Kirk and Giannoulias have now run within three points or less of each other in seven surveys since early June.
But a lot of voters still haven’t made up their minds. Just 56% of those who support Kirk say they are already certain how they will vote in November. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Giannoulias voters say the same, along with 47% of those who support Jones.
Kirk has the backing of 80% of Illinois Republicans, while Giannoulias is supported by 71% of the state’s Democrats. The GOP candidate has a better than two-to-one lead among voters not affiliated with either party. Jones gets single-digit support from voters in both major parties and unaffiliateds.
If you’re wondering why Giannoulias is still talking to his base, that’s why.
* “I’m going to read you a short list of issues in the news. For each, please let me know which political party you trust more to handle that issue”…
Democrats lead on almost everything except their candidates.
* For all his other faults, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. made a very valid point to the Chicago Defender…
[Jackson] said in order for Democrats in this state’s races to win, Quinn – who heads the ticket for the party – has to strengthen his campaign against his Republican challenger.
“If Governor Quinn and Sheila Simon cannot inspire turnout at the top of the ticket, then Alexi Giannoulias has problems, but so do David Miller and Robin Kelly in the state-wide races, and so do Debbie Halvorson and Dan Seals in congressional races,” … “And all the Democrats … should be telling Governor Quinn the same thing, and doing it publicly.”
This is the same thing I’ve been writing about for weeks in the subscriber section. Quinn is undoubtedly a drag on the ticket. How extreme of a drag he ends up being in November depends on whether he can somehow stabilize his campaign right now. Notice, I didn’t say “win.” I said “stabilize.” First things first.
Jackson adds…
“Pat Quinn has to come to our community to make up for what is going to be a tough road for them in other parts of the state. And the DNC and the party committees have to come to places like the South Side and the West Side and the South Suburbs too to help statewide candidates get across the finish line,” the congressman said. “And when they come to our community, it’s got to be with substance.”
That’s very true, especially with Scott Lee Cohen spreading money all over the West and South Sides. But Quinn is tanking so badly in the exurbs and Downstate that I’m not sure right now that he can make up the difference in Chicago/Cook.
* The Question: What one piece of campaign advice would you give both Pat Quinn and Bill Brady at this point in the campaign? Try not to be snarky, please. And explain fully. Thanks.
While insisting Illinois voters deserve “more honesty” from politicians, Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk repeatedly ducked questions or fell back on stock answers Tuesday when pressed about his military record, attacks on his opponent and other issues in one of the nation’s most-watched Senate races.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Kirk repeated his past apologies for exaggerating his accomplishments in the U.S. Naval Reserve, but would not comment in detail about the false claims or say why he made them. […]
Kirk refused to say whether he agrees that Alexi Giannoulias, his Democratic rival for the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama, is a “failed mob banker” — a label used almost daily by Republican allies and his own campaign. […]
Kirk was so precise during the hourlong interview that he described Giannoulias’ actions with virtually the same phrase — “he lent a tremendous amount of money to mobsters and felons” — eight times. […]
Kirk also has suggested he came under fire while an observer on flights over Kosovo and Iraq, but he repeatedly refused Tuesday to discuss those incidents or even confirm whether they took place.
I get that Kirk’s past problems with the truth means he has to watch every word he says, but constantly avoiding questions by repeating the same phrase over and over again will drive reporters absolutely batty.
On the other hand, give him props for staying on message. What some candidates fail to realize is that just because a reporter asks you a question more than once doesn’t mean you have to answer it.
* In other news, the Daily Caller takes a look at Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign attempting to inform voters through the media that the Libertarian Senate candidate is the only pro-life, pro-gun person in the race…
Brian Gaines, an associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a member of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, expressed doubts that either a Green or Libertarian candidate with little money and little name recognition could steal a significant number of votes to make a difference. “For Giannoulias, the risk of mentioning [Labno] at all is that it smacks of desperation,” he told The Daily Caller in an e-mail. “In his bid to ridicule Kirk, he could end up looking like a guy grasping for straws, wasting his breath on trivial points in the absence of a compelling message.”
He may be right if it’s only an earned media message, but since I first commented on this development I’ve been hearing about a planned paid media message via direct mail through an independent expenditure. We’ll have to see if it comes to fruition.
First lady Michelle Obama will visit Chicago on Oct. 13 to help raise money for state Democrats leading up to the Nov. 2 mid-term elections.
Obama will appear at a fundraiser for Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias and at a joint fundraiser for Reps. Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson and House candidate Dan Seals, her office announced today.
Don’t expect the first lady to take sharp aim at the Republicans.
Instead, an official said, Mrs. Obama will talk about how the country is beginning to turn a corner in terms of strengthening the middle class. She will highlight insurance coverage for children with pre-existing conditions, protection from hidden credit-card fees, work-life balance and other topics, the official said.
That visit will be covered heavily, and, of course, it ought to raise a whole bunch of cash for paid media.
Is it any wonder that Quinn finds himself looking up in the polls at a right-wing slacker who looks the part of a pleasant businessman and promises to cut the state budget, even though he can’t actually explain how he plans to do it either?
