Quote of the week *** UPDATED x1 ***
Thursday, May 1, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* New Republican congressional candidate Martin Ozinga, who has contributed $23,000 to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, from his own pocket and from his company’s pocket, was asked yesterday about those donations.
OZINGA: “I’m not a supporter of Rod Blagojevich, I never have been.
REPORTER: “So you didn’t donate?”
OZINGA: “I did donate, but I’m not one, personally, that rallies for Blagojevich… [I’m] very disappointed with his performance in Springfield.”
Ozinga’s last contribution to Blagojevich - for $10,000 - was in December of 2005, while Blagojevich was gearing up hard for reelection.
Ozinga’s company also gave $25,000 to the Hispanic Democratic Organization, a top target of anti “Combine” types. The company contributed $10,000 to Danny Solis’ 25th Ward Democratic Organization, with the latest contri coming in 2007.
As I’ve pointed out before, those contributions will make it tough for Ozinga to slam Debbie Halvorson for being part of the problem.
* Related…
* Iamnotapolitician.com
* Ozinga paints himself as God-fearing conservative
* GOP taps Ozinga for U.S. House contest
* Martin Ozinga is GOP Choice in Illinois’ 11th District
* GOP taps 11th District hopeful
*** UPDATE *** From an Ozinga press release…
In a campaign e-mail yesterday, career politician/Blagojevich rubber-stamp Debbie Halvorson went negative on new 11th Congressional District GOP nominee Marty Ozinga, complaining about the “bags of money” he has been able to raise from supporters, declaring that his “name is irrelevant,” and warning that he is “trying to buy this election” – a charge that doesn’t quite pass the smell test, given that just two weeks ago Halvorson was bragging about her ability to bring in cash.
In fact, Halvorson forgot to even spare her own failed leadership in her panicked rush to go negative: “…the failed policies of our current administration…An administration completely out of touch with the people. An administration that has decimated our economic prosperity…more of the same.”
Perhaps she meant to refer to some other regime, but here in Illinois, Halvorson has worked hand-in-hand with Blagojevich as Majority Leader to send the state down a path of fiscal disaster, pay-to-play politics and unprecedented gridlock. Here’s Debbie Halvorson on her role in Springfield leadership: “I’m the go-to person who will guide the agenda.”
No matter how far Debbie tries to run from her own record, she will never be able to hide her vote to give herself and Blagojevich a pay raise as the state is broke and working families are struggling.
She will never be able to hide her opposition to real ethics reform that would end Blagojevich’s pay-to-play schemes. Halvorson said in a November 2007 interview that she “refuse[d] to be party to passing this [ethics bill] just because the public says it’s better than nothing.” In the same interview, she also stuck up for Blagojevich, contending that the House unanimously passed the bill as a way of “playing politics with the Governor.”
She will never be able to hide her support for Blagojevich’s Gross Receipts Tax, the largest tax hike in Illinois history, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and “a job-killer,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
With a record like that, it’s no surprise that Debbie Halvorson has already resorted to personal attacks against Marty Ozinga.
- Carlos - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 10:00 am:
Don’t ya just love these politicians “double speak”?
I wouldn’t $1 to someone I didn’t like.
- The Curmudgeon - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 10:05 am:
Let me get this straight. Business owner who depends on construction business (he’s head of a cement company, right?) pays to play, knowing that in our corrupt system he will be shut out of contracts and his business will suffer unless he can point to his “donations.”
Now, as a political candidate, why can’t he say that? Indeed, why can’t he say he’s mad as heck and can’t take it any more and he’s running to expose the culture of corruption and hope that it withers and dies in the full glare of publicity.
Oh… wait. He might lose. And then he’d have no business to return to.
Never mind.
- Balderdash - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 10:11 am:
Maybe he’s just thinking of the big commercial developments at Cedar and 6 in New Lenox - banking on a good return of his political pay to play investments.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 10:12 am:
I just wish Andrea Zinga was running again in the 18th. We could have had the Zinga Ozinga tour.
- Bruno - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 10:23 am:
Curmudgeon,
Brilliant point. Running a campaign on that issue could actually win it for him. But why would he want to win?
The fact that he’s not saying that is an idicator that Balderdash is correct.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 10:56 am:
While I admire your cynicism, you are not being cynical at the right place.
You want state business? Then when the phone rings and wants political money, you pay it. Regardless.
Ozinga is a huge state contractor. They paid Blagojevich to keep him and his flying monkeys off their backs.
Now that he is running for office, he has to explain his contributions? Why should anyone need to do that when we have 24/7 trial coverage of ‘pay-to-play on steroids’? Hello? Anyone home?
If Ozinga gets the votes from voters who voted for Blagojevich and now regrets it, he’ll win hands-down. Ozinga is not alone among state contractors that contributed to Blagojevich’s booty.
BTW, Halvorson sat on the legislation, along with her silent partner, Jones, which prevented guys like Ozinga from having to pay political extortion. Now she is benefitting from this?
Says who?
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 11:09 am:
One of Halvorson’s challenge will be with the ’staffers’ the DNC and other large donating groups force onto her campaign. These people do not know the district and do not know the voters. Yet, she has to listen to them as they blather generic anti-businesspeople, anti-Republican nonsense. One spokesperson, (whom I will not name), has a record of making a fool of himself and shouldn’t be given any credibility with her campaign. He doesn’t know what he is talking about and this could hurt her.
When Washington sets you up to run for Congress, they feel their money allows them to take over your message. Halvorson will discover the double-edged reality of accepting DNC, Emily’s List, and other special interest contributions when they send their flunkies out to Joliet to screw her up.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 11:18 am:
“Ozinga is the consummate political insider dogged by scandal, who has made a career of gaming the system, and engaging in the pay-to-play politics that Illinois’ struggling middle-class families have grown to resent,”
This actually came out of the mouth of a Halvorson staffer who obviously doesn’t know that the ‘Queen of Pay-For-Play’ is his own candidate. How could Ozinga be more consumate than the freakin’ Senate Majority Leader sitting on the entire state?
Dummy.
- paddyrollingstone - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 11:28 am:
Good lord that makes him look foolish. There is no good way for him to explain these donations. Any excuse he will throw out there is utter bs. If the GOP was not desperate for a candidate there is now way in hell they would have Ozinga have the nomination, without checking his D-2s.
I can see the direct mail now - “this man gave thousands to Gov Blago . . . and he’s a Republican!”
Pingback Blago-supporter Ozinga already putting GOP in a pickle « Illinois Reason - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 11:55 am:
[…] Perhaps voters will also not forget that Sen. Halvorson’s hand-picked GOP opponent Martin Ozinga III has given nearly $25 grand to Blago, generous donations he now apparently regrets. […]
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 12:07 pm:
Very good points by Curmudgeon.
Government isn’t the only buyer for concrete in the market. If he made a business choice to play ball in a corrupt game to make money, well then, let’s not get too self-righteous. That’s pretty much what he is saying when he acknowledges he contributed to Blago without supporting him, right?
Lots of people run successful businesses without getting involved in such shenanigans. You make your choices.
Geez, I wonder how much he would have given to Rod and HDO if he liked them.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 12:16 pm:
It would appear from the testimony elicited from the Rezko trial, those seeking contracts with the state felt obligated to donate monies to this governor. No donation, no contract, or no job.
This is also true of the article the Chicago Tribune ran interviewing several of the $25,000 donors to the governor’s campaign. One said it would get him noticed. Another said it would be an exclamation point. There is a pattern of behavior here.
Whether this is true or not remains to be seen at the conclusion of that trial. But the perception is there and those seeking big time state contracts certainly were acting under that perception.
What did the governor’s office do to dissuade that perception? What has the State of Illinois done to dissuade that perception? The perception of course being: you must pay to play. That is the real question to be asked.
The sad part is that it took a series of scandals, Tribune outrage and voter outrage to get the Illinois Senate Democrats to finally move on their more watered down version of ethics reform legislation. They sat on it for a year? (They raised the bar to $50,000 from $25,000? Do I have that right?)
From where I sit it looks like Halvorson has more explaining to do than Ozinga on this issue.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 12:19 pm:
–If he made a business choice to play ball in a corrupt game to make money, well then, let’s not get too self-righteous.–
The question is, “Who is sitting around empowered to end this ‘corrupt game’, as you call it?” That person knows the game, plays the game, and doesn’t lift a finger to change it.
The problem is that it is a ‘corrupt game’, not that we depend on our state businesses to conduct business in our state on state business!
Do you want to serve your community? Do you want to give back? You shouldn’t allow the politicians to corrupt the system and reap the graft. If he was self-righteous he would do just that. Ozinga is running to end the game he was forced to play.
How can you criticize this guy when you seem to have no problem with the person who let the corruption rule the day?
- Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 1:01 pm:
As a concrete SUPPLIER, and not a contractor, I don’t see that Ozinga’s donations were “necessary”. Most state construction contracts are low bid, and contractors seek the lowest price materials from their suppliers to maximize their profit. If Ozinga’s concrete passed state specifications and was cost competitive, I don’t see where “pay-to-play” would be a factor.
OTOH, I can think of all kinds of negative connotations if suppliers as well as contractors were being squeezed for donations. In that case, I could imagine Ozinga being in a federal courtroom to attend to some business soon.
Wordslinger also had a good point. Up until the recent economic turndown, there has been enough private business in these parts that someone could have shunned the supposedly “pay-to-play” governmental arena if they wanted to, and still made a profit.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 1:35 pm:
He & his company also gave $12 K to Paul Vallas in 2002. The last $2K was after the primary was lost; that’s certainly not pay to play; it is awfully nice from such a staunch Republican.
Only $1550 to George Ryan, ever.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 2:31 pm:
How can you criticize this guy when you seem to have no problem with the person who let the corruption rule the day?
And now just voted to end the session to prevent another committee vote to bring the recall bill forward? She allowed it to be hijacked, now she is stomping on it. How much does Halvorson believe we can stomach?
Ozinga is definately not the problem. He isn’t even a politician. The problem is the Senate Majority Leader and her silent partner, Mr. Jones.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 2:36 pm:
She voted ‘yes’, watched the vote fail, then moved to quickly kill debate.
Like her action on the Rules Committee, Halvorson is saying one thing for her campaign, but using her power in Springfield to act against it.
“Queen of Gridlock”
- JonShibleyFan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 3:14 pm:
Fish much, VM?
- JonShibleyFan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 3:22 pm:
By the way, if I am reading correctly, some have posited that Ozinga gave money to some unsavory politicians and political organizations, but that doing so is part and parcel for doing state business, and as such, he should not be held accountable for these donations.
If I read this wrong, I apologize.
If I read it correctly, then…
WHAT!?
This argument is the height of absurdity, and embarrassingly apologetic. No one is forcing him to run for office. No one forced him to bid for state business.
Since when are the business dealings of candidates off limits? If he were Martin Ozinga the cement truck driver, would his name and the word Congress even have been used in the same paragraph?
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 4:26 pm:
While Halvorson may get some grief over this, I’m not sure the specifics will play well outside the small group of people who pay attention to such things.
It’s hard to see how it won’t look like nitpicking. “Deb is Blagojovich’s friend because she voted for the recall amendment and then, when it didn’t pass, she made a motion to adjourn.” doesn’t sound that bad unless you explain the implications of the Senate rules. I don’t see how that plays well in a 30-second TV ad, and, if you put it on a flier, it will end up in the trash.
Now, if she’s caught without a flag pin, then they’ll have something people can vote on.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 4:30 pm:
==No one forced him to bid for state business.==
In this state when a politician calls you for support, you give it regardless of your views. This is a pay-to-play state. To tell businessmen that they don’t have to bid for state business and don’t have to donate to political offices, you are the one being absurd.
Your statement doesn’t take into consideration reality for Illinois businesspeople who deal with Illinois politicians and government, does it?
You must not be a Illinois businessman.
- PC - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 4:36 pm:
The DCCC idiots could screw this up for Halvorson. She should know enough/have enough experience to keep them in check, unlike Duckworth. That old 6th District crew is now busy tripping over everything Hillary and McSame throw in front of Barack …
You talk about Halvorson’s PR person putting his foot in his mouth, I found that Ozinga press release a little convoluted and far-reaching. Kinda looked like it was puked up like Kerry Wood just did in the 9th.
Anyone check the Ozinga Web site link? Looks like he has the endorsement of his family and employees… that’s a start. McSweeney, Oberweis, now Ozinga, when are these guys ever going to stop throwing their money away? Want to help the middle class? Giving your money to consultants is one way I guess.
- cermak_rd - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 4:45 pm:
VM,
Not every business does state business, in fact most don’t because the state is not a particularly good customer (they tend to pay late and are pains in the necks over documentation) compared to private sector customers. If you as a business owner choose to play in the public sector market and you choose to play by corrupt rules, rather than expose them and take the consequences, then yes, your choices can be held against you.
- JonShibleyFan - Thursday, May 1, 08 @ 11:41 pm:
Well, VM, assuming you’ve cross referenced every state vendor on the Comptroller’s web site against every business donor on the ISBE web site so as to be able to write with such certitude, I will nevertheless state once again:
No one forced him to bid on state business. And no one forced him to run for office.