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Republican Outreach

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 8 Comments

In a pretty typical column for Kevin McCullough, he argues gay marriage is going to turn African-Americans against Kerry and Obama. Yeah. Right. Every season people argue that African-Americans are going to take Republicans more seriously and vote in fewer numbers for Democrats. And what has happened? The vote share of the African-American vote in national elections has been in the decline since Nixon. While African-Americans are quite socially conservative as a whole in public opinion polls, they vote along another axis-race issues and they vote in what they perceive as their interest.

That doesn’t mean that Republicans can’t make inroads, but it might help if the primary PAC to help minority GOP Candidates spent a about 8.9% of its funds to help them.

Want A Job? Be From St. Clair County

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 2 Comments

It’s always nice to see the upstanding folks from St. Clair County being fast-tracked. Scott Flood, hired in May with no natural resource experience or training, has been named Department of Natural Resources regional land manager. He’ll earn $59,472.

Congratulations for all that hard work, Scott.

In other St. Clair County social register tidbits:

Flood is one of several family members of powerful St. Clair County Democrats to get hired by the state despite a general effort by former Gov. George Ryan and Blagojevich to make cuts to offset decreased revenues.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello’s son-in-law, Illinois National Guard pilot Brian Keen, was hired in October as a $69,060-per-year pilot for the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Aeronautics. Keen’s duties include flying the governor.

Costello’s son, John P. Costello, was hired in 2001 as a $50,000-a-year auto dealership paperwork checker for the secretary of state.

After Blagojevich took office, Costello’s sister-in-law, Brenda Cockrum, was hired as a $42,000-a-year intern for the Illinois Department of Public Aid.

And Edie Koch, the aunt of Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville, was hired in January as the $60,000-a-year director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s “Opportunity Returns” office in Collinsville.

It’s all about family.

Why I Don’t Miss Pate

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 No Comments

Tollway reform has a shot, let’s keep it moving.

For those unfamiliar, Pate’s brother was Chairman of the authority and the two worked together to stifle any reform for several years.

Demagoguing on Holding Kids Back

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 1 Comment

I have to admit that holding kids back until they reach a level of proficiency sounds like good common sense, but sometimes common sense isn’t enough.

The reality is probably that these kids have chaotic home lives or learning problems/disabilities. Addressing this issue needs to be done using hard data and not what we think is common sense.

I Never….

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 No Comments

Link to Schmich and Zorn in their dialogues, but it’s nice to have him back.

Tweedy in Rehab

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 No Comments

I’m always meaning to write on more than my obsession with politics, but it never seems to happen

But it looks like the new Wilco album will be delayed to accomodate Jeff Tweedy’s stint in rehab. While I’m disappointed about the delay, best to Jeff on getting better. And, ummm, I have it and haven’t had a chance to listen, though I will buy a copy right away.

Tweedy is a Southern Illinois native raised in Belleville along with his former bandmate in Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar. Farrar is now a resident of south Saint Louis.

You too can listen to a stream of the new album at Wilcoweb

Berkowitz on Belushi and Stahl

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 No Comments

I reserve most of my press bashing for the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch over on Blog Saint Louis, but Jeff Berkowitz has a great set up and clincher on Stahl’s excuse concerning the conflict between CBS and Clarke’s books publisher being owned by the same folks. For those not seeing the problem, switch the partisanship of who Clarke targets and it becomes pretty funny pretty quickly. I forgot.

OneMan is a oneman Sneed Watch

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 No Comments

He is taking her down daily with the most recent over the Mormon comments. He has a stronger stomach than I do. I just ignore her before getting annoyed.

Roeser Lost His Mind a Long Time Ago

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 3 Comments

Roeser is trying to get the GOP to put resources into Illinois with a wishful thinking essay that says Bush can be competitive.

Let’s just start with the polls. Bush is down by between 10-14 points in Illinois. Nationally he is in essentially a dead heat with Kerry. What possible sense does it make to go after Illinois or California? None. If he were to carry Illinois, it would be because he won in a landslide. This isn’t likely to be a landside election, but even if it were, one would still concentrate upon likely swing states and take the rest as gravy. But by all means spend the money in Illinois. Please. My TV is already spewing Bush/Kerry commercials and I’m damn tired of it.

The Pennsylvania Circular Firing Squad

ArchPundit April 7, 2004 No Comments

The Club for Growth continues to give Democrats chances for pick-ups by targeting moderate Republicans. Novak reports on their efforts to unseat Spector.

The conservative Club for Growth has raised $700,000 in hard money and $950,000 in soft money for Rep. Pat Toomey in his Pennsylvania Republican primary challenge against four-term Sen. Arlen Specter.

That is four times more money than the Club for Growth has spent on a single candidate. The organization’s supporters are distributing a March 16 poll showing Specter’s lead down to 10 points. Toomey’s backers claim the race would be even closer if Specter were not being strongly supported by Pennsylvania’s other senator: Rick Santorum, the conservative chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

A footnote: Democratic strategists had written off Specter’s seat as safely Republican but now say it may be competitive thanks to Toomey’s challenge. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, whose voting record is far more liberal than Specter’s, is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Keep up the good work CfG!