Republicans roll through town

GOP bus tour rallies in Galesburg

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

By JOHN R. PULLIAM

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - The Republican statewide slate of candidates' Common Sense Express Bus Tour arrived at Lake Storey Park at 2:10 p.m. Tuesday. Although the candidates made their speeches in a picnic shelter, the atmosphere was more like that of an old-time revival meeting.

State Sen. Dan Rutherford of Pontiac fired up the crowd on a sunny, 80-degree day.

"Yeah! Wooo! It's great to be back in Galesburg," Rutherford said.

A smiling, upbeat gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka talked about a series of TV ads Blagojevich ran early in the campaign that criticized Topinka on one issue or the other, and then asked, "What was she thinking?"

Topinka told the crowd of Republican faithful the answer they wanted to hear.

"I'm thinking I take him out in November, because Illinois can't go on like this for four more years," she said, to laughter and applause.

Running against incumbent Jesse White for secretary of state, Rutherford asked for a show of hands of people who did not receive applications for new license plate stickers when the old stickers were ready to expire. A number of hands shot up.

He also slammed White for hiring Cecil Turner. Rutherford said Turner had a pre-trial hearing in U.S. District Court in Peoria Friday after being arrested by the FBI and indicted by a federal grand jury "for ghost payrolling, allegedly for six years, all under Jesse White's watch.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic being on a ticket like this," Rutherford said. "I'm not about nepotism. It's time for Springfield to change."

Rutherford high-fived all the candidates, then, realizing he failed to introduce Tazewell County State's Attorney Stu Umholtz, the candidate for attorney general, rushed back to the podium and startled Umholtz by saying, "On your feet. Stu Umholtz."

Umholtz laughed and said Rutherford also forgot to introduce him at the previous stop in Macomb. Turning serious, he said DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, should have been elected attorney general in 2002, rather than Democrat Lisa Madigan.

Umholtz said of himself and Birkett, "We don't just talk about public corruption ... we deal with it. Under (Lisa) Madigan, public corruption has not only continued, it has flourished."

Umholtz, as he promised in an earlier interview in Galesburg, also pledged if elected to seek to end the General Assembly's exemption from the state's Open Meetings Act.

Lt. governor candidate Birkett said he was "delighted to be in historic Galesburg." He promised Republicans would make history again Nov. 7 by electing the first woman governor in state history, Judy Baar Topinka.

Birkett said Gov. Rod Blagojevich is out of touch with reality.

"He doesn't understand the pulse of Illinois. This ticket does. Judy Baar Topinka does," he said.

Many of the candidates talked about the unity the GOP was showing on its fifth day of the bus trip across the state, compared to the Democrats not being willing to share the same stage at the Illinois State Fair.

"We're united, they're divided," Birkett said.

Topinka said she will unveil her budget plan today. She complimented area legislators, state Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, and state Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria, who were on hand, and pointed out Knox County Clerk Scott Erickson is a former employee of her treasurer's office.

Topinka took Blagojevich to task for so-called "pay-for-play" state contracts.

"In my administration we will have no no-bid contracts," she said.

Other Speakers

Other candidates who spoke at Tuesday's Lake Storey rally:

- State Sen. Carole Pankau, candidate for comptroller

- State Sen. Christine Radogno, candidate for treasurer

- State Rep. Don Moffitt

- State Sen. Dale Risinger

- Knox County Clerk Scott Erickson

- Matthew LeClere, candidate for regional superintendent of schools

- John Miller, candidate for county treasurer

- Jeralyn Rehn, wife of judicial candidate John Rehn