January 2005

NoLaHood

ArchPundit January 31, 2005 9 Comments

When Ray LaHood becomes too liberal to be a GOP candidate, I’d just like to thank the Illinois Republican Party for shutting out the lights at HQ since they have clearly packed up and gone home for the cycle.

Administrative Contact:
Leubscher, William ****************@aol.com
9559 S. Mozart Ave.
Evergreen Park, IL 60805
US

Pic is available here. Scroll to the bottom.

Via Bill at Peoria Pundit which was via the Capitol Fax

To add to Bill’s comments, Peter Fitzgerald had horrible poll numbers and he didn’t like being Senator. The reason he didn’t run again is Karl Rove laid out the problem to him and he saw the light. Being Senator is a grueling job and I don’t begrudge anyong giving up that job, but saying it is LaHood’s fault misses that Fitzgerald was a pain in the butt even if you agreed with him.

After looking at the site, I’d create a conspiracy theory behind the site with me behind it other than I’m not. Looking at the list of potential candidates ‘better’ than LaHood, four of the five are wet dreams of Democrats and Blagojevich. Only Rauschenberger would be a serious challenger and he still has to explain why he thought Alan Keyes was a good idea.

Birkett is one of the sourest and most unlikeable politicians in Illinois. Pat O’Malley is the right wing version of The Blagorgeous. Shimkus has what appeal above Springfield? And Jim Oberweis? Uh, no.

In case anyone forgot, John Kerry won the state by 10 points. Why does anyone think a right wing Republican can overcome a 10 point deficit to start.

None of this is to say LaHood is the answer, but the wisdom of the Median Voter Theorem is ignored at your own peril.

Even more interesting is that the site appears to be ready to become registered as it has a solicitation for funds. Most interesting is it’s parent site:

Photoairbrushing.com

And that the guy involved is from Evergreen Park which, of course, is no where near the 18th CD.

And he had a role in Spanky’s campaign

The Excitement Brigade

ArchPundit January 31, 2005 0 Comment

I can’t think of a more boring way to start off the announcements for the Republican nomination for Governor than Ray LaHood and Ron Gidwitz. While some in the Party are trying to be hip, it appears that a good percentage of the old guard are still wondering why Oldsmobile needed to try and relabel itself with”Not your Father’s Oldsmobile.”

They’re probably also grumbling about having to look at Buicks now that their car isn’t being made anymore.

Venture Capital Fund

ArchPundit January 31, 2005 0 Comment

Aaron Chambers has a good interview with Illinois Commerce Director Jack Lavin focusing on the administration’s effort to promote a venture capital fund. For those waiting on me to have a snarky take on this one–sorry, it’s actually one of many issues I think needs to be done in Missouri, but instead Missouri is having foundations push money directly into a single industry (biotech) without enough cash to make a difference and a Lege that might make therapeutic cloning illegal.

The administration’s plan in Illinois doesn’t direct it towards a specific industry and makes it clear that performance is a criteria. Those two issues along with a strong base of research universities make the effort a good bet.

Chambers asks about this in the story, the question is how to get it to pass the Lege. Members will want to reserve a certain portion outside of the Chicago area. While the impulse is understandable, the best bet is to do exactly as Lavin suggests:

The bill calls for geographic and sector diversification on the investments that those funds make. We have, obviously, an issue in Illinois if most of the venture capital is invested in the Chicagoland area and other parts of the state aren’t getting investment. So part of the Opportunity Fund is to geographically diversify where we’re investing.

Q: Is there agreement? Is there a bill ready to go?

A: There is a bill that is almost ready to go. Going into this next session, we’ll have a bill ready to go shortly.

Q: So you do anticipate something moving this session then, this spring?

A: We intend to have the bill move, or introduced again, yes.

Q: Would the measure specifically, statutorily, require that a certain percent of the dollars be invested in startups outside the Chicago region, downstate?

A: There is nothing that specifically defines what will be outside of the Chicago region, though part of the intent of the law is that there will be diversification. So as the board is set up that will be one of their goals, to geographically disperse and diversify where the investments go.

Via Capitol Fax that points out why we see more of these kinds of full text interviews.

I’ll Have Stuff Later, but

ArchPundit January 26, 2005 1 Comment

Check out Peoria Pundit for coverage of the shooting in a Peoria High School.

The RFP for the Voting Equipment and Documents

ArchPundit January 25, 2005 0 Comment

Is up at the Chicago Board of Elections

And your contact information is here

Chicago Voting Equipment Decisions

ArchPundit January 25, 2005 3 Comments

With Help America Vote Act deadlines approaching Chicago is about to make a decision on voting machines. This is a serious issue and I have to say very few of the decisions I’ve seen made to date have to do with accuracy and design checks to ensure fraud can be detected.

Earnest of Deadly Earnest hits the right notes and fills us in on what seems to be the primary choices and the advantages and disadvantages of the systems as well as develops a useful criteria for evaluating which should be chosen.

Then he links to a study by David Kimball, a Professor at UM-Saint Louis-and a friend of mine. The work David has done on the issue is first rate and I’ll invite him to make any comments if he wishes.

The assumption by many is that a Democratic city is likely to want to have the most reliable system possible. But that is a horrible assumption. The Machine, that what is left of it, wants to undercount poor votes–which are black and Latino usually. Encouraging and counting more votes is a bad thing to those in power generally and so public pressure for a reliable system is vital.

Don’t believe me–do you think that Daley and his people aren’t thinking about a challenge from Jackson right now and how voting machines and turnout might affect such an election? I’m not a fan of Jackson myself, but that’s not the point. Election integrity is the point and a bad system will not

The Machine can work with a Republican Governor or President, but it doesn’t want contested city and local elections.

Any reporters who want to talk to David, I’m happy to put you in contact with him. For the activists–send this out on the DFA and Obama listservs and anyothers.