36 Comments - Wumpus - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:29 am: All I can recall is that Larry Suffereinden is 6′4″. There seem to be a lot of judges running up in the NW. Sorry, for no specifics, but Larry is 6′4″…how tall are his opponents? Proabbly midgets, so they don’t deserve my vote. - Cerrios - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:40 am: I love the jib-jab Berrios ad. I hope Deratany beats him to the pulp. - Reality Check - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:50 am: Got a cheesy xeroxed letter yesterday from the local precinct captain, trying to put the arm on us to vote for Tom Allen. Old-time hackery ain’t dead on the Northwest Side. We’ll be voting, enthusiastically, for Suffredin. - Captain America - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:51 am: Even though I voted for Derataney, I have to credit Joe Barrios and the Cook County Democratic Party for another outstanding direct mail piece promoting the slated candidates. It was a dark navy blue with the slogan on the front reading: “This is Obama Country” following up on first “True Blue” mailing from the CCDP. It was attractive and compelling - you just had to look inside the mailer for more information. It didn’t persuade me, but I can see how this eye-catching piece could lead many voters to support the slated candidates. I also want to compliment the CCDP for its efforts to create an ethnic and gender-balanced slate of judicial candidates, even though I deviated from the slate after checking the Tribune and Sun-Times endorsements. My impression is that most of the slated candidates got at least one of the major newspaper endorsements - many got both. It’s not that I think newspaper endorsemsnts are the “holy grail” but I look for obejctive impartial information and evaluations about judicial candidates - even though I know endorsement decisions by newspapers can be a “crapshoot” - particularly when there is more that one good candidate in any race. - zatoichi - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:54 am: John McCain called me twice on Saturday telling me how much he would appreciate my vote. Conversation was pretty one sided. I hung up after about 20 seconds. Hate robos. - cool hand - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 11:56 am: oh yeah, the jib-jab spot cracks me up. radio ads for maragos & spyropoulus. mail from alan greiman, silverstein, stone, berrios, deratany, allen and alvarez (still my upset special). - Skeeter - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:10 pm: I saw the Deranty ads, but he’s not getting his money’s worth with RCN, since there was a major problem with the audio. I saw the Super Bowl add for the SA and thought it was great. I’m still undecided on that race. Leaning Milan on merit, but also leaning “Whoever Can Beat Brookins”. The Devine endorsement was one of the few that matters to me. I received a call from Jesse White regarding someone, but hung up as soon as I realized it was a robocall. All I heard before I hung up was “This is Jesse White.” In hindsight, I sure HOPE it was a robocall. Does he always speak in monotone? In the 26th, I got a second mailer from the incumbent. I got about four from Johnson, a few from Burns, and there are Chadra people all over my neighborhood holding signs and passing lit. Ron Paul signs are up all over my neighborhood also. There are probably more Paul signs than GOP voters. - Ghost - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:15 pm: I saw a TC add for Schock in which he trumpets his actions in shutting the Governor’s attempts to raise taxes down. I do not think anyone would accuse me of being a blago supporter, but I almost spit out my coffee when I saw this. Does this guy have no sense of reality or care for the truth? The idea that blago is running rampant pushing for tax increase but for schock out to realise this guy can never be trusted. I thought the nukes idea was bad until I saw this ectreme fabrication. For somone running on a “how smart I am” platform I have seen nothing but bad decisions making from this guy. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:20 pm: Did you know Steve Sauerberg is endorsed by the Illinois Republican Party in his bid for the U.S. Senate? He called me this morning to tell me. - Rob_N - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:31 pm: We got a mailer from Laurie Bartell — GOP candidate in the 66th lege — which means this mailer went out far and wide… It’s the only GOP mailer we’ve gotten this year. I described my issues with this “Just (not quite) the Facts, Ma’am” mailer in “Their Girl Friday.” Also got some Dan Seals stuff on healthcare and another ream of mail from Mariyana Spyropoulos for MWRD in the past week. Bill Brandt wants us to vote for him as a Hillary delegate and Judge Mulroy also wants our vote — those two were just standard postcards. Earlier, Sen. Dan Kotowski sent out some nice thank you notes to folks who signed his petitions last fall. - wordslinger - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:41 pm: The Milan spot where he is “applying” for the sa job to a nasty looking