I had a little on this in today’s Capitol Fax, but Krol has more details about the new Oberweis ads.

Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis today will begin airing a pair of TV ads blasting opponent Judy Baar Topinka for a controversial Springfield hotel loan deal and a pending federal investigation in her treasurer’s office. […]

“Topinka tried to give away millions of taxpayer dollars to insider friends. A deal so rotten the Republican attorney general ordered it blocked,” an announcer says. […]

The other ad refers to a list of hotel investors that top Topinka aides allegedly ordered a spokesman to shred. The aides denied it.

The second ad also refers to a 2003 subpoena for documents by the U.S. Attorney’s office following an ex-employee’s complaint that political work was being done on state time.

She’s definitely taking a beating. Can she survive?

UPDATE: Governor Blagojevich gets into the act.

Sketching a likely general election theme, Gov. Blagojevich came out swinging Tuesday against GOP gubernatorial front-runner Judy Baar Topinka, accusing the state treasurer of being a shill for the National Rifle Association and the right wing.

“The NRA just gave her an A rating — an A rating — and if you get an A rating from the NRA, you’re basically taking their talking points and doing their bidding,” Blagojevich said. “And I would urge her to forget about the NRA, stop pandering to the right wing and join us and help us pass a ban on assault weapons.”

UPDATE: The Trib has more on the Oberweis ads (thanks to some alert readers for the link).

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.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: I just saw one of the Oberweis ads and was able to get a couple of screen captures of the phony headlines:

       