Let me answer that. No, it’s entirely understandable, and it’s a shame, because Pat Quinn is a good man who wants to do right by the people of Illinois. But he continues to show he just doesn’t get what the world of state government looks like to those outside it.
I can’t argue with a single word in that. Same with this…
The only means the governor has at his disposal to force AFSCME to the bargaining table is the threat of layoffs.
The problem is that Quinn considers himself a friend of state workers and doesn’t really believe in layoffs, which means that when push comes to shove, he’s a pushover.
“The worst thing to do in a recession is lay people off,” he told the editorial board.
I can understand that. Hasn’t been much fun to watch my friends ushered out the door here in recent years, maybe the same where you work. But I sure as heck don’t believe in increasing the pay of state workers when the state is broke and its residents are taking real pay cuts — the kind that leave you with less money than you used to get, not just a scheduled raise that gets postponed.
But not this…
There was some nonsense Tuesday from Republican candidate Bill Brady that the deal is “scandalous” because Quinn agreed to it around the same time he got the union’s endorsement. That’s stupid because the real problem is that Quinn was always inclined to protect those workers and always going to get that endorsement.
Not necessarily. Quinn signed the pension reform bill and AFSCME was hugely upset. They’ve sat out governor’s races before, they could’ve done it again. Quinn wanted that endorsement badly, so he pushed hard for it.
Gov. Quinn said Tuesday that Sen. Bill Brady should apologize to first lady Michelle Obama for a wisecrack commentator Glenn Beck made at her expense Saturday night. […]
“Get away from my French fries, Mrs. Obama,” Beck warned. “First politician that comes up to me with a carrot stick, I’ve got a place for it. And it’s not in my tummy.” […]
“I thought it was important: I was disturbed on Saturday night to see Glenn Beck come to our state and disparage and mock the first lady of the United States of America,” Quinn said Tuesday following a private debate before the Commercial Club of Chicago. “Michelle Obama is my friend.” […]
Tuesday’s Commercial Club forum was closed to the press and public. But Brady spokeswoman Patty Schuh said when Quinn asked Brady to apologize for what Beck said, “Bill answered to the roar of the crowd. ‘You have to be kidding me.’”
Tying Brady to Beck in a news item is a good thing, and Mrs. Obama is still quite popular, but this is more than a little trivial.
“As Bill Foster launches one desperate and dishonest attack after another on Randy Hultgren, it’s important that voters are fully informed of Bill Foster’s out-of-touch, liberal record of voting with Nancy Pelosi 93% of the time, and his support for the Wall Street bailout, the so-called ‘stimulus,’ and the Foster-Pelosi government takeover of health care,” said campaign spokesman Gill Stevens. “This ad does just that, and reminds voters that Bill Foster is part of the problem in Washington, DC.”
* Hare asks opponent to give back donation: Democratic Congressman Phil Hare is asking his Republican opponent in the November election to give back a campaign contribution from a company cited for worker’s death in 2007. Hare made the request of Bobby Schilling during an appearance Monday at the Galesburg Labor Temple.
* State senate 31 candidates differ on employer performance reviews
Robert T. Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission, said the last day to register in DuPage County is Oct. 5, for the Nov. 2 General Election.
More than 80 percent of grade school students met expectations on the state reading, math and science exams they took last spring, up slightly from 79.8 percent a year ago and continuing the steady climb seen over the last five years.
In high school, 52.7 percent of students passed in math and 52.4 percent of students got over the bar in science — the highest pass rate recorded in the last seven years. But last year’s junior class posted lower scores in reading — 54 percent of students passed, down from 56.9 percent a year earlier.
The Los Angeles Times published individual teacher ratings recently–they were based on the progress kids showed on state tests—and they sparked a boycott and protests.
In Chicago, Huberman wants to release similar information.
Victor Safforld said he confessed to two murders only because he was tortured by former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s underlings.
And as the 39-year-old walked out a free man late Tuesday evening, he maintained his innocence, even though he pleaded guilty to one of the 1990 gang-related murders last spring.
Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) mentioned the 37-acre campus that formerly housed Michael Reese Hospital, the old Chicago Post Office and 67 acres of vacant land at Roosevelt and Clark once owned by convicted businessman and Rod Blagojevich fund-raiser Tony Rezko as possible sites for a permanent casino.
But, Fioretti is not prepared to wait for construction of a permanent casino to stop the parade of gamblers and tax revenues flowing to Indiana casinos.
That’s why he’s talking about turning the underutilized McCormick Place East building known as Lakeside Center into a temporary casino, assuming he can convince the General Assembly to go along.
The list includes paying for rising healthcare costs for jail inmates, increased costs of psychological and special public defender services through court administration and several new positions in the county’s information technology department.
Police continue to investigate what happened to an Evergreen Park High School graduate who died over the weekend in Carbondale, where he attends Southern Illinois University.
Dan Seidl, 21, died about 4 p.m. Sunday of brain trauma after he apparently fell from a roof earlier Sunday, SIU spokesman Rod Sievers said.
Sievers said Seidl was a journalism major in his sophomore year.
