Bob Winchester
HARDIN CO. – A long-time politician in Hardin has taken to the federal court realm after he has alleged that his long-held position with the state’s Republican Party was thwarted by others within the Party in April.
Bob Winchester is the one who has filed the complaint. A septuagenarian from Rosiclare, Winchester possesses a long and respectable career with the Party, having been involved in different aspects of state politics since the 70s. He has been a state employee with the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Secretary of State, and was ex-governor George Ryan’s deputy chief of staff between 1999 and 2001.
He’s also been the Republican State Central Committeeman for the congressional district encompassing Hardin County since 1992, meaning he’s been the longest-serving State Central Committeeman on the State Central Committee…until this year.
This year, Winchester claims, some subterfuge went on at the state level, and another individual has been named central committeeman for the congressional district in which Hardin sits (the 15th) through this alleged subterfuge.
So Winchester has filed suit, first in Hardin County on May 14, then when there was a determination that venue would be better served out of Hardin, in federal court in East St. Louis on May 18.
The pleadings are the same, just moved from one venue to the other.
The allegations arise from what Winchester claims happened earlier this year with the Illinois Republican Party (IRP) and the process of election of Republican State Central Committeemen.
The IRP is governed by the committee, which is composed of one member from each of Illinois’ congressional districts, of which there are currently 18. The committee elects the state chairman of the IRP for a four-year term, as well as provides general oversight and operation of the IRP. State Central Committeemen serve four-year terms upon receiving the most votes for the position in quadrennial elections. This follows a formula for congressional districts which encompass more than one county, which is that each ward, township or precinct committeeman residing within the congressional district shall cast as his vote one vote for each ballot voted in his ward, township, part of a township or precinct in the last preceding primary election of his political party for one candidate of his party for member of the state central committee for the congressional district in which he resides. The chairman of the county central committee then reports the results of that election to the state Board of Elections. They in turn certify the candidate receiving the highest number of votes, to determine that state central committeeman for that congressional district.
A new Republican State Central Committee was up for election in 2018 after precinct and township committeemen were elected at the March Primary this year. The election of Republican State Central Committeeman was set for conventions of Republican County Central Committees meeting across Illinois in conventions on April 18 of this year.
The chairman of the IRP is also elected by the state central committee every four years, said election occurring in the weeks after the election of the state central committeemen at county central committee conventions. This is considered a “weighted” vote, meaning that each state central committeeman casts as many votes as there were votes cast in that committeeman’s congressional district in the Primary (which kind of stands to reason, since it’s the “job,” more or less, of the committeemen locally and statewide to drum up the voter turnout, which tends to be dismal in Primaries, especially in downstate.)
The election of a chair for the IRP happened on May 19, and Chapin Rose, Senator for the 51st District who resides in Jacksonville, Illinois, became the committee chair for the 15th congressional district.
Citing his concern that “multiple staff members currently employed or otherwise contracted for services with the IRP are selected or appointed by the chairman and hold their positions at the pleasure of the chairman,” Winchester continues his argument that his bid for the chairman position, being challenged by Rose, was fraught with issues amounting to overlooking him (Winchester) at the April 18 event where candidates were put up. Effectively, Winchester claims that at that April Republican State Central Committeeman election, his own bid for re-election was not presented for consideration as a candidate in at least one county; only Rose’s name was submitted, even though in that county (which is not named), Winchester had been appropriately certified as a chairman candidate.
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Winchester’s suit notes that in that county, Rose received a unanimous vote to become chair.
Winchester said that after the county conventions on the April 18 date, county chairmen in the 15th didn’t report the vote totals of their district to the board; instead, alleges Winchester, at the direction of IRP staff members and contrary to law, county chairmen tendered their respective vote totals to one of more staff members specifically identified by the IRP in the format directed by the IRP staff members. Winchester called this “acting under an obvious and substantial conflict of interest.”
Further, he claims in his lawsuit that at certain county conventions, precinct committeemen who desired to cast their weighted vote for Winchester were “affirmatively” prevented from doing so by county chairmen, and several county chairmen did in fact report incorrect results of their county conventions to staff members at the state level, which incorrect results improperly favored Rose.
