Meet Your Newest GOP Congressional Nominee, Illinois: Wingnut Lady Who Says Gays Cause Autism, Dementia And Tornadoes

Time for a quick Fringe Candidate Update, Ye Wonkers: you may remember our brief mention of long-shot Republican congressional candidate Susanne Atanus back in January, when it looked like her decidedly unorthodox views on how diseases and weather work might lead to her dropping out of the primary race for Illinois's 9th Congressional District. She had told a local paper that diagnoses of autism and dementia simply didn't exist about “sixteen years ago,” and neither did the frequent tornadoes that the Midwest gets these days. And she had a simple explanation for why those things have suddenly sprung out of nowhere:

“God is angry,” she told the [Chicago Daily] Herald. “We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions. Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”

And even though the state GOP was quick to say that Atanus was running without its endorsement, and actually urged her to drop out, she managed to win a very narrow primary victory over the other Republican in the race, David Earl Williams III. We bet that "III" was just off-putting enough to enough voters that they said, "Sure, let's go with the crazy tornado lady."

Atanus also made some headlines later in January when she contacted a Chicago-area LGBT publication, the Windy City Times, to explain why sodomy is the reason it was so cold in Illinois this winter:

"Everybody knows that God controls weather," Atanus said ... God is super angry," she said.

"Gay marriage is not appropriate, and it doesn't look right, and it breeds AIDS," Atanus added later.

She also said, perhaps a bit optimistically, that she'd reached out to the Windy City Times because she hoped to get support from LGBT voters, since her commonsense positions should appeal to all people who want economic prosperity, even filthy homosexxers.

"You can tell the community that I called to reach out to them, that I need them, and they need me," Atanus said.

In addition, because why stop when you're on a roll, Atanus told Windy City Times that she doesn't believe in separation of church and state, adding, "I believe that maybe there should be an amendment to get that out of the Constitution because God will never go away." So that may be another of the reasons that the Chicago Republican Party was so big on saying that they had never "supported, endorsed, or assisted her in any way at any time."

Atanus will be running in the general election against incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who won the 9th district in 2012 with 75% of the vote. Who knows? Maybe the complete futility of the contest will encourage Atanus to say something really surprising.

[ HuffPo / Windy City Times ]

 Follow Doktor Zoom on Twitter. He knows that tornadoes are actually caused by trailer parks.