In the interim, do you have any drinking game phrases we could choose? “Land of Lincoln” and “Deconstruct and reconstruct” seem two likely choices for the two main party guys. Anything else?
“It has to do with a world-view,'’ Quinn said today, when asked about the appropriateness of the ad, during a meeting with the Post-Dispatch editorial board. Mass euthanasia of animals is “very cruel . . . It’s revolting to the people of Illinois.'’
* It’s so fun watching them dodge questions about the budget. Actually, it’s not fun at all. Quinn: More jobs will balance the budget. True, in a few years, yes. If, that is, we get those jobs. And that’s a big if.
Brady went full circle, talking about funding schools, public health, public safety, social services, but without saying anything about what he’d cut. I hope there’s an opportunity for follow-up because so far it’s just somebody says something and then they move on.
* And, now, on to jobs. Brady: “Level the playing field by being ‘pro job’ by being ‘pro business.” Quinn uses “Ford” and “Navistar” for the kabillionth time, while making the good point that those companies chose Illinois, not Indiana. “The best way to fight poverty, the best way to fight crime” is jobs. No specifics, of course, on how we get those.
* So far, this isn’t a debate, it’s three separate press conferences held together without any real interaction and no follow-ups. It’s all talking points. They’re not even looking at each other.
* Brady actually said “There you go again, Gov. Quinn.” I wrote a while ago that this campaign looked a lot like Carter vs. Reagan, but I wasn’t expecting the guy to actually lift Reagan’s quote.
* Ah, finally, rebuttal.
* Brady, in response to Quinn, just said he claimed there would be a “natural rise in property valuation” not a natural rise in property taxes when questioned at the State Fair by reporters. I’m going to have to find that video soon.
…And here is the video. Brady’s actual quote: “Well, there’s some natural property taxes that will go into effect.” So far, that’s the only news out of this debate except for the fact that Rich Whitney has pretty much outclassed both of the major party candidates.
Brady: “Taking taxpayer dollars to put people to work in the private sector is no solution… Let the private sector deal with creating jobs.”
Whitney: Ethanol is a “delusion,” and more about “enriching Archer Daniels Midland” than helping farmers. Wants more local food production for local use.
* Quinn just called himself “Mr. Soybean” again. Sigh. Is there a talking point not used yet?
* Brady, re tax hikes: “Gov. Quinn has been a politician so long that he can’t remember what he was for and now he is against.”
* Closing statements. Quinn mentions a veteran he spent some time with today. I was wondering how long that would take.
Brady: “If you like the way things are today, then one of these two candidates is your candidate.” He paints his ten percent cuts as “fair” because he won’t single out education and public safety for attack. Very nice spin. Beats the truth, which is that everybody is gonna get whacked hard.
Brady’s personal views veer to the right of our tastes and the well-being of the state, but we take him at his word that he won’t push a social agenda as governor and we call on him to govern from the middle.
* But the Associated Press asked the question a different way. Brady told the DH that he wouldn’t seek to overturn a civil unions law if it was passed, but here’s what he said when asked what he’d do if the legislature passes a civil unions bill after he’s sworn in…
Brady also says he would veto legislation letting gay couples establish civil unions in Illinois.
So much for “the legislature would have spoken” and the “legislative process will determine the state’s agenda on social issues.”
This is no surprise, of course. But the Daily Herald seemed to think the conservative lion had been somehow tamed. Nope.
* Bill Brady said again today that he won’t raise taxes and fees if elected. From an AP story…
Brady continues to duck questions about spending cuts.
He wouldn’t take a firm position on cutting children’s health services that grew under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and he couldn’t name any sacrifices the people of Illinois will have to make.
Sheila Simon, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, says that if she and Gov. Pat Quinn win November’s election, they won’t cut Medicaid eligibility standards in an effort to reduce the state’s Medicaid costs.
And…
Patty Schuh, a spokeswoman for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady, declined to say whether Brady would seek to tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements if elected,calling it a hypothetical question.
It won’t be “hypothetical” come January.
* Maybe my old pal Jak Tichenor can pry some answers out of the gubernatorial candidates tonight when he moderates the debate…
What is being billed as the only downstate debate between the major candidates for Illinois governor kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, Republican challenger Bill Brady and Green Party nominee Rich Whitney will square off at WSIU-TV studios.
My intern Barton Lorimor will be at the debate as well, so we’ll have video clips later. I’ll ask him to check the blog if you’d like to pose your own questions here. We’ll see if he can get some questions in during any press conferences the candidates may have. So, fire away.
*** UPDATE *** WSIU TV will also offer a live video stream starting just before 8 o’clock tonight. Click here.
In the battle for campaign cash in the waning weeks of the governor’s race, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has is slightly ahead of Republican Bill Brady.
Since Oct. 4, Quinn has reported raising $1.5 million while Brady has raised nearly $1.3 million.
Quinn’s top donor has been the political arm of Service Employees International Union, which has donated $750,000. The Republican Governors Association has donated more than $585,000 to Brady’s campaign.
Billionaires Kenneth and Anne Griffin have donated $100,000 to Brady. The couple, who recently donated $16 million to Children’s Memorial Hospital, also gave $125,000 to the House Republican Organization.
* Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign has released its head-to-head topline from its latest tracking poll. Read the full, but quite brief memo by clicking here…
…Adding… Kirk’s campaign claims that Giannoulias released these numbers to boost what they claim to be lagging fundraising. They also claim that all of their internals have shown a Kirk lead since the summer.
600 likely voters conducted Oct. 10-12, with a +/-4 percent margin of error. Rasmussen had Mark Kirk trailing Giannoulias 44-43 [Corrected. Sorry.], but they didn’t include all the candidates. Just stupid. And this is one reason why…
Democratic operatives have apparently begun “push polling” in Illinois, trying to drive a wedge between conservative voters and Rep. Mark Kirk, the centrist Republican seeking the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.
According to people who have heard it, the call talks up Libertarian candidate Mike Labno as the only true “pro-life” candidate in a race that also includes Democratic State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones. It also referred to Kirk’s vote last year for Obama-backed legislation capping carbon emissions and setting up a system for polluters to trade greenhouse gas emissions credits.
The poll “asked how likely are you to vote…for governor, if today who…for Senate, if today who… (and mispronounced Giannoulias)…gave some negatives for Kirk including cap-and-trade… and listed Labno positions,” wrote a commenter on the website of the West Suburban Patriots, a Chicago-area Tea Party group. The poster said the poll concluded with a disclaimer that it was sponsored by the Democratic National Committee.
…Adding… Here’s the thing, a relative handful of Illinois voters watched last weekend’s debate, and this reporter is reading way too much into what went on…
And the fact that Kirk pressed Giannoulias on the loans during last Sunday’s “Meet the Press”, while Giannoulias opted not to directly challenge Kirk on his exaggerations shows the Republican line of attack is more damaging.
Yeah. OK. That’s why Giannoulias is using the line of attack in all his ads.
* The Tribune, by the way, fronted a big Bright Start story today. Most of the new stuff was tick-tock and the piece seemed to exonerate Giannoulias on several fronts. The tone, however, probably wasn’t so great for the treasurer, and a front-page story with a big photo of Giannoulias emerging from behind a curtain wasn’t so hot, either. I’m not really sure what to think about this piece. Go read it and report back.
* Rasmussen has a new poll out and while they finally included Scott Lee Cohen in the question, they didn’t include Libertarian Lex Green. Instead, they gave voters an option for “some other candidate.” That’s just goofy. Why ask about “other” when they could’ve just asked about Green? Anyway, Raz has Bill Brady leading Quinn by six points, 46-40, but not including all candidates is a huge mistake and bad polling practices and that’s all I’m going to say about this head-to-head result.
Here are a couple of interesting toplines, however…
* Who has been a better manager of the state’s finances as governor - Pat Quinn or Rod Blagojevich?
55% Quinn
18% Blagojevich
28% Not sure
That puts Brady out of step. The other day, Brady said there was “no question” that Quinn was “far worse” than Blagojevich.
And…
* Which candidate for governor has a better plan for creating jobs in Illinois….Bill Brady or Pat Quinn?
43% Brady
30% Quinn
27% not sure
I didn’t know that either one of them had a real plan. Either way, that’s not good news at all for Gov. Quinn. Not at all. He’s just not seen as a good governor. Better than Blagojevich, sure, but that’s setting the bar pretty darned low.
* I have never seen a candidate crow about being 18 points behind before. But here’s the press release…
The Pollak for Congress campaign has released poll data showing that Democrat incumbent Jan Schakowsky has fallen to 48%, while Republican challenger Joel Pollak is gaining ground at 30%.
