The chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, Pat Brady, resigned on Tuesday. The move was expected as Brady had come under attack within the party for his recent support of legalizing gay marriage.
A bill is pending in the Illinois legislature that would legalize same sex marriage in the Land of Lincoln. Brady voiced his support for the bill despite the official state GOP platform stipulating that marriage is only between a man and a woman. When Brady expressed support for the bill he had intended to do so as a statement of personal beliefs, not as any sort of indication of support as Republican chairman, according to the Chicago Tribune. Republican leaders did not see things the same way and worked hard to facilitate the departure of Brady.
Brady downplayed the role his support of same sex marriage played in his ouster.
"Well, it certainly was a factor in my decision, but not an overriding factor," Brady said. "The gay marriage issue was just something that certainly angered some people on the Central Committee and they wanted a different direction."
According to WBEZ, the anger came mostly from Jim Oberweis and Jerry Clarke who had been attempting to get the votes necessary to remove Brady since January. The pressure finally became great enough that a vote was no longer necessary.
The Illinois Republican party is in a tight place going into the 2014 elections. In 2010, the party scored an unexpected victory when Mark Kirk won the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.
In 2012, the Republican Party lost across the board within the state, ceding control of both chambers of government in Springfield to the Democrats. As the crucial 2014 elections approach many within the party felt that Brady's support of same sex marriage had put a damper on donations, according to WBEZ.
In his support of same sex marriage, Brady had been attempting to gain more support among the growing number of fiscal conservatives who are social moderates. For Brady, the support had been an attempt to include more people, he did not expect that it would have lead to such polarization against him.
"I want to see the party grow," Brady said. "I think I want to see the party be more open and more adverse and adapt to the times. It's about addition and not subtraction. If we come off as mean-spirited or angry or too dogmatic, then we don't attract people to the party."
