Party Time For Chicago GOP

See them live this week

Feel free to make your own jokes about the Chicago Republican Party's quaint existence and exceedingly low membership totals - it's been done for years and everyone gets it by now - but tonight at the Lion Head Pub on Lincoln Avenue you can actually see for yourself that Chicago Republicans exist when they meet to roll out their "2010 Initiative."

"While it is frustrating to be an irrelevant party, the process of developing bottom up organizations will be very healthy for the party in the long run," the Chicago GOP says in a post about the event on its website.

Perhaps most interesting about the initiative is that it's focused on statewide races; Chicago Rebublicans don't seem interested in challenging Mayor Richard M. Daley or other local officials (who may run in officially non-partisan contests but are clearly cogs of the Democratic Machine).

"Republicans have never lost a statewide office campaign when they received at least 23 percent of the Chicago vote," the party said. "The Republican base is now at a low of 17 percent, however, independents are now far more impactful than ever. At least 5 percent of the Chicago independent vote is personality driven. If the Republican nominee communicates well with a well defined message, they start near the critical tipping point."

Meanwhile, the Chicago Young Republicans will hold its monthly happy hour on Wednesday night at the Kirkwood Bar & Grill on Sheffield. Then on June 29, the CYRs will hold its annual membership meeting  at the Cubby Bear, featuring phenom Illinois congressman Aaron Schock and the cover band Sixteen Candles.

"The event will be the grand finale of a comprehensive marketing campaign designed to promote Republican brand awareness in the City of Chicago," the organization said, and indeed that campaign has included ads in 'L' trains stating that "It's not easy being RIGHT in Chicago."

Finally, over at the Cook County Republican Party home, candidates for office are "coming soon."

Which is ripe for humor, but still a sad state of affairs.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.

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