* More bad news for Republicans…
Coming off a big primary win and comparatively small fund-raising report, Republican challenger Steve Greenberg finds himself without a campaign manager in the race to unseat U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean in the 8th District.
Brad Goodman left the campaign’s top staff position this week, and Greenberg said it will be “a few months” before he names an official replacement to lead the general election effort.
A few months? Wow.
Greenberg’s latest fundraising report showed he had just $5,000 in cash on hand. Bean had $1.4 million.
It’s not like he has much of a chance against Melissa Bean, but this is ridiculous.
Greenberg insisted the numbers in his latest FEC report and the staffing change aren’t that important.
“The election isn’t won in April. The election is won in November,” he said.
The election isn’t won if you have a campaign like that.
* Meanwhile, in another congressional race, the Tribune socked it to Debbie Halvorson for, um, supporting the Tribune’s position…
Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete), who’s hoping to succeed Republican Jerry Weller in Congress, told the Tribune she was ready to vote [in committee] to send the [recall proposal] to the full Senate. […]
But there was no committee vote. Bad move: If Halvorson and Silverstein don’t see to it that Illinoisans get a November vote on a recall amendment, they risk the kind of blowback that would spare them from having to measure for drapes on Capitol Hill.[…]
Ms. Halvorson, Mr. Silverstein, if your timidity deprives citizens of a vote on a recall amendment, you’re going to hear questions about that again and again. People who don’t know you very well will weigh your answers and decide whether you have what a job in Congress demands.
In a way, this is a crock. The sponsor controls the bill, and the sponsor did not want to move the constitutional amendment to the floor.
However, not mentioned by the Tribune is that Halvorson’s Rules Committee has refused a request by Rep. Jack Franks to change sponsorship. In the past, those requests were often granted. No longer. Senate bill-jacking has become a common occurrence these days, upheld by Halvorson’s Rules Committee.
* A couple more congressional stories…
* Senate OKs local control of 3rd airport
* Callahan wants to cut federal gas tax in half
LIVE session coverage...
- anon - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 7:33 am:
I love how the tribune constantly takes positions on issues it knows very little about. I recall when the trib editorialized on the third airport, claiming the ALNAC plan had “regional support.” Too bad the region was nowhere near the airport site. Meanwhile, the pro-airport paper seems to have not noticed that airport governance legislation passed the senate today. So, the recall bill situation is par for the course. Hopefully, the trib will stay out of Will County politics, since it knows nothing about what goes on there, in particular. GO DEBBIE!
- Observer - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 7:59 am:
Obviously whoever wrote that editorial was not in Room 212 for the hearing. Sen. Silverstein was rational during that hearing. The Trib should go after Jones, Martinez and Hendon for their immature comments. What an amazing missing of the mark by the Trib! Maybe the Trib is waiting for Sunday’s paper to whack those three ‘kindergarten’ senators!
- Ghost - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 8:07 am:
Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a bill jacking?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 8:08 am:
It’s when a hostile sponsor in another chamber picks up a bill in order to kill it.
- Ghost - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 9:03 am:
ahh! So in this case by blocking Franks Halverson was helping to protect a hijacker who is refusing to move the bill?
- FightforJustice - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 9:26 am:
Greenberg is a contender only in his own mind. Bean will crush him and end the GOP notion of winning back the Crane seat.
- Jaded - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 9:31 am:
If Halvorson really wanted recall to pass, she could change the sponsorship to herself, and then call the bill in committee.
Of course that all assumes that Debbie actually controls the rules committee, which of course she does not. I think in a show of good faith, she should resign her position of Rules Chairman in disgust. It would probably win her some media points, and further solidify her congressional victory. What does she care if she is the Rules chairman for 8 more months of hell?
- Plutocrat03 - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 10:19 am:
The Republicans have only themselves to blame for Greenberg. He may lose by a margin greater then Alan Keys as hard as that is to believe.
Greenberg seems to be running his campaign with the same skill he runs his personal businesses.
Either of his primary opponents was a better candidate.
- wordslinger - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 10:25 am:
Recently modernized Gary Airport has a longer runway than Midway sits right off the Boorman, has plenty of room for expansion, and is already part of a regional compact with O’Hare and Midway.
A third airport built as a jobs/contracts cash cow is a horrible use of resources and an environmental blight. With soon-to-be $125 oil, I don’t know if the future holds a need for expanded passenger capacity.
- PhilCollins - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 10:31 am:
Plutocrato3, I think that one of Greenberg’s primary opponents would have been better, Ken Arnold. I walked a few precincts for him. He had high name recognition, since he’s been a vice-chairman of the Lake Co. GOP and a treasurer of the Republican Assembly of Lake Co.
- Linus - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 11:04 am:
‘Observer’ is right about Silverstein’s yeoman attempts to inject a bit of rationality into things; the Tribbers should leave him alone.
- Ken in Aurora - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 11:31 am:
Rich, re: your comment “The election isn’t won if you have a campaign like that.”
Color me an idealist, but maybe that’s part of the reason our system is broken?
- WTF - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 11:53 am:
Hello, are you people so completely partisan that you think we are blind and stupid?