“After the county conventions, at the direction and instruction of the IRP,” the lawsuit states, “a large number of county chairmen in the 15th Congressional District did not even report the full weighted vote cast at their county conventions – merely inaccurately reporting to the IRP the votes cast by elected precinct committeemen present at said county conventions.”
Documents state that staff members “instead directed the county chairmen to tender to the IRP only the votes actually cast at the convention, while the IRP would assign the weighted vote of precincts for which no elected precinct committeeman existed and/or was present at the county conventions.”
Winchester said that as a direct result of one or more of the listed irregularities, the vote totals in the Republican State Central Committee elections of April 18 were changed from the true result, a majority in favor of Winchester, to a false result, an alleged majority in favor of Rose.
Winchester then alleges that the IRP proceeded to announce Rose as the candidate receiving the most votes in the 15th Congressional District, when in fact Winchester received the most votes.
Winchester then complained in the suit that “the determination that Rose should be declared as the State Central Committeeman…was made by staff members,” which, Winchester said, have “no authorization to determine or announce which candidate running for …committeeman received the most voted votes, or that a candidate is the elected State Central Committeeman.”
Noting that the official website of the IRP listed Rose as the State Central Committeeman for the 15th, the lawsuit then expounded on what happened on April 26. At that point, Winchester’s attorney informed the IRP of the irregularities, of both the incorrect nature of the votes reported on April 18, as well as the lack of any certification of the result by the board pursuant to election code. The lawyer protested the improper acts of the staff members in determining and announcing the purported results.
Winchester’s attorney demanded that the IRP cease and desist from acting to determine or announce the election of the position, but they refused to do so and reasserted – publicly, according to the documents on file – that Rose was duly elected the committeeman.
With Winchester’s attorney asserting other irregularities as listed previously, the board’s general counsel (attorney) got back with him. They said that a special meeting of the board would be held on May 10 to certify the April 18 vote, and informed him that no procedures existed in Illinois Election Code for the board to canvass and/or verify the accuracy of the votes in the various county conventions, and/or to determine the accuracy of the information provided to or tabulated by the IRP staff members.
The bottom line was that because there was no administrative procedure for challenges to the vote totals, the board would not hear or decide on any challenge to the election totals …and Winchester could not challenge the results.
The May 10 special meeting of the board was held, and through his lawyer, Winchester stated multiple objections to the certification of Rose as chair. After iteration of these objections, the attorney told the board that they were, in effect, forcing Winchester to consider a court proceeding. The attorney was told that the board was bound by statutory limitations, and Winchester and his attorney were referred to the courts for further resolution.
Rose’s participation in the organizational meeting of the committee on May 19 and his vote in the election of a chairman was at issue, therefore, and Winchester and his attorney hurried to get the lawsuit filed.
Asserting a civil rights violation under 42 USC 1983 against the IRP, Winchester states that the IRP suffered injuries of a personal and pecuniary nature, including emotional distress and damage to reputation.
Under a second count, he’s seeking injunctive relief against defendants IRP, Shaun Murphy, Judy Diekelman, Jay Reyes, Jack Dorgan, Bob Grogan, Mark Hosty, Ryan Higgins, Char Foss-Eggermann, Roger Claar, Barbara Viviano, Fred Floreth, Stanton Bond, John McGlasson, Jan Weber and Michael Bigger, the other district committeemen. Stating that he will suffer irreparable harm if the relief isn’t granted, Winchester noted that the May 19 election of a chairman will be done without his vote as lawfully-elected committeeman.
Without any other remedy at law, Winchester said that money damages will not compensate for his right to vote and participate in the affairs of the IRP as the committeeman for the 15th, and so these hardships should swing the balance in favor of granting the injunctive relief.
As the suit was filed in Hardin on May 14, then moved to the federal court realm on May 18, those actions apparently didn’t stop the board from taking the vote, and it went through.
That’s going to leave the matter up for litigation in the federal courts, which may take until the next election to resolve.
Paperwork has been flying regarding that case, since the vote was already taken and Rose already seated, and the most recent action to take place in it was for the attorney representing IRP to withdraw (as he can’t represent them, since Winchester has been a part of the IRP for so long and it’s a conflict for the attorney, Marcus Christian, to continue), and the IRP to file a motion for an extension of time to file an answer, these actions taking place on June 6 and 7, respectively.
No future date appears to have been set.
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