Editorial Note: State Senator Kirk Dillard is the latest Dupage Republican to publically consider a run for Illinois governor. Other Dupage contenders include Adam Andrzejewski, Joe Birkett, and Bob Schillerstrom. Statewide Bill Brady, Matt Murphy, and Dan Proft are also in the field.

-crossposted from the Daily Herald:

The field of DuPage County-based Republicans floating a bid for governor is growing ever more crowded with state Sen. Kirk Dillard now clearly adding his name to the list.

“When I pull the trigger, it will be followed swiftly with one of the most aggressive campaigns this state has ever seen,” Dillard said. “I will draw a clear difference between the Democrats’ failed Springfield policies and the direction I would lead Illinois.”

Dillard has been lobbying civic, business and party leaders for weeks. He plans to make several downstate stops over the weekend and he sent a letter Thursday announcing his interest to Republican Party officials across the state.

The Hinsdale Republican is the third member of the DuPage County GOP brass to throw his hat in the ring following DuPage State’s Attorney Joe Birkett and county board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom. State Sen. Bill Brady, a Bloomington Republican, is already officially running.

While a majority of DuPage County voters in November went for Democrat Barack Obama, the West suburban county is still considered the strongest base for the beleaguered GOP. Any Republican running statewide must carry a convincing majority in DuPage and other suburban counties to have a shot at overcoming the sizable Democratic margins that traditionally come out of Chicago.

With potentially three DuPage GOPers running, however, there is concern that a bitter primary could washout the Republicans’ suburban base for the general election…(read full)

On April 16, the Board of Trustees at the College of DuPage, a large community college in Illinois, made history by voting unanimously to adopt the Academic Bill of Rights and include it in the school’s policy manual, making DuPage the first campus in the nation to have adopted the actual text of the Academic Bill of Rights and only the third campus to recognize student-specific academic freedom protections. But the teachers unions, understanding the threat the Academic Bill Rights posed to their political agendas on the DuPage campus, were ready for this development and engineered the installation of a new Board to reverse this decision on May 4, a scant two weeks after DuPage had committed itself to academic freedom.

The NEA, which has opposed scholarships for inner city black and Hispanic children and has fought the Academic Bill of Rights since its introduction over half a decade ago, had seen the victory of the Academic Bill of Rights coming. It had poured $100,000 into the community college trustee election on March 7, and succeeded in gaining a four-seat majority on the DuPage Board of Trustees. On May 4, only days after being seated, the four new union-backed trustees voted to rescind the months-long work of the previous board (which NEA sympathizers had tried to stigmatize as “a lame duck board”), culminating in the April 16 vote. Kory Atkinson, a member of the previous board who helped to pass the Bill, commented: “The decision by the new College of DuPage board to rescind the Academic Bill of Rights is nothing more than the exercise of raw political power. The faculty union poured over $100,000 into recent board elections and essentially bought 4 board members. It is noteworthy that the Board voted to rescind its ABOR policy by a 4-3 vote, and that each of the 4 trustees voting to rescind the policy received all of their campaign contributions, totaling tens of thousands of dollars apiece, from the faculty union.”… (read full)

Learn more about the Academic Bill of Rights here.

Only a month into his new gig, DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan did something the county board has been attempting for years.

He posted the county’s monthly expenditure reports online, essentially allowing the world to see its checkbook.

“I have a small staff of six people and now I’ll have a million and six people looking over these reports,” Grogan said. “In the long run I see this as something that is going to save me time and make me more efficient.”… (read full)

Roskam lands prime committee assignment

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, just now entering his second two-year term, landed a plum spot on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee today.

The seat, coveted by many in Congress angling for clout, gives Roskam a chance at crafting the GOP’s input on the nation’s tax, Social Security and Medicare policy. . . (read full)

Note: Ways and Means has a lot of clout dating back to former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois’s 5th Congressional district in Chicago. Old school Chicago Democrat Congressman Rostenkowski lost re-election in 1994 amid scandle, and was subsequestly imprisoned in 1996.

State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont), a veteran of fifteen years in the State Senate, debates and discusses the issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.

