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Tax issues are bipartisan because they work

Thursday, Jul 24, 2014

* Some Republicans have complained (with some justification) that Bruce Rauner is being excoriated for legally avoiding paying payroll taxes over two years. But this rather draggy, not well produced YouTube ad by Republican Darlene Senger’s campaign uses basically the same issue against her Democratic opponent…

Bill Foster voted to raise our taxes, even though in 2011 he didn’t pay any taxes at all.

The video…

Obviously, Foster did pay some taxes, like sales taxes. But it’s a good political issue to use against somebody and that’s why people do it.

Also, note to the Senger campaign: If you want people to watch your YouTube ads, make them shorter, make them more watchable, give them some snap, for crying out loud. YouTube ads shouldn’t just be a mass dumping ground.

* Meanwhile, Republicans have also complained about Pat Quinn’s demands that Bruce Rauner release his 2013 taxes - which he hasn’t yet filed - and provide much more details about his previous tax returns. As much as the GOP hates to admit it, that attack works as well. Illinois Review…

Former Congressman Bob Dold is polling ahead of freshman incumbent U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider in the north suburban 10th CD, and the Congressional Leadership Fund is taking advantage of Illinois voters’ disgust with corrupt politicians to raise even more questions about re-electing Schneider.

The Congressman refuses to be transparent, the group says, by refusing to open his tax returns for public perusal.

“Illinois voters have seen too many corrupt politicians with a lot to hide, and Illinois 10 residents deserve the truth from Brad Schneider. Brad Schneider may claim he will release just his 2013 return, but hitting the delay button while still hiding his 2011-2012 tax returns tells voters he’s not serious about accountability” spokeswoman for CLF Emily Davis said Thursday.

- Posted by Rich Miller 15 Comments

Adventures in tracking

Thursday, Jul 24, 2014

* A series of texts from someone on the Pat Quinn campaign…

FYI we just found Rauner’s tracker in the bathroom.

Again

In church where the gov is having event

Lol

…Adding… The Rauner campaign says the Quinnsters are “lying” and point to this Tweet as evidence that their tracker couldn’t even get inside today…

Church hosting Quinn campaign event asking for press credentials oat door. Not an accident after dust up w Rauner tracker earlier this week.

— Monique Garcia (@moniquegarcia) July 24, 2014

* There won’t be many tracker opportunities for Gov. Quinn’s folks at tomorrow’s Chris Christie events…

Republican Governors Association Chairman Chris Christie will travel to Chicago, IL this Friday to attend events for the RGA, GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Friday, July 25

3:00PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie attends an RGA finance event in Chicago, IL.

Press: CLOSED

4:15PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie and GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner attend a retail stop in Chicago, IL.

Press: OPEN; Availability to follow

For Press interested in attending, contact Lyndsey Walters at xxxx@xxxxx.com

5:00PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie attends a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner in Chicago, IL.

Press: CLOSED

6:30PM: RGA Chairman Chris Christie attends a fundraiser for Florida Gov. Rick Scott in Chicago, IL.

Press: CLOSED

* Unless, of course, the Quinnsters try to emulate the Michigan Republicans. The Michigan GOP is using trackers who wear eyeglasses that contain a hidden camera in their frames. I kid you not and the GOP freely admits it…

For the third time this year, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer is accusing Republicans of attempting to spy on his campaign.

But this time, the suspected political subterfuge involves a high-tech hidden camera and a video memory disk that fell into the hands of Democrats.

And Republicans are defending their campaign snooping.

Schauer’s campaign and Oakland County Democrats recently came into possession of a tiny disk containing raw video footage of a young woman and man who secretly recorded a Schauer campaign fundraiser June 22 at a private home in Bloomfield Hills.

* The Michigan Democrats posted some of the video they found on YouTube…

- Posted by Rich Miller 31 Comments

Rauner takes page from Oberweis playbook

Thursday, Jul 24, 2014

* Back in 2006, GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis faked some newspaper headlines in a couple of TV ads…

Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis is launching two TV ads that use made-up newspaper headlines to attack front-runner Judy Baar Topinka’s integrity.

The words are displayed as if they appeared on the front pages of the Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the State Journal-Register of Springfield.

But Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand said, “those aren’t headlines.” Instead, he said, the “text is excerpted” from stories that appeared in those publications. A review of the stories did not find the exact words as they were presented in the ads, which are to begin airing Wednesday.

“We are not printing a newspaper,” Wiegand said Tuesday. “We are doing a television advertisement.”

Charles Wheeler, a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield, called the ads deceitful.

* Bruce Rauner is doing pretty much the same thing with his latest TV ad…

Bruce Rauner debuted his latest attack ad against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday — a TV spot called “Headlines” that relies in part on independent news stories but features headlines the Republican’s campaign made up and doctored to make them sound more critical. […]

But in two other cases, the Rauner ad makes up headlines that did not appear with the source cited, and in at least three other cases, headlines were shortened to buttress the campaign’s attack on Quinn. Rauner campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf defended the technique, saying in an e-mail that “due to time and space constraints, the phrases had to be condensed.”

In one case, the ad displays the words “Quinn education cuts lead to teacher layoffs and larger class sizes,” which the Rauner campaign attributes to an April 11 Associated Press report that appeared on the Washington Times web site.

But the actual headline was “Quinn, Rauner spar on education in 1st 2014 event” from a story about a joint appearance by the two candidates before the Illinois Education Association.

The quoted “headline” by the Rauner camp’s ad also does not appear as a phrase in the AP’s news article. Instead, the “headline” paraphrases a Rauner attack on Quinn from the event, not an independent statement of fact from the AP.

* From today’s Quinn presser…

.@GovernorQuinn: TV stations should refuse to air @BruceRauner ads that "falsify" critical headlines.

— Charles Thomas (@CThomasABC7) July 24, 2014

* The ad in question…

Discuss.

- Posted by Rich Miller 32 Comments

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