local leaders noted that this factor could have made a pivotal difference, in several of the close races.
I am the Chairman of the College Republicans at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS), but I am trying to make this report as objective as possible. I am not writing this to boast, in any way, about our organization, but rather, to make you aware of this grassroots effort, especially in light of its apparent impact on last week's major races. (As noted above, several reporters, from the local newspapers, radio, and television outlets, have expressed past interest in our election-related activities.)
The UIS College Republicans consists of approximately 180 individuals, including students at UIS, Lincoln Land Community College, and recent alumni of both schools. Those who are active in our organization include Capital Scholars, upper-class students, and graduate students, people of all ages and backgrounds. We became extremely active in the Fall 2004 semester, and have since then been participating in numerous types of activities; in addition to elections, we engage in issue-based activism, legislative lobbying, student assistance and internship placement, traveling to statewide and national conferences and events, and charity service projects in our communities.
With regard to elections, we have assisted Republican candidates not only in our area, but in other parts of the state; last semester, we made several trips to the Chicago area, to assist with the nationally-followed U.S. House races of Peter Roskam (Congressional District 6) and David McSweeney (Congressional District 8).
One year earlier (November 2005), when there were no elections in Illinois, we sent our members to Missouri and Virginia, to assist with special elections taking place in those states.
This report though, is not meant to be about our past events and activities; the following is an overview of our activities, in regards to this Spring's Municipal Elections.
As soon as last fall's elections were over, we began working on the Spring elections. Though November's results were disappointing, I emphasized that we would have a chance to make up for this in 2008... Meanwhile, we can work to take back our city. We emphasized that campaign season was "far from over," and that the local elections taking place this semester can have a greater impact on our daily lives than the statewide and national ones do. We wanted to do what we could, to help the Republicans win back a majority, on the City Council.
On November 7th (the night of the Fall elections), Mr. Frank Lesko approached us for assistance, in his bid to succeed Alderman Chuck Redpath on the City Council. We had assisted his brother-in-law, Mr. Greg Stumpf, in his successful re-election bid that fall, and Mr. Stumpf's daughter is one of our College Republicans members.
I knew that more candidates would be asking for our help soon, due to how well-known we had become, in GOP and conservative circles. One month later, Debbie Cimarossa contacted us, also requesting assistance with her City Council campaign. Ms. Cimarossa is a distinguished alumna of our university, and has served as an adjunct professor at UIS as well.
Despite it being Finals Week and the end of the semester (this was in mid-December), we were able to provide volunteers, to help get Ms. Cimarossa and Mr. Lesko on the ballot (in Ward 7 and Ward 4, respectively, for the City Council). Since we helped both candidates right up through last Tuesday evening (see below), I am glad that these are two campaigns that we can say we were involved with, literally from the beginning to the end.
Many of our members were away for the Winter Break, but when the semester resumed, we wanted to immediately get involved, with helping the Republican candidates... There were many other activities that we were immediately asked to participate in, however, and our first College Republicans meeting was delayed, due to these events - We co-sponsored the first of the statewide "Illinois Education Reform Forums" held by Americans for Prosperity on our campus [television coverage here], and we brought over 20 College Republicans to the Sangamon County Lincoln Day Luncheon, featuring Karl Rove.
When we had our first meeting, Debbie Cimarossa was the featured speaker, and we signed up volunteers, for her campaign. On Primary Election Night (February 27th), she credited the UIS College Republicans with her victory in Capital 86, the precinct where we did a literature blitz, which she won, even though one of her opponents lives there - right in one of the subdivisions where we had walked, that rainy morning.
Frank Lesko also won the primary that day; initial results put him in second place, by 12 votes, but the final results (once absentee votes were counted) put him 6 votes in first place.
That night (February 27th) was depressing for many Republicans though, especially with the loss for Alderman Joe Bartolomucci. This seemed to have dashed hopes for winning back a majority on the City Council, since doing so would now require a victory in every single competitive aldermanic race, in the general election, which appeared to be unlikely.
We did not give up hope however. At our next event, held right after the final AMC Championship Men's Basketball Game at UIS, we hosted Frank Lesko. UIS had just won the Championship, and the Lesko event was held immediately afterwards. Despite many students having gone out to celebrate, after the game, and despite it being the first day of Midterms Week at the university, we had a good turnout, for this event, at which many students signed up to help with Mr. Lesko's campaign.
Here is a report, on this campus event:
Lesko outlines campaign platform during visit with students, Brian Bartoz, March 5, 2007
While the Cimarossa and Lesko campaigns for City Council were the races for which we provided the most support and volunteers, those who spoke at our meetings this semester also include City Clerk candidate Jerry Goldblatt and SMEAA candidate Brad Mills. We additionally assisted with the campaigns of Steven Dove for City Council and Cinda Edwards for Community College Board of Trustees.
One aspect of local election campaigns that was implemented this year, and which college students are especially accustomed to, but which has been largely untapped, in Springfield elections, was the use of technology resources. We extensively used e-mail, Facebook, and weblogs during this election season, for purposes of networking, event coordination, volunteer recruitment, and providing information about our candidates and issues. Being students gave us access to many resources, such as computer labs, library resources and databases (such as Lexis-Nexis), Facebook accounts, and internet server space. Other than Mayor Davlin, Frank Lesko was the only Springfield candidate to have a Facebook "Group," and we also provided him with a campaign website.
We campaigned for our candidates, up through the time the polls closed on the evening of Election Day. Activities we did included traditional work such as precinct walking, literature blitzing, sign placement, and phone banking, during the weeks before Election Day, as well as some more innovative tactics. For instance, we obtained a list of students registered to vote at their campus address, and distributed literature pieces for our candidates on campus (such as Brad Mills and Cinda Edwards), and also offered to provide rides to the polls. On Election Day, we held a "Road Rally" for Debbie Cimarossa and Jerry Goldblatt, near a polling place on Old Jacksonville Road, during the lunch hour. We assisted with poll watching and phone banking later that afternoon, and also provided volunteers at the Sangamon County GOP Headquarters, for "GOTV" efforts, in Frank Lesko's Ward 4 race.
We ended our volunteer activities at about 6:45 PM that day, and at the Election Night parties, we anxiously awaited the results. In order to win a majority on the City Council, every single competitive race (in Wards 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10) would have to go to the Republican candidate, which many thought was unlikely. That did occur however, and Republicans were also mostly successful in the SMEAA and Community College Board races, including the ones that our organizations assisted with.
Several local leaders noted that the assistance of the UIS College Republicans may have boosted our candidates to victory, in several of the close races, particularly in the Ward 4 aldermanic contest - which will result in a new GOP majority on the Springfield City Council. We are very glad to have provided this assistance, for our candidates and causes, in this Spring's important elections. I will be ending my term this semester, after three years as Chairman of this organization, and for us to have been a part of last week's victories is a great note on which to retire.
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I hope that this provides an overview of this lesser-known aspect of last week's election results, and also answers the questions that several of you had asked, about the campaign activities of the UIS College Republicans - at least with regard to this semester. If anyone has any questions about the many events and activities (election and non-election) that we have done in prior semesters, or has any questions about the above topics, please feel free to contact me, at any time.
Thank you,
Aakash Raut
Chairman, College Republicans
University of IL at Springfield
(217) 546-7315 [home]
(217) 652-0987 [cell]
(217) 546-5300 [fax]
