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Call It A Comeback

2007

Illinois Congressional Races

The Freedom Watch Ad Buy

ArchPundit 1 Comment

From the Seals press release:

The following information is publicly available from the local media stations pertaining to the Freedom’s Watch Chicago media market advertising buy.  

 

Freedom’s Watch Chicago Buy Info (9/6/07)

 

 

 

 

 

Station

Flight dates

Size of buy

Estimated Points*  

TELEVISION

 

 

 

WBBM-TV

8/27 – 9/23

$92,000/20 Share

153

WFLD-TV

8/22 – 9/23

$250,000/2 Share/Evening News

417

WGN-TV

8/27 – 9/09

$40,000

67

WLS-TV

8/27 – 9/23

$275,000/early morning, early, late, 11am, wheel

458

WMAQ-TV

8/27 – 9/23

$74,900/(think their share will be less than usual)

125

Comcast Spotlight

8/29 – 9/23

~$50,000/(won’t know share until after the fact)

83

Total Television

 

$781,900

1,303

RADIO

 

 

 

WGN-AM

Through end of Sept

$70,500

353

WBBM-AM

Through end of Sept

$70,500

353

Total Radio

 

$141,000

706

Grand Total

 

$922,900

 

This information is based on continual outreach to stations.  It is subject to change and to interpretation.  

*Cost per point for TV estimated at $600                       Cost per point for Radio estimated at $200

 

 

 

 

One Meeellllionnnn  dollars.

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Seals: Time To Bring ‘em Home

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Seals Calls for an End to War; Criticizes Kirk’s Support for Status Quo and White House Propaganda

 

Petraeus testimony; Bush Speech; and Freedom Watch Ads All Part of War Supporters’ Campaign to Keep U.S . Troops in Iraq

 

 

Wilmette- Calling for Congress to have the courage to end the War in Iraq, Democratic Congressional Candidate Dan Seals criticized Representative Mark Kirk’s continued support of the war, and challenged him to renounce the shameful propaganda ads currently running in the Chicago media market.  

 

“It’s time to bring our troops home.  No more delays, no more spin, no more politics.   We need a Congressman willing to stand up and tell the truth, not fall for further White House propaganda,” Seals said.

 

Freedom’s Watch, headed by former White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer is currently running a “stay-the-course” $1 million dollar ad campaign in the Chicago media market defending George Bush’s failed war policy.  These ads are running in key congressional races across the country to help those members who have helped the White House on Iraq. 

 

The ad defends Kirk & Bush’s failed war policy in Iraq. “Mark Kirk should call upon the Freedom Watch to pull these ads down in Chicago.  Unless he calls for these ads to come down, we can only conclude that he wants them to stay up on his behalf,” stated Dan Seals.

 

“Mark Kirk has been an architect, supporter and cheerleader over the last six years of the worst foreign policy debacle in a generation.  The fact is we deserve elected officials with the courage and judgment to make America safer, not continue to support a disaster,” Seals continued.

  

Mark Kirk has voted against allowing troops the necessary breaks between their deployments and has continually voted against legislation to bring our troops home including The Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act.   It required a responsible redeployment of U.S. troops beginning within 120 days of enactment and ending by April 1, 2008 and for the President to publicly justify the post-redeployment missions for the US military in Iraq and the minimum number of troops necessary to carry out those missions.

 

In March of this year, the Daily Herald noted that, “Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk tweaked his position on the Iraq war a half-dozen times since he first voted to authorize the conflict in 2002.”

 

Seals reaffirmed his strong position by stating that, “I am the only candidate who has opposed the war from the start and the only one who unequivocally supports a responsible timeline for withdraw.”

 

After narrowly escaping a close re-election in 2006, Representative Kirk has been trying to distance himself from the President by voting for the non-binding resolution against the troop surge.  However, when it comes time to vote for a plan to begin the responsible redeployment of our troops, Representative Kirk continually votes against the plan despite his rhetoric.

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Illinois Congressional Races

The Problem of Primaries

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My general rule is that primaries are good things and that people should get in them so the Party can decide who is the best choice. Yet, there are times they can be counterproductive.

