2006

Attack and Defend

Brady: But with all due respect to Mr. Oberweis, it doesn’t include rounding them all up in your helicopter and dropping them in Soldier Field

Oberweis: We all agree on that Bill and you know that.

Pretty deft move by Oberweis–taking the high road to a pretty effective attack and yet pushing it back at him as a silly caricature. It isn’t really a silly caricature, but hey.

Dumbest Question

Talk about giving Gidwitz a way out…”How are you resolving that issue for the residents there…”

By all accounts, he’s not dealing with it. The way you ask a tough question is ask him how he can have a facility with the smell of urine in many common areas and non-working elevators. The reason Joliet wants it gone is because he’s let it deterioate.

Hey Tim

Is it appropriate for your news organization to hold African-American lawmakers to entirely different standards than white ones?

So, to be clear, from now on the standard at NBC is that if someone has a supporter who ‘corresponds’ with a Senator, the Senator or Member of Congress or Executive office operative or President or campaign official has to answer questions about something the supporter says. 

IOW, every social conservative Republican has to start answering all sorts of questions about James Dodson’s statements every time he says something…this is going to be fun. 

Cheapskate Jesse

The DCCC’s first priority is always to reelect Democratic Members of Congress and then it moves on to capturing other seats.  A pretty good deal if you are a Democratic Member of Congress and on top of that, it’s a 5 minute walk to their offices to do fundraising or other political work.

Jackson Jr, sitting on a warchest of over $1 million doesn’t seem to think his rather low dues of $150,000 are worth paying...

Now, if Jesse wants to be the guy who is a good Democrat and wants support from the Party, shouldn’t he support the Party?

Pay the bill Congressman. 

Roskam’s WarChest.

Jeeshh….

Roskam comes in with $1,066,000 for the cycle and $834,000 on hand.

For the quarter $386,000 raised

From the press release

Roskam FEC Report Highlights

·       
Total Individual Donors – 2,402

·       
Individual Donors who contributed less than $200
– 1,493

·       
Online Contributions –  $130,000  

·       
No personal loans/contributions from the
candidate

Establishment Republicans Win?

Rich points to the Hotline’s post on rising stars in Illinois.  The thing I picked up on was the Judy Baar Topinka entry

State Treas. Judy Baar Topinka (R): Running for Gov, leading in
the polls at the moment. Conservatives don’t like her, but “Judy is an
establishment” GOPer in IL, “and establishment” GOPers “win.”

This isn’t necessarily true anymore. Certainly Jim Ryan his primary, but looking back at statewide elections since 1996, we don’t see the establishment dominating contested primaries.  Salvi beat Kustra in 1996.  Fitzgerald beat Didrickson in 1998.  Jack Ryan won in 2004, though one can argue whether he was the establishment candidate or not.  The establishment isn’t what it used to be. 

That doesn’t mean Judy won’t or can’t win, but increasingly, Republican primaries are moving the party farther to the right and the organization from social conservatives and movement conservatives gives them a significant advantage in any race. Oberweis is polarizing enough that he might not be capable of putting together a win against Judy, but it’s not unreasonable to see it as a possibility. That said the best analysis I’ve seen yet is Russ Stewart’s in which he predicts wins for Judy and Birkett

6th District Round-up

This race is becoming increasingly hot so there will be a lot of these through the primary.

Stuart Rothenberg ranks the race a top race for control of Congress in Roll Call

llinois’ 6th. Democrats have a shot at the seat of retiring Rep. Henry Hyde (R), but they must endure a primary and overcome a district in which Bush drew 53 percent in each of his presidential races. Unsuccessful ’04 nominee Christine Cegelis starts as the Democratic frontrunner, but many party insiders and the state AFL-CIO are backing Illinois Army National Guard Maj. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran. The GOP nominee will be state Sen. Peter Roskam, a politically savvy and personable former Capitol Hill aide. Roskam starts out as the favorite, but it could be competitive.

Duckworth gets frontpaged in USA Today. While news junkies scoff at USA Today, marginal voters read it.  It’s a huge free media opportunity. 

Lombard Forum article

Sweet’s article on the 13th about Duckworth’s “Meet and Greet” at a law firm. 

IFT backs Duckworth
  giving her AFL-CIO, SEIU, and AFSCME.  If IEA endorses, that’ll give Duckworth essentially all of the union support both monetarily and for volunteers. 

Scott and Cegelis on Public Affairs