Holocaust denying anti-Semite is now the Republican nominee in Illinois' 3rd District
newsdepo.com
As conservative Democrat Dan Lipinski was narrowly holding off a primary challenge from Marie Newman in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District, the Republican race was a foregone conclusion. That's because only one Republican was running: perennial candidate,Holocaust denying anti-Semite is now the Republican nominee in Illinois' 3rd District
As conservative Democrat Dan Lipinski was narrowly holding off a primary challenge from Marie Newman in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District, the Republican race was a foregone conclusion. That's because only one Republican was running: perennial candidate, anti-Semite, Holocaust denier, and former American Nazi Party leader Arthur Jones. Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier described as a Nazi by the Illinois Republican Party, won the Republican primary on Tuesday in the state’s Third Congressional District, a heavily Democratic district that includes part of Chicago and its suburbs, according to The Associated Press. [...] The Illinois Republican Party has sought to distance itself from Mr. Jones in recent weeks, blanketing the district with campaign fliers and robocalls urging voters to “stop Illinois Nazis,” according to a robocall script provided by the party. Mr. Jones said he had received three robocalls himself. The spending of actual money by the party to try to prevent their voters from casting votes for the Nazi was not fully effective: Jones received more than 20,000 Republican votes in his race. Whether this means that the district contains 20,000 actual Nazi sympathizers, or 20,000 Republicans for which anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial isn't a deal-breaker, or 20,000 Republicans who never heard of Jones before despite his perennial candidacy, is unclear. The most charitable interpretation is that there were 20,000 Republicans in the district who didn't give a damn who the Republican candidate in the race was, and didn't make even a cursory attempt to find out, but simply cast their votes for whichever name was under the Republican line, whether that candidate be Nazi, gopher, or root vegetable. Other interpretations may, however, be equally valid. In the wake of Jones' «victory,» the NRCC omitted him entirely from their statement on IL-03; The state party now says they'll support an independent candidate on the ballot in November so that Republican voters have another option, but have yet to choose which one. (Note that the reason Jones ran unopposed to begin with is that the party could find no other district Republican willing to accept the party's requests to appear on the ballot; whoever the party decides to promote next, they won't be under the Republican line.) All of this expenditure from the party is intended to convince their own voters not to vote for a goddamn Nazi, because left to their own devices Republicans will, apparently, eagerly vote for a goddamn Nazi. Those 20,000 votes suggest that their efforts will be in vain. What that means about the state of our current democracy is, as always, up for debate. Voters around the nation are fed up with Trump and his Republican enablers. Donate here to support Daily Kos-supported candidates and take back the House. Read more