Duckworth still waiting
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
And Roskam no longer has a primary opponent.
Iraq war veteran Ladda “Tammy†Duckworth is ready to run for the congressional seat held by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde. The question remains: will she be able to?
As of Monday afternoon, the Hoffman Estates helicopter pilot who lost both of her legs and severely injured her right arm in an insurgent attack, had not been released from active duty in the Army. And that means Duckworth can’t engage in any political activity or she risks a potential dishonorable discharge and loss of benefits.
With less than a week remaining to file for a spot on the March 21 Democratic primary ballot, Duckworth’s supporters do not appear worried yet. […]
On the Republican side of the 6th Congressional District race, state Sen. Peter Roskam of Wheaton found out he won’t have a primary opponent after all. John Vivoda, president of the Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 school board, dropped out Monday.
UPDATE: It appears that Duckworth will be cleared tonight. She plans an announcement Sunday on ABC’s This Week.
Turns out, the Hotline story that this was based on was wrong and has been amended (in my haste to get this up and get out the door to do some Christmas shopping, I neglected to include the link).
UPDATE: Sources clarify that it’s possible she will make her campaign announcement before the show’s taping, so the “This Week’ interview would not be an exclusive.
Update 2: A campaign source adds that while Duckworth will be on This Week she will not be volunteering a campaign announcement on the show. She is running for the seat, and will be making an announcement before Monday’s filing deadline.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
‘Tis the season for giving, so I’m curious what books you plan to give and what you’d like to receive. Extra credit for Illinois books or authors.
(Suggested by a commenter.)
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Big spending ahead
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
A gaggle of millionaires and a governor with a boatload of cash combine to make Cindi’s prediction fairly obvious.
As candidates formally began their march to the March 21 primary Monday, experts predicted the 2006 election season will be an expensive one.
With crowded primary races for governor, lieutenant governor and state treasurer, candidates likely will easily surpass records set in recent years.
“We will definitely see some big spending,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Campaign for Political Reform, which tracks campaign spending in Illinois.
Consider this your primary predictions open thread.
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Interesting guests at Gutierrez event
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Do you really think he’ll run?
Congressman Luis Gutierrez has big political plans that may include a run for mayor of Chicago.
On Monday night, Gutierrez appeared at a rally in Humboldt Park. He did not make any formal announcement, but CBS 2’s Rafael Romo reports the congressman sounded a lot like a candidate.
“I’m ready! Are you ready?†Gutierrez called out at the rally. He says he’s not running for mayor yet, but he looked like a candidate.
“Imagine just for a moment what we could do with all of those if they were spent on the mayor’s office on the fifth floor,†Gutierrez said.
According to the story, Ald. Ed Burke and First Lady Patti Blagojevich were both in attendance.
“Congressman Gutierrez is intelligent, he’s thoughtful, he’s caring, he’s also quite funny,†Mrs. Blagojevich was quoted as saying.
No word on whether the Congressman went all Joe Pesci on the First Lady for that “funny” remark.
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Playing in the primary?
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
A commenter pointed out yesterday that it almost seems as if Governor Blagojevich is deliberately trying to engage Jim Oberweis and provide him free publicity. I don’t know if that’s really the case or not, but I can see how some might feel that way.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis, who was widely criticized for his tough stand on illegal immigration when he ran for the U.S. Senate last year, suggested Monday he was ahead of the curve on the issue and voters now might agree with him.
“I was too early. People weren’t ready for that issue,'’ he said after a news conference in which he criticized Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s plan to launch a new mortgage loan program designed to help poor and immigrant families buy homes. “But it’s a serious issue. People are starting to understand how serious it is.'’
On Sunday, Blagojevich’s office outlined his proposed Opportunity I-Loan program that would allow Illinois to provide state-guaranteed mortgages to people without traditional credit histories.
But Oberweis characterized the program as little more than an effort to assist illegal immigrants. “Break our laws and we’ll reward you with a home. That’s the message Rod Blagojevich is sending out,'’ he said.
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Left at the altar
Monday, Dec 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Well, that didn’t last long. From a press release:
Mundelein, Illinois - Kathy Salvi issued the following statement in response to the request by Jim Oberweis that she consider running for Lt Governor:
“I am very flattered that Jim Oberweis thought I should consider running for Lt Governor. He is a principled conservative who wants to make Illinois a better place. But my first priority and passion is to represent the people of the 8th Congressional District of Illinois. They need someone who will stand up for them in Washington, DC. That is why I am running and that is why I will defeat liberal Melissa Bean next November.”
Kathy Salvi filed her petition to run for Congress this morning at the State Board of Elections in Springfield.
Can’t anybody play this game?
UPDATE: More bad news for Obi:
In his bid for governor, Republican Jim Oberweis says he’s the best choice to clean up state government.
But the North Aurora dairy owner has received $20,000 in campaign contributions from a conservative businessman whose political action committees have violated state election laws.
According to state records, two PACs run by John O. “Jack” Roeser of Carpentersville have been fined more than $61,000 by state regulators.
The fines against Roeser’s Family Taxpayers Network and Renew Illinois PAC, both of which have funneled money to Oberweis, remain unpaid, and state officials are preparing to ask a collection agency to help recoup the money.
Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand called the violations minor, and said he was not bothered by the penalties levied against Roeser’s groups.
(Hat tip: Illinois Pundit)
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Filing stuff
Monday, Dec 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’ve been monitoring the latest candidate filings and noticed that Ron Gidwitz hadn’t filed his petitions for governor yet.
I called the Gidwitz campaign and was told that both he and running mate Steve Rauschenberger would file together - most likely next Monday, the last day of filing.
That would put them on the bottom of the ticket, unless someone else files at the end of business Monday as well.
Use this as a candidate filing open thread. What interesting tidbits have you gleaned from today’s petition filings?
UPDATE: I’m told that statewide Republican candidates who don’t have primary opponents will all be filing at the end of the filing week.
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Dirty tricks?
Monday, Dec 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
As I wrote in this morning’s Capitol Fax, Governor Rod Blagojevich’s campaign has apparently been posting comments here. That’s no big deal in and of itself, and not all that surprising, either.
What is surprising is what those Blagojevich campaign office commenters have been saying.
As I explained this morning, my new blog site allows me to track commenters by their IP addresses. I thought long and hard about whether I should reveal the fact that the guv’s HQ is posting here, and I wouldn’t have done so if they were playing it straight. Instead, they are posting as a right-wing Jim Oberweis supporter and attacking at least one journalist.
As an addendum to this morning’s Fax, here are some of the posts from the guv’s campaign:
Name: right of right | IP: 69.215.36.54
I think all the conervatives should drop excepot for Obie. He3 can beat JBT one on one. Thats the race we need to get the governors office back in republican control
Posted Dec 5, 5:54 PM
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Name: Your Neighbor | IP: 69.215.36.54
[ABC-7 reporter and Daily Herald columnist Chuck] Goudie clearly has it in for the governor. He is a bottom feeder who hasnt done a worthwhile bit of journalism in his life. He is a talentless hack.
Posted Dec 6, 1:26 PM
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Name: right if right | IP: 69.215.36.54
To “A long time MC employee†if I had my way, you would all be at will employees. I think that anything that protects do nothing employees of the state is a disservice to the taxpayers. And in response to your criticism of blago balancing the budget, I would rather have the debt refinanced as he did, then to pass on record low interest rates and continue to pay more towards interest than principal. He didnt create the unfunded bond obligation — he is paying more into it than past governors. What you fail to mention is that the refinance saved millions in state paid interest. […]
Posted Dec 6, 1:41 PM
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Name: your neighbor | IP: 69.215.36.54
Goudie has never exposed anything. He takes garbagethat nobody else sees as newsworthy and sensationalizes it. By the way, I hardly think that Goudie exposed GRyan.