OK, so Schakowsky is under 50, but the guy is at 30 with less than three weeks to go. That’s a long way to move, baby.
* Almost everyone’s caption yesterday on the photo of Mark pointing upwards focused on his goofy prediliction toward embellishment. Wordslinger’s was very funny…
“We landed right there, in the Sea of Tranquility. I remember telling Neil and Buzz, ‘you guys go ahead, I’m taking the rover over to a meeting with a delegation of the Klingons….”
I’ve asked Word to start thinking about writing for the front page, so it would be a bit of a conflict to give him the win.
Oswego Willy’s was the most comprehensively funny…
In this slide, I am rescuing a baby from a burning building, using only dental floss, a ball point pen, and gum …. next slide … this is me, at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow winning the Decathalon, and singing the national anthem - a very proud moment … next slide … this is me, with Elvis and with President Nixon in the Oval Office - what a card Elvis was! … next slide … This is me handing the ball off to William Perry a.k.a. the Fridge, in Super Bowl XX … next slide … this is me, on top of the Berlin Wall, saying “itch bein ein Berliner” … next slide … this is me, Begin, Sadat and Jimmy Carter at the White House - powerful meeting … next slide … this is me, Scotty Pippen, and Michael Jordan talking to Phil Jackson during a timeout …next slide … oh, this is me, and Ald. Dick Mell standing on our desks when I suggested Eugene Sawyer to be the next mayor of Chicago …next slide …
One day, he will win.
But “(618)662 Dem” captured Kirk’s personality tic perfectly and in the least number of words, so he gets the win…
See that mark up there, that’s how tall I am.
Sublime.
Please e-mail me to set up our evening of drinking.
* I would make a stupid wisecrack about Whitney losing black votes over this, but that would be so very wrong…
The last name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled as “Whitey” on electronic-voting machines in nearly two dozen wards — about half in predominantly African-American areas — and election officials said Wednesday the problem cannot be corrected by Election Day.
The misspelling turned up on touch-screen machines in 23 wards overall. Whitney’s name is spelled correctly on the machines’ initial screens showing all of the candidates’ names, but it is misspelled on review screens that later show a voter his or her choices, said Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections.
Whitney went there, however…
“I don’t want to be identified as ‘Whitey.’ If this is happening in primarily African-American wards, that’s an even bigger concern,” Whitney told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I don’t know if this is machine politics at play or why this happened.”
It seems odd that the machines can’t easily be reprogrammed to correct this. But it is only happening on review screens, not the original voting screen, so it isn’t as horrible as it could be.
* On to someone with a brighter political future. As I told subscribers today, there’s a big unaddressed question in this Sun-Times story…
Top tip . . .
Sneed hears rumbles Attorney General Lisa Madigan is eyeing a bid to run for mayor of Chicago.
Consider.
• Fact: The election for statewide offices is Nov. 2.
• Fact: The filing deadline for Chicago mayoral candidates is Nov. 22.
• The kicker: “The day after the Nov. 2 statewide elections, when Lisa is expected to be re-elected, she then … could do anything she wants,” said a top Dem source.
• Lisa’s response (via a press spokesman): “She is focusing on her race for attorney general.
• Sneed’s retort: “Is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no?’”
• Lisa’s response (via a press spokesman): “She is in Rockford today campaigning. She is focusing on running for attorney general.”
• Lisa Lore: Madigan, a devoted mother of two daughters — who shocked everyone with her new look on the cover of Sherren Leigh’s popular Today’s Chicago Woman magazine, is a top statewide vote-getter and a favorite amongst women voters. Her father, powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan, is head of the state Democratic Party.
• The big question: Will Lisa shock all the boys battling for the mayoral mantle and enter the fray on Nov. 3?
If she wins the mayor’s race, she has to resign her attorney general post. The governor would appoint her replacement. I’m somewhat doubtful that she would want Republican Bill Brady to do that. Stranger this have happened, but I’m just not sure she want that. We’ll see.
*** UPDATE *** WBEZ’s Allison Cuddy interviewed AG Madigan on “Eight Forty Eight” this morning. As a commenter noted, while Madigan’s statement was not exactly Shermanesque, it sure looks like her answer is “No.” Listen…
Transcript…
Cuddy: You have not definitively ruled out whether or not you’ll run (for mayor)
LMadigan: I think I have. I just don’t think it’s been reported that way.
Cuddy: Are you going to run for mayor?
LMadigan: No, my goal is to serve as your attorney general.