In IL-10, I wasn’t terribly thrilled with Jay Footlik getting in the race, but after meeting him and the such, I’m comfortable with him though I’m supporting Dan Seals. It would be a bit hypocritical of me to call for no competition. If Jay were to win I could support him in good conscience and I’m okay with that. If Dan is as strong as I think he is, it shouldn’t be a problem. If it is a problem, that would tell us about Dan’s ultimate ability. I don’t have questions in regards to Dan because I’ve seen him in action last cycle, but I don’t see any harm in having the primary. It’s similar to IL-6 where I thought more competition was fine. Footlik is also running his campaign as being against Kirk and not Dan so it heightens the point that Mark Kirk is no moderate and is a rubber stamp for George Bush’s war.
The problem comes in races like IL-3 where it looks like we have a four or five way race in the primary and the problem is that for one of them to come out victorious, they are going up against an incumbent who has a base established by his father. The field has to be whittled down. Assuming one or two of them won’t be a serious candidate means that the real problem comes with two candidates who are getting most of the attention: Mark Pera and Palos Hills Mayor Jerry Bennett.

Pera has put together a good campaign team, has really been a hit with progressives and has an incredibly calm and likeable personality. He seems to be doing his call time and canvasses. Bennett isn’t quite as progressive, but is acceptable and much better than Lipinski. The problem is that the two of them together doom a chance to take out Lipinski and so someone needs to make a choice.

The thing with Lipiniski is that he’s vulnerable on the issue of being handed the seat through nepotism and the shadiness behind that. And that is where Bennett is weaker. From Lipinski’s campaign site:

Gerald Bennett, the Mayor of Palos Hills and a health care executive, said Congressman Lipinski’s proposals were an “excellent approach to helping American families become better health care consumers.”

“The Congressman should be lauded for working with colleagues in both parties to craft initiatives that will not only improve health care availability and delivery, but also have a great chance of being enacted,” Mayor Bennett said.

===

Third District governmental leaders endorsing Congressman Lipinski’s re-election include:

Jim Balcer – Alderman, 11 th Ward
Gerald Bennett – Mayor, City of Palos Hills

And right there is the problem. Bennett’s quote and endorsement from 2006 neutralizes that issue for Bennett, who by all accounts is able. The campaign needs to be one of insider cronyism versus independent challenger and Bennett isn’t able to do that. And it’s why, I hope he doesn’t decide to announce. I don’t blame him for being ambitious, but at this point, he’ll have the weaker message and the Party needs this win. I also happen to like that Pera is more progressive and clear on many key issues, but I’m ultimately a pragmatist and that impulse happens to be the same as my progressive impulse.

Illinois Congressional Races

Kadner: Bring ‘em Home

ArchPundit 1 Comment

He addresses the Lipinski-Kirk plan to let George Bush run out the clock

Yet Lipinski and Kirk, who acknowledge the Bush Administration made mistakes that undermined public support for the war, want people to believe their government now will tell the truth and make no more mistakes.

Having listened for more than an hour to Lipinski, Kirk and the two ambassadors detail the multiple and massive failings of the U.S. war in Iraq, I find it difficult to place continued faith in our ability to do the right thing.

Kirk said what most interests him is doing the right thing by our troops who continue to serve in Iraq.

I would agree.

And I think the right thing to do is to bring them home now.

As Lipinski might say, that is the least bad solution.

One of the frustrations I have is that people are saying just now that it’s such a different country.  This seems obvious, but at the same time if that’s what is making them realize the folly of staying, so be it.

Fundie Fun Keyes' Company

Fine Moments in Obfuscation

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We see that the Fox Valley Families are threatening to sue Steve Twombley of Planned Parenthood for defamation

Your many assertions about the Pro-Life Action League (“the League”) and Joseph Scheidler, its director, are red herrings as they have nothing to do with the Aurora protests. But they too are false and misleading.

It depends on your meaning of nothing to do with the protests. If one thinks financially supporting Fox Valley Families is having something to do with the protests, that would be inacurate.

The efforts of Families Against Planned Parenthood are underwritten by the Pro-Life Action League. Please consider making a donation to the League to help fund this campaign.

Joe Scheidler is the Executive of the non-profit 990 here. You can also see Eric Scheidler is counted as a key personnel and the Communication Director. IOW, Fox Valley Families or Families against Planned Parenthood are a project of Pro-Life Action.

Eric Scheidler, who resides with his family in Aurora and coordinates Fox Valley Families, has never been arrested let alone convicted of any criminal act in connection with pro-life or anti-abortion activity. He has never advocated violence against either persons or property. Nor has he engaged in any such violence in opposing abortion, or otherwise. Nor has any other coordinator or leader of Fox Valley Families. Nor to our knowledge has any violent act been committed, much less condoned, by any participant in the 40-day vigil in opposition to your new facility. Protest against your facility has been entirely peaceable and prayerful.

The trick they are trying to do is move the argument to Eric Scheidler instead of his father who has been arrested many times and has a strange habit of being present when violence breaks out:

It’s important to dispel the myth that PLAN engaged in nothing but peaceful, First Amendment-protected activity. It did not. PLAN’s blockades, invasions and the other RICO violations that the jury found PLAN committed are acts of force and violence. The jury heard testimony from patients and clinic workers who were attacked during PLAN’s blockades, including blockades at which Joseph Scheidler and Randall Terry were personally on the scene. One doctor, Dr. Susan Wicklund, was grabbed and slammed against a car as she tried to get through the blockade and into her office. Patients were tripped and pushed to the ground. One clinic administrator was grabbed by her hair and thrown to the ground by an Operation Rescue leader. Another was viciously choked by Operation Rescue protesters, leaving serious bruises on her neck. One patient, who was trying to enter the clinic — not for an abortion but for post-operative care following cancer surgery — was beaten with an Operation Rescue protester’s sign. The protesters clawed at her and attacked her, causing her sutures to rupture, and she passed out. This is not speech or advocacy.

This case is not about First Amendment activity. My clients have never objected to peaceful picketing, leafletting, or even to hateful, ugly speech by abortion opponents. Calling our clients “murderers,” “whores” and “sluts” is not a RICO violation, and we have never claimed it is. The First Amendment protects speech, even ugly speech. But it does not protect the acts of force and violence on which our suit was based. Our case was not based on speech or advocacy, but on acts and threats of force and violence.


 The letter isn’t a serious threat, it’s trying to change the subject. If Pro-Life Action League tried to make the argument that the Fox Valley Families group is independent and thus Joe Scheidler irrelevant, a judge would laugh them out of the courtroom. It’s a diversion, plain and simple to avoid talking about the curious incidents of violence wherever Joe Scheidler shows up.

Go help Planned Parenthood with this effort here

Illinois Congressional Races

How to Win Friends and Influence People

ArchPundit 2 Comments

 Fine moments in campaign strategery


Laesch shrugged off Giannoulias’ endorsement, calling him “just a wealthy guy who bought himself an office.”

“I don’t think it’s a big endorsement of any kind,” he said.

There are two statewide officials not fighting with every other statewide official and one of them is Giannoulias.  Right now he is the best face of the Democratic Party in Illinois of people not running for President and dissing him like this isn’t helpful to anyone.  Especially John.

More than that, it’s a complete waste of a quote.  It has no message and conveys nothing about John’s campaign.

H/T Bridget 

Illinois Congressional Races

The Plan By Concerned Kirk and Lipinski

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Is to do what the military has to do anyway:

Lipinski and Kirk told the private gathering of members of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that they are speaking out together to forge a new path forward in Iraq.

“The best possible outcome for Democrats is to invite in Republicans such as Kirk to join us. I’m aware every Democrat will not support the Iraq Study Group and this bipartisan solution,” Lipinski said. “For the last four months, we’ve maintained the status quo because legislation brought forward could not be passed without a veto from the President.”

Both Lipinski and Kirk have said that the Iraq Study Group’s report, which was released in December, provides the best opportunity for a policy change. The report includes 79 recommendations.

The Lipinski-Kirk plan calls for a phased withdrawal similar to the one that U.S. Gen. David Petraeus outlined on Monday. Under the plan, one troop brigade would return to the U.S. in December and three more would be removed in the spring, without replacement. It would provide for troop levels in July 2008 of about 130,000, which is equal to “pre-surge” troop levels.

We are running out of troops and the surge level of troops can only be maintained through the spring when we have to reduce the forces in Iraq or readiness would suffer even more than it is now.

So these two brain-trusts want to force the President to do something he’s already going to have to do and that’s their idea of a compromise to go forward.

Who wants to break it to them that the bill does nothing?

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