Cook County GOP Chair Fight: April 22nd At Moretti's Pizzeria in Edison Park
The Illinois Record breaks down the likely "Chicago Candidates" vying for cook county republican chair.
On April 22nd, Around 75 misfits will meet at Moretti's in Edison Park to elect the new Cook County Republican chair, replacing the disgraced Sean Morrison, who resigned this month.
By law, the next chair must be an elected GOP committeeman—limiting the options to the goofy, the bad, and the ugly.
Facebook/ Leading Candidate Brian Kasal gives a speech at Moretti’s
The Cook County GOP controls one of the country's wealthiest, most populous counties. Yet, only $4,000 is available in their official account. How can the Cook County GOP expect to go far when they only have the funds to buy a single Vespa?
The Cook County Republican Party’s Current Cash on hand
A Vespa the next chair can buy provided taxes are included in the offering price.
The Cook County GOP's financial and electoral failures ought to be a major issue in the chair's election.
Chicago Tribune Article on the latest round of local GOP losses
Yet, Illinois sunshine.com can confirm that it is not an exaggeration to state that most committeemen haven't raised a dollar in years. The committeemen might prefer to just shut up about the issues, eat pizza, and select the preferred candidate of their silent patron's choice.
The typical Cook County GOP committeeman often does not electioneer in the slightest. He primarily exists to carry out the weighted vote for a patron—whether it be a special interest group, a union, a foreign country, another committeeman, an unpopular donor, a lover or more.
In exchange for showing up to vote in one election every two years, these often unknown committeemen will get to use a title they can use to puff up their resumes or dating profiles on GRINDR.
Newsweek Story about GRINDR Crashing during the Republican National Convention in nearby Milwaukee
Morrison, who's on his way out, still controls the most CINOs (Chairs in Name Only) and will play a significant role in shaping the outcome. But he's not the only one with puppets. Other benefactors as diverse as—Republican Mega donors, potential republican candidates for governor, and possibly even the SEIU—are also in the mix.
Candidates will announce their intentions on the day of the event. The public doesn't get a vote but can and should show up. If not, email your committeeman. Ask why they've raised no money. Ask who they work for. Contact info is public at cookcountygop.com.
Come join us on our Facebook event
How the vote works:
It's weighted. No committeeman holds more than 5%, and some have as little as 0.5%. If they don't attend Moretti's Pizzeria, their vote disappears and gets reallocated to those present.
There's also a serious split between city and suburban committeemen, with different factions, different interests, different patrons tugging at the strings.
In Part 1, we break down the top city candidates. Part 2 will cover the suburbs. We've talked to insiders, read the group chats, and followed the money. Here's who from Chicago is most likely to rise from the puddle and emerge chair of the cook county republican party:
Chicago Candidates
Brian Kasal (43rd Ward)
Owner of Four Star Wealth Advisors, Kasal is best known in the financial advisor world for spoofing an 88-year-old client’s email and taking over $1 million. Public trust is an issue; the public generally doesn’t like politicians who victimize old ladies, but public trust doesn’t vote; shady Republican committeemen do. Kasal is the most likely committeeman from Chicago to win the Cook County chair.
Investment World story on the issue
In the political world, Kasal got his start with the Bush family. First, he was a delegate for H.W. in ’88, then the Chicago coordinator for W. in 2000. Since then, as a PAC owner, committeeman, and ILGOP finance board member, Kasal has been quietly affecting the GOP behind the scenes, like if GRu from Despicable Me was played by Chicago acting legend Dennis Farina.
Over the years, Kasal has been quietly building a minion of misfit Chicago committeemen that will give Kasal the power to sway an election, if not win outright.
Kasal is a vocal supporter of the company Surus and a close ally to Surus worker and 7-time world champion marching coach Jeff Fiedler. That matters.
Surus Website/ Jeff Fiedler
Surus's business model relies on compliance from Cook County GOP committeemen and has long-term financial commitments from high-weight suburban committeemen like Joe Folisi (Schaumburg), Jim Stinson (Maine), and Northfield’s TJ Brown. Additionally, several committeemen share Kasal’s resentment towards Trump’s near complete purge of the Bush-era neo-cons that they looked up to and learned from in the early years of their political careers.
Facebook / Kasal and Kevin McCarthy
The alliance of committeemen influenced by Surus, who are bitter towards Trump and his misfit minions, could be enough of an alliance to secure a victory.
A Kasal chairmanship would mean pivoting left and backward into the grimy puddles of W. Bush's policy failure.
