* Pat Byrnes, Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s husband, writes a great little blog that I like to read whenever I have the time. It’s called “Captain Dad,” and it’s about his adventures as what used to be known as a “house husband.” My own father was a house husband for a while, so I think it’s pretty cool.
PBS Kids is the only network TV I let my kids watch. We do it on Wednesday mornings, when my daughter is home from preschool.
Other than Friday and Saturday movie nights, that’s practically the only time we turn on our TV. (Sorry if that seems weird.)
What’s so special about PBS? Well, the educational aspect is nice, but that’s not the most important thing. And the escape from addictive violent imagery is a bonus, but not our prime consideration either. And I do appreciate that they don’t sexualize everything for all ages, but again that’s not the draw.
What’s special about PBS is the absence of commercials. The rock ‘em, sock ‘em, buy-buy-buy brainwashing that consumes a full quarter of the viewing experience on broadcast TV and a third on cable. I used to write commercials for kids’ TV, so I know exactly how much psychological research is exploited to transform young innocents into rabid consumers. “Still persuadable” is what they call the younger demographics. In other words, gullible. Suckers. Prey.
Other than baseball and football and occasional movies, I don’t watch much TV any more. And I watch or, more often, listen to most baseball games on the MLB network, so I am not exposed to many TV ads there (just the same one, over and over). I usually DVR football games, go do something else for a while, then fast-forward through the ads when I return. I eschew all cable “news” shows and am not interested all that much in local news, so I don’t see those ads, either, which means I miss out on a lot of political ads.
If I listen to the radio in my car, I’ll switch to another station when an ad comes on. So, the only political ads I’m usually exposed to are on YouTube and on the Internet. I do look at Internet ads. I’m not sure why. I even click through quite often. I hate those stupid pop-ups, pop-behinds, or the ads that block me from seeing a page, however.
Anyway, with all the money being spent on campaign ads nowadays, let’s try this…
* The Question: Do you generally watch TV ads? And, more specifically, do you pay attention to campaign TV ads? Explain.
A Texas super PAC has once again upped its bet on Congressman Joe Walsh, R-North Barrington, and now looks like it may well hit the $2 million mark on his behalf in the northwest suburban 8th District.
As of late Thursday, according to the Sunlight Foundation, the Now or Never PAC has reported spending $1.75 million here, mostly on TV ads promoting Mr. Walsh or zapping his Democratic foe, Tammy Duckworth.
The “independent” expenditures are up almost a half a million dollars just from earlier this week, with some tens of thousands of other spending by the group not yet reflected in Sunlight’s database.
* The complete totals from the Sunlight Foundation show that outside spending for Walsh and against Duckworth rack up to an astonishing $2.18 million - dwarfing the tiny amount of money spent on Duckworth’s behalf. The numbers…
WALSH, JOE (R) NOW OR NEVER PAC Support $917,320.00
DUCKWORTH, L. TAMMY (D) NOW OR NEVER PAC Oppose $829,148.00
WALSH, JOE (R) FREEDOMWORKS FOR AMERICA Support $181,215.44
DUCKWