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Meet Your State Editor Dave Diersen State Editor for Illinois GOPUSA Poll Why do you read GOPUSA ILLINOIS daily emails? You want information that helps you: Commentary 2008 GOPUSA ILLINOIS Wish List

Business leaders aim to revive Illinois GOP
Crain's Chicago Business

MERRION & HINZ: As GOP presidential nominee John McCain enters the stretch run, Chicago executives are trying to reverse the Illinois Republican Party's long slide from power. After losing the last two gubernatorial races and every statewide race two years ago, when divisive primaries produced relatively weak candidates, the party's leading donors are trying to find viable, business-oriented contenders for governor and other top posts in 2010. "We want to put together a meaningful ticket of fresh faces, without baggage," says Mayer Brown LLP partner Ty Fahner, chairman of the Illinois GOP's finance committee. "That's where we'll put the money." Some members of the finance committee have been meeting privately with potential candidates over the past year. Mr. Fahner won't say who's involved besides state party Chairman Andrew McKenna Jr., president of Schwarz Paper Co. in Morton Grove. But insiders say the finance committee includes top donors Michael Keiser, CEO of Recycled Paper Products Inc., Edgar "Ned" Janotta, chairman of William Blair & Co., Oak Brook investor Peter Huizenga, Goldman Sachs & Co. Managing Director Muneer Satter and Bruce Rauner, chairman of Chicago private-equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner LLC. Business leaders are trying to restore the party's traditional role in tapping nominees, which has diminished amid recent scandals that drove the Illinois GOP from power and discredited its leadership. That weakness opened the door for wealthy upstarts such as dairy magnate Jim Oberweis and investment banker Jack Ryan, who both won GOP nominations in self-financed races but couldn't get elected.

>> Read more at Illinois News Page

State Chamber of Commerce head Doug Whitley considering gubernatorial run
Springfield State Journal Register

WHITLEY: “I see a Republican Party that is dysfunctional, just like state government” and “There’s no true leadership in the Republican Party. They’ve lost their way since the George Ryan scandal, and they truly need fresh ideas and new people and people who have a desire for a better future.”

>> Read more at Illinois News Page

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