After a bruising series of intraparty primary battles in 2014, the conservative and moderate wings of the Republican Party will fight their next battle in Illinois this summer as the GOP selects its nominee to replace disgraced ex-Rep. Aaron Schock.
Schock resigned his seat in the state’s 18th district last month after a series of reports detailing his lavish spending on his Washington office, questionable air travel and overcharging taxpayers for his mileage within the district.
The district leans heavily to the right. Mitt Romney defeated President Obama by 24 points there in 2012, so the winner of the July 7 primary will be an overwhelming favorite in the general election.
State Republican leaders quickly rallied around State Senator Darin LaHood, son of former Rep. Ray LaHood, who later served as transportation secretary for President Obama.
However, the path to the nomination just got rockier for LaHood, following this week’s announcement by longtime policy analyst, political consultant and conservative media figure Mike Flynn that he is also seeking the GOP nod.
Flynn has worked in issue advocacy at the state level through his work at the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. He is best known in the media world for his time as editor of Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website, which broke the story of the undercover videos that exposed the liberal group ACORN as willing to facilitate criminal behavior within the sex industry.
Flynn is a sixth-generation resident of central Illinois, although he has lived outside of the area for 20 years. He says he’s putting his existing career on hold in order to give a conservative district a real choice in July.
“When I saw the vacancy and that the party establishment has kind of fallen behind State Sen. Darin LaHood, I thought, ‘Congress is not a family heirloom you pass down.’ This area of the country in Illinois has not had a good, strong conservative voice in D.C. So I thought I’d step up and ask the voters to let me be that voice,” said Flynn.
On Monday, Flynn turned in twice the number of signatures required to qualify for the primary ballot. He says the residents were far less concerned about his 20-year absence than the direction of the party and the country.
“While I have not been in the district in recent years, people know that I have long ties here and I’ve been working around this district for a long time. That has not come up. I think they are refreshed, not only that we’re going to have an election, but that we’ve got a real choice to make,” said Flynn.
He says his political philosophy is simple: challenge both parties by standing up for conservatism and actively engaging in the battle of ideas
“I think too often Republicans seem embarrasses to be conservatives. They don’t really want to embrace that message and communicate it with voters,” said Flynn.
As for LaHood, Flynn sees an ambitious political climber who has “been looking for public office his entire life.” LaHood was appointed to and ran unopposed for his current seat. He ran unsuccessfully for state’s attorney and was previously appointed as an assistant U.S. attorney.
“His whole life is just a series of appointments to political office. I never have envisioned politics as a career. I don’t intend to make it a career now. I think the real difference is my opponent looks at this as a family legacy and a family career. For me, it’s an opportunity to communicate conservative values,” said Flynn.
LaHood allies assert that he is much more conservative than his father and would be a conservative voice in Washington. Flynn says “it doesn’t take much” to be further to the right than Ray LaHood. He says voters in the district can get a good idea of how Darin LaHood would operate in Washington based on where his money is coming from.
“One of the first contributions of his campaign was a maximum contribution from a union-funded PAC (Republican Main Street Partnership). It’s whole purpose for being is to attack conservatives in primaries. Whatever he says he’s going to be, his actions speak otherwise,” said Flynn.
Nonetheless, LaHood can point to multiple experiences in public service as to why he is prepared for the job. Flynn says his career proves he knowledgeable and committed to conservative principles.
“I’ve been working in conservative policies for over 20 years, working to enact legislation at the state and federal level. A lot of success there and in conservative media, so I have an appreciation for both how the media works and how the media tries to work against conservatives,” said Flynn.
But Flynn says he also has years of experience pushing back against what he sees as poor decisions by his own party.
“I have a history of standing up, not just to Democrats and the left but to Republicans who are not articulating a conservative policy. I think Darin LaHood will be more of the same go along, get along Republicans that we’ve had too much of and is not moving us in the right direction,” said Flynn.
Not surprisingly, Flynn is underwhelmed by what he’s seen thus far of Republicans controlling Capitol Hill.
“They have won the power but they are not doing anything with that power. They seem almost driven to wake up in the morning and preemptively surrender to Democrats and Obama. They seem to just want to maintain their majority, maintain their jobs in office but not do anything with the majority they have,” said Flynn.
“I think it’s time the voters told them, ‘We gave the Republicans a majority for a reason and they’ve got to use it. Part of that using is to dismantle the destructive agenda that Obama has imposed on this country,” said Flynn.
On specific issues, Flynn starts with a repeal of Obamacare and not just what he calls symbolic votes.
“Each day that that law is on the books, it just further distorts our health care market,” said Flynn.
He also wants to give Republicans a shot in the arm in stopping Obama’s unilateral immigration actions.
“We have a real crisis here, where we have millions of foreign nationals in this country. We have no idea who they are. There’s no background checks. They’re depressing wages and taking jobs from Americans. We have to get a handle on that. We’re only getting lip service from Republicans in Washington,” said Flynn.
His third major priority is to remove the shackles that are holding back what he believes could be explosive economic growth.
“We’ve got to enact the reforms, be it tax or regulatory, that are going to get the economy growing again. We’ve had six years of a stagnant economy. Wages have not risen. The opportunities are not there. For the first time ever, we have more businesses dying than being created in this country,” said Flynn.
“We’ve got to get serious about enacting the kind of pro-growth reforms that will get the economy growing again. We cannot solve our fiscal challenges without a growing economy,” he said.
In 2014, the conservative challengers ultimately lost the vast majority of challenges against incumbent Republicans. While Flynn may start the primary campaign as an underdog, he believes there is a clear path to victory.
“The candidate that comes in and can energize voters and get them excited about the campaign is going to have an edge. This is a special election that will take place in the depths of summer. When you set aside endorsements, the candidate who is going to have the edge here is the one who excites the grassroots. I think I’m in a position to do that,” said Flynn.
