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Nancy Kimme
| Nancy Kimme | |
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| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | NJ Kimme and Company |
| Role: | Lobbyist |
| Location: | Illinois |
| Affiliation: | Republican |
Nancy Kimme is a lobbyist operating in the state of Illinois. Kimme previously worked as the top aide to former Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. She worked for Topinka as chief of staff from January 2011 until Topinka's death on December 9, 2014.[1] Kimme also campaigned with Gov. Bruce Rauner (R-Ill.) and was named a member of his transition team in 2014.[2]
Kimme was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Illinois. Kimme was one of six delegates from Illinois bound by state party rules to support John Kasich at the convention.[3] Kasich suspended his campaign on May 4, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 156 bound delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates.
Career
Nancy Kimme worked closely with former Illinois State Treasurer and State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, a politician the Chicago Tribune said "could be considered the matriarch of the once-controlling moderate wing of the Illinois Republican Party."[4] She served as Topinka's chief of staff in the comptroller's office and worked on Topinka's campaign for the office in 2014. After Topinka's death, the late comptroller's campaign account paid Kimme a stipend for work on the 2014 re-election. Kimme told The State Journal-Register that she would "personally match the $25,000 stipend she got from the campaign fund and begin her own political action committee to help "moderate women candidates" without regard to party affiliation."[5] For the 2016 election cycle, Kimme agreed to join the campaign of John Kasich "to run his delegate-hunting operation in Illinois," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.[6]
In February 2015, Kimme began working as a lobbyist. According to Crain's Chicago Business, Kimme's list of clients includes the Illinois Hospital Association, the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, Ameren and a cable TV group. Kimme told the journal she intended to lobby both the Illinois General Assembly and the administration of Gov. Bruce Rauner (R).[7] CapitolFax.com noted that Kimme was situated well for lobbying work with the current administration: "She’s one of those people who knows everybody and everything and has been indispensable to Team Rauner. They’ll be lining up around the block to give her contracts."[8] In May 2015, she told Illinois Public Radio that her close connections to the Rauner administration provided an opportunity to move forward as a lobbyist: "Because there’s a Republican governor and somebody that I campaigned with and had a relationship with prior to him being governor, that helps a lot. Yeah, I mean, honestly, that’s a big part of it. It’s knowing the philosophy and the mind-set of the person in the governor’s office."[9]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Kimme was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Illinois.
Delegate rules
District-level delegates from Illinois were elected directly by voters at the state primary election on March 15, 2016. At-large delegates were selected at the state convention in May 2016. District-level delegates to the national convention could run as "uncommitted" delegates or they could declare their support for a specific candidate. 2016 Illinois GOP bylaws considered a vote for a delegate to be an "expression of sentiment" and "only advisory to the Delegate or Alternate Delegate so elected, unless otherwise directed by the Rules of the Republican Party." At-large delegates were bound to support the winner of the statewide vote in Illinois' primary election for an undetermined number of ballots.
Illinois primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Illinois, 2016
| Illinois Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
 Donald Trump |
38.8% | 562,464 | 54 | |
| Ted Cruz | 30.2% | 438,235 | 9 | |
| John Kasich | 19.7% | 286,118 | 6 | |
| Marco Rubio | 8.7% | 126,681 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 0.8% | 11,469 | 0 | |
| Jeb Bush | 0.8% | 11,188 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.3% | 4,718 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.2% | 3,428 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.2% | 2,737 | 0 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 1,540 | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 1,154 | 0 | |
| JoAnn Breivogel | 0% | 16 | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,449,748 | 69 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and Illinois State Board of Elections | ||||
Delegate allocation
Illinois had 69 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 54 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's 18 congressional districts). According to the Republican National Committee, Illinois' district-level delegates were "elected directly on the primary ballot and bound to the candidate for whom they [declared] themselves."[10][11]
Of the remaining 15 delegates, 12 served at large. Illinois' at-large delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the candidate who won a plurality of the statewide primary vote received all of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention. The RNC delegates were required to pledge their support to the winner of the state's primary.[10][11]
Top influencers by state
Influencers in American politics are power players who help get candidates elected, put through policy proposals, cause ideological changes, and affect popular perceptions. They can take on many forms: politicians, lobbyists, advisors, donors, corporations, industry groups, labor unions, single-issue organizations, nonprofits, to name a few.
In 2015, Ballotpedia identified Nancy Kimme as a top influencer by state. We identified top influencers across the country through several means, including the following:
- Local knowledge of our professional staff
- Surveys of activists, thought leaders and journalists from across the country and political spectrum
- Outreach to political journalists in each state who helped refine our lists
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Nancy Kimme Illinois. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External link
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Nancy Kimme," accessed October 21, 2015
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Rauner names transition team leaders," November 5, 2014
- ↑ WBEZ 91.5, "2016 Illinois Primary Election Results," March 14, 2016
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Judy Baar Topinka remembered for political style," December 10, 2014
- ↑ The State Journal-Register, "Fund distributed $95K for campaign work after Topinka's death," June 27, 2015
- ↑ Chicago Sun-Times, "Sweet: Trump, Carson in the lead — but not where it counts in Illinois," September 15, 2015
- ↑ Crain's Chicago Business, "Ex-Topinka aide, tax appeals commish land new gigs," February 18, 2015
- ↑ Capitol Fax, "Kimme moves up," February 18, 2015
- ↑ Illinois Public Radio, "Power Players – Who’s In And Who’s Out When It Comes To Lobbying The New Governor," May 1, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
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