Ramona Bonilla-Bonaez(31st Ward)
Facebook / Ramona Bonilla-Bonaez poses with Chicago Teachers Unions favorite Mayor Brandon Johnson
“A Chief Union Steward, Chicago Public Schools” and “Three-Term Elected Executive Board Member, SEIU Local 73”. When Ramona Bonilla-Bonaez ran for 31st GOP Chair, she sought approval and funds from the famously democrat SEIU board, raising the possibility that she is an entire democrat plant.
Facebook/ Ramona Bonilla-Bonaez
Bomani-Anneal lawyered up and is hoping to regain her post in the said based on the First Amendment.
Press Conference with her Lawyer
The minion-minded in the Chicago GOP is rallying behind her as a long-shot attempt to damage the powerful SEIU.
Leaked email among the ne’er-d0-wells Chicago GOP committeeman
Ramona has a history of vulgar speech, and SEIU may end up looking good while the Chicago GOP looks foolish, fighting for one of their leaders to get their job back at a union they opposed. We obtained a voice message in which Bomani-Anneal uses strong sexual language and calls a fellow Republican activist a “nasty bitch”. Viewer discretion is advised.
Exclusive IR audio
A party that rails against DEI and union meddling should think twice before rallying behind Bonilla-Anaiel. But a lot of Chicago Republicans have an unhealthy obsession with race and gender that can cause logical blindspots.
Bonilla-Anaiel would be an embarrassing, hypocritical pick for Cook County chair, which in the Cook County GOP is no deterrent to success.
Steve Boulton (27th Ward)
Although Ivy League educated and practicing law for over three decades, Boulton has not risen above run-of-the-mill lawyer and is now working under former democrat cook county committeeman Tony Peraica's law firm.
To the public, Peraica's most notable moment was getting arrested for whacking his opponent's campaign sign. However, Tony Peraica showed Steve Boulton the playbook to employ past their prime Democrats to raise significant money by running as Republicans in Cook.
Peraica ended up running four elections as a Republican in Cook County, losing each election but raising money and having fun along the way.
Boulton would rise to the position of Chicago GOP chair and fully embrace Peraica's strategy of championing failed democrats to run as Republicans.
Former Democratic alderman Bob Fioretti, who looks like a nightclub character in a Beetlejuice movie, is a prime example of a candidate Boulton would prop up in repeated county-wide races. Fioretti was a founding member of the progressive alderman caucus but experienced a second political life running doomed campaigns for states Attorney and county commissioner.
Controversially, Boulton ignored the Chicago mayor's race, never running a Republican mayor during his term as Chicago GOP chair.
Thankfully, Boulton's chairship would end in irony and disgrace.
Boulton publicly boasted about his hard work; however, he failed to do the bare minimum to appear on the ballot.
facebook/ Stephen Boulton
A committeeman's fundamental responsibility is to collect signatures to appear on the ballot. Boulton felt the need to collect only less than 20 signatures and outsourced the other 280 to questionable figures who did not know the district or have a stake in collecting legitimate signatures.
In a sign of bad leadership, Boulton has blamed Democrats, Republicans, and random people, including the author of this post, for his removal. However, the truth is that Boulton's laziness, unfamiliarity with the community, and critical inability to do the job led to his removal.
Yet, like a gadfly in a Turkish bathhouse, Boulton re-emerged and was appointed 27th ward chair, highlighting his legitimate pull in the GOP cook committee community. There is chatter that Boulton seems to have a "triumphant" return by taking the chair on April 22nd.
However, he faces a genuine setback due to his unlikability. He often berates Cook Area Republicans online and in person. Also, Boulton's intent to force long, uninteresting speeches on all occasions is something that even his closest allies may dread.
However, Boulton holds a few queens in the Cook County GOP House of Cards and has a slippery path to victory.
Ammie Kessem (41st Ward)
A police officer and serial candidate for office. If Kessem were to win, she would be a puppet for Matt Podgorski and his Northwest Side GOP (NWSGOP). At one point, the Northwest Side GOP looked like a refreshing force, fielding strong candidates like Anthony Beckman and Jeff Muehlfelder in neighborhoods long abandoned by the Republican Party, leading them to near victory.
Anthony Beckman nearly won his election for state senator despite fighting cancer and working his job as a police officer.
The author of this piece was a member back then—and remembers the club feeling more like a matchmaking scheme than a political operation. Podgorski, married then, seemed to run the NWSGOP essentially to impress his also-married crush, Ammie Kessem. They’re married to each other now. The club has spent no small amount of energy boosting the Northwest Side’s political couples' multiple campaigns, including Kessem’s successful bid for 41st Ward committeeman.
Facebook/ Kathy Salvi (left), Matt Podgorski (center), Ammie Kessem (Right)
However, Podgorski may not have needed the club to score his bride; the real motivating factor for the NSWGOP club might’ve been to grease the wheels for Podgorski’s polling firms—first Ogden & Fry, then post-divorce M3 Strategies. M3 pulled in over $513,000 on Paul Vallas’s mayoral campaign alone.
Paul Vallas for Mayor Campaign Finances
To the benefit of the moderate democrat Chicago SChool president Paul Vallas, The NWSGOP didn’t advocate for a Republican to run for mayor in Chicago—and many Republicans are bitter about the lack of a challenge and question a financial motivation.
Under Podgorski and Kessem, the club has alienated local conservatives by playing footsie with Democrats and refusing to run GOP candidates for school board, alderman, or mayor. Their strategy seems clear: back “moderate” Democrats with business or political ties to M3.
Additionally, Kessem herself has a reputation problem—across the aisle. Republicans and Democrats alike have called her rude and divisive. She once barred Black conservative activist George Blakemore from a Tom Homan speaking event, causing such a stir that ILGOP Chair Kathy Salvi and RNC Committeeman Dean White had to take Blakemore out for seafood as damage control.
Illinois Record Story that brings up the incident
Local Democrats have also accused her of racism, homophobia, and doxxing a teacher. Kessem, who also has complaints as a Chicago police sergeant, if elected, would be an easy target for Democrats.
Democrat Blogger using Kesem as a target to denigrate republicans and police officers.
Kessem has 17 allegations as a police sergeant report link here
The NWSGOP area committee only controls around 10% of the weighted vote. But if the Democrat party has plants, they may get behind Kessem to use her unpopularity as a way to deflect from the Democrat failed policies. It is an unfortunate fact that many of the 80 voting GOP committeemen can be considered "creepy," and that is the reality of the voting population that will decide the chair. We do not advocate that Kessem go for the chair. But If Kessem really was deadset on gaining the chair to obtain 6 to 7 figures of m3 strategy clientele, creepy old men are her best hope. Kessem’s path to victory is dark and slimy but obtainable.
Walter Adamczyk (29th Ward)
Known as "Chicago Wally," Adamczyk is a West Side community leader and one of the rare GOP committeemen who raised over $1,000 this year.
Adamczykis is an independent, Trump-supporting candidate with common-sense ideas that tackle significant issues. Specifically, Adamychyk wants the party to fight gerrymandering, citing a lack of Polish representation, and repeal the Pat Quin-created Cutback Amendment that has mathematically given Democrats an unfair advantage.
His deputy committeeman is Twitter sensation Lawyer Pericles Abassi. Although known for edgy, ironic memes on Twitter, Abassi has been praised by an election lawyer as the best election lawyer in Illinois. He routinely beats both Cook area Republicans and Democrats in court.
Twitter/ Pericles and Walt
Pericles has ties to the FOP, the Democrat party, and the Republican party but is a staunch supporter of President Trump.
Pericle’s could be a real asset in fighting Illinois law designed for Republicans to lose in Cook County.
Walt’s path to victory hinges on either Pericles uncovering a Perry Mason-style legal loophole or the sheer force of Chicago Wally. Many of the voting committeemen aren’t exactly known for their appetite for confrontation.
CJ Gallo (2nd Ward)
CJ Gallo Started his political journey with the Bruce Rauner for Governor Campaign. He now runs Surus operations in Illinois. CJ insists the GOP clubs are key to party success—and professionally, he needs them to be.
Surus has often been criticized as a neocon middleman who has paid a key part of the Republican party's electoral disappearance from Cook and the collar counties. It's a business that sells influence.
Gallo, to his credit, has built genuine relationships with committeemen. His people skills are strong. Surus has multi-year contracts with high-weight committeemen in Schaumburg, Maine, Northfield, Chicago, and more. If they line up behind him, he's a top-tier contender.
From Surus' perspective, a Gallo win makes perfect sense. There are still seven figures in potential yearly revenue from Cook County organizations that haven't "played ball"—Elk Grove, Norwood Park, Evanston, New Trier, and More.
Facebook/ Surus Jeff fiedler wins the Ronald Reagan award from the Chicago Young Republicans
Gallo's best chance is in a crowded, chaotic race where enough flawed candidates dilute the field and give committeemen aligned with Surus room to back him while maintaining plausible deniability. That way, if Surus faces blowback for its role in the ILGOP's broader failures, those committeemen can deflect responsibility that "the alternatives were even worse."