Gidwitz: “The voters don’t read.”
Thursday, Mar 16, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Ron Gidwitz seems like a man resigned to his fate.
Gidwitz said he believes there are many voters who are undecided or only weakly attached to other candidates and who could break his way in the end. “The electorate seems to be enormously disengaged,” he said.
If so, then the question would seem to be whether Gidwitz is the man to shock the public from its slumber. But while he projected a calm confidence, Gidwitz seemed to struggle to convey the sort of passion or conviction that changes minds in an instant.
People “don’t know enough about me, it seems pretty clear, because they don’t understand the earnestness with which I am intent upon changing the status quo,” he said. “They don’t understand that this is not for me a backup. I don’t need this job.”
He continued: “There are a lot of aspects of this job of being governor, should I get it, that, frankly, at the age of 60, having done what I’ve done over the last 40 years or 38 years in the private sector, I don’t really need.” […]
“Running for office is not something I’ve developed great skills at,” he remarked. […]
“The voters don’t read,” he said. “Too many of the voters depend upon, if they get any news, either word of mouth or television. And television commercials, which is where people learn a lot about the candidates — 65 to 72 words. How much can you say with 65 to 72 words?”
Gidwitz, like Dawn Netsch and many others before him, apparently operated under the false assumption that the political system is somehow merit-based.
This is a statewide campaign open thread.
- Rick - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:17 am:
Some truth, but the Rauschenberger baggage doesn’t help.
- angry rick go away - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:19 am:
You mean the baggage that got Gidwitz the Tribune endorsment
- Shadrock - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:27 am:
Ron, you need to put yourself in a position where your opinion is sought after by the media. Meaning, you need to answer the question of why voters should take time to listen to you. In the course of a campaign most people discount what they hear anyway. Have a reason for people to turn to you for ideas, build a legitimate foundation upon which to present your answers to the state’s problems. Yes, I know you’ve got a great business background and some experience in public life but if your ideas don’t command profound attention and generate conversaton among voters who otherwise don’t pay attention (I’ll offer Senator Obama for example) then you’ve got to be in a position of credibility to offer comments that will build you as a “brand” in the minds of voters. Clearly you know more about building brand loyalty than I do but I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from. So, if this race is not to be and you still care about the future of the state - start a non-profit focused on solving Illinois’ problems as you see them, identify problems and offer solutions. Generate real and practicle solutions, forget the pie in the sky stuff for a while. Work with anyone honestly willing to work with you - Repubs, Dems, Ind. Policy staffers are always looking for good ideas to promote and get in the press or to solve a problem and then to get into the press.
You’ve got the resources to make a difference if you really want to even without getting elected. The added advantage is that you won’t have to put up with most of the BS in Springfield and in the process, you’ll be building your base / “brand” should you still want to run down the road. 60 aint that old.
- Backyard Conservative - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:27 am:
Brady continues to build momentum, wins Weller endorsement:
http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/
2006/03/key-weller-endorsement-of-brady.html
Disaffection in State Dem ranks; Gov continues to duck on hate crime commission, Brady introduces bill related to it:
http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2006/03/
gutless-governor-of-illinois.html
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:31 am:
It was obvious Gidwitz never had a chance. Now, his consultants millions of dollars richer, he realizes it. What a colossal waste of money.
- Wumpus - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 9:06 am:
Sad, I like the guy. I have come to the conclusion that Rauschenberger sucks. He is heralded as Mr. Republican/conservative. But he can’t bring in money and compromised his image by linking with a moderate like Gidrich. What is even more bogglesome of the mind is that Gidwitz is a former fundraiser for the party, but he is loaning himself money. At least we know Proft and co will be okay. Are they working for Gid or Rasuchy?
- ISU REP - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 9:23 am:
Brady getting Wellers endorsement is about as shocking as Daley being endorsed by the south side irish…Weller is no Edgar, Lahood, or Cross
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 9:23 am:
If you expect to be elected governor, generally you have to put in some time and effort in the grunt work of politics, getting your name out, honing your skills as a candidtate.
Jim Edgar did it, George Ryan definitely did it, Blago has done it, Topinka has done it, even Oberwiess and Brady to an extent.
Gidwitz comes out of nowhere. That doesn’t necessarily mean he wouldn’t be good, it just means he is unlikely to be elected.
- Shadrock - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 9:28 am:
Annonymous, exactly my point.
- Rick - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:15 am:
Alright, ARGA, I’m willing to correct myself- the Rauschenberger millstone. Ron’s running for the nomination, not the Trib endorsement, and he’s going under.
- Brady is the Guy - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:27 am:
Tribune reports today that the Blagojevich campaign had a spy videotape a Bill Brady campaign appearance…. This means that the Governor, shrewdly spending part of his $14 million to handicap the GOP race, has now determined that Brady is on the path to winning the GOP primary. The numbers are telling….
