Prairie State Wire

Longtime Illinois Republican activist and contributor Vince Kolber of Chicago is seeking election as one of the state's 17 Republican National Committee men or women by a vote of the Illinois Republican Party's State Central Committee on May 24. 

Kolber, who's a former Congressional candidate (5th CD), would be a figurehead serving as an unpaid leader of the state GOP and RNC in a position requiring a particular set of skills: fundraiser, advisor, implementer, moderator, activist, motivator and sometimes media spokesperson.

As founder and owner of Residco, a 40-year old Illinois-based business that invests and leases transportation industry equipment, he has the executive experience to handle a job that also requires mediation and peacekeeping skills among a base in Illinois that stretches from the center to the far right.

But what motivates Kolber in a deep blue state where in the 2022 general election Democrats like to point out that Republicans lost every state constitutional office – governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer – and 14 of 17 congressional seats?

Kolber is authentically optimistic, seeing "important green shoots" that sprung forth from the last election.

"In the last election in illinois, for the first time in decades, we fielded Republican challengers in just about all of the state rep districts," Kolber said. "Our representative candidates got 70,000 more votes than the Democrat candidates...This was a very important green shoot."  

Kolber also sees his personal and professional successes as providential, describing them as the "American dream achieved in spades in Illinois."  

"I know my personal and commercial flourishing is not only providential, but also unique to the time and the place in which it occurred," he said. "Consequently, I tell people all the time I will never stop working to help Illinois turn red and around until it happens or I die."

Kolber says he's been a longtime generous donor to Illinois Republican campaigns and causes. Records at the State Board of Elections support the claim, showing that over decades he has contributed more than $1.3 million. 

He also helps raise money for the state party, working hand in glove with chairman Don Tracy to restore levels of contributions that had fallen off when former Governor Bruce Rauner was largely funding state GOP campaign operations. 

Kolber has a lot of confidence in Tracy overseeing the state party, which is responsible for executing the fundamentals - recruiting good candidates, ballot integrity, getting out the vote and expanding the banking of votes by mail. But he also sees opportunity in harnessing the "significant population of low propensity voters" - that is, folks who appreciate limited government, less regulation, social values and who may associate with pro-parent groups, for example, and who may be reluctant to vote at any other time than election day.

He also recognizes that you can have an extraordinarily well run political organization, but it "doesn't necessarily mean you are going to get more votes than your opponent."   

In terms of running a better organization, Kolber would like to see the Illinois Republican Party possibly emulate what the Virginia Republican Party did in 2021 in its primary election of Glenn Youngkin who went on to defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the general. Before then, a Republican hadn't won the governorship since 2008.

Total expenditure in the Virginia 2021 party run gubernatorial primary was approximately $5 million, compared to the Illinois 2022 state run gubernatorial primary where more than $100 million was spent. 

"It's inefficient," Kolber said. "You open yourself up to Machiavellian interference," a reference to Democrat spending in the Republican primary to hurt Richard Irvin and prop up Darren Bailey. 

Whether the state party can run its own primary where delegates nominate their candidate, versus a state run primary where voters at large nominate, is a matter that Kolber is having analyzed. 

"As I go about floating the idea and thinking about if there is a more efficient way of accomplishing what we need to accomplish and ultimately be more successful...it's why I love the Virginia model, 10 cents on the dollar," he said. 

On the RNC's new leadership of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, Kolber is enthusiastic about their focus, including ballot integrity litigation and fundraising efforts.

"This change was clearly brought about by Donald Trump - he is the party nominee," he said. 

On the former president, Kolber is a solid supporter: "There is no better leader, as capable and strong to help settle our tumultuous world and restore faith in and respect for America at this time, than Donald Trump," he wrote in an earlier X post. "There is no American more able to confront our border crisis, than Donald Trump."

Kolber faces State Central Committeemen Dean White (8th CD) and Mark Shaw (1st CD) in his bid to be elected RNC committeeman.