Illinois Republican Senate Nomination Cattle Call Comment Period 3-13
ArchPundit
What is the lit out there like? News is slow and even the Illinois Leader Message Board is in a lull. Is it the calm before the storm or has this run its course.
Democratic Cattle Call Comment Period 3-13
Slow news day so tell me what is happening out there on the ground. Look for more endorsements and polls tomorrow.
Is the Hynes-Hull battle going on elsewhere? So far is is postive on TV.
Oops!
Hull really didn’t think they were running negative ads.
The ad attacking Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes was broadcast Friday morning on stations serving Springfield and Champaign. But a station official conceded the ad aired inadvertently. “It was our fault,” said Cindy Larsen, an official for the NBC affiliates. “We pulled the wrong tape and put on the wrong spot.”
Ah, hell, both sides wanted to do it anyway.
Carl, Carl, Carl
The Officer is back in the news, claiming a Blair Hull surrogate offered him $150,000 to support Hull.
The number of ways this is ridiculous is hard to count. First, Officer doesn’t have that much influence. If you were going to bribe anyone in East Saint Louis is would be members of the Central Committee. The second is Carl doesn’t even name who did it. I mean, if he is serious, this is bribery. The third is that Carl doesn’t even appear to know what they were offering. I can believe someone offered funds to run a ground operation in the area, but not to just hand over to Carl Officer.
Carl has improved this go around and has done some smart things, but he still exhibits a tendency to the bizarre every once in a while.
For those unfamiliar with The Officer, take a look at this post
Direct Mail Takes Over
It is clear that direct mail is going to be the final battleground for this campaign. I’m not getting any so put in comments what you are getting or drop me a line at archpundit@yahoo.com.
Trib Editorial on Ryan
According to the portion of his divorce file that is public in Los Angeles Superior Court, his lawyers in 2000 sought to seal some 40 files, citing the interests of his son. The boy’s mother and Ryan’s ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan, shared no such concerns at the time. Her lawyer argued that Jack Ryan sought to seal the files in order to protect “his potential political career.”
Initially, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider denied Ryan’s request to seal the documents; the judge noted that they might contain “inflammatory, inappropriate and embarrassing material.”
“The allegation is that these materials might be embarrassing to the parties, might be damaging to [Jack Ryan],” the judge wrote. “This is exactly the case where the court should not seal material. Particularly when issues of potential political involvement and cases involving substantial assets are involved, the court proceeding should be open so that the perception of the courts as equal to all the parties is preserved.”
A year later, after the conviction of a man who had harassed Jeri Ryan, the judge reversed course. He granted the request to seal the files. Attorneys for the Chicago Tribune went to court Monday seeking to open those files.
With the files off-limits, voters are left to guess whether there is any import to the information Jack Ryan sought to keep hidden.
The issue here is not divorce. As a regrettable but commonplace occurrence, it by no means tarnishes those who seek public office.
The issue is whether there is information that may be germane to Ryan’s fitness to represent the state in the Senate. If there is, he should share it with voters now, before the Tuesday primary. And if there is not, he can emphatically demonstrate to whispering opponents that they are all wet.
The allegations (and that is all they are at this point) aren’t just personal behavior. They are far more serious than what Hull was questioned on. I suppose if I just wanted a weak Republican candidate, I’d suggest he wait. But the voters in the Illinois Republican primary deserve to know. And they deserve to know if the charges are bullshit too. If that is the case, both General Borling, even with his heroic past, and Rod McCulloch deserve a one-way ticket out of Illinois politics.
WEEK-TV/Pantagraph Poll
Democrats
Obama 36
Hynes 21
Pappas 15
Hull 14
Chico 5
Undecided 8
Republicans
Jack! Doesn’t say+20 over Uberweis or perhaps Udderweis?
Uberweis
McKenna 11
Rauschenberger 10
Borling Single Digits
Wrigth Single Digits
Undecided 20
The survey polled 400 Democrats and 400 Republicans likely to vote on Tuesday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Key tings to pay attention to are the Democrats are settling on their preferences. While people can move, as they settle on their final choices towards the end, those choices tend not to change. Republicans are still volatile and with 20% undecided, just about anything could happen. Not that everything hasn’t already happened.
McCulloch’s Web Site
Illinois Politics is down, but the Internet Wayback Machine comes to the rescue
Here is the background page