[Peace-discuss] It's clear it'll be a back-room deal...

[C. G. Estabrook]

“The successor for that spot will be chosen in an open, fair and  
transparent process pursuant to our rules and the Election Code,”  
Brady said. “I’m going to start working on that immediately...”


State GOP leader: Johnson won't run again, party to seek replacement
By BERNARD SCHOENBURG (bernard.schoenburg at sj-r.com)
The State Journal-Register
Posted Apr 04, 2012 @ 06:59 PM

U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, is apparently poised to remove  
himself from the November ballot, which would allow GOP leaders to  
name a candidate to replace him.
“I can confirm it,” Pat Brady, chairman of the Illinois GOP, told The  
State Journal-Register. “Everybody’s told me it’s true.”

“The successor for that spot will be chosen in an open, fair and  
transparent process pursuant to our rules and the Election Code,”  
Brady said. “I’m going to start working on that immediately.”

The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette reported this afternoon that Johnson  
has scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference in Urbana Thursday, where he is  
expected to announce he is leaving Congress after completion of his  
current term.

Johnson, a member of Congress since 2001, on March 20 breezed to  
victory in a three-way GOP primary in the new 13th Congressional  
District, which includes much of Springfield.

The Democratic contest in that district was much closer, with Election  
Day returns showing a 143-vote advantage for David Gill, a Bloomington  
emergency room doctor who has run against Johnson three times before,  
over Greene County State’s Attorney Matt Goetten.

Michael Richards, spokesman for Gill, said today that late-arriving  
absentee ballots in the district have added to that lead, which  
Richards now put at 173.

Richards had only heard news reports of the possibility that Johnson  
would drop off the November ballot after winning the primary.

If that is the case, Richards said, “It’s certainly undemocratic of  
the Republican Party to take the choice of the candidate away from the  
voters. … If  Tim Johnson thought maybe he didn’t want to serve  
another term, he shouldn’t have run.”

http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x826300048/State-GOP-leader-Johnson-wont-run-again-party-to-seek-replacement

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