The state GOP continued its backlash against conservative members of the party when it passed over State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee) to fill the 33rd Senate district seat vacated by Karen McConnaughay.

The Graduate Employee Organization (GEO), a union of graduate students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), has inadvertently drawn military veterans into a battle over controversial legislation in the state House that would unionize research assistants who help teach courses under the GEO’s umbrella.

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute said that “no one worse” could replace Traci O’Neal Ellis, who resigned from the Elgin Area School District U-46 board on April 23, seven months after likening the America flag to toilet paper.

Batavia Township GOP Chair Sylvia Keppel says that anyone paying attention to the Republican primary race in the 49th House District should have their doubts about Nic Zito, who is running for the seat vacated by Mike Fortner.

Straddling the Kane and DuPage County border, Illinois’ 49th House District is more than 50 miles from Chicago’s 14th Ward, on the city’s southwest side.