Heart of the Matter –
Gaulrapp Speaks Out, Sets a Good Example for All of Us
Commentary by Tom Kocal, publisher
“If it isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States,it’s certainly one hell of a competitor.”
Robert Gates, Special Agent in Charge, Chicago FBI Officer
Just 2 days after Christmas, on Wed., Dec. 27th 2011, I received a press release from George Gaulrapp, Freeport Mayor and candidate for Congress (D-17), which confirmed his intention to stay in the race for Congress against a thinning field of candidates. Gaulrapp’s announcement came only one day after the failure of another announced candidate to file petitions for the Democrat primary.
“In light of the recent announcements by several candidates for congress, I want to dispel any rumors that I may also suspend my campaign activities,” Gaulrapp said. “I am in the race to win the Democrat nomination, and, in fact, I am the best-positioned candidate to win in November because of my elected executive experience and my commitment to local interest as opposed to special interests,” Gaulrapp stated in the release.
Since announcing in the summer of 2011, four candidates have either dropped out, decided to run for a different office or have failed to file petitions for Congress it the newly-formed 17th District.
On Wednesday, January 11, I had the good fortune of meeting with Mayor Gaulrapp face to face at the new home of Freeport City Hall, the 541 Building on Stephenson St. We spoke for 30 minutes about a few other subjects, including his love for the Green Bay Packers. (I extend my condolences to the Mayor and the Packer Nation on their elimination from the NFC playoffs at the hands of the NY Giants on Sunday).
The conversation was a result of the previous week’s announcement by state Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) that the real reason he had dropped out of the race was because US Senator Dick Durbin had asked him to.
“I’ve been all around this district, and people are upset that Sen. Durbin is trying to take their choice away. If there is any party that believes in democracy, it’s the Democrats. They believe in an Open Forum. That’s why we believe in the primary elections. The primaries are where the best candidate comes out.”
Gaulrapp said it was Dec. 6 when he got the call from Sen. Durbin, who told him that he had asked Sen. Koehler to drop out of the congressional race (Koehler is now seeking another term in the state senate).
“He also told me that he was going to endorse Cheri Bustos, and here are the reasons he gave me. Bustos is his good friends’ daughter, she baby-sat for his children when they were young, and it’s his wife, Lauretta’s dream for women to be in politics. Quote, unquote.
“Sen. Durbin then asked me to drop out. I told him I would not talk to him about it on the phone, only face to face. He sounded a little irritated, but Durbin re-assured me that we were still friends, and that he has helped the City of Freeport, and that he would continue to do both. I agreed that we both want to continue that positive relationship.”
They made arrangements to meet in a Springfield restaurant on Dec. 10th along with Bill Hoolihan, Durbin’s aide, where Sen. Durbin again brought up the good friend, baby-sitting relationship reason for his future endorsement of Bustos. But Gaulrapp had only one thing he needed to hear from Durbin.
“I said, ‘Sen. Durbin, you haven’t told me the most important thing.’ He said, ‘What’s that, George?’ I said, ‘That she’s a good candidate. Because I know I am, from my experience of being mayor, and what we’ve done from a team aspect in Freeport. I know I am the best candidate.’”
Durbin told Gaulrapp that the party would “work with her,”get her money from Washington, and get her the “union backing.”
Gaulrapp asked Durbin for his reason in asking Sen. Koehler to drop out. Durbin said that they felt Koehler had “reached his limit on his fund-raising ability, and we need lots of money for November.”
Based on newspaper reports, Gaulrapp said the reason Koehler gave for his exiting the race was because he wished to stay in the Illinois Senate. At the time of Koehler’s announcement, he was, in fact, the top fundraiser among the candidates, with over $187,000 in his campaign coffers.
Gaulrapp stated that if he were to get out of the race, and people were to ask him why he was dropping out, “I would tell them the truth, that you asked me to get out of the race.”
Durbin said he was OK with that. “We can just say that we had talked, and that I had thought that for the betterment of the Democrats, one strong candidate with money to compete in November was best, and that I support Cheri.”
Durbin added that he would always support Freeport. Gaulrapp, wearing his “mayor’s hat,” promptly produced an envelope with 2 projects: one for the Rawleigh project, and one for an intersection that the City needs help on.
“After a brief discussion of these projects, Durbin told Hoolihan, ‘Let’s try to help them clean this up.’ That was about it.”
Gaulrapp wants to stress his respect for Sen. Durbin. “I don’t need to make an enemy of Sen. Durbin. I want to make sure my first love, which is Freeport, comes first. I don’t want to ruin that in any way.”
“But no matter where I’ve gone since then, I have had people come up to me and say, “George, that’s garbage. We need a choice.’ Just today, I talked with a spokesman with Democracy For America, and they’re offended by it.
“Let the best candidate come out. If Cheri Bustos is the better candidate, and debates better than I do, and can convince people that she is the best candidate, then so be it. But let the race go on.”
Gaulrapp then stated, “The key is, if Sen. Durbin thought Cheri Bustos was the best candidate, then why would he ask people to get out of the race? The answer is, I don’t believe he truly thinks that she is. They want to MAKE her the best candidate.
“One must ask, who will she answer to? Will she answer to the people in the district that elected her? I don’t think she will. She’ll be indebted to Sen. Durbin.”
