* Mike Boland didn’t just lose his “top staffer,” the kid was basically Boland’s only staffer…
Mike Boland’s top staffer has resigned from his congressional campaign citing “strategic differences.”
Auston McLain, Mr. Boland’s campaign manager, who left the campaign Monday, said Tuesday, “Mike and I continue to be great friends. He did not wish to see me go, and there is not an ounce of harsh feelings on either side.”
Mr. Boland, a former state representative, is one of six Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for U.S. Congress in the 17th Congressional District in the 2012 elections. The others are Greg Aguilar, Cheri Bustos, Eric Reyes, state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, and Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp. […]
Mr. Boland confirmed Tuesday that Mr. McLain’s resignation was “friendly” and “amicable.”
Boland has good name recognition in the district, but he’ll need more than that. This latest move means we can cue the increased speculation that Boland ends up running for state Senate against fellow Democrat and longtime enemy Mike Jacobs.
* Boland had to deal with a bit of a controversy earlier this week…
A Quad City candidate for Congress says he did nothing wrong when he solicited campaign donations via e-mail from teachers at Blackhawk College last month, even though he is on the Board of Trustees at the school.
In a memo obtained by News 8, a union representative for faculty named Joan Eastlund wrote to members about the e-mail blast, saying ‘’as a trustee, Mike Boland will be in the position to vote directly on the retention, tenure and promotion of faculty members. This presents a clear conflct of interest.'’
The union asks that Boland recuse himself from voting on all personnel hiring, promotions, and firings. […]
Boland says five thousand e-mails were sent in the blast for contributions, those received at Blackhawk College just a small portion of the group.
‘’It’s copied after Obama, what he did in 2008. Getting those massive small donations'’, Boland said. ‘’It’s obviously political'’.
* In other news, former Democratic state Rep. Jay Hoffman released poll results of 400 likely voters taken August 10-15 which he says show he has a good shot against Republican incumbent Tim Johnson. From a press release…
The generic ballot question showed this district to be a tossup with 43% favoring a Democratic candidate and 43% favoring a Republican.
The initial trial heat, prior to providing respondents with any information about either candidate, showed Johnson leading Hoffman 44% to 33%, which can be attributed to his higher name recognition. However as respondents learned more about each candidate Hoffman gained considerably and moved ahead of Johnson. […]
Respondents were read a bio of each candidate’s accomplishments followed by a series of likely criticisms and when the respondents were then asked their preference between Jay Hoffman and Tim Johnson the respondents preferred Hoffman 43% to 42%. Respondents were specifically told about Hoffman’s former ties to Rod Blagojevich as well as his vote for a temporary income tax increase. For Congressman Johnson the respondents were told about his support for President Bush’s budgets and fiscal policies as well as his votes in favor of corporate and business interests.
The Hoffman campaign refused to release the exact wording of the negative pushes. That’s usually the case. But just keep in mind that polls can be gamed that way.
* React…
A spokesman for Johnson discounted the poll’s findings.
“I think you have to take into account who did the polling and what they were asking,” Johnson spokesman Phil Bloomer said. “Tim voted against Bush’s budgets for several years. This is not something new for him to vote against these budgets just since President Obama has been in office.”
Asked if Johnson’s campaign has done any polling, Bloomer said, “Not that I’m aware of.”
* Johnson’s new district includes several college campuses, including UIUC, ISU and UIS. So this can’t hurt…
About two years after he first called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, now appears to be gaining the support of his constituents. […]
Johnson said he doesn’t believe his constituents “are one iota safer because we’re losing thousands of American men and women, and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Libya and Iraq.”
“I have consistently voted in appropriation after appropriation and bill after bill to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya,” he said. It was at that point and during other statements about defense spending that Johnson received his only sustained applause during the meeting.
* Johnson might have some problems with these ideas, however…
Johnson also suggested gradually raising the retirement age to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and said he was willing to look at revenue measures, not just budget cuts, to reduce the federal deficit.
* Other stuff…
* Kinzinger campaign kickoff Saturday in Ottawa: “The exact district won’t be known until we hear the court ruling (on the new state redistricting map). If the Democrats’ map upholds, he’ll run in the 16th. If it’s the Republican map, it’ll be the 11th,” said Kinzinger’s Press Secretary Brook Hougeson.
* Quigley, Gutierrez, Schakowsky to hold hearing on DOMA
- PoliGeek - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 8:27 am:
the email thing is stupid. Joan Eastlund called for him to recuse himself from any votes on staff hirings, firings, promotions and anything else related and made a big deal about that.
….except he already had done so before they even asked for it.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 8:52 am:
–Johnson said he doesn’t believe his constituents “are one iota safer because we’re losing thousands of American men and women, and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Libya and Iraq.”–
Wish I could vote for him.
- Independent - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 8:59 am:
Before opening the link I assumed the Johnson’s applause was from an audience at one of the those universities. To read it came from from a largely white and conservative audience in Decatur was surprising.