* The Dan Rutherford for state treasurer campaign says this is the first shot in a $1 million TV buy. They say the ad is up on Chicago network right now. Rate it…
*** UPDATE *** Democrat Robin Kelly’s state treasurer campaign says that Rutherford bought $600,000 on Chicago TV so far. They also said that they have “six figures” behind this radio ad…
They claim the radio ad started running Tuesday in Chicago, Metro East, Peoria and Rockford.
* Vice President Joe Biden reportedly spoke for eleven days the other night during a rally for Gov. Pat Quinn. The Quinn campaign gives us the abridged version…
The report, by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, says Illinois does well on matters such as imposing building codes that require use of techniques and materials that will save energy, but ranks poorly on transportation, where the state has no fuel-efficiency standards for its own cars.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday afternoon is set to announce its long-expected decision to approve blending higher concentrations of ethanol into gasoline for newer vehicles, allowing mixtures of up to 15% of the corn-based fuel at the gas pump.
But the decision is controversial and complicated. It creates two grades of ethanol-blended gasoline, the higher of which isn’t approved for use in older cars, and could lead to confusion at the pump. Retailers will have to install new pumps or decide which of the two grades to sell.
Mayor Richard Daley says his 2011 budget proposal allows for 150 to 200 new cops. But his administration is vague about whether that’ll be a net gain, once police retirements are taken into account.
According to court documents filed last month, when her former campaign treasurer “questioned Mrs. Gorman about her motives and expressed her concern. … Mrs. Gorman ’said (she) just wanted money moved out of that bank.’”
Now Gorman faces possible contempt charges for the December 2009 transfer. In a strongly worded opinion, U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys recommended Gorman be held in contempt of court if she does not return the $68,000 to her campaign fund, which had been subpoenaed by Chrysler Financial Services.
Details about his job duties weren’t available, but Talley does serve in a position exempt from the court-ordered ban on political hiring and firing, Bright said.
That means he serves at the will of the board president.
The move came about two months after local political candidate Scott Pollak claimed the chief tried to attack him at the police station.
Pollak, a Democrat running for state representative against incumbent Republican JoAnn Osmond, had gone to the station because of an earlier confrontation between officers, Pollak’s teenage son and other teens over whether a permit was needed for door-to-door campaigning.
As of 4 p.m. [yesterday], 65 of the state’s 102 counties had responded and all but 12 had gotten the ballots out by the deadline, said Rupert Borgsmiller, spokesman for the State Board of Elections.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law.
Of course, Drudge linked to WLS’ story with a huge banner headline…
Ok, take a deep breath, Matt. The State of Illinois couldn’t have missed the deadline because the counties or cities (depending) mail the ballots. Also, please disregard this ignorant press release statement by gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady, who really ought to know better…
“I am deeply concerned about today’s disturbing report that Illinois may have failed to mail absentee ballots to our military members serving overseas in a timely manner, and in accordance with the law,” Brady said.
Once again, the state doesn’t mail absentee ballots. So, be sure to pretermit this breathless press release by Congressman Mark Kirk, likely dictated via satellite phone as he was flying over some combat zone in a fighter jet he designed himself…
“Our men and women in uniform are putting their lives on the line everyday to defend our democratic freedoms. What a disgrace it would be if our state denied them theirs. I will do everything in my power to defend the rights of our men and women in uniform. I urge my opponent, Alexi Giannoulias, to stand with me in support of our men and women in uniform.”
“Our state” isn’t denying anybody anything, except timely bill payments, of course, and perhaps quality candidates. And neither is the secretary of state…
The Dept. of justice is investigating whether the Democrat Secretary of State for Illinois has somehow forgotten to send thousands of absentee ballots out to members of the military serving overseas
Um, dude, our Illinois secretary of state is not involved with the conduct of elections. You must have Jesse White confused with Katherine Harris. That’s a bit hard to do, though. He’s an older African-American gentleman. She’s an older white woman. He played baseball. She played hardball. Florida is also not Illinois. It’s warm down there in the winter. It’s usually quite cold up here during that particular season. They have palm trees and miles and miles of ocean and Gulf beaches. We don’t. They also have different state laws. Maybe (I doubt it, but maybe) you’re thinking of the Illinois State Board of Elections, which runs one of the worst websites on the planet, but still does not have anything to do with the physical process of actually mailing absentee ballots. That task, you see, is done by counties and city election authorities.
