* A Tribune headline…
Frenzied final weekend of campaigning in race to replace Jackson Jr.
* From the actual story…
Beale had seven restaurants, four churches, a synagogue and a shopping mall on his schedule. Kelly, a former state lawmaker from Matteson, visited churches, but her only public appearance was scheduled this afternoon at a restaurant in her hometown.
Halvorson’s only public appearance was before a few dozen diners Sunday afternoon at Ted’s Family Restaurant in Calumet City.
Apparently, Beale=frenzied. while others=not so much.
* As I’ve told you before, the Illinois State Rifle Association has sent a mailer to its 2nd Congressional District members urging a vote for Debbie Halvorson. It’s a postcard. Front…
Part of the back. Click for a larger image…
* Roundup…
* 2nd District candidates campaign on last day, release tax returns
* Chicago’s Robin Kelly On Track To Join List Of Black Women To Serve In Congress
* Washington: Voters have a chance to end the 2nd District’s curse
* Ads still at issue in 2nd District primary
* Last day of campaigning for 2nd Congressional District primary
* Candidates making final push for Jackson’s congressional seat
* New NRA, Bloomberg PAC spending on Congress races hints gun debate far from over
* Illinois primary is a test of gun issues, post-Newtown
LIVE session coverage...
- wordslinger - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:34 am:
–Halvorson’s only public appearance was before a few dozen diners Sunday afternoon at Ted’s Family Restaurant in Calumet City.–
That’s kind of odd, isn’t it?
- Esquire - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:38 am:
As for the ISRA postcard, the comments about Michael Bloomberg sound accurate to me.
What finally settled the issue about the mayor being a nanny state nut is when the proposal was announced that pizza delivery drivers would not be allowed to deliver soft drinks to customers.
- MrJM - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:39 am:
So the only thing standing between us and an Orwellian hyper-nightmare is Debbie Halvorson?
We’re toast.
– MrJM
- OneMan - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:40 am:
The nanny state thing is an interesting angle, it does appear that Bloomberg is trying to turn NYC into everyone’s mom at some level.
- Esquire - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:45 am:
Last night’s supper would have been illegal in NYC if Bloomberg’s latest proposal is approved. A pizza was delivered with Royal Crown Cola.
- Boone's is Back - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:48 am:
===A vote for Robin Kelly is a vote for Michael Bloomberg===
Can someone from Debbie’s camp please explain why any Democratic voter cares about this? Sounds like they’re grasping at straws.
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:58 am:
This kind of thing makes me wish I could vote for Robin Kelly.
- The Captain - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:03 am:
Yes, they really do have Halvorson/Halverson back to back with two different spellings. They have both spellings in the final paragraph as well.
- soccermom - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:08 am:
I thought the ISRA had money. Apparently they’re not spending it on high-priced direct mail consultants — or spell check.
- shore - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:10 am:
left out of this campaign is the fact that it’s probably the best deal in politics. you need somewhere in the low 5 figures-maybe 20,000 votes give or take and you’re in a safe seat until you either quit/die/go to jail. compare that with a seat in suburban philly/seattle/la/detroit/minneapolis where you every year you’ve got a primary challenge maybe, 2 years of raising a few million bucks and then a tough general election and hitting every senior center bingo game/local chamber of commerce event-and no earmarks to tout anymore.
- carbaby - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:21 am:
Apparently Debbie doesn’t get out much- Ted’s? Really? The irony is what has happened to Debbie’s campaign correlates well with what has happened to Ted’s.
- Will Caskey - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:32 am:
That ISRA mailer has to set a record for most spectacularly useless mail piece in American political history. Bloomberg’s soft name ID can’t be above 20 percent in the voting universe, and his strong unfavs can’t be above 5.
The mail piece is probably boosting Bloomberg’s popularity.
- OneMan - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:35 am:
Will I am going to guess that it is much higher than 20% note what Rich said…
The key phrase is ‘to it’s members’ I suspect folks who might be leery of government might be aware of ‘take their soda away’ Mayor Bloomberg.
- Will Caskey - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:38 am:
I said the voting universe, not the whackadoodle ISRA member universe. I’ll grant you that five percent of the voting universe in IL-2 hates Bloomberg worse than Karl Marx (if they know who Marx actually is).
Not so much the actual voters.
- siriusly - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 11:40 am:
I suspect that Halvorson will probably do a little better than the polling shows, but this race is still way over.
- OneMan - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 12:13 pm:
But Will, they didn’t send it to the voting universe, the sent it their members. So saying
“That ISRA mailer has to set a record for most spectacularly useless mail piece in American political history. ”
Then siting numbers for name recon and favorables in a different population than who got the mailer seems a bit disingenuous doesn’t it?
