McLean County GOP Chair:  Interviews For Public Feedback

McLean County's Republican Party chair calls next week's interviews with potential Congressional candidates 'unprecedented.'

John Parrot said the intent of Monday's interviews with eight people seeing the GOP nomination for the 13th Congressional district was to generate feedback from the public on the process. Parrot admits a lot of voters are upset about Urbana Congressman Tim Johnson's decision to announce his retirement after the primary.

"They have reiterated that we need to make sure that whoever the county chairmen appoint to this position is a rock-solid individual who has got some experience, and will have the opportunity to build the organization that they're going to need to build in record time," Parrot said.

He said members of the state legislature have an advantage since they already have an organization in place following the March 20th primary. The interviews will run from 11-30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday at the Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington.

Champaign County Acting Republican chair Habeeb Habeeb said it is possible that a similar event will be held locally, after it holds a convention next week. GOP county chairmen in 14 counties will meet in a few weeks and hold a weighted vote for a 13th district candidate to replace Johnson.

A full set of links to county GOP chairmen in the 13th District is listed below.