Rock Island Today

Four local GOP officials who vetted Republican House candidate Glen Evans months before the March 20 primaries uncovered most of his past troubles with the law and cleared him anyway.

Mike Steffen, interim chairman of the Rock Island County Republicans at the time, said that the thinking among the four was that Evans was the best candidate they could find, and that “If God can forgive, we can forgive too.” Steffen was not part of the vetting process.

Steffen said they did miss an outstanding warrant against Evans, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Mike Halpin in the 72nd District. The 2008 warrant was issued by an Indiana judge after Evans failed to appear for a probation hearing on a charge of violating an order of protection against his wife.

Rock Island GOP Chairman Drue Mielke

“What happened there was that a judge told Glen to get anger management classes,” Steffen, who is now running Evans’ campaign, said. “He completed those courses in Illinois, but the certification was never sent to Indiana.”

Other charges against Evans include criminal trespass and criminal contempt after violating an order of protection in 1997, according to court records cited in a May 22 article in the Dispatch-Argus. The charges were dismissed in February 1998.

Evans has rebuffed requests from the House Republican Organization, the political arm of the House caucus, and current Rock Island GOP Chairman Drue Mielke to drop out of the race. Mielke said he told Evans in April that he was “not electable.”

“If you’re a Republican candidate and have even a speeding ticket in your past, Madigan’s people come September and October are going to flood the campaign with mailers showing flashing police lights with your name next to them,” Mielke said. “I don’t want to see him and his family go through something like that.”

Mielke said the party has until June 4 to replace Evans should he drop out, but that he doesn’t expect him to.

“He has every right to stay in the race,” Mielke said. “And we have every right not to support him.”

Evans has previously run for 18 different political offices, each time as a Democrat. He won two precinct committeeman races. Evans is a now a Republican precinct committeeman, appointed to that position by Mielke. Mielke said he can remain in that position if he chooses.

Voters in Rock Island County have increasingly voted Republican in the past 10 years. In 2014, Republican Neil Anderson, a firefighter from Moline, defeated incumbent state Sen. Mike Jacobs, a Democrat, in the 36th District. Jacobs had held the seat since 2005, and before that his father, also a Democrat, held the seat since 1987.  A portion of the 36th overlaps the 72nd House seat.

Ten years ago one member on the county board was Republican; now eight are.

“It’s not so much people switching registration as it is more and more Democrats voting Republican,” Mielke said. “This is a blue-collar area and they are getting tired of the Democrats driving all the jobs away.”