The voter must obtain an application for absentee ballot, either by mail or in person, from their election authority (county clerk or board of election commissioners). Upon receiving the application, the voter completes and returns it to the election authority. It must include their name; home address; address where they want the ballot mailed; party affiliation for a primary election; and signature. The completed application must then be returned to the election authority in the appropriate time frame.
Are we clear now? Can we move along to the real villains in this sad and messed up tale? Thank you.
Officials with two of Illinois’ largest jurisdictions — the Chicago Board of Elections and the Cook County Board of Elections— said Wednesday that they mailed ballots on time.
But we do know of at least one self-admitted violator. And the St. Clair county clerk is undoubtedly in for a very rude awakening…
St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney said 1,297 overseas military ballots — many of them connected with Scott Air Force Base — didn’t get sent out until Oct. 4, primarily because he was waiting for a decision on whether the Constitution Party would be allowed on the ballot.
Under the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) act, ballots are supposed to be sent 45 days before the election in order to give troops time to fill them out and return them for counting.
Delaney said it wouldn’t have made financial sense to send out two versions of the ballot if the Constitution Party had won its case.
“This is not just like sending out your grocery list,” Delaney said. “I really don’t care what the Department of Justice thinks.”
“I really don’t care what the Department of Justice thinks.” Famous last words. Sic ‘em, boys. And use the teeth.
For a county clerk to violate federal voter law over a few bucks and perhaps deny members of the military their right to vote is just ridiculous. Apparently, this man has never had to rely on the military mail service. I had to do so as a civilian dependent of my parents when they were stationed in Germany. APO makes the USPS look like e-mail. Heckuva job, Bobby.
Now, as far as I know, counties will count ballots from overseas if they are postmarked by election day. And some counties do a fax and e-mail application service. There are still ways to vote if someone you know is in this mess. Make sure to contact your local election office.
* We all watched a video yesterday afternoon of Republican gadfly William Kelly at a Rahm Emanuel press conference. Kelly repeatedly insisted that he was a reporter for WIND Radio as he shouted at Emanuel and was shoved aside and yelled at by a couple of real live TV reporters. Turns out, Kelly ain’t a reporter…
In July, Kelly debuted a one-hour Saturday evening radio talk show called “The Kelly Truth Squad” on WIND-AM (560). But Kelly buys the air time on WIND and is not an employee of the station — an arrangement that the host argues gives him more leeway in what he can say and do on the show.
But that arrangement caused WIND general manager Jeff Reisman to take issue with one aspect of Monday’s video. “It was wrong for Kelly to call himself a reporter at WIND when he does not work for the station,” said Reisman
* The Drudge Report linked to Kelly’s video with this headline…
Chicago hometown reporters shield Emanuel from outsider’s questions
Neither Levine or Thomas were available for comment, but a Channel 7 spokeswoman downplayed any suggestion the video might have captured an unflattering side of Thomas as street reporter: “What the video shows is Charles Thomas trying to get in position so that he could have his question answered,” said the station spokeswoman. A Channel 2 spokeswoman said the station stands by Levine. “Jay is an aggressive reporter, and we let his reporting do the talking for him,” added the spokeswoman.
So, to summarize, we have a loud, odd individual whose greatest claim to fame when he ran for comptroller was his attempt to goad state treasurer and US Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias into a boxing match showing up at a Rahm Emanuei press availability with a video cameraman while claiming to be a radio reporter (notice the problem right there), but he isn’t a radio reporter because he only buys time on the station once a week for his talk show, but he managed to get some national attention because a site that lives to whack Democrats used the worst possible spin in its link. And, boy, does this person have high ambitions…
“I’d like to be the conservative version of Larry King,” said Kelly, referencing the longtime CNN talk show host who is about to retire.
Overshadowed by the frat house hijinks detailed in David Carr’s New York Times opus on Tribune Co. last week was a potentially more damaging allegation — that owner Sam Zell tried to use the Chicago Tribune to benefit his other business interests.
Former editor Ann Marie Lipinski recalled a June 2008 meeting at which the billionaire mogul told her the newspaper should be harder on then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (“Don’t be a p*ssy,” she quoted Zell saying. “You can always be harder on him.”) Later that day, she learned that Zell was negotiating to sell Wrigley Field to the state sports authority. Lipinski quit the following month.