46 Comments - DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 5:59 am: I think she can use Jones comment that it doe not stand a chance so it sounds like more people realize it is some more of his re-election headline maker.As far as Obie all she has to do is tell the whole story and his ads will go away.I hope he does not get so stupid he splits the party. - TrueBlueandThankful - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 6:09 am: This is going to be an exciting campaign season. I truly believe the Governor is going to win re-election rather easily. How is that? I will give two quick examples. 1. To frame assault weapons ban opponents as “nut-balls”, ie. (Republicans are already saying stuff like “a kitchen knife can be considered an assault weapon”). 2. “AUDIT” (State Treasurer’s office has mismanaged funds for pay now, go to college later program). They, the Republican’s, don’t even see it coming. Blinder’s, blinder’s, blinder’s. Isn’t it sad. - DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 6:13 am: I forgot to add that I would rather be called a shill for thr NRA than a whipping boy for Daley and his anti-gun people.Would someone check and see how campaign money Blago and Daley got for their anti-gun moves.You know if both are involved there is money changing hands. - anonymous - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 7:14 am: Oh, so is being an A-rated friend of the NRA different from being an A-rated friend of the AFL-CIO or any other of the groups that have expressed support for another for years for the Virility King? Lots of black kettles and pots here. Stop the negativity and tell us how we can get out of the financial disaster called the State of Illinois. - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 8:20 am: Judy will survive, since there is no substance to O’s ads. The hotel deal was a good business move, something that O does all the time with his business, and something that O’s biggest contributor, is currently doing with the State Board of Elections. I especially like the “impending feederal investigation” based on a complaint by an Oberweis campaign worker three plus years ago. It was baseless and ain’t goin’ nowhere. This is a blatantly political use of the criminal justice system. The Rod comment on the NRA will actually help Judy, since some p ersist in saying that she is to the left of Rod. It will also drive a wedge between Second Amendment conservatives who support Judy and some social conservatives who are out to kill Judy and don’t give a rip about the Second Amendment. - the Patriot - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 8:30 am: I am no Obe fan, but he has it. The truth about her has to be out before March 21. We did this in 04 with JACK. It does us no good to ai the dirt laundry after the primary and let the democrate get the mileage out of it. Unlike Juyd, Oberweis has actually been in contested elections in the past 10 years and maybe he was paying attention, and figured out not going after Jack harder before the primary didn’t work. Again, it is not mud slinging if it is the truth. Oberweise and Gidwitz get questioned about their lack of a voting record, Brady gets questioned about his conservative voting record, why should Judy get a free pass on her record. Maybe we should ask the Chairmen. - Reagan democrat - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 8:32 am: Rick I don’t think the person is a campaign worker, I believe you are mistaken. Judy is afraid to go out on the campaign trail and speak, she locks herself in room instead of mixing it up with the other candidates. What would she do in a crisis? The GOP primary voters have started to pay attention and she has not had one good week since she announced in December. The announce late and hold on strategy will not work shes dropping like a rock. Yesterdays announcement in the Rockford paper that she will give drivers licences to illegals is another nail in her coffin. Real smart who adviseing her? - Tony Soprano - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 9:00 am: That’s our Chopper Jim!!! Did he mention anything about Illegal Mexicans doing contract work for his company? - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 9:44 am: Looks like the Trib is not happy with O’s ads (Political ads use fake headlines), calling them deceitful. I guess these guys never let truth get in the way of a personal vendetta. - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 9:46 am: Corrected link: Political ads use fake headlines - Look at it now - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 10:03 am: The tide is turning toward Brady among conservatives. Obie is being appropriately slammed by the Trib for his defective TV ads….again, for the third time, Obie shoots himself in the foot while campaigning. Not only is he not spending the money he spent on Senate Campaigns No. 1 and No. 2, but he is skimping on TV ad quality to save even more money. So much for the rich juggernaut that would pound Brady. Now Brady as the State Rifle Ass’n endorsement. Intelligent conservatives know who the best conservative candidate is, and it is time for the emotional conservatives to ditch Obie and join Brady. - Billyclinton - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 10:43 am: We don’t need a shill for the Illinois Rifle Association in the Governor’s Office. We need a moderate, balanced approach on the issue of guns and — especially — assault weapons. On this issue, the Governor is right on target. - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 11:19 am: Not good news for Jim (or Joe). The AP take from WBBM: Oberweis Uses Fake Headlines In Campaign Ads - ISU REP - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 11:25 am: Brady for one is the NRA’s choice for governor, so that takes care of that argument, Rod opened up a can of worms he shouldn’t. The definition of Shill should include his picture or did he all of a sudden forget about daddy in law and his mysterious political fortunes. As for Oberweis, the ss dairy cow is sinking all hands abandon ship!!! - DOWNSTATE - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 11:38 am: Billy clinton your governor is a shill for anyone with 5000 dollars and that has been proven time and time again.That’s why you are getting brick walls on the tollways instead of concrete.To begin with as always the anti-gun nuts show full military weapons to the public when we all know they want all weapons and that my boy isn’t fair or balanced. - scoot - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 11:51 am: Rick- I’m glad you pointed that out about Obermilk. 