- Pat Hickey - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:35 am:
Hey, I read that Gidwitz was a slum-landlord on TV; right after the roller-derby. Love the Man’s Common Touch and Respectful Condecension to the Bootless and UnHorsed - Soft day, your worship, to be sure.
- Pat Hickey - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:37 am:
Gidwitz comes out of nowhere - and stays there!
What a horserace, folks!
- diane - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:43 am:
Funny thing though, we have received more mail from Gidwitz than any other candidate. It seems like something comes every week. We read for awhile…
- Bradys the Guy - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:52 am:
Oberweis’s people, in calling Brady “the spoiler”, are ignoring an important fact: Oberweis lost 140,000 voters from his Senate run in 2002 to his run in 2004. That’s about a 47% drop. Since fewer people voted in the 2004 race, adjusting the drop off roughly yields a loss of 31% of his 2002 support. How can Oberwies be “the man” when his record is a downward trend in support? Note that his max 21% support in the last poll keeps him in the losing range of his 2004 defeat.
- Pat Hickey - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 11:40 am:
Weller is no Edgar, Lahood, or Cross
No, Weller is Dan Lipinski with a sense of geography.
- Nearly Normal - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 12:01 pm:
Weller’s endorsement is Ho Hum for those of us who have him as a Congressman. Doesn’t change my opinion of Brady one bit. The rest of you don’t have him as your state senator–he is no John Maitland, that’s for sure. I miss John.
- Lovie's Leather - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 12:36 pm:
Gidwitz couldn’t start the fire. Maybe if Judy never entered the race… but probably not. As a Gidwitz supporter, I have resigned myself to the JBT camp effective march 22. I just pray for a Rauschenberger. But it isn’t looking great…
- anon - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 12:43 pm:
Your right it does not matter much when an elected U. S. congressman endorsee’s someone in a primary. I suppose that mailer that I and 10’s of thousands of other voters got from Congressman Tim Johnson won’t matter either. Nearly Normal, it may not matter to you it sounds like you have decided who to vote for. Have you received a mailer from the Honorable Mr. Weller yet? What’s your neighbor’s going to think and do when they get theirs. How many voter’s are in their district’s that are tired of being kicked to the curb by our Chicago Governor. It’s time for a Governor from downstate that will look out for downstate and balance a Chicago run General Assembly.
- Bubs - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 1:58 pm:
A new low in the Republcian gubenatorial primary, if that’s even possible.
The FTN website is now THREATENING Bill Brady if he does not pull out in favor of Oberweis:
“Mr. Brady just needs to understand that if Topinka does win on Tuesday, and Brady finishes no better than third – his name is Mud. He’s done. And he WILL have a Primary challenge for his State Senate seat in 2008.”
Ooooooooh, I’m sure Bill Brady is trembling in his boots.
Who the hell do these people think they are?
- ISU REP - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 2:14 pm:
Hahaha the Oberfurher and his gestapo are at it again!!! Although I think perhaps the way his campaign has been run keystone cops would be more suitable!
- In the Land of Silos and Cows - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 2:41 pm:
You hit it on the head about Netsch and Gidwitz, but I am of the belief Gidwitz is more like Fredo Corleone if anyone …”I’m Smaaat … I can do things … I’m da oldest ….”
A campaign is your opportunity to show you can make points, make cases for your points, and be able to sway people. Gidwitz couldn’t do any of that, for any number of reasons… and its the people’s fault? If you can’t win hearts and minds, you blame the hearts and minds? It could never be the message or the messenger, never!
- Bradys the Guy - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 3:03 pm:
Regarding the Oberweis/Jack Roeser/ Family Taxpayer attack on Brady:
Oberweis and Roeser want to intimidate Brady into dropping out (too late to take one’s name off the ballot, and tens of thousands have been already cast early/absentee.) But in making smears and threats, they ignore a key factor: even if Brady dropped and STRONGLY ENDORSED Oberweis, the polling evidence is clear that Oberweis will not get 100% of the Brady voters who have not yet voted. Ergo, Oberweis still loses.
Their smears and threats are a reaction to the settled fact that Brady is overcoming/or has overcome Oberweis, and is on his way to overcoming Judy.
- Anon - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 3:24 pm:
Dear Mr. Brady, Mr. Rauschenberger, Mr. Oberweis and other born again Creationists, read this:
From Fox News:
“Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.
The discovery is the first direct evidence to support the two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation.
It also helps explain how matter eventually clumped together into planets, stars and galaxies in a universe that began as a remarkably smooth, superhot soup.
‘It’s giving us our first clues about how inflation took place,’ said Michael Turner, assistant director for mathematics and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation. ‘This is absolutely amazing.’
Researchers found the evidence for inflation by looking at a faint glow that permeates the universe. That glow, known as the cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about 300,000 years old — long after inflation had done its work.
