Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Sunday endorsements and a few other things

Sunday endorsements and a few other things

Sunday, Mar 5, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Check out this at the bottom of today’s Sun-Times endorsement of Judy Baar Topinka:

This endorsement represents the view of the Sun-Times News Group of 100 newspapers in the Chicago metro area.

That’s a lot of papers. The Southtown, all of the Star papers and the Pioneer Press papers, as well as the Joliet Herald News, Aurora Beacon News, Elgin Courier News, Waukegan News Sun and the Naperville Sun.

Jim Ryan has also endorsed JBT.

When he was attorney general, Ryan blocked a plan Topinka supported that would have let two hotel companies with political connections settle more than $40 million in debt to the state for just $10 million.

Ryan now said that was “an honest disagreement.”

It’s a sign of Topinka’s independence, he said, that they disagreed about the 1995 debt settlement for the hotels in Springfield and Collinsville.

Â· As promised yesterday, here’s the Tribune’s endorsement of Ron Gidwitz.

Â· Daily Herald endorses Blagojevich, Giannoulias, and runs a play to play story.

Â· Champaign News-Gazette endorses Bill Brady and Edwin Eisendrath.

Â· Tribune and Sun-Times both have profiles of Edwin Eisendrath. Sun-Times has a profile of Gov. Blagojevich, which asks if he is a team player. Heh.

Â· Kristen McQueary discovers whom the governor really blames for not knowing that The Daily Show is a comedy thing.

“I’m not so sure I would have done the interview. The deputy governor (Bradley Tusk) takes responsibility, as well he should, because he’s the one who didn’t tell me.”

Â· Somebody has snatched three James Meeks for Governor-related website addresses and pointed them all to a Meeks-related blog. (Hat tip: OneMan)

Â· Oberweis capitulates, changes controversial TV ads. From Bernie’s column:

In a column last week, I quoted DOUG BOHRINGER, president of Springfield-based Omni Communications Group, about ads for JIM OBERWEIS that referred to newspaper stories but included headlines that actually didn’t appear in the newspapers cited. But Bohringer now admits he wasn’t clear enough.

Bohringer, whose company produced the ads, had told me the images “weren’t intended to be taken as true headlines.” To back that up, he said, there was no attempt to include “the date and all the little doodads that go with the masthead” to make the pages look real.

However, it was later pointed out to me that images from the ads posted on the Capitol Fax blog, thecapitolfaxblog.com, showed that dates and other “doodads” were included.

“What I should have said with more clarity is, we used elements that were illegible so it would not be mistaken as the actual content,” Bohringer said Friday. “I do apologize for any misleading comments I made concerning the doodads. I just considered them graphic elements.”

The Oberweis ads, which attack state Treasurer JUDY BAAR TOPINKA, have been modified, Bohringer said, to only use headlines that actually appeared.

UPDATE: More on Meeks, from a longtime reader:

…by the way reading your meeks stuff, [redacted] and I watched his service this morning which is broadcast on local cable, I tell you from his sermon that guy is running, it was quite a bashing of both GOP and DEMs, he really had the place rocking […]

He said by his calculations the black man would not have parity with the white man until something like 3086 and he wasn’t going to wait, he wanted to bring the black community with him to fight for what they deserve and bashed the War in Iraq and the money spent, bashed Springfield

18 Comments

- Bubs - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 2:33 pm:
Rich, Oberweis’ website purports to show his “evidence” to back up the charges. It’s all the same hokum we’ve known about for years. A 2003 Tribune piece on the supposed “investigation”, and nothing more current. A ten year old piece on the hotel investor list that she never actually destroyed, and published instead.

All very, very thin.

- Anonymous - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 2:55 pm:
The Jim Ryan endorsement is no surprise. He is wrong on this one but I think all Illinoisans owe Jim Ryan a debt of gratitude for putting the kaibosh on that stinky hotel deal.

- DOWNSTATE - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 3:04 pm:
Obie blunders and continues on the same course just like Blunder Boy Blago.Didn’t he feel the fire and flame from this thing blowing up in his face.Give it a rest and move on.