20 days left of that pathetic campaign…I wonder if he will run for senate in 08′ lol. - Fat Cathy Santa Toes - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 11:54 am: O who is the person who brought the baseless investigation to the Treasurer’s office? Could it be the fat evil doer who doesn’t do any work? A disgruntled employee who didn’t get her contract renewed? Who works for the Oberweis campaign? Who lives in sin? Could it be SATAN? - John - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 12:08 pm: Crash and Burn. Another million dollars down the drain… - Anonie - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 12:08 pm: Jim Oberweis, meet Michael Moore. You two have LOTS in common: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0603010257mar01,1,203373.story?ctrack=1&cset=true - Bubs - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 12:14 pm: Waddaya Know, another fradulent ad in the GOP primary. WBBM in Chicago is killing Oberweis on this. I’ve heard the “deceitful ad” story three times this morning. It would appear that the media does not appreicate being played, and payback is a real bitch. - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 12:19 pm: Anyone familiar with the situation knew there was nothing to the allegation, and said so. But the tin foil theorists don’t listen to reason. So Jim, Joe & Jack put all their eggs in the Cathy Santos/Andy Martin basket of conspiracy theories. It just overturned. Another million wasted. Jim’s gonna break his grandkids before this thing’s over. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 12:21 pm: FCST, let’s not tempt the fates, OK? You’ve already made your point, so move on. - the Patriot - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 1:04 pm: This issue shows how out of touch with the entire state Chicago is. They assume that the chicago media attacking obe is going to hurt him. He is too conservative for Chicago anyway. So what if it costs him the 9 votes he was going to get in Cook County, if the truth takes thousands away from Judy downstate it is worth it. On the Gun issue, I think it is a terrific idea to get a moderate, ie I’ll go along with Mayor Daley as requested in office. Mayor Daley can’t enforce the existing laws so why would he think he could enfoce new ones. If you are ani gun, please realize Daley is playing your ignorance. A new gun law will not reduce gun crimes. He knows it looks good for the base. There is no reason for downstaters to surrender consititutional rights for the incompetence of the Chicago politicians. - Bubs - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 1:14 pm: Patriot, the WBBM signal goes a LOT further than than the Chicago city limits, or even the Cook County limits. I’ve picked it up in Princeton. The Tribune goes statewide. - Establishment Republican - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 1:31 pm: My old DeKalb County acquaintance Joe Wiegand certainly has taken a page from the Michael Moore playbook with the doctored newspaper headlines. He should know better. - Truthful James - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 2:26 pm: If Judy B is nominated, it will not matter who is elected. More of the same rot in the fabric of Illinois political integrity. It is the Jim Thompson-Bob Kjellander-Richard Daley dchool of government. Divide up the tax revenues among the favorite lobbies. Postpone the day of reckoning as long as possible. Election to office is the be all and end all of political existence. After Richard Ogilvie, no governor has had the moral will to do the right thing regardless of the electoral consequences. BTW, Jim Ryan’s analysis using UofI professorsof the Springfield hotel deal was dead on. It was not a good deal for the State — then or now. So stop with that ridiculous canard. If any among you think that true reform will come from the political class dominating our primaries, speak now — identify him or her — or forever hold your piece. - Bubs - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 2:43 pm: Interesting shot from the ad, Rich. It makes me wonder if Oberweis is about to hear from the Tribune’s lawyers . . . - southernilrepub - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 2:50 pm: Milkman go away. Please never run again!!!!!!!!! - ISU REP - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 3:16 pm: I Love truthfuls brand of “truth”, riddiculous if you ask me, but not quite as riddiculous as Oberweis is you’d figure with all his money he’d have a good media staff, apparently money can’t buy happiness or good commercials for that matter! Pingback IlliniPundit.com » Blog Archive » Oberweis Fabrications - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 3:47 pm: […] (Almost forgot a tip o’ the cap to Rich Miller - who has screenshots of the fabricated headlines.) […] - Reagan democrat - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 4:49 pm: Everything in the ad is true! It is only the tribune who’s crying because their own story is going to hurt their choice RINO. This comes from JBT crying to her friends. Come on now Judy fans do you think this makes this go away? Stop and answer the questions. Why are you still taking money from the hotel man? Why are you taking money from the banks that do business with your office? Release the report! And Brady backers The ISRA will ALWAYS back a sitting legislator over someone who is not in office because they have to get their stuff through the General Assembly. BTW Judy got an A rating today from the NRA even though she said in an interview this week she would support the banning of Uzi’s and AK 47’s - Bubs - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 5:08 pm: What Oberweis neglects to note is that Treasurer Quinn tried to sell the two loans a year before, to get the State out of it, and couldn’t get a bid higher that $8 million. At least Topinka got an offer of $10 million. It’s just a case of a bad loan, that she did not create, to a corporation, and not Cellini himself. It’s all smear. Typical of that