Has Illinois’ right wing picked their favorite in governor’s race?

That’s the impression I got reading a recent column by the (Springfield) State Journal-Register’s Bernard Schoenburg:

[Jim] Oberweis, one of the three announced Republican candidates for governor in a field that will continue to grow, has been endorsed by Renew Illinois, a political action committee whose chairman is Jack Roeser. Roeser for years has contended the Illinois GOP isn’t being true to its conservative principles. That led Roeser to challenge incumbent Gov. Jim Edgar for governor in the 1994 primary. He got 25 percent of the vote.

Renew Illinois has also spent more than $30,000 on advertisements advocating the ouster of Springfield’s Bob Kjellander from the Republican National Committee because of the $809,000 Kjellander earned as a consultant to Bear Stearns, which was a lead underwriter for a $10 billion bond sale under the administration of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Kjellander has called Roeser part of “a very incestuous group of kooks” who “would rather burn down the Republican Party than do anything constructive.”

Schoenburg thinks that Oberweis risks making himself unelectable by singing a Renew Illinois pledge to take specific stands on certain issues related to taxes and homosexuality. One can easily guess what those stands are.

My point is that the right wing is more concerned about making sure the GOP is firmly in the hands of conservatives than they are about winning the general election.

By signing on early to this “Contract-With-America”-like pledge, Oberweis took a big step toward showing the conservatives that he — not conservative state senators Steve Rauschenberger and Bill Brady — is the candidate to best promote their agenda. State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett and former Gov. Jim Edgar aren’t part of the conservative wing. U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood is vilified by the hard right as a RINO: A Republican In Name Only.

Topinka, Edgar and LaHood are the candidates with the highest name recognition and moderate-to-mainstream-conservative views that Illinois voters like in candidates.

Roeser, and Rauschenberger for that matter, were instrumental in bringing Alan Keyes to Illinois to run against Obama. That act alone set the GOP back a decade in moderate voters’ eyes.

Oberweis will be tough to beat in the primary, He has a ton of money of his own to spend, and now will enjoy a financial windfall from Roeser and Renew Illinois. But if enough Democrats are put off by the idea of an almost certain renomination of Blagojevich, there may be some party switching during the primary to through the equations all out of whack.

Hat tip to Archpundit for the link.

Bernard Schoenburg,Jim Oberweis,Jack Roeser,Jim Edgar,Renew Illinois,Bob Kjellander,Steve Rauschenberger,Bill Brady,Judy Baar Topinka,Jim Edgar,Joe Birkett,Ray LaHood