The Candidate Berwyn Republicans Can Support in the 3rd Congressional District

[markberwyn]

Why can't the area GOP field a candidate besides Art Jones? Does it not want to?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/02/04/holocaust-denier-running-for-congress-has-no-opponents-in-republican-primary/?utm_term=.ccc97e3e3d04

[chandasz]

Because this is what the Republican party now stands for.

[berwyn senator]

He is all yours!!!!!!!!!!!

[markberwyn]

He is all yours!!!!!!!!!!!

According to the various news stories, he's the Republicans'. They own it. Seriously, why weren't they interested in putting up a candidate against Jones, if only to give area Republicans a decent option?

[markberwyn]

If you're a Republican in the third district, what, to your mind, distinguishes a vote for Trump from a vote for Art Jones?

[Ted]

This is not the first time Arthur Jones has run for Congress.  He has done it many times over the past few decades.

Here are some links to the ABC candidates forums that he appeared at. The one in 2012 was the most bizarre:

http://www.berwyntalk.com/smf/index.php?topic=12055.msg201670#msg201670

http://www.berwyntalk.com/smf/index.php?topic=4784.msg81008#msg81008

http://www.berwyntalk.com/smf/index.php?topic=1399.msg20963#msg20963

[markberwyn]

No question that Jones has been a known known in the area for ages. The difference this time is that the Cook County GOP traditionally fielded a legitimate candidate, negating any chance Jones had of making it past the primary. This time the local GOP has tacitly decided that it's OK to have a Nazi represent it in the general election.

[Ted]

No question that Jones has been a known known in the area for ages. The difference this time is that the Cook County GOP traditionally fielded a legitimate candidate, negating any chance Jones had of making it past the primary. This time the local GOP has tacitly decided that it's OK to have a Nazi represent it in the general election.

I don't think that is true.  There were at least two occasion that I can remember where Jones had no opposition.  In a third election, his opposition was a clown (literally) named Wardingly who entered the race so that Jones would not be alone on the ballot.  The local GOP has been absent from these races for many years.  This is not something new.

[markberwyn]

Not sure when he would have run unopposed in a primary---if you have the dates, let me know. Best as I can tell from some googling around, there was no GOP candidate for the district in 2002. He either didn't run or had a challenger in 1992 (Harry C. Lepinske), 1994 (Jim Nalepa), 1996 (Nalepa again), 1998 (Robert Marshall), 2000 (Karl Groth), 2004 (Ryan Chlada), 2006 (Wardingly), 2008 (Michael Hawkins), 2010 (Michael Bendas) and 2014 (Sharon Brannigan); he had two challengers in 2012. In 2016 he was removed from the ballot because of problems with his candidacy application materials, according to the county GOP.

So if Jones has run unopposed for elected office in a primary, it wasn't for the 3rd Congressional District seat going back to the early 90s. But again, I'm googling quick and could be wrong.

It's true that the Cook County GOP has effectively conceded the seat to a Democrat, but this appears to be the first time it's conceded its party nomination for the seat to a Nazi.

[Ted]

Not sure when he would have run unopposed in a primary---if you have the dates, let me know. Best as I can tell from some googling around, there was no GOP candidate for the district in 2002. He either didn't run or had a challenger in 1992 (Harry C. Lepinske), 1994 (Jim Nalepa), 1996 (Nalepa again), 1998 (Robert Marshall), 2000 (Karl Groth), 2004 (Ryan Chlada), 2006 (Wardingly), 2008 (Michael Hawkins), 2010 (Michael Bendas) and 2014 (Sharon Brannigan); he had two challengers in 2012. In 2016 he was removed from the ballot because of problems with his candidacy application materials, according to the county GOP.

So if Jones has run unopposed for elected office in a primary, it wasn't for the 3rd Congressional District seat going back to the early 90s. But again, I'm googling quick and could be wrong.

It's true that the Cook County GOP has effectively conceded the seat to a Democrat, but this appears to be the first time it's conceded its party nomination for the seat to a Nazi.

  You are correct.  Based on records from the Cook County Clerk (which go back to 1998 only), he ran in 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2012 and he had opponents in all those years. It was in 2006 that he almost ran unopposed - Wardingly entered the race when he found out Jones was running unopposed.

  This is the first year Jones does not have an opponent in the primary.  I stand corrected.  In the ABC candidates forum in some years, Jones spoke on the same stage as a Lipinski representative, but I think that was due to ABC putting all candidates from all parties in the primaries on the stage together,

[markberwyn]

Story in the New York Times this morning about this:

https://nyti.ms/2BJU4GC

Amusing bit toward the end:

While struggling, with increasing exasperation, to turn off a cellphone that kept ringing as he spoke to a reporter — "what is it with this!" he exclaimed — Mr. Jones explained his belief that "what we call civilization today is a product for the most part of white genius."