Up until just a few short weeks ago, anything that even looked like a Blagojevich-related story was big news in this state. But now, we’ve got a potential barn-burner and there’s almost total silence. Strange, that. Apparently, “Rahm” is the new “Rod” for our press corps.
* The Sunlight Foundation is performing an excellent public service by totaling up all the reported outside spending on federal campaigns this season. For instance, here are the totals for the US Senate contest…
Alexander Giannoulias:
* Independent expenditures in support: $19,014.00
* Independent expenditures in opposition: $3,647,156.10
Mark Kirk:
* Independent expenditures in support: $147,628.76
* Independent expenditures in opposition: $1,845,565.00
Total outside spending in race: $5,659,363.86
Karl Rove’s groups have spent over $3.3 million on this campaign so far, making him the biggest outside spender, with more on the way. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee came in second at just under $1.8 million. Go here for the full list.
Bill Foster:
* Independent expenditures in support: $797,030.00
* Independent expenditures in opposition: $425,330.43
* Electioneering communications: $3,480.00
Randy Hultgren:
* Independent expenditures in support: $4,620.31
* Independent expenditures in opposition: $502,829.62
Total outside spending in race: $1,733,290.36
The National Association of Realtors has dropped $765K to help Congressman Foster, including $100K for Internet ads. America’s Families First Action Fund has spent almost $200K against the Republican Hultgren.
Durbin wants an investigation into Crossroads GPS, a conservative group that enjoys tax-exempt status. By law, the group’s activities aren’t supposed to be primarily political.
But Durbin says ads like this one, against Democratic senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, sure do sound political.
AD: …Illinois can’t afford any more Alexi.
Durbin says his problem is that Crossroads isn’t required to disclose its donors because it’s a nonprofit.
DURBIN: If you want to be treated as a charity, you can’t be a political organization.
The conservative group American Crossroads, which has been singled out for criticism by President Obama and other Democrats, said Wednesday that it has shattered its fundraising goals in the face of such attacks and will now expand its efforts into House races as a result.
American Crossroads and its nonprofit affiliate, Crossroads GPS, will join two other Republican-friendly groups in a “House surge strategy,” spending up to $50 million in competitive districts over the next three weeks, officials said. The Crossroads groups will also expand their spending in Senate races. […]
Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio said conservative outrage over the Democratic attacks helped the Crossroads group raise more than $13 million in the past week, shattering the group’s $52 million fundraising goal for the cycle. The two affiliates now expect to raise $65 million by Nov. 2. [Emphasis added.]
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dropped nearly $6.6 million in new independent expenditures this week, according to reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission, as the party faces an expanding landscape of vulnerable incumbents.
In the Mid-Atlantic region, the Midwest and the Southwest, the DCCC spent to help incumbents who increasingly appear to be in jeopardy. The committee has now spent just less than $19 million toward the $52 million strategists expect to dole out before Election Day.
But labor groups are trailing their big Republican counterparts in terms of overall ad spending: the SEIU has spent a total of $6.3 million on ad buys and the American Federation for State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has spent $7.1 million so far. By comparison, the Chamber has spent $20 million, and American Crossroads has dropped $13.5 million—and that’s only what’s been reported so far, before the blizzard of spending that accompanies the final weeks of any election.
The AFL-CIO originally supported the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, as the ruling lifted spending restrictions for both corporations and labor unions, and was wary about supporting campaign finance legislation that would require greater donor disclosure.
But having watched the ascendancy of outside GOP goliaths like American Crossroads, labor’s holdouts seemed to have changed their tune: AFL-CIO Richard Trumka said this week that he would unabashedly support greater disclosure requirements.
* All that Rove cash doesn’t seem to be working too well against Alexi Giannoulias, however. FiveThirtyEight gave Republican Mark Kirk a 56 percent chance of winning the US Senate race last week. It now gives Giannoulias a 53 percent shot, but the site’s model has this contest extremely close…
* Flip-flop website: The flip-flop website also points to a TV interview in which Schilling called a bill that in part funds the salaries of hundreds of teachers in the 17th Congressional District “one of the more appropriate spending bills that we can have.” The site contrasts that statement with Schilling’s later opposition to the same bill, reported on a GOP website.
* Michelle Obama: Giannoulias ‘will be a phenomenal senator’: At her second event of the night, Obama stood on the stage with Democratic Representatives Debbie Halvorson and Bill Foster and Dan Seals, who is hoping to replace Rep. Mark Kirk in the North Shore’s 10th district. Her husband needs all their votes, she said.