In politics, it doesn’t pay to be naive. We all know that this has happened in the past, and both parties are guilty. But in these parts, it is unprecedented that the truth would come out publicly.
“Sen. Koehler was the first to speak out on it. After that it was fair game. I’m just telling people how it is. Yes, we know it has happened in the past, but now, when I think back and I read about people that have dropped out of races due to family issues, and a bunch of other different reasons, it makes me think, did they really drop out, or did someone force them out?
“The night I talked to my wife about this, she said, ‘George, you have never run away from a challenge. And you believe in yourself, and I believe in you.’ It was at that point that I was reassured that yes, I am the best candidate, and I’m staying in.”
Durbin’s statements have since come to pass. He formally announced his endorsement of Bustos on January 4. The big labor endorsement from the Illinois AFL-CIO came a week later, just as he had promised. In the press release from her campaign, no reasons were given by the AFL-CIO for their endorsement. But we now know why, thanks to Mayor George Gaulrapp.
Before I go on, I must clearly state that the following commentary is mine, and mine alone. It is not necessarily the opinion of anyone mentioned in this article.
Gaulrapp made a statement early on that really hit home with me - “They believe in an Open Forum.” The reason that the phrase stuck with me is because I am currently reading a new book written by a college friend, William Fawell, that found his way to my office via Galena, where he has resided for the past decade or so. We hadn’t seen each other for nearly 40 years, but when we had the chance to meet in Mount Carroll for a cup of coffee at the Market St. Commons during Mount Carroll’s Christmas Walk, that conversation came back to me loud and clear. Bill spoke about the Public Forum. Here is an excerpt from the preface of the book for you to consider.
For it is the Public Forum by which the people direct their power to the government that is supposed to serve us. The nexus of our freedom is contingent upon the roll of the Public Forum in our Constitution. Thus the Public Forum is the foundation of our Constitution and our liberty . . . whenever the Public Forum is removed from the Constitutional Duties of Congress, that mechanism which directs the peoples’ will to rule over our government is also reversed; thus, the people no longer rule, but are instead, ruled. This is the distinction between, and definition of both liberty and tyranny.
It is one thing for an elected official to pursue legislation for the “benefit” of his or her constituency, even when the people that elected them do not all agree with the policy proposed. TARP, TBTF bank bailouts, wars, and thousands of other mandates are all examples of the power elected officials hold, a power that We The People have given them by our vote - technically, a vote of confidence.
The case of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Senate Democrat in the country, attempting to circumvent Public Forum by picking and choosing a state candidate, smashes to a pulp the ideal of public confidence in not only the man, but the election process.
Under these circumstances, are we to accept the word from on high in the Democratic Party, that the person selected by the Democrats and Big Labor, namely Cheri Bustos, is the “best candidate” in the 17th District? That based on “the word,” there is no need to waste valuable time and campaign money trying to attempt to sway you peons in the legal process called the primary election? That the AFL-CIO’s “endorsement” with no reason whatsoever should be good enough for you?
If this isn’t the perfect example of why the Voice of the People needs to be heard loudly and clearly in this election year, I don’t know what is. In a March 2011 survey conducted for the Illinois Press Association, one of the key points of the Illinois survey noted the level of governmental mistrust conveyed: 84.2 percent of households have some or very little confidence in their state government. If we want to trust government again, here’s how we do it.
First, get registered to vote if you are not now. It makes no difference what party you register with. Next, tell everyone you know to be sure to get registered to vote.
Next, do your own “homework” on all of the candidates. Simply listening to the media talking heads, politicians, and unions is tantamount to cheating on your homework, like peaking over the shoulder of your classmate to get the answer.
Then, vote in the March 20 Illinois Primary Election. By that time, there will have been 29 caucuses and primaries conducted in 27 states and two territories. But that doesn’t mean that just because you are led to believe that “the writing is on the wall” and that your vote won’t matter anyway, don’t buy it. It matters.
It will matter IMMENSELY if by that time, there is a huge influx of American Citizens registering to vote. Right now, roughly speaking, about half of the eligible voters in this country are even registered. Taking into account that only 25-35% of them even turn out to vote, it is apparent that our country is led by people that are NOT elected by the majority of its citizens, just the majority of the minority that bothers to vote.
No wonder they don’t listen. If voter registration skyrockets in the next few months, they may not listen , but they will take notice. By the time the November elections roll around, it would be unprecedented to have 70 to 80% of all eligible citizens registered to vote, and threatening to turn out and speak their mind with their ballot.
In the words of Bill Fawell:
This is the problem that now afflicts America. And it is the return of the Public Forum, in the performance of the Constitutional Duties of Congress, that is the only way to correct the political and economic calamity that mires and oppresses all Americans, and our nation, today.
In other words, the only way we will ever get the attention of our duly elected officials is to reclaim our voice, through our vote, through the Public Forum.
Vote - speak now - or forever hold your peace, and liberty - if we can keep it.
(The book is entitled, “New American Revolution,” subtitled “The Constitutional Overthrow of the United States Government,” by William H. Fawell. “This book will explain to the reader everything one needs to know . . . to avert the political catastrophe of revolution . . . to ‘front run’ the revolution, so that we may weather the storm together and emerge into freedom, the restoration of America, and our Nations birthright of liberty for all,” Fawell stated. The book may be reviewed at the new web site www.nar2012.com. Plans are that by the end of this week, there will be an ebook available on Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble.