crowd. - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 5:16 pm: Yes, RD, continue to believe the conspiracy theories. Hope… that there is indeed an “impending federal investigation”, because it doesn’t exist now. Looks like Jim shot himself in both feet on integrity and conspiracy theorizing. - Reagan democrat - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 5:17 pm: Bubs Cellini did not give thousands of dollars to Quin! He has to Topinka. Cellini ’s wife was the jobs person for Edgar they have made millions from the state. She takes tens of thousands of dollars from the banks that Cellini sits on the board of; that is corruption! And what is her excuse? Shes not a millionaire she has to take the money. Shes screaming because there is no answer. She is the same a Ryan and Cellini and Kjellander. - Reagan democrat - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 5:19 pm: Rick Andy Shaw on ABC just said that the investigations are ongoing according to the feds! And everything in the ad is true. They just made it LOOK like headlines instead of from inside the story - Rick - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 5:32 pm: RD, Sorry, Bud, but thats not what he is saying here. For a Dem, you sure have a lot invested in this fight. Are with Rod & Jim against Judy? - Reagan democrat - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 6:35 pm: I went to your link rick and this is at the bottom “Bottom line on the ads: Topinka did approve a loan settlement favorable to a political insider on a Springfield hotel deal. She now admits she should have handled it differently. Also, her office was investigated for alleged political corruption and document shredding, but no one was ever charged. Law enforcement officials have not said if the cases are closed or still open.” Speaker Madigan got a letter saying he was no longer under investigation, she has not. That means it is on going. - Bubs - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 7:49 pm: RD, Speaker Madigan got a letter from his own attorney saying that, not the government. From the AP story: “The letter from Bill Roberts of Springfield, which Madigan’s office released Wednesday, said the U.S. attorney’s office told him it had ended a 21/2-year-old probe.” Roberts was a private attorney representing Madigan. Plus, that was the U.S. Attorney in a different district, who appears to have been a bit chatty. - Bubs - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 7:56 pm: Let’s all thank the boys at Ice Cream Drive for continuing to make the Illinois GOP a laughingstock. From a Tennessee website: ILLINI REPUBLICANS DOWDIFY THE TRUTH Republicans in Illinois haven’t been doing well lately. But this is no way to convince the voters that you can be trusted with power. “Republican governor candidate Jim Oberweis is launching two TV ads that use made-up newspaper headlines. . .” 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. Well, that explanation doesn’t cut it either: “A review of the stories did not find the exact words as they were presented in the ads, which are to begin airing Wednesday.” However, the funniest part is that the television ads are supposed to be attacking fellow Republican gubernatorial opponent Judy Baer Topinka’s “integrity.” Attacking your opponent with a lie, doesn’t seem like a good way to win an integrity battle. - Walking Wounded - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 8:20 pm: Integrity in Illinois politics? Wouldn’t that be an oxymoron? - Money Watch - Wednesday, Mar 1, 06 @ 11:01 pm: Judy Barr Topinka will go after you if you buy a Koo Koo Clock from Germany and haunt you for a USE tax. Yet she lets companies off the hook who don’t collect Illinois Income Tax on their undocumented worker. Where are her audits of food processing companies? Hotels? Restaurants? Contractors? etc etc who are using undocumented workers and are employing them “under the table”? Also where are her audits of LABOR LEASING FIRMS who cover for many companies by suppling them with undocumented workers? Millions of tax dollars are LOST to the state because of the fiscal abuse of undocumented workers! Yet she will come after you if you by that Koo Koo Clock from Germany! You bet she will! But the others get one hell of a free ride! - Rick - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 6:45 am: Hey, Money Watch, Nice unfounded speculation, since the State Treasurer doesn’t collect taxes. She just invests state money. Check out your state constitution. - Truthful James - Thursday, Mar 2, 06 @ 7:59 am: Bubs, Quoting from an unidentified Tennessee web site is laughable. Which was it, Bubs? You didn’t send the info down there did you? Not much different than the circular “anonymous source” used by Fox 32 and the Sun Times and the Tribune to justify the publcation of the released juror. - Aakash - Friday, Mar 3, 06 @ 1:49 am: It’s about time that the candidates started running major ads - on television! So far, I’ve only seen one for Gidwitz (then again, I have to go home to watch tv… need to get one in my room here on campus, perhaps). We are already into March… Something major needs to be done, if any one of the other candidates is going to catch Topinka. Pingback McCain breaks his own law? Oberweis follows suit? « Illinois Reason - Thursday, Feb 28, 08 @ 9:27 am: […] Of course, there’s also the appalling and ongoing Oberweis problem with blatant lies which, while unethical, is “legal”. In 2004 he lied about the number of illegal immigrants in that infamously (and inadvertently) hilarious helicopter commercial. Then, during his 2006 run for governor, he cooked up false newspaper headlines in his failed attacks against Judy Baar Topinka. Staying true to dishonest form, just this month he decided to lie about mythical troop “withdrawals” from Iraq in one of his TV ads, among other falsehoods over the years. Blogroll […] Pingback Pigs fly, Snow falls in hell, Trib endorses Dem Bill Foster « Illinois Reason - Tuesday, Mar 4, 08 @ 1:05 pm: […] But this morning’s endorsement was a bit of a surprise. Sure, myself and others have noticed Mr. Jim Oberweis‘ pattern of lying, skirting the law and distorting the facts as he tries to buy himself an elected office, any elected office… But would the “Vote for Rubber Chicken, Republican” Tribune? […] Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.