Only two of the 6 candidates for IL-11 responded to the Daily Herald and both Catalina Lauf and Cassandra Tanner Miller betrayed lacking maturity, but the others not responding at all equally disappointing

UPDATE 2/23/22, 2:46PM CST: Corrected the reference to candidate Mark Carroll, who was not contacted by the Daily Herald.

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On Saturday, the Daily Herald‘s Russell Lissau published an article where he and the Herald reached out to 20 Republican candidates in the suburbs running for Congress this year to discuss the censure resolution approved by the Republican National Committee (RNC) by voice vote at the RNC’s winter meetings earlier this month.

The censure targeted Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R, Channahon) and Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R, WY) for serving on the U.S. House’s Select Committee investigating January 6, 2021.

Of the 7 Republican candidates in IL-11 which includes the majority of McHenry County residents, only two responded:

• Catalina Lauf of Woodstock
• Cassandra Tanner Miller (CTM) of Elgin

Both gave answers astonishing mainstream residents. Both candidates betrayed a lack of maturity to answer tough questions with discernment.

Before covering what Lauf and CTM said, these candidates did NOT even respond to the Daily Herald when contacted:

• Jerry Evans of Warrenville
• Grace Greene of Campton Hills
• Andrea Heeg of unincorporated Geneva
• Dean Seppelfrick of Aurora

The Daily Herald did not reach out to North Aurora Village Trustee Mark Carroll, since he only filed his candidacy with the FEC late on the night of February 15. The Herald was completing its research with Republican candidates’ responses not only in the 11th District, but in the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 14th districts.

Now to what Lauf and CTM actually told the Daily Herald as published Saturday afternoon.

Lauf agreed with the RNC’s statement, saying there are:

“widespread, absurd mischaracterizations of that day.”

CTM said she’d like to see the RNC’s resolution clarified, but when pressed for an opinion, she wouldn’t say if she disagreed with it:

“These are not simple yes-or-no questions.”

From the desk of John Lopez: Reading the responses from Lauf and CTM Saturday afternoon, I had flashbacks to Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D, Naperville) during the 2020 general election campaign when she refused to condemn the violence of the 2020 protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd in late May of that year.

Underwood played cute when asked about the violence, describing all the legitimate peaceful protests as “beautiful protests” throughout 2020, while intentionally overlooking the violence erupting from several of the peaceful protests.

Underwood’s refusal to forcefully condemn the violence of 2020 contributed to make the race between her and Republican Jim Oberweis (R, Sugar Grove) closer than many anticipated, though McHenry County Blog always knew the IL-14 general would be close.

Lauf and CTM had their “beautiful protests” moment, too by agreeing or minimizing the contents of the RNC resolution with words like “clarified”. Like Oberweis did to Underwood in TV commercials in the fall of 2020, so will Congressman Bill Foster (D, Naperville) and super PACs (if IL-11 polls as close) will do to whomever wins the Republican primary in the 11th over the statements from Lauf, the nominal frontrunner, and CTM, the most likely to challenge, and possibly win the nomination over Lauf.

Foster, in a tweet on February 4, gave a preview of what’s coming, now that IL-11 Republican candidates are on record:

“What a sad indictment of the current Republican Party that they’ve been reduced to calling a violent attack on our Capitol and Capitol Police a ‘legitimate political discourse.'”

Evans, Greene, Heeg and Seppelfrick should have responded, and at this level, especially for Evans who has run for Congress before, their lack-of-response was very short-sighted on all four of them.

Returning to Lauf and CTM, hopefully both Millennial women had read the RNC resolution before the Daily Herald called for their responses, given the RNC approved the resolution on February 5 in Salt Lake City.

For McHenry County Blog readers’ reference and out of full context, here is the RNC resolution in its entirety. It should be noted, both the Daily Herald and I (prior to the Herald publishing its story) had to obtain the RNC resolution through The Washington Post as the resolution was not available on the RNC’s website:

If I were running for Congress and I had received a call from anyone about the RNC resolution, I’d honestly have said it should be ripped up, and I would forcefully disagree with the RNC resolution for the mere fact it ignored and did not mention the violence and lawlessness at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 let alone condemned the violence/lawlessness.

The resolution should have included language saying all who were involved with committing acts of violence, or any illegal activity including illegally entering any part of the Capitol should be arrested and prosecuted to the limit of the law.

Plain, simple and to the point without nuance, minimizing or any prevaricating from the truth.

Hopefully, all of the congressional candidates know the Select Committee will release its final report within two months of the November 8 election, and a preliminary report will be released over the summer, possibly right before the June 28 primary.

So all of the candidates better be ready to answer questions about January 6, 2021 throughout the primary campaign, including at any/all candidate forums, and especially when facing the newspaper editorial boards for the usually livestreamed interviews, which the public usually get to see, now.

Reminder, the Underwood “beautiful protests” quote was taken from the video of Underwood’s and Oberweis’ editorial board interview with the Chicago Sun-Times in early September of 2020 (though the Sun-Times will make no editorial endorsements in 2022).

Let’s hope all of the candidates, including the ones who didn’t respond are ready for the questioning on January 6, and will speak from their hearts, and not from RNC/NRCC talking points. Voters will discern who’s giving a scripted answer, and who is not, and in the primary, may voters decide accordingly.

The full article by Russell Lissau can be read here.

An excellent write-up by Capitol Fax can be viewed here.