lady political boss is cheesy, but has a couple of nice historical touches: The nameplate on the lady’s desk reads “We don’t want nobody nobody sent,” the legendary dismissal Milton Rakove was given when he volunteered without sponsorship at his Ward Committeman’s office. The photo on the wall behind the desk is of the late, great Mathias “Paddy” Bauler, who uttered the immortal phrase “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” - jerry 101 - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:41 pm: lots more eddie winters stuff. who’s financing that guy? His website is almost impossible to find, but mailers almost every day. I’m voting for him, but its getting a bit annoying. The most interesting mailer I got was from my “NEW 32nd Ward Democratic Organization” or something like that. Endorsements of Obama, Guitierrez, Winters, Amy Sue Mertens, Deranty, Fritchey, and some others. Did Gabinski turn control of the ward organization over to Fritchey already? I’m probably voting for most of the candidates that the NEW ward organization has endorsed, but it was still a bit weird. - Joe in the Know - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:41 pm: The Deratany jib-jab ad is funny to watch, but as a political ad, it’s rates a D minus. The message is totally lost. The ad questions “why vote for Deratany?” after saying “everything is fine and dandy”. Most people won’t get the play on words. He mentions Berrios once, so as a negative ad, it fails. No one knows what Berrios looks like, so that is lost too. A waste of money and besides, Deratany is a hack for Jim Houlihan. I agree with Rich: the press should be howling over the $300,000 Houlihan gave Deratany. Who would keep tabs on Houlihan if Houlihan gets control of the Board? - Lefty Lefty - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:44 pm: I got some mail here in the 49th from Mr. Illinois Conservative himself, Jack Roeser. Must have cost a fortune too. It contained a 3-page foldout, most of which was a list of all of the votes Tim Schmitz messed up as my state rep. Jim McRunnels gets the back page. Between this and Krenz’s popup ad on the KC Chronicle, I might pull a Republican ballot just to get Schmitz back in. - Bill S. Preston, Esq. - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 12:53 pm: Jerry 101 - I got the “NEW” 32nd Ward mailer too. Very interesting. I bet it gives Mertens a boost. It was a nice piece. Joe in the Know - Good points about the Deratany ad, although I think the 3 second ending makes it clear who the ad is for. Plus, the song is catchy as hell. I caught myself humming it over the weekend. I think Deratany is going win. - Paul - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 1:04 pm: Sen. Mike Jacobs had a different ad during the superbowl with his dad, former Senator Denny and a kid (Mikes’ son or nephew?) fighting about a football game. Mike said something like “now you know where I get my fighting spirit”. It was nice to see a different ad around the quad cities. I really like it. - jdc - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 1:16 pm: Bernie Stone put out a flyer attcking his opponent for 50th Ward Dem committeman, State Senator Ira Silverstein, for being “210 miles away in Springfield raising your taxes”. Hmmmm…and I though we voted for Senator Silverstein so he WOULD represent us in Springfield (and do something to keep the CTA running and the schools open.) - Hector Murillo - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 1:17 pm: Rich, Please listen to the anti-Art Turner ads and the other Ricky Hendon alliance ads. I don’t want to describe them and get deleted. If someone can link to an audio please do. Truth is stranger than fiction. - Rich Miller - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 1:25 pm: Hector, if you were a subscriber, then you’d know that I wrote about that anti-Turner ad last week. - registered repub - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 1:42 pm: I had 2 robo calls from McCain this weekend - one which was WAAAY too long, and also received a short robo poll that turned out to be from McCain as well. - Captain America - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:04 pm: I think the “new 32nd Ward” refers to the group and the Alderman that defeated the incumbent Matlak last year. Can’t recall his name. Fritchey may beoome the de facto leader of this organization, when he is elected Committeman tomorrow. Or maybe it will continue to be a separate entity,distinct form Committeman John Fritchey. - Captain America - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:05 pm: My robocall from Jesse White was on behalf of Gene Moore. I like Jesse,but voted for Ed Smith. - Team Sleep - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:11 pm: John McCain and Steve Sauerberg both “called” me. YAHOO! I feel important. I stopped getting 50 mailers from Aaron Schock each week. Too bad I didn’t have those when my dog was still a puppy… - Niles Township - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:20 pm: Mail from Suffredin & Derataney; unattributed robocall for Tom Allen. - Rep. John Fritchey - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 2:47 pm: I’m glad that you liked the New 32nd Ward Democratic Party piece, and I hope that you like the candidates I am supporting, which include Obama, Mertens, Winters, Spyropoulos, Avila, and Maragos, oh yeah, and myself. For obvious reasons, I am not taking the reins of the old 32nd Ward Regular Democratic Organization, but am starting a new entity, with some new ideas. Tomorrow starts a new day. - the wonderboy - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:05 pm: I got a couple of calls from McCain. The first was a 3 question poll asking if I am planning to vote, who I support, and which issue is most important. The second was a robo asking me to vote for him. Pretty basic. Rich, in Hector’s defense (though it may not apply to him), some of us are still students and we have to settle for the Ramen noodles version of your blog. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to subscribe…just can’t do it yet while I am rolling in the dough they pay me as a graduate assistant. - VanillaMan - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:21 pm: I don’t have a land-line telephone and I don’t read junk mail. So, the only thing I have seen is the ‘look at me - I stopped the Governor’s tax increases’ TV ad for Schock. What a dweeb. - Sacks Romana - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:42 pm: I got a robocall from Rich Whitney, encouraging me to vote in the first ever Illinois Green Primary on February 5th, and to support Cynthia McKinney as the Green nominee for President. He went on to extoll the positive attributes of McKinney. I plan on doing both tomorrow, although I’d be lying if I said the robocall is what pushed me over the top for either one. - one of the 35 - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 3:49 pm: I received 3 voice mail messages from Jim Edgar encouraging me to vote for Brien Sheahan for DuPage County Board. I still value Jim’s opinion so the calls are very persuasive for me. - kanewatcher - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 4:37 pm: To leftylefty it sure is amazing jack roeser earns his $$ with defense dept. but chooses to consistantly support candidates like macrunnels,krenz,frasz and hunt none of which have done SQUAT for the kane-gop, hes more the problem then the solution, please vote accordingly - JakeCP - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 6:12 pm: Larry Suffredin has the funniest radio ad right now. This is how it goes. Girl 1: Hey Girl how you doing? Girl 2: I’m fine. Hey did you hear about that Ald. Brookins running for State’s Attorney G1: Yeah girl and aint he the same one who didn’t pay his child support bills because he was too busy running for alderman? G2: Yeah girl, and ain’t the State’s Attorney’s office the people that get on people for late child support payments? G1: Yeah girl that’s why the Cook County Women of the Democratic Party are endorsing Larry Suffredin for Cook County State’s Attorney. We don;t need someone who puts politics over their children. - Anon - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 6:53 pm: Rep Fritchey Starting a new day by supporting a judicial canidate who has been found unqualified by every bar association and has only been a lawyer for 3 years. Does not sound like a new day to me - Skeeter - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 6:56 pm: Got an interesting mailer from a judicial candidate (8th Subcircuit). It claims an endorsement from Burton Natarus, 42nd Ward Committeeman. - Anne - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 7:05 pm: The anti Brookins ads are ridiculous but funny and the other Ricky Hendon ads and his candidates are very very very funny. - Princeville - Monday, Feb 4, 08 @ 9:34 pm: I’ve had two robo calls from Obama, at least three from the union and a three page mailer from AFSCME on Obama and our support. Full color throughout, front page a speaking Obama with Standing Tall and Leadership We Can Believe In. A full page beaming Obama, casual and surrounded by supporters titled Barrack Obama has stood with us time and again. Third page highlights of his labor friendly votes/stands ect and then followed up by what a President Obama seeks to do. Backcover, another speaking Obama with reminds for members to get out and vote. I sat on the fence until I watched Obama give his speech with Teddy Kennedy. With Edwards gone and listening to a fired up Obama, I finally decided Obama can go all the way. The Obama campaign sign finally going up out front. An aside, you can’t drive anywhere around Peoria city and surrounding rural without seeing Aaron campaign signs, big, bigger, biggest, on every corner or front ‘yard’ of every intersection, every vacant lot, supporting homes and businesses. I hope his people come back after the 5th and pick all these things up. - jerry 101 - Tuesday, Feb 5, 08 @ 9:43 am: Thanks for the response Rep. Fritchey, it kinda threw me off a bit, since it said it was paid for by the 32nd Ward party, which I thought was still controlled, at least until tomorrow, by gabinski. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.