- Lil Enchilada - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 9:03 am:
I would jump ship too. After reading the following newpaper article I thought Boland was losing it. He doesn’t even remember picking up state Senate petitions and the district committeeman had to remind him that he had personally picked them up. All I can say is WOW.
http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/elections/boland-says-he-s-focused-on-congressional-race-not-possible/article_1e1f8e52-eb14-11e0-bbfa-001cc4c03286.html
- sad - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 9:15 am:
I have never donated to a pol in my life, but I would give money to anybody that takes on Jacobs in a primary. The fact he is an elected official blows my mind.
- hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 10:05 am:
Johnson is an interesting case. Now I have actually taken the time to personally write a letter thanking him for his vote to defund the wars and I thank him here now for that vote in this post.
That said, does Tim Johnson necessarily deserve to be rewarded with another term in office when even if he came around to defunding the wars the last couple years, he voted for the legislation authorizing these wars in the first place that he says are not making America “one iota safer”?
As for the reaction of the audience, it’s not surprising to me that white conservative folks are ready for the wars to end. Conservatives may finally be coming home to their foreign policy roots. My conservative father lives in Johnson’s current district and though we can fight about every other issue in politics, ending the wars is the one area where we can always find agreement in the last few years. I mean where do people think the Republican supporters for Ron Paul are coming from? It’s not all druggies and monetary policy obsessives.
I mean now that Osama bin Laden is dead, what person isn’t ready for these wars to end? Certainly there’s a lot of white conservative older folks much more ready for the wars to end after being told that the country’s too broke to pay for Medicare and Social Security.
- Joe from Joliet - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 10:06 am:
… Hoffman campaign refused to release …
Maybe another defeat will convince “Blagofer” Hoffman to finally go away.
- Gregor - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 10:33 am:
Hoffman’s already showed us who he is. Why anybody would elect him dog catcher is beyond me. Tim may have lost some of the Bill-Black-Like fire he used to have, but his head is screwed on straight, and he seems to be his own man.
- A Regular Voter Speaks - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 10:50 am:
Both Boland and Jacobs are pathetic. I would be hard pressed to choose between these two.
- Mike Huntoon - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 10:56 am:
Mike and Auston are both friends - well wishes to both!
The stresses inherent in campaigns are one reason I’ve personally left the field of politics and campaigns - my blood pressure’s down 40 points and I’ve lost 40 pounds since leaving Boland’s employ in January . . .
God bless those who still have the stomach for this essential work . . . it gets more difficult with every passing season IMHO!
- Tom - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 10:59 am:
IF Jay goes up only a point after the push, he is going to lose. Next year is not goin go be good for democrats.
- Jaded - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 11:22 am:
Hoffman needs to forget about this seat and run for Costello’s seat.
- Carl Nyberg - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 11:28 am:
Raising the Medicare age?
This will make health care more expensive, cost the average American probably over $30K of his/her net worth (over $60K for a couple)… but hey, it’s lucrative for the health insurance industry.
- QC - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 11:29 am:
Wonder what would happen if Boland wises up and runs in the 71st against Rich Morthland.
- Blagoff - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 11:46 am:
No cross tabs and no partisan sample numbers = no credibility
- Shore - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 12:27 pm:
If the report this morning that halvorson will run against Jackson is true my list for best matchups next year in ones I am most looking forward to.
1. Jackson-Halvorson
1a. walsh-hultgren
3.Duckworth-krishnamoorthi
4.Biggert-Foster
5.Kinzinger-Manzullo
6.dold-opponent
7.Schilling-opponent
8.open costello seat
9.johnson-opponent
I can’t remember the last time we had 9 competitive congressional races.
- Apple - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 12:41 pm:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-111005halvorson-story,0,7381796.story
- Dirty Red - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 1:28 pm:
Boland claimed much earlier this year that the same people encouraging him to run for Congress were also pushing him to run against Jacobs. Heavy is the Congressional crown, but it was also before the new maps were released.
- D.P. Gumby - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 2:00 pm:
Johnson has been a burr under my saddle for 30 years. The last time I pulled a Rep. primary ballot was to vote for his opponent. His current rant of pulling out of Iraq and Afghan. is so disingenuous given his history that it seems merely another scam on the constituents.
- Quinn T. Sential - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 3:08 pm:
With Halvorson in, this makes for an even more interesting 2012 congressional cycle.
- Louie - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 3:30 pm:
Hoffman couldn’t win back his old state rep seat, after doing polling in the district. What makes him think his votes for the tax increase and ties to Blogo will make him have more appeal in this congessional district. Plus, Hoffman has always had a huge money advantage in his past races and gone up against 3rd tier candidates, until Dwight Kay used his name Id from his first campaign to build an effective message the second time around. I agree with a previous post. Hoffman wants to be in Congress he needs to run in the Costello district.
- Cincinnatus - Wednesday, Oct 5, 11 @ 4:21 pm:
Right you are, QTS. It’s sure nice to see Republicans aren’t the only ones the eat each other up this cycle!