But, more seriously, the article states: "He described himself instead as a longtime Republican who stands 'shoulder to shoulder, philosophically,' with President Trump." So, again, if you're a Trump supporter, why would you have a problem with voting for Art Jones? Berwyn Senator, your thoughts?

[Ted]

Story in the New York Times this morning about this:

https://nyti.ms/2BJU4GC

Amusing bit toward the end:

While struggling, with increasing exasperation, to turn off a cellphone that kept ringing as he spoke to a reporter — "what is it with this!" he exclaimed — Mr. Jones explained his belief that "what we call civilization today is a product for the most part of white genius."

But, more seriously, the article states: "He described himself instead as a longtime Republican who stands 'shoulder to shoulder, philosophically,' with President Trump." So, again, if you're a Trump supporter, why would you have a problem with voting for Art Jones? Berwyn Senator, your thoughts?

It's a good thing the New York Times was not at the 2006 or 2012 ABC candidates forums, especially 2012.  Those were totally bizarre with Jones entering with his entourage of jack booted thugs wearing Nazi paraphanalia.

[markberwyn]

Here's video of Art Jones in a MAGA hat and praising Trump for his posturing on immigration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psjbbz__iPE

If you support Trump but don't support Jones, why? What distinguishes the two, do you think?

[markberwyn]

Arthur Jones, standard-bearer for the Republican party in the 3rd Congressional District, on CNN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkm6bLE0Bmk

I haven't seen anything about him appearing on Fox News, even though evening anchors on the channel voice strong support for Republican and conservative issues. Why haven't they had him on, do you think?

[markberwyn]

The R-B Landmark appeared to be ahead of this story back in December, noting that the state Republican party delivered a de facto endorsement of Jones by fielding no challenger to Jones in the primary.

"Donald Trump has come closest to my beliefs," Art Jones told the paper.

http://www.rblandmark.com/News/Articles/12-12-2017/Neo_Nazi-from-Lyons-running-for-Congress-in-3rd-District/

The Washington Post reports that the national GOP has decided to shift blame and assert that the media, somehow, made Art Jones the sole candidate in the district.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/08/a-holocaust-denier-is-the-presumptive-republican-nominee-for-a-congressional-seat-the-gop-fault-the-media-for-covering-him/?utm_term=.6c4cef8656f4

If you're a local conservative, how do you feel about this?

[markberwyn]

So a new wrinkle is emerging in the Art Jones discussion, and I hope that highly educated pro-Trump conservatives like Berwyn Senator can help me better understand it.

The new scapegoat for Jones' candidacy---in addition to the media---is gerrymandering. There's an article in the American Thinker that makes that argument:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/democrats_helped_create_neonazi_arthur_jones.html

Now, from my perspective, I think the American Thinker is garbage. There was once a busy conservative poster on this board who was utterly enchanted with an essay there that argued that the LGBT community possesses no self-awareness and was the unwitting tool of a communist plot to abolish marriage. Another American Thinker essay argued that Anthony Castrogiovanni had a good chance to become mayor of Berwyn.

This new piece argues, best as I can tell, that if Democrats let Republicans win every so often, then a Nazi wouldn't be the GOP standard-bearer in the district.

But even setting aside the American Thinker, which historically isn't much for thinking, there's a letter from a Riverside resident in the Chicago Tribune making a similar point:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/ct-gerrymander-nazi-illinois-republican-20180209-story.html

"Candidates are more extreme in both parties because there are fewer candidates to pull them toward the middle," writes Ms. Goldberg. This sounds sensible! And I am not a fan of gerrymandering in favor of any party. But---here's where the well-educated pro-Trump conservatives come in---I would like to hear about these radical-left candidates that are equivalent to Arthur Jones. Why have I not heard about them, even in the conservative media?

Berwyn Senator, your thoughts?

[berwyn senator]

Interesting I am being brought into this mess! Maybe now is the time for a third party? Democrats will be a stronger party once the Clintons are gone! The party is different from what it was many years ago.Said is the only candidate for the Republicans  was Trump. Bottom line both partys are about money!! I wonder if either of them are for the middle American person. I have no idea who Art Jones is, if he is a nazi bastard I would have no use for him.

[markberwyn]

It's fascinating that you've decided to respond in this way, Senator. Indeed, it recalls Trump's reaction when he was called out for being so racist that David Duke supported his candidacy---Trump played at ignorance, then issued a grudging rejection. And here you are, Senator, presented with a mountain of evidence that Art Jones supports Nazi ideology, including repeated denials of the Holocaust, and here you are wondering if it's true.

If he is a Nazi, Senator? Senator, he is.

This makes me think that your full-throated support for Trump ("go Trump!") has a lot to do with the fact that he talks and thinks a lot like you do. You're enchanted by his surface; when you see Trump, it's like looking in a mirror for you. That wasn't true with Obama, for you.

[berwyn senator]

I have no time to follow these people and could careless about them. When you write articles all you is empower them.

[markberwyn]

Again with the media scapegoating. The media did not make Art Jones a candidate, Senator. The GOP did.