Illinois Senate
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Illinois Republican Senate Nomation Cattle Call 6-28
IT’S BACK!
1. Steve Rauschenberger. Smart and has ties to both sides of the Illinois Circular Firing Squad Team’s civil war. Probably the only candidate without significant detractors on eitehr side. Willing to take the nomination, but a mediocre fundraiser. Will run hard and work hard for friends in the Lege. Best thing–they would produce some of the most enlightening public policy debates seen in a long time.
2. Ron Gidwitz. Considered to be from the moderate wing–look down and see some of the quick oppo on this guy. Won’t be popular with the social conservatives, but lots of ties to Chamber of Commerce types and can self-fund. Friend of Topinka–bad for social conservatives. Danger is that he’ll run to increase name recognition this time for a 2006 run at Governor. If he does so, bottom of the ticket will suffer.
3. Oberweis, Uberweis. Set to the tune of edelweis. Party leaders understand he’d be a disaster in the general election. Upside. Free ice cream. Downside, demagoguing twit. Upside. Great commercials–not to win, but for entertainment value. Downside: Democrats think he’s the best choice. Upside: has a legitimate claim as the runner up in the primary. Downside: Hurts minority outreach of GOP. Upside: Did I mention free ice cream? Downside: Still lots of resentment from social conservatives over his calling Pro-lifers the Taliban.
4. Andrew McKenna. Says he doesn’t want it. Also has ties to Ray LaHood who is out of favor with social conservatives. Lots of ties to business community. Too boring to have ever had kinky sex so that’s a plus.
5. Jim Durkin. The good soldier sacrificial lamb to take on Dick Durbin in 2002. Lost heartily, but has some grass roots ties and by all accounts is a nice guy. It’s unclear that he wouldn’t be a downballot disaster given the last race. Smart and generally well-liked. He’s a realist so he may avoid the race.
6. Rod McCulloch. No good deed goes unpunished.
7. John Cox. LOL–Like rejuvinating the Cook County GOP isn’t punishment enough.
8. The Thompsons/Bob Thomas/Jim Edgar/Topinka–all have said no. None of them are dumb enough for this fool’s errand.
9. Patrick Fitzgerald. He isn’t stupid and he’s said no.
10. Peter Fitzgerald. Over the Speaker’s dead body given their latest fight. Bad candidate the first time around, doesn’t have the fire in the belly to fight this race which will take every day campaigning.
11. Chinjeev Kathuria. Sources say he has an impressive resume.
Another Love Letter to Obama
That picture is going to be the picture of the cycle–well beside the horrible trib photo of Ryan.
Some Good Links
I’m not going to redo all of the posts from yesterday, but here are some of the top links:
To sum up–beyond the issue of lying about a fellow Party Member–remember, Ryan called McCulloch a liar which we now know McCulloch must have seen the full file–though some specifics might be off, Ryan lied to nearly everyone on an issue that could have easily been dealt with as Oberweis even did.
Second, if Ryan was scared of the file becoming public, he could easily have been blackmailed.
Finally, these rules from Rich Miller should be stapled to the head of every candidate in the United State:
Lesson No. 1: Reporters and the public are always more intrigued by sealed, concealed or hidden information than stuff that is right out in the open.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis went through a bitter divorce right before the primary, but you didn’t read about it because Oberweis never tried to hide anything. The Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, wrote a book several years ago that talked about some of his youthful indiscretions, including occasional drug use. It hasn’t been a political problem because Obama came clean in a direct and forthright manner. Disclose early, and disclose completely.
Lesson No. 2: Don’t flat-out lie about potentially embarrassing things that can be proved false. Up until the very end, Ryan could never bring himself to tell the truth. When the records did come out, Ryan compounded the lie by claiming he had never told political leaders that there was nothing embarrassing in his files. When those same political leaders contradicted him, he was formally outed as a serial prevaricator.
Once you are proved to be a deliberate liar, nobody will ever believe you again about anything. Just look at the media coverage of Bill Clinton’s new autobiography, if you want proof. It’s all about the Monica.
DISCLOSE PEOPLE!
Oh, that Other Guy
Gets another glowing press treatment from EJ Dionne.
One of many reasons he resonates with so many:
The numbers story can distract from the larger story Democrats need to tell. “Instead of having a set of policies that are equipping people for the globalization of the economy,” he says, “we have policies that are accelerating the most destructive trends of the global economy.”
Hotline Says—He’s Out
Sources close to ex-teacher/ex-Goldman Sachs exec. Jack Ryan (R) tell The Hotline that the candidate will announce his withdrawal from the race this afternoon. With virtually no internal support from the IL GOP leadership, Ryan had no choice. Members of the GOP exec. cmte will likely tout IL Board of Ed. member Ronald Gidwitz as Ryan’s replacement on the ballot against state Sen. Barack Obama (D).
Ryan’s formal announcement will happen after he finishes making calls to family, friends and supporters (Hotline reporting, 6/25).
Let the scrum begin.
