Metro East Sun

Madison County's April vote for Republican State Central Committeeman in the 15th Congressional District—which was officially a "unanimous" win for Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet)—actually was a unanimous result for the incumbent Robert Winchester, according to precinct committeemen affidavits obtained by Metro East Sun.

In his affidavit recalling his first time as elected chairman of a Republican county convention, Jeremy Plank recalled being approached by 15th District caucus committee members who informed him of the unanimous vote for Winchester. 

"I was near the caucus site and saw other 15th District Precinct Committeemen whom I knew to be at the convention," Plank said in his affidavit. "None of the precinct committeemen stated any opposition to the motion for a unanimous vote. No objection by a precinct committeeman was made to me as chairman on the unanimous vote, and I made no ruling about it as chairman."

Robert Winchester, longtime member of the Republican State Central Committee in the 15th Congressional District

While there was concern voiced in the affidavits about the appropriateness of a unanimous vote, Plank and the other two Madison County precinct committeemen, Judy Davenport and Amy Maher, all reported a unanimous vote for Winchester, who had held the seat since 1992. 

Plank said in his affidavit that he reported Madison County's State Central Committeeman vote "one to two days later," but he did not report the vote to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

"I believed that the precinct committeemen of the 15th District had approved a unanimous vote (for Winchester), but I remained unsure of the validity of such a vote," Plank's affidavit said.

None of the affidavits comment about how Rose came to "unanimously" win the seat.

In April, sources informed the Prairie State Wire that Winchester had retained counsel to launch a challenge to voting procedures in his Republican State Central Committee re-election bid.

Rose, an assistant Republican caucus leader, has represented the 51st district since 2013, having previously been a member of the state House for about a decade. The Illinois state Senate's 51st District encompasses all of Dewitt, Piatt, Moultrie, Douglas and Shelby counties, and parts of McLean, Champaign, Vermilion, Edgar and Macon counties.

Sources told the Prairie State Wire in April that the state GOP had run Rose against the incumbent Winchester to punish Winchester for backing Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) in her strong but unsuccessful March primary bid against Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Earlier this month, Winchester's attorney, Steve Boulton of Peraica & Associates in Chicago, said in a letter to state GOP General Counsel John Fogarty that the race results had been determined by a "group of unelected and merely appointed staff members" with "personal and financial interests" in the re-election of current state GOP Chairman Tim Schneider.

"The procedure may have well have been employed before, but it is not properly authorized and stands in contravention of the plain language of the Election Code," Boulton wrote in his letter. "Repetition of an unlawful practice does not make it legal. If such were true, bank robbery would be legal today."

In his complaint, which was filed in federal court, Winchester claims that the Illinois Republican party rigged the April 18 election against him. In an interview published in the Madison-St. Clair Record, Boulton claimed to have "a number" of affidavits that prove Winchester actually won the election.

Davenport said in her affidavit that she was present for the Madison County vote and reported that "the vote of the caucus resulted in a total strongly in favor of Robert Winchester." Davenport said that she then moved for the caucus vote to be unanimously in favor of Winchester, which ultimately carried.

"Thereafter, the caucus informed the chairman of the convention and newly elected County Party Chairman Jeremy Plank that the caucus had passed a motion to engage in a unanimous vote for Robert Winchester for Republican State Central Committeeman for the 15th Congressional District," Davenport said in her affidavit.

Maher, who was elected secretary pro tem during the convention, said the initial caucus vote was 1,983 for Winchester and 1,380 for Rose, and that there was a motion and a second motion to make the vote unanimous for Winchester. She recalled that "there was some discussion about the propriety of making the vote unanimous when it was a weighted vote that covered multiple counties... (W)e were variously told that other counties were doing it, and that other counties were doing it because it was not permitted."

Maher said in her affidavit that she was not present for the vote on the motion. When she later discussed with Plank what to include in her minutes about the vote, "he advised me (that) he had spoken to the relevant committeeman individually and (that) they had agreed to unanimity for Bob Winchester," she said in her affidavit.