But just as a fossil tells a paleontologist about long-extinct life, the pattern of light in the cosmic microwave background offers clues about what came before it.
Of specific interest to physicists are subtle brightness variations that give images of the microwave background a lumpy appearance.
Physicists presented new measurements of those variations during a news conference at Princeton University. The measurements were made by a spaceborne instrument called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, launched by NASA in 2001.
Earlier studies of WMAP data have determined that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, give or take a few hundred thousand years.
WMAP also measured variations in the cosmic microwave background so huge that they stretch across the entire sky. Those earlier observations are strong indicators of inflation, but no smoking gun, said Turner, who was not involved in the research.
The new analysis looked at variations in the microwave background over smaller patches of sky — only billions of light-years across, instead of hundreds of billions.
Without inflation, the brightness variations over small patches of the sky would be the same as those observed over larger areas of the heavens. But the researchers found considerable differences in the brightness variations.
“The data favors inflation,” said Charles Bennett, a Johns Hopkins University physicist who announced the discovery. He was joined by two Princeton colleagues, Lyman Page and David Spergel, who also contributed to the research.
The physicists said small lumps in the microwave background began during inflation. Those lumps eventually coalesced into stars, galaxies and planets.
The measurements are scheduled to be published in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
- Nearly Normal - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 3:29 pm:
Got a recorded message telephone call from Obie’s campaign from Phyllis Schlafly. Is this a downstate campaign tactic or are other parts of the state receiving same?
Obie must be desperate to let Roeser’s FTN pull that sort of stuff.
There is a strain of ultra conservatives who follow FTN lock-step down here in Central IL. Go to a Republican fundraiser and look for the sourest faces in the crowd–that will be Jack’s legions. There is a tribe of them in McLean County but I doubt that they will have much of an effect on the ‘08 campaign. Once one is an incumbent in this area, you are usually safe.
- Beowulf - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 4:01 pm:
If the millions of dollars that Ron Gidwitz has spent did nothing else, it certainly showed him how little appreciation that Andy McKenna and the Illinois GOP Party had for his fund raising efforts on their behalf.
Gidwitz isn’t a bad guy. He is bright, he really is running for governor simply because he wants to give back to the people of the state for his good fortune, and he has no hidden agenda. I say this not because I am a supporter of his (I like Brady) but because I have met the guy and he is really a genuinely nice guy. However, he lacks the charisma to influence the many voters out there into believing that his agenda is pure. It is too bad.
I am in agreement with Shadrock. Gidwitz has a great deal to offer to the people of Illinois. I wish he would consider running for state representative or senator in the future. He could be “the boil on their butts” down in Springfield. Gidwitz would keep them honest down there or else he would shout out the names of those who are the problem down there in state government. He has got sand. He won’t let them intimidate him. I envision Gidwitz being a twin brother to Peter Fitzgerald on a state level.
Rauschenberger plays well down in central and southern Illinois. He will pick up far more votes down in those areas of the state than Joe Birkett will. JBT may pull off a win in the Primary but I am not so sure that Birkett will. It will be extremely close between Birkett & Raushenberger but I think Rauschenberger is going to pull this one off. I can’t wait to watch Rauschenberger and Topinka have to give each other a big kiss at the Illinois GOP victory party. It will be hilarious.
- Wumpus - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:31 pm:
Another reason why not to vote for the teabaggee Rauschie Go Joe or Sandy
- Wumpus - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 8:42 pm:
This whole GOP primary has been disgusting, from JBT crying about Obie actually campaigning against her to this. I hope enough people wise up and pick Brady if not, then Gidwitz and not Bi-Polarweis(TM) or Judas Baar.
- Shadrock - Thursday, Mar 16, 06 @ 10:23 pm:
Everyone for voiting Wumpus off the island say Yea - all opposed, Nea. Have all voted who wish, have all voted who wish - in the opinion of the chair the Yeas have it. See ya Wumpus. Rauschenberger is a solid conservative (fiscal and socially) who actually recognizes that at some point in governing you need a few friends beyond the hardcore right to get anything done. He’s hardly tainted because he teamed up with Gid. He’s also the only L.G. candidate who could step in as Gov and get it right (punn intended) on the first day. If JBT does win she should thank her lucky stars if he’s on the ticket. Steve, on the otherhand might need a drink and I’m not talking milk.
- Shadrock - Friday, Mar 17, 06 @ 9:24 am:
Ok, Wumpus - we appear to be on the same page in terms of Gid. I’m a little confused on your harsh view of SR - you seem to be ok with Steve’s general philosophy but you fault him for failing to be able to raise the kind of casg he would need to take on life-long public office holders and millionaires - and for that you call him a prostitute? SR impresses me as an honest, consistent player - give the guy a break - better than that, send him a check.