Using your logic as it were, any targeting mailing to members of a group would be wasted because the bigger population case less about an issue than the folks you sent it to is a waste.
For example the friends and family letter I got for a state rep candidate from a different state rep who was a amateur radio operation (ham) was a waste because the general population can care less about ham radio.
Am I missing something?
- Will Caskey - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 12:21 pm:
OneMan, the point of paid persuasion in a campaign is to persuade. It doesn’t matter what massive percentage of ISRA members in the district love this piece. What matters is what percentage of voters relative to the entire voting universe do. That is what is minimal, and that is why the piece is useless.
As with Halvorson’s self-loan of $25K, they should have just given me the money and I would have recanted and apologized for my Crain’s op-ed and had more of an effect on the results tomorrow than this piece will.
- Boone Logan Square - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 12:38 pm:
I understand concern over regulatory power. A literacy test for state gun ownership would appear to cause the dissolution of the ISRA.
- Non-ISRA Member - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 12:39 pm:
Will, seems to me the piece coming this late is more of a GOTV piece. If it gets a couple of hundred votes out for Halvorson, it makes perfect sense.
Will, you got caught comparing apples (ISRA members) to oranges (voting universe). Just say you hit the enter key too soon and move on.
- Boone Logan Square - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 12:40 pm:
Are any public polls due out today? GOTV will be crucial, but my guess from Halvorson’s light schedule is internals do not look promising for her.
- ArchPundit - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 1:16 pm:
The quality kind of screams “We have some members invested in believing this is a real race so we are going to send out a mailer that we did while drinking heavily, but is pretty cheap, will mollify the members, and we can reasonably claim we weren’t all that invested.”
However, proof-reading is free.
- Endangered Moderate Species - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 2:07 pm:
The quality of the postcard mailing should be embarrassing for the ISRA. There is absolutely no appeal for an average voter to save and read this mailer.
- Wumpus - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 2:26 pm:
I knew I should have run!
- wordslinger - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 5:21 pm:
–If Robin Kelly is elected, she will kick the can on the Peotone Airport for many more years since the mafia that is putting her in office doesn’t want to see it happen.–
Say what?
What Mafia?
Who actually, other than Trips, and the insiders who bought land or options down there, wanted Peotone?
The airlines don’t want it, and definitely don’t want to pay for it.
Any future excess from O’Hare or Midway could certainly be picked up by Milwaukee, Rockford or Gary (not to mention that sweet boondoggle off North Avenue around St. Charles called DuPage County (or Kane County) Airport)
No one would ever trek as far south as Peotone for passenger travel.
That’s good farmland down there, let’s respect it.
When you say Mafia, you have to back it up. I’m 25 years in Oak Park,, living my life around Cicero, Berwyn, Elmwood Park, Forest Park, Melrose Park, etc.
I know from some Outfit. Start at the corner of Harlem and North, and make concentric circles.
My future ex-wife’s family is four-generations deep in Leyden Township, with many associates, young and old, along the way.
With that crew, sometimes, at Christmas, you get nothing; sometimes, on Christmas Eve, you’re unloading a van full of MACS in a parking lot on Irving Park Road — in boxes, for everybody!
No joke.
Bidda bip, bidda boop, it’s nothing personal, it’s business.
But no Peotone.
- Juvenal - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 6:07 pm:
Caskey is mostly right, except the hyperbole.
its not THE worst mail piece ever. But even as a GOTV piece, it is pretty bad.
A few pointers:
Tuesday is Election Day is your most important message, followed by hours polls are open, polling place and phone number.
Nanny state? who cares? these are ISRA members. stick to the second amendment, and the candidates.
I am guessing that fewer than a quarter of ISRA members are Dem Primary voters, so that even if they have 2000 members in the district, their only hope of changing the election outcome is an explicit message urging crossover voting. the problem is that Halvorson now supports some gun control, so crossing over is unconscionable to the purist, GOP Twofer.
- wordslinger - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 6:35 pm:
Speaking of elections, someone trashed the street around my Oak Park el-stop with a lot of ripped up “Dominick for President” signs.
The choice is Larry Dominick or Juan Ochao: what’s a bungalow-belter to do?
- Boone Logan Square - Monday, Feb 25, 13 @ 10:14 pm:
You at the Austin Blue Line station, word?
Andy Shaw and the BGA ought to pitch a tent on Roosevelt, camp out, and watch Cicero give them plenty to do.