Grand Old Partisan raised some questions concerning the City News Article that were reasonable.
There is something else I’m tracking down that made me not even flinch about the quote, but still a reasonable question so I tracked down the journalist, James Taylor, who wrote the story. He graciously allowed me to print the quote from Weller’s office in Taylor’s voice describing the situation
The quote followed the man being informed of our poll and the results and it also followed our reply to questions about the newspaper, ie. who are our primary readers, area we circulate in and a statement, “Aren’t most of your readers black and Democrats…”
“We don’t think that the opinions of African American voters will have a big impact on this election.”
Taylor’s reasoning for not naming the staffer is not the usual one, but I think makes a good point. He doesn’t want the staffer to be a scapegoat. You might disagree with Taylor on it, but I see his point and personally think its a good idea.
Taylor also said the poll was a survey of the general public and readers. As I mentioned before, the methodology what you’d expect from a full blown pollster, it’s an interesting finding for a paper that serves a defined community. Again, I wouldn’t hold it up as gospel, but as an interesting story for the community served.
Grand Old Partisan also questions whether or not a staffer in a Congressional office would answer that question–my take is that it isn’t that uncommon. Some offices are sticklers for avoiding that sort of thing, while others are pretty loose so it didn’t stick out to me, but a reasonable point to make. I’m pretty confident in Taylor’s reporting and while I don’t take the poll overly seriously, it’s interesting which I’m betting is what they were shooting for.
And thanks again to Taylor who was very quick to reply and quite helpful.
I too was surprised that Weller’s office made a comment, but his staff, like Weller himself, are all a pretty arrogant group. And please keep in mind if this story grows legs, Weller and his staff will “have no record” of the call or conversation and will deny it. My experience with his office, of course I’m white, is that they always have “to get back to” me – and never do. His staff is also surprisingly ignorant on Weller’s stand on issues and his political views or past actions, like his signing on to the Contract With America in ’94 and agreeing to term limits. Please visit LiberIL View for more on “Wrong Way” Weller and his democrat opponent, John Pavich And send Pavich some CA$H!
Thank you for your response to my comment. I think it?s interesting to note that you ?don’t take the poll overly seriously,? yet seem to want to make a big deal out of Weller?s staffer having the same reaction and citing the reason why: it is grossly unrepresentative of the District?s demographics.
Perhaps the staffer simply should have said: ‘We don’t think this poll accurately reflects the views of our District, or our chances of winning re-election in November.”
That’s not what they said. They specifically thought the readers were irrelevant because they were black. The poll isn’t supposed to be a general poll, but a poll of their readership. Dismissing them because they are black is offensive to say the least. I don’t dismiss the poll, I just think it needs to be viewed in the proper context.
Weller’s office have a history of this kind of response and I probably have some more examples coming pretty soon.
Respectfully, I think I am the one putting it into the proper context while you are taking it out. To simply say that they specifically ?thought the readers were irrelevant because they were black? ignores that fact that blacks make up less than 8% of the District?s population. Impolite and politically incorrect as it may have been, the staffer was just reacting to the political reality of the district, and accurately assessing the relative importance of the poll ? which is what he was assumedly asked to do. Quite honestly, the opinions (and subsequent votes) of African Americans will not have a big impact on Weller?s re-election. Now, I don?t see where he (assuming the still unnamed staffer was a he) said that Weller doesn?t care about them. If you want to make the case that he doesn?t, you WILL need to present some better evidence.
I don?t see where the staffer said that the readers were irrelevant because they were black. He was saying that a poll of the readers (which he accurately described as ?African Americans?) will not have a big impact on the election. Is that not true? If you want to make the case that Weller (or his staffers) are racists who don?t care about his black constituents, go ahead and make it. But you WILL need to present some better evidence.
Sorry for the multiple posts. I wanted to amend my response to accurate reflect what you actually said.
Sorry again, but I just realized you never explicitly labeled them racist. My apologies for putting words in your mouth (which is, incidently, what you are doing to Weller’s staff – which is my whole point).
If you want to kid yourself about the quote, go ahead, but after asking if they are Black, the staffer said:
“”We don’t think that the opinions of African American voters will have a big impact on this election.”
That’s a dismissal of the voters—and it’s obnoxious made worse by the fact they are black. You shouldn’t be dismissing a voting block–especially one based on race. It’s also very telling.
Campaigns might not concentrate upon certain blocs of voters, but when the press calls on you, it’s very odd to dismiss them as such.
It may be odd, and certainly ill-advised. I am not arguing that. But let’s try and stick to what people actually say. You said that the “staffer said that the readers were irrelevant because they were black.” That is not accurate, ist it.
You call it a dismissal of voters, but I call it a perhaps impolitely honest assessment of the poll’s relevance. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that. But I don’t think it’s fair to assign a motive here, which is what it seems you are trying to do. If you want to make the case that, to paraphrase Kanya, doesn’t care about black people, you’ll need more evidence than a distorted quote from an unidentified staffer.
sorry, that should say …”Jerry Weller doesn’t care about black people….”
Trying to type to fast today.
It’s not like Weller’s office doesn’t make a habit of telling people they don’t care about an issue or have more important things to do–the thing is, this is exactly how the respond to many constituents. Even if you take out the racial aspect, it’s a pretty telling story about an arrogant Congressman and how he runs his office.
Yeh, like the time his staff, to be specific Reed Wilson, (if I’m remembering his name right) in Weller’s Joliet office, said to me when I asked about Weller’s being supportive of his wife’s and father-in-law’s actions in Guatemala regarding genocide, that “oh, that’s all just nonsense.”
And let’s be honest here, the only voters Weller cares about are the rich white ones that finance his campaign and vote for him, and their employees who vote for him out of fear of losing their jobs, like at Caterpillar.