Senator Dillard previously held positions with the administrations of Gov. Thompson and Gov. Edgar– and as a judge on the Court of Claims. In addition to serving in the State Senate, he is a partner at the law firm of Locke, Lord Bissell & Liddell. Dillard lost, on Nov. 19, 2008, a close election for Senate Republican Leader to Senator Christine Radogno. For more about Senator Dillard, please go to: http://www.dillard.senategop.org/

Topics discussed on the show include the impact that social issue divisions, as they manifested themselves in the recent state senate leadership election, might have on future efforts to rebuild and unify the party, taxing and spending issues, including the size of the projected 2008-09 state budget deficit and how to fix it; education issues, including reform, spending, charters and vouchers; a capital budget and financing same; Should State GOP Chairman Andy McKenna, Jr. be removed; Will Gov. Blagojevich be indicted and/or impeached; Will Dillard run for a statewide position in 2010? and much, much more.

This Program was taped on November 23, 2008.

You can watch more episodes of Public Affairs at www.publicaffairstv.com

Recently a $3 million grant from the Economic Development Administration was announce for Rochelle, toward building a much needed overpass. The construction project isn’t cheap though; the total cost is estimated at $7 million. See video from WREX Rockford for details:

Why are YRs (Young Republicans) wired about 72-year-old McCain?

In an effort to be perfectly fair and balanced, I wanted to recycle the first couple of paragraphs from my column about Barack Obama’s historic acceptance of his party’s nomination for president, and give John McCain supporters the same chance to gush about their ticket.

To find the Obama sources, I simply logged onto the barackobama.com site, thumbed through the list of suburban parties, read the descriptions written by the hosts, threw out those sponsored by established politicians, picked a few (including a gathering of high school kids) that sounded interesting and then called or e-mailed the hosts listed. It was almost like having a legman to do all my grunt work.

But when I tried to do the same for the McCain speech parties, johnmccain.com gave me only a handful of names and suburbs featuring parties. Instead of phone numbers, addresses and e-mails, the McCain site supplied a link asking me to fill out a form to request an invitation, which I requested, but never heard back.

“I see what you are saying,” says Michael Bowler, who was co-chair of the Illinois State Young Republicans for the last three years. “I wish there was a little more going on.”

In response, Bowler put together a McCain-watching party at the last minute and drew more than two dozen Young Republicans to a Naperville nightspot on a rainy night to see McCain accept the nomination last week.

At 38, Bowler is closer to getting his AARP card than he is to the college crowd. But the Aurora commercial insurance broker sent a text message in response to my interview request, and says the Young Republicans (officially 18-40) are pumped up about the 72-year-old McCain.

“It’s kind of declined a bit, but it’s coming back,” Bowler says of the youth movement in the GOP.

When Sarah Palin emerged on the scene as McCain’s vice-presidential candidate, “I got three e-mails in one day saying, ‘When’s your next meeting? I want to be a member,’ ” says Amy Sejnost Kovacevic, 33, president of DuPage Young Republicans. “More people want to get involved. I didn’t know too much about Sarah, but I was glued to the tube that day. Afterward, I said, ‘I love her.’ ”

But do young people really relate to a president who will be 76 years old by the end of his first term?

“I don’t really think about his age,” Bowler says. “I don’t look at him as 72. I look at him as a gentleman who’s been around, has experience. I look up to him. He’s more of a grandfatherly figure, and I looked up to my grandparents.”

Old Brett Favre came out of retirement and threw two touchdown passes to lead the Jets to victory, so McCain could do the same for the nation, Bowler figures.

Suggest that 1,000 McCain voters are dying every day, or that a Young Republican is as rare as a black teenager who’s really into country music, and Bowler and Sejnost Kovacevic acknowledge that Obama is perceived as the candidate more in touch with hip, young folks. But that’s not a universal truth, and it can change before November, they say.

With McCain having been in town Monday night for a fundraiser geared to high-rollers, Bowler says younger Republicans are hoping “we’ll have our fun on Nov. 4.”

In the meantime, “I think we’re going to do some debate-watching parties,” Bowler says.

“Most of us are gearing up for the debates. That’s what’s going to fire us up,” predicts Sejnost Kovacevic, a production analyst who lives in Aurora.

“Let’s do something,” Bowler urges his fellow Young Republicans, “instead of sitting on our couches - like old people.”