Update: WGN is going to carry his announcement live.
UPDATE 2: Leader reports conservative conference call at 1:30, Jack’s public comments at 2:30. May or may not be accurate.
UPDATE: No speech, but perhaps a statement. I missed Science Friday for this?
I think it is somewhat like Miss America
A strange way to start off a Draft Oberweis campaign.
And I think Oberweis would make a fantastic Republican Nominee.
Really!
It’s the Trib’s Fault
His statement is up at the Leader.
Thirteen months ago, I announced my determination to seek the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. I entered this race because I love my country and my home state of Illinois – and because I believe that one man, living for purposes larger than himself, can make a difference.
“The media has gotten out of control. The fact that the Chicago Tribune sues for access to sealed custody documents and then takes unto itself the right to publish details of a custody dispute – over the objections of two parents who agree that the re-airing of their arguments will hurt their ability to co-parent their child and will hurt their child – is truly outrageous.
“The debate between competing visions and philosophies is a vital one – one the voters of Illinois absolutely deserve. Elections, after all, are about choices. But it’s clear to me that a vigorous debate on the issues most likely could not take place if I remain in the race.
“What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign – the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play.
“Accordingly, I am today withdrawing from the race.
“To the 234,000 Republican voters who cast a ballot for me in March, to the thousands of supporters and volunteers who have invested in our campaign the two most precious resources they have – their time and their money – I say thank you. I will never be able to properly express the depth of my gratitude for the trust you placed in me.”
Or it’s the Republican Party’s fault.
Not, I gambled and lost.
Easy Oppo
Really my readers ought to be employed doing oppo
Trib Editorial 4/21/99
FILLING CITY COLLEGES’ LEADERSHIP GAP
Ronald Gidwitz did Mayor Richard Daley a big favor last week by resigning as chairman of the board of City Colleges of Chicago.
It’s a favor not because Gidwitz reportedly was edged out by Wayne Watson, Daley’s hand-picked chancellor, but because his resignation gives the mayor a priceless opportunity to appoint a chairman who can turn the colleges into the asset they should be for the city.
Gidwitz’s nearly eight-year tenure as board chairman was marked by a continuing decline in enrollment at the colleges and a lack of a clear sense of direction for the system as a whole.
Ouch. Worse, the fight between Gidwitz and Vallas was over when standardized tests would be given. The tests were designed to incorporate the full year of instruction, but under Gidwitz the State BoE wanted to give thm in the middle of the year. IOW, the tests were testing material not yet covered by curriculum guidelines. Vallas was right on a very basic issue.
Gidwitz will set off the Right wing
From the Sun-Times Letters to the Editor February 26, 2002
BODY:
Talk about the gang that couldn’t shoot straight! After firing dedicated, knowledgeable state Education Supt. Max McGee, state board Chairman Ronald Gidwitz and his accomplices on the State Board of Education hired a Gidwitz family friend and accountant, Ernie Wish, to be state superintendent.Wish, who by most accounts (no pun intended) was a fine numbers cruncher and managing partner of a prestigious accounting firm, was hailed as the proximate savior of the state’s educational system, even though he had no real knowledge of educational policy issues or the needs of the schoolchildren of Illinois. What he did have was a connection to Gidwitz and the recently arrested president of the clout-heavy Near North Insurance Brokerage, Michael Segal. Wish’s connection with Near North, which continued after his appointment as superintendent, was a result of “miscommunication,” according to Gidwitz, and ultimately led to Wish’s dismissal [news story, Feb. 13]. This is not to suggest guilt by association on anyone’s part, but to quote Sir Walter Scott, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
So now that one crony of Gidwitz had to be removed as state superintendent, he has been replaced not by the chief education officer of the state board, Christopher Koch, but by Respicio Vazquez, general counsel to the state board and a former Gidwitz crony from his days as chairman of the board of City Colleges of Chicago.
Again, by most accounts, Vazquez is a fine fellow, but clearly the message being received here is that cronyism has supplanted professional education considerations in the selection process of the state superintendent of education. One can only wonder what this chairman and his board have in mind regarding the selection of the next state superintendent. To say the least, their recent track record has been abominable.
To provide the children of Illinois with the educational leadership they deserve, we must remove this state board chairman and his allies on the board. If the current governor doesn’t have the guts to do it, then perhaps the next one will. Once this is accomplished, we should move to a new process for selecting state board members and their chairperson. Their appointments should not be based on the level of their campaign contributions or other political considerations, but on their accomplishments in leadership, management or education.
The progressive state of Washington has a system for electing state board members regionally. These individuals are elected by the votes of local Board of Education members who have a direct link to their educational communities.
Although this system may also have some weaknesses, it would be far superior to the current politically influenced selection process, which has yielded a state board that is an embarrassment to the educational community in Illinois. Serving on the state board should be a reward for outstanding service to children–not for large campaign contributions.
Dr. Harry P. Rossi,
superintendent of schools,
Northbrook/Glenview