Threats of Protest Prompt Fundraiser’s Cancelation

HOMER GLEN, IL — Threats to protest a fundraiser for a Will County board member who made an inflammatory Facebook post about the Women’s March on Washington have prompted the event’s cancelation.

Homer Glen Republican Steve Balich was supposed to have a Thursday night fundraiser at Mullets bar on South Bell Road. But Balich said Mullets called his event off Feb. 16.

“They canceled on Thursday and my fundraiser is today,” Balich said.

“The reason the fundraiser was called off was Mullets was getting calls that there were going to be marches there,” Balich said.

The callers claimed the planned protest had been organized by Father Michael Pfleger, Balich said, but the county board member was skeptical.“It’s not true,” Balich said, adding that he suspects the callers were funded by the group Organizing For Action.

“They’re paid protesters,” he said.

Balich drew criticism in recent weeks when he posted an excerpt of a Dan Proft essay titled “What’s Left of the Left” that referred to participants in the Women’s March on Washington as “grumpy old women and their wives.”

“If we learned one thing from Obama, speechifying doesn’t bring the country together, create jobs or reverse barbaric cultural trends,” Balich’s since-deleted post said. “And so Trump’s unity-signaling Inaugural Address was quickly followed by a protest march of grumpy old women and their wives to which Susan B. Anthony would not have been welcome.”

Balich said he chose to delete the post because he “didn’t put it up with the idea of making people upset.”

Balich meant for the post to be taken as “satire,” and said it paled in comparison to the offensive things he saw at the Women’s March.

“Is ‘grumpy old women’ as bad as (a sign saying) ‘I’ll spread my legs for any refugee,’ ‘F-Trump,’ or pictures of women’s personal parts?” Balich asked.

“It was vulgar,” he said. “The whole thing was vulgar.”

Balich had thought he put the issue to bed when he deleted the post.

“I figure it’s all over with,” he said. “I took it down.”

While he believed paid protesters were behind the calls to Mullets, Balich also doesn’t think there was ever going to be an actual protest.

“I really don’t believe there’s an organized protest going to happen, but Mullets canceled my fundraiser,” he said.

“It’s their business,” he said. “They have the right to do whatever they want.”

Calls to Mullets went unanswered Thursday. The bar’s voicemail was full and not accepting messages.

Balich said a local law firm has reached out to him about organizing another fundraiser.

“A law firm called me up and they’re upset because it’s against the First Amendment,” said Balich, who questioned whether the threats of such protests might cross party lines.

“The question is,” he said, “who’s next?"