Those of you who listen to Sandy Rios should understand that she makes endorsements without interviewing or researching the candidates; her "wisdom" is apparently based primarily upon the advice of Paul Caprio. Rios did not attend the meeting where candidates spoke and engaged in Q&A. She never met or talked to Don Lowery (who was the first to enter the race) before backing Pat Hughes -- In fact, the week before the primary, she admitted that on air, saying "I haven't spoken with Judge Don Lowery, but I have a plan to..." She endorsed Kirk Dillard (UGH!), then when interviewing Adam Andrzejewski, she didn't even know whether he was running as a Rep or an Ind. Why in the world are you taking advice from this woman???

Pat Hughes wasn't pithy enough to rank as gadfly... He couldn't get close enough to Mark Kirk to nip at him.

Andy Martin only said in January what the Dems were sure to say in October. If you can't answer a nice man like John Arrington without huffing and puffing, stuttering and stammering, what's going to happen when Alexi Giannoulias asks why you didn't vote?

There's an old saying about heat and a kitchen. If Pat Hughes couldn't handle barbs from his conservative opponents, he was pursuing the wrong occupation. And the voters confirmed that analysis 4:1 on February 2.

BO thinks we're just too stupid to recognize his greatness. Likewise Sandy views anyone who disagrees with her as disrespectful and ignorant -- we should bow to her celebrity, stop thinking for ourselves, and just do what she says. (In sports I think that's called being a sore loser?)

Funny thing... I can't find any evidence that Sandy Rios put her own money where her mouth was. Check out Pat Hughes' FEC filings which list itemized contributions (http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_ind/2009_S0IL00303) or search for Rios on Huffington's Fundrace. You'd think a local activist endorsement would come with a minimal $200 campaign contribution, since she's asking you to open your checkbook?

Mike, we're definitely on the same page. If I wanted to vote for a Democrat, I'd vote for Giannoulias. At least he knows he's a Democrat. Mark Kirk's voting record is indistinguishable from Pelosi's. Why would any conservative vote for that?

What I'll never do again: Let Sandy Rios advise me how to vote. Until Arrington unveiled Hughes at the debate, I was trying to hold my nose and stay the course, but her endorsement of Kirk Dillard (who made a campaign commercial for Barack Obama!) was the last straw. The resistnet article (linked below) confronts the misinformation Sandy promoted on her radio show in order to tout Dillard to uninformed listeners.

Whatever her motives, Sandy Rios' 2010 primary endorsements...

Mike, I'm not sure why you would construe anything I wrote as support for Mark Kirk. I didn't vote for him in the primary, and I won't vote for him in November. He's pro-abort, pro-homosexual, supported Cap & Trade, and voted against the surge.

But you can't beat Mark Kirk with Pat Hughes, and blaming/insulting fellow conservatives is not a winning strategy longterm.

And PS to Sandy: You might show at least enough respect for Judge Don LowEry to spell his name properly.

Pat Hughes: A man who had so little comprehension of the sacrifices of our forefathers, such scant appreciation for the blood of generations who purchased his liberty, that ***he couldn't even be troubled to vote most of his adult life.*** And this is what I'm supposed to vote in as my SENATOR???

Pat Hughes is not in the same league as Senator Peter Fitzgerald. If he were, he would not require an endorsement from Paul Caprio's buddies to energize conservatives.

The base is not going to unite around Sandy Rios' endorsements (like this wretched pick, who was also endorsed by the IEA and later the Log Cabin Republicans: