* Google News shows 29,061 mentions of the phrase “Main Street” in connection with the phrase “Wall Street” within news articles during the past two weeks.

How downright homespun of them.

Anyway, onto the roundup…

* The Daily Herald has yet another article about how Jim Oberweis has gone from riding in a black helicopter over Soldier Field to being Mr. Nice Guy…

[Oberweis campaign manager David From] recognizes Oberweis hasn’t been the most popular guy in the Illinois Republican Party. Attack-filled primary campaigns have been the norm in just about all the contests Oberweis has competed. That’s where timing comes in again, From believes. With no primary in this November contest, From said he believes Republicans in the district will have had sufficient time to get over any grudges lingering about their favored candidates not making the cut.

From said that at the start of the campaign, Republicans in the district gathered with Oberweis for a gripe session where not everything said was easy for Oberweis to hear. But it provided the tools for a makeover. Indeed, perhaps Dennis Hastert summed it up best when he openly told Oberweis in the news media that he needed to revamp his image.

That started with redirecting public attention on the issues. Immigration is still a hot-button issue for Oberweis, but it hasn’t played as prominent a role in the campaign as in other races, largely because of the economy taking center stage. While that’s bad for most Republicans this year, Oberweis has used it to position himself as the guy with the business and investment acumen to do the right thing at the right time.

In fact, the Oberweis campaign has tried to make the economy the one and only issue in the race. Recently, Oberweis told voters at a forum to vote for Foster if they think he and Congress got the $700 billion bailout package right. If not, they should vote for Oberweis. […]

In other words, there will be no helicopters or chicken feathers in this race. Indeed, the campaign doesn’t expect much help from the Republican Party nationally or locally to fund much advertisement at all. Instead, the approach to winning will be a hard line on the economy and a soft serve on the attacks that’s gotten Oberweis in trouble in the past.

“I haven’t changed,” Oberweis said. “I hope the perception of me has changed.”

As I told you yesterday, Charlie Cook has moved this race from from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic.

* More fallout from GOP Congressional candidate Marty Ozinga’s decision to bring Vice President Dick Cheney to town for a fundraiser...

Ozinga has campaigned on a platform proclaiming “I am not a politician,” while the Democrats have tried to link his policies to those of President George Bush.

Doesn’t the Cheney connection only add fuel to that fire and stymie the “I am not a politician” mantra? Sere doesn’t think so.

“In response to Debbie Halvorson’s attacks, I would say, I think voters are smart enough to see the real issue in the campaign is not what the vice president is doing for Marty’s campaign but what Debbie Halvorson has done for Rod Blagojevich at the expense of working families in the 11th District for a number of years,” Sere said.

In response, Halvorson’s campaign noted it was Ozinga who has given $23,000 to Blagojevich’s campaign throughout the years, including a $10,000 donation for a meeting with the governor to discuss concerns over statewide construction projects.

It’s so nice seeing both sides sticking to the issues in that campaign. lol

* The AP looks at a possible bailout vote fallout…

Republican Rep. Judy Biggert’s opponent criticizes her for first opposing the $700 billion bailout package but later supporting a revised version.

Democratic Rep. Bill Foster, who was sent to Congress in March through a special election, backed both versions of the bailout and faces an opponent - Jim Oberweis, a Sugar Grove businessman who made a fortune as an investment manager - with the money for a last-minute advertising blitz to make an issue of the votes. Oberweis said he would have voted against either incarnation.

And Rep. Peter Roskam, a freshman Republican, opposed the measure from beginning to end. His challenger, Jill Morgenthaler (D-Des Plaines), says she would have backed the bailout, reluctantly, because something had to be done to prevent an economic catastrophe.

Biggert’s challenger, former Chicago businessman Scott Harper (D-Lockport), sees the Hinsdale incumbent’s vote to be an asset to his own campaign. Harper, given little chance of winning on traditionally GOP turf in Chicago’s suburbs, said the five-term congresswoman has struck out in dealing with the nation’s worsening economic crisis.

The candidate with the most opportunity to make something of this bailout vote appears to be Oberweis, mainly because he’ll have the dough to finance the TV ads.

* Related…

* South Suburban Congressional Race Neck-and-Neck

* Iraq strategies divide 6th congressional rivals

* Bean, Greenberg differ on Iraq, Afghanistan