Sen. Debbie Halvorson has been carrying bills for Blago for years. She is basically second in charge of the Senate. She is one of the people that run the Senate. She’s not going to let this recall thing move because she and Emil are Blago’s partners.
When Pat Welch lost his seat Sen. Debbie Halvorson took over a bunch of Blago’s agenda in the Senate and she is as smary and tough as they come. If she had any interest in moving the recall measure, you had better believe it would get done.
After all, she can move the entire state budget to passage in three hours flat and she can even move med mal caps right over the trial lawyers.
Have your laugh about Greenberg - but expect Halvorson to lose to whomever the Repubs slate because her buddy Blago is going to be the albatross around her neck.
- Kevin Fanning - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 12:12 pm:
It’s going to be hard to link Halvorson with the guv, especially when her republican opponent has contributed thousands of dollars to his campaign.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 12:17 pm:
Kevin-
Is it official that Ozinga is the R’s candidate now?
- Kevin Fanning - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 12:21 pm:
It’s not official, but I think it has been the major assumption as of late. He has been campaigning a lot, and seems to have the support of many local Republican county chairs.
- Capitol View - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 1:24 pm:
The Senate committees do not have controllable microphones like the House does. That Executive Committee meeting was a zoo - or a kindergarden - with senators interupting Quinn and Franks and each other, much to Chairman Silverstein’s chagrin.
The Trib reporters must have phoned this one in…
- Captain America - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 1:25 pm:
Someone should tell Illinois Republicans that 2008 is not going to be a Democratic year. So what Greenberg does or who runs against Halvorson doesn’t really matter. Bean looks like a sure bet for reelection to me. Can anyone say landslide?
The 2008 election is going to be a referendum on the last 8 years of Republican governance in Washington DC. It’s definitely a national election,unlikely to be affected by local issues like the recall intiative, which I support. On this basis, I’d conclude that Halvorson will prevail in her race to succeed Jerry Weller. If I were Mark Kirk, I’d expect to be defeated too, if Obama is the nominee.
After 2008, I foresee the possibilty that Illinois Republicans might be able to begin rising from the ashes of a landslide defeat, given the extreme level of Democratic dysfunction in Springfield. I’d vote for a credible moderate Republican for Cook County Board President if Todd Stroger is renominated.I’d defintely vote for a moderate Republican for Governor if Blago were nominated for another term as a result of a multi-candidate Democratic primary.
Kirk might emerge as a credible Gubernatorial candidate even if he loses his Congressional race. People are going to be really fed up with the State Democratic party leadership of State government by 2010,if present trends continue.
- GOP'er - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 1:56 pm:
My guess is Greenberg loses by more to Bean than McSweeney did last time. Greenberg typifies the Illinois GOP’s dysfunction. He was recruited almost solely because he had money (i.e., daddy’s). He jumped in with both feet with the old guard that recruited and spoiled him, the same old group that left no party around to make winning realistic. If the guy doesn’t get it by now, he doesn’t deserve to be a Congressman.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 2:16 pm:
Halvorson can’t have it both ways.
Either she is the Senate Majority Leader or she isn’t. She is either running the Rules Committee or she isn’t. She is either supporting the recall or she isn’t. Her actions say she isn’t, while she plays politics with her statements.
If I’m not mistaken, we have been seeing blogging on how Illinois businessmen like Ozinga get milked by cash-hungry politicians who decide who gets state contracts after they see how much they are given by those companies bidding on the contracts. We all know this is a pay-to-play state. So what’s with all this “Ozinga has finger prints all over Blagojevich with campaign contributions” bloviating? Read your own comments and you’ll see that contributing to Blagojevich and friends is how you get a shot at state contracts. There is a trial going on confirming this - and you know it too!
So which is it? Do you think voters want to see Debbie Halvorson pretend that she favors issues like the recall, but don’t lift a finger to make it happen. Or Halvorson pretending that she favors ethics reform, but hasn’t lifted a finger to make it happen. Which is it?
She is either the weakest, most useless Senate Majority leader we’ve ever had or perfectly contented with the situation we see in Springfield. And if she is contented, then what kind of Congressperson can she be when she is so clearly beholden to Blagojevich and Jones? A reformer? Baloney!
This District is purple if it isn’t red. Ozinga has the cash and the ability to lump Halvorson where she belongs; in Jones’ back pocket.
- PhilCollins - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 3:36 pm:
Tim Baldermann quit the race almost two months ago. Why does choosing a replacement take so long? I hope that GOP leaders, of the other 18 congressional districts, learned from the 11th District. They should be prepared, so that, if a congressional nominee decides to drop out of the race or dies, the leaders will be able to appoint a nominee, in a week or less.
- Anonymous - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 6:49 pm:
Captain America’s right. We need to focus more on strategies for later cycles.
- 8th GOP - Friday, Apr 18, 08 @ 7:52 pm:
Goodman has a poor record of campaigning.
Teresa Bartels self-destructed then quit in 2006
Kathy Salvi lost to McSweeney
Hastert ran his worst race since 1986
Now Greenberg is broke and gaffe prone
Who would hire Goodman for political work with a track record like this?
- Anonymoose - Saturday, Apr 19, 08 @ 8:24 am:
Greenberg overstated his personal wealth to party insiders in order to get their support. He will lose and lose big.