Posted Dec 6, 4:54 PM
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Name: right of right | IP: 69.215.36.54
The only one who can bring reform, and who represents the true conservative values of the republican party is Jim Oberweis! He has no connections to the old guard, and his personal wealth ensures that he will not be beholden ot anybody. If Brady stays in, he will split the conservative vote and allow the gay loving, gun hating, tax raising insider Judy Baar Topinka, who is being investigated by the feds to steal this election. She cannot beat Blago in the general — only Obie can. Brady needs to step aside and leave this to a man who can get the job done — Oberweis!
Posted Dec 8, 9:12 AM
And on and on and on.
As I also noted, it appears that Illinoize commenter “The Dude” may somehow be involved in this. The Dude has apparently posted as both “Right of Right” and “Your Neighbor” here, although from a different IP address. I’ve sent him an e-mail about this, but he hasn’t responded yet. Until he does, I’ve suspended him from the Illinoize blog.
Here is a link that shows the identity of the IP address 69.215.36.54.
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Question of the day
Monday, Dec 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
What do you think of this?
Republican candidate for governor Jim Oberweis said Sunday that he has asked Kathy Salvi, a conservative intending to run for Congress in the north suburbs, to be his running mate.
Salvi, the wife of former state representative and attorney Al Salvi, is “honored and flattered” by Oberweis’ invitation to be his lieutenant governor candidate, her husband said. She still plans to file election papers this week to run for the congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), Al Salvi said, but she is not discouraging Oberweis’ efforts to include her as his partner.
“She plans to continue filing for congressman, but she’ll have a week during this filing period to decide,” he said. “She does not object to the effort to file petitions on her behalf for lieutenant governor.”
The move by Oberweis comes as his more moderate opponents in the primary race are attempting to line up conservatives as their running mates for the March 21 primary.
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Gutierrez for mayor?
Monday, Dec 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Lynn Sweet fills us in.
In a move with deep implications for local politics, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has decided to run for only one more term in Congress as he explores a bid for mayor of Chicago and forms a Hispanic political organization designed to influence city, regional and national elections.
Gutierrez will file nominating petitions today for his eighth term as he launches a new chapter in a political career coming as Mayor Daley’s City Hall — and the Hispanic Democratic Organization Daley’s operation nurtured — are the subjects of federal corruption probes. […]
For now, Gutierrez has no plans to anoint a successor, which will touch off a free-for-all 2008 Democratic primary battle for the seat in the heavily Democratic district. Daley’s ability to influence the election will be limited with the meltdown of the scandalized HDO.
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Incinerator to reopen
Monday, Dec 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
This incinerator, and others like it, was a huge political issue several years ago
An unpopular tire incinerator is scheduled to reopen Jan. 1 in Ford Heights, worrying some residents who fear their children’s health will worsen and the plant again will fail to meet environmental standards.
The new owners say the plant, one of only two such facilities operating in the country, will convert about 6 million tires a year into energy. Geneva 7 Energy bought the incinerator out of bankruptcy in March and received a permit Oct. 20 from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
The incinerator, idle since early 2004, received permission to restart in a year when Gov. Rod Blagojevich has made a public effort to shut down the state’s remaining medical-waste incinerators, citing concerns about the cancer-causing dioxins they emit.
The Illinois EPA says the two types of incinerators should not be compared, but environmentalists said Blagojevich is backing away from his promise to limit air pollution.
“His administration is busy permitting a giant tire incinerator that collectively dwarfs the pollution from these hospital incinerators … at a time when we need to be reducing air pollution and protecting public health, and reducing the number of asthma attacks and associated health problems,” said Bruce Nilles, the Sierra Club’s Midwest representative
A trash-to-energy incinerator in the southwest suburbs caused at least one incumbent House Democrat (Terry Steczo) to lose his re-election bid in 1994 and was a hot issue all over the region.
Back then, Illinois encouraged the construction of the incinerators by forcing utility companies to pay the plants retail rates for the electricity they produced. That law was repealed after the ‘94 campaign.
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