November 14, 2022
Dear editor;
Well, it’s official. The Illinois Republican Party is now irrelevant at the State level. They have worked mightily to get here. The GOP has lost every Illinois House and Senate election since 2002 and the governorship for all but four years during the same time period, handing Democrats the closest thing to absolute rule that is allowed by the Constitution. As the conservative party in a blue state, each election told them how to win the next one: Bring your message closer to the middle. Yet, after 20 years of losing, their strategy for 2022 was to double down on partisan conservatism. As a result, they have just suffered their greatest loss to date. Will they ever learn? Please, Republicans, moderate your message for 2024, and consider advocating the voting system recently adopted by Alaska: Open primaries and ranked choice voting. That system favors less extreme candidates, something badly needed in the Illinois GOP and our Nation as a whole.
Craig Zabel, Sugar Grove