The "Right" Choice...for Democrats

Impress upon children the truth that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform - Daniel Webster

Republican Senate candidate Patrick Hughes attaches a great deal of importance to voting in his essay “The ‘Right’ Choice”.  He contends that fellow Senate candidate, US Representative Mark Kirk, has disqualified himself as a candidate for the Republican nomination through his votes in Congress for stem cell research, stronger hate crimes legislation, and the recent “cap and trade” bill. 

But what of Patrick Hughes’ votes?  Hughes has never held elective office, so there is no record of votes on legislation to examine.   But what about his record of exercising of the most basic right of every American citizen; what is Pat Hughes’ record of voting in local, state and national elections?  The short answer is, he doesn’t have much of one.

One would think that a man who pens an essay disputing the “Republican” identity of a five-term Republican Congressman would have impeccable “Republican” credentials himself.  In Patrick Hughes’ case, you would be wrong. 

According to publicly available election records, records easily available to anyone to takes the time to call the Cook and DuPage County Clerks, Patrick Hughes, a 40 year old man who’s had the right to vote for 22 years, has voted in only one Republican primary.  February 5th, 2008 was the first time Patrick Hughes identified himself as a Republican to state election officials and voted in a Republican primary.

His record in voting in General elections is little better.  Hughes first registered to vote in 2003.  He voted in the 2004 General election, and four years later voted in the 2008 General election.

The 2004 General election, 2008 Republican Primary, and 2008 General election – that is the extent of Patrick Hughes’ voting record according to the State of Illinois. 

Hughes references former Senator Peter Fitzgerald and 1996 Republican Senate candidate Al Salvi in his essay as proof that “suitable, endorsed, supported and funded conservative[s]” can run competitively in Illinois.  But Hughes did not vote for either of these men in their respective General elections in 1998 and 1996, nor did he vote for them over their moderate opponents in the Republican primaries. 

The Fitzgerald and Salvi contests were not the only important Illinois elections that Hughes skipped.  He missed the 1988 Presidential election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, the last time a Republican Presidential candidate has carried Illinois.  He was absent when Rod Blagojevich was elected Governor in 2002.  He stayed home when Blagojevich was reelected in 2006, and when Alexi Giannoulias, the man Hughes hopes to face in the 2010 Senate General election, was elected Illinois Treasurer.

The 2010 Illinois Senate election is the best opportunity Illinois Republicans have had since Peter Fitzgerald’s defeat of Carol Moseley Braun in 1998.  Should we nominate a man who evidently cares so little about his right to vote that he’s exercised it less than many people who are half his age?  The only people who win in that scenario are the Democrats, the same Democrats that Patrick Hughes has tacitly aided over the last 22 years through his inaction.

I titled this website “Rod Blagojevich’s Kind of Republican” because that what Patrick Hughes is.  Rod Blagojevich, and politicians like him, depend on people like Patrick Hughes, who have the right to vote but don’t exercise it, in order to remain in power.  To select such a man, who could not even bestir himself in 2006 to vote against the most corrupt Governor in Illinois history, is unthinkable.

Below you will find brief summaries of important Illinois elections that Patrick Hughes skipped.  Consider his voting record and ask yourself, why should I vote for Patrick Hughes, when he wouldn’t even bother vote for all of these other Republicans?