The Chicago Sun-Times points out a scandal in the Illinois 3rd Congressional District:
Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs.
“Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,†Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Indeed, Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’†where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the biggest blackest lie in history.â€
Jones, 70, a retired insurance agent who lives in suburban Lyons, has unsuccessfully run for elected offices in the Chicago area and Milwaukee since the 1970s.
He ran for Milwaukee mayor in 1976 and 13th Ward alderman on Chicago’s Southwest Side in 1987.
Since the 1990s to 2016, Jones has jumped in the GOP 3rd Congressional District primary seven times, never even close to becoming a viable contender.
There’s a scandal all right but not what the Sun-Times is implying. The scandal is that Jones isn’t opposed by any other Republicans.
Dan Lipinski inherited the Illinois 3rd District thirteen years ago when his father, long-time Congressman Bill Lipinski, retired with questionable timing to ensure his son got his seat with no experience in elected office or credentials for the job other than familial ones.
Republicans have essentially ceded the 3rd District to Democrats and only nutjobs and wackos like Jones run for office as Republicans for these safe seats. He won’t run as the Republican candidate because he has support. He’ll run because there is no Republican support. If their rules allow it the Illinois Republican Party should disavow Jones and prevent him from running as a Republican but the Illinois Republican is the Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight so they probably won’t or can’t act in the matter.
You are right that the Illinois Republican Party should disavow this guy. However, the largest number of anti-Semites and the most virulent Jew-haters are the Progressives in the Democrat Party. The best current example is Keith Ellison, but Obama’s administration was infested with anti-Semites. And Obama’s BFF’s are Louis Farrakhan and his protege Jeremiah Wright.
That said, there is a lot of holocaust fatigue out there. And the rise of Islam in the West bodes ill for Jews.
It looks like he got knocked off the ballot in 2016 by the Rd for bad signatures on his petition, an old tactic. But this time he went door to door personally.
Locally, a chem trail believing, 9/11 Truther ran twice unopposed in the D primary for Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District. The scandal is that people are unwilling to stand for election, the state level parties are either moribund and/or interested only in deep pocketed incumbents.
Tribune columnist John Kass says that in Illinois there’s a gentleman’s agreement between the two parties he calls “the Combine” to divvy the state up so that all the Congressional districts are safe.
@Walt, this particular district was carved out for Lipinski, such that he would be expected to win as long as he ran. In return, Lipinski encourages Polish-Americans in other turfs to support the Democratic establishment politicians. A Lipinski has been in Congress since 1983.
The linked article probably overstates how overwhelmingly Democratic it is. Cook has it as a +6 D, but it is more of a white-ethnic area, which is well-suited for Lipinski who has credentials as a conservative Democrat. Maybe if the Republicans ran a great candidate in the area, it was a Republican year AND Lipinski had some scandal, they could take it. But Lipinski is a known brand.
I hate Illinois Nazis.
PD Shaw, would prefer all races be vigorously contested as one way to keep incumbents uncomfortable .
FWIW, at one time, the Alabama 3rd district was drawn to be majority D (and elect the then party head) yet, the R’s won it and still keep it. A smiling used car dealer was preferable to a candidate wjo kept making pitches for more donations.