- INADAZE - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 3:08 pm:
CHECK OUT DEMOCRAT FOR GOVERNOR: EDWIN EISENDRATH

This story is in todays Champaign News-Gazette. This article pretty much sums up why BLAGO has to go. I applaud the Gazette for telling it like it is. Not sure who is making the decisions at the Daily Herald, must be a JPT fan.

- Anon - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 3:46 pm:
The Tribune makes sense since it is in Chicago the Sun Times I wonder about. Judy is a bad choice for a nominee to beat Blagojevich. If her numbers dropped so much after a few negative ads. that she had to bring out Edgar to help her. If she wins the Primary Blagojevich will destroy her in a few days with his 17 million dollars in negative ads. If we really want to beat Blagojevich which everyone does then we better have someone stronger then Judy Baar Topinka.

- Tony Soprano - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 3:56 pm:
Anon: 3:46 - Dumb argument.. if its only about money then Blago would destroy anyone.. He would have a hay day with Ronny the slumlord.. You think people would not turn out in droves when Ronny is labeled as a ‘bigot’? Ronny has definately not explaned the situation very well!!

- Schiznitz - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 4:15 pm:
Obie gets neither endorsement. While I don’t really mind Jim. I detest the hatemonger’s that he has hooked up with. So, I am happy.

- Bubs - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 5:31 pm:
I’m obviously a Topinka supporter, but even I have to say that the “slumlord” rap on Gidwitz is not a fair hit. He owns but a tiny fraction of that project, and the investors are getting run around by the pols.

- Anonymous - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 5:42 pm:
The slumlord hit is not only fair, it is understated. What Gidwitz has done to those people in Joliet is criminal. He is the general partner of the project and controls everything. He won’t pay for elevators, for police protection, nothing. Highest crime rate in Will County. Rapes and murders galore. He’s hiding behind his PR firm.

- Limerick - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 5:47 pm:
Be careful who you choose,
Unless you like to lose.
Rodâ€™s been taken to task,
So now he must ask,
â€œDo I piss off the Blacks, or the Jews?â€

- ndpotus - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 5:49 pm:
Have any other papers made endorsements in the Democratic State Treasurers race???

- Anon - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 6:53 pm:
Sopranoâ€”your right it would be a dumb argument if it was only about money. It is about how fast her numbers dropped when she was attacked on the corruption issue. This makes Judy Baar Topinka a poor choice for a nominee for governor. If she wins the nomination Blagojevich will have a lot of money to attack her on the issue. She also wonâ€™t in turn be able to use it as an issue against him. She will be a weak GOP candidate for governor and will be easy for Blagojevich to beat. Blagojevich will do anything to win and wonâ€™t care if Edgar comes out to endorse her..

- Anon - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 10:13 pm:
Here’s the story: http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=163288

- Smart Pundit - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 10:28 pm:
Someone’s got to start questioning why any of us give a darn about what the Tribune or the Sun Times say about anything. Their top dogs are so wrapped up in their own business interests - be it Wrigley or the scandals at Sun Times - that they don’t even know what they’re talking about. We should be ashamed of what passes as a newspaper in this City. Disgusting work, top to bottom.

- Lovie's Leather - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 11:16 pm:
This is depressing. It is over. What is the sense in fighting about it other than the democratic treasurer race, the 6th district dem, and the 8th district gop. We know who has won the nomination. I am very disappointed. JBT won. Nothing more to say.

- Schiznitz - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 11:36 pm:
Regarding Meeks calculation that parity won’t be achieved until the year 3000+. That must be Chicago public school math. I have read several studies that state, if nothing were to change, the black community would virtually be extinct in the US within 150-200 years.

- Bubs - Sunday, Mar 5, 06 @ 11:49 pm:
This Kovarik thing is a riot. After initial concern reading the account, it took me about 10 minutes to see that it just doesn’t add up. Mike Flannery should have done his homework.

Tip: guess who Marty’s wife of three years will turn out to be?

Wait until all the facts come out, it will get farcical. I think Jim’s got another headache coming.

- Nearly Normal - Monday, Mar 6, 06 @ 7:16 am:
Obie’s campaign was still running the same controversial ad with the false headlines on the Blm.-Nor.-Peoria area this weekend. Must be taking their time getting their updated ads out.

Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.