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Illinois Republican Senate Cattle Call 3-9

ArchPundit March 9, 2004 2 Comments

1. Jack! Glenn suggests in comments that he was bribed to not put him at number one by Jeri. As if. But I’m really running out of material here. Jack! is really about the funniest nickname I can come up with–in fact it is damn hilarious the more I think about it.

2. Rauschenberger. I don’t need no steenking polls. Steve is smart the rest are dumb and need to be eliminated from the island. Really, I do expect that if anyone gets late breakers it’ll be him or Jack!

3. Oberweis. He brought in Tancredo (Loony Bin Party Label-Colorado). Thank you, I didn’t think he could be any more ridiculous. Tancredo is the primary anti-immigrant guy in Congress and general comic relief. They fit well together. With any luck Tancredo will run in Colorado and lead to the biggest turnout of Latinos for Democrats ever. Udall is in, that would be a nice pick-up. Really, the Colorado race is more fun than this one anymore.

4. McKenna. The Wonder Bread of WASPs.

5. Borling. By the end of this, him and Rauschenberger will be number one and two simply because I can’t stand it anymore. If you are going to lose, slap the whippersnapper around a bit more on foreign policy.

6. Jonathan Wright. Makes Pat O’Malley look reasonable and sorta like a compromiser. Big star of the future. Look for him to challenge for one of the statewide races in 2006. My guess is he might take social conservative hatred of all things moderate and make that a campaign in the primary against Dan Rutherford.

7. Kathuria. NEW POLL SHOWS U.S. REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE, DR. CHIRINJEEV KATHURIA, STATISTICALLY TIED FOR SECOND PLACE

I can’t make that stuff up.

Undecided Dems and Momentum

ArchPundit March 9, 2004 1 Comment

So what I’m hearing in the background is that there are a bunch of undecideds in the recent polling that seem to be moving towards Obama, but they aren’t hardcore supporters. Instead they are moving towards him half-heartedly because he is the front-runner (last part is my interpretation). While they are swayable, good news begets good news and so Obama is doing better because he is, well, doing better. Obviously a campaign bombshell of some sort might change this, but in many ways this is what probably would have happened for Hull had he begun to pull away and not had the divorce scandal break. As people break, more people break with them. And the Corzine model would have propelled him to an unshakeable lead. Instead, his momentum was stopped and he is having to rebuild. He increasingly faces an uphill fight while Obama needs to ride the wave of good media.

I still think the wild card is downstate though with Hynes and Hull needing it to break one way or another.

Present and Accounted For

ArchPundit March 9, 2004 3 Comments

At this point in a campaign cynicism sets in for me and I pretty much take the charges flying around as ‘the game’. But Eric Zorn offers a powerful counterpoint to the claims that Obama has avoided votes on abortion.

“To provide cover for other Democrats who were shaky on the issue in an effort to convince them not to vote `yes,'” Sutherland said. “The idea is to recruit a group to vote `present’ that includes legislators who are clearly right with the issue.”

Sutherland said this tactic makes the “present” vote look less like a hedge or a cop-out and more like a constitutional concern or other high-minded qualm.

She pointed to the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 2001, a bill requiring that an adult family member be notified 48 hours in advance when a minor seeks an abortion.

The complaint seems to me to be the equivalent of complaining about fake committees created to kill bills. Being more familiar with the House, bills problematic for certain blocks of Members are sent to an ad hoc committee by Rules. The ad hoc committee never meets, the bill dies. If one was to complain that the chair never even chaired the meeting, you would laugh them out of the room because Da Speaker told them not to meet–well actually Steve Brown told them not to meet, but you know.

UPDATE: I just read the Hotline and I did not take the Title from them. Really! In fact, I think I had this up first.

Democratic Cattle Call Comment Period 3-9

ArchPundit March 9, 2004 6 Comments

New Trib poll—and while there is now a clear frontrunner, the race is fluid. Remember poll position isn’t all, buzz, coming ad buys and organization can change things quickly.

Republican Cattle Call Comment Period 3-9

ArchPundit March 9, 2004 1 Comment

Ridicule them all, but tell me where they are at. That’s the best I got to try and make this snore interesting. Just make fun of them in comments.

Really–what is up with the Washington Campaign

ArchPundit March 9, 2004 1 Comment

The Web Site is still down

Anyone know anything? Is she dropping out? If so, will she endorse and if so who?

UPDATE: The site is back up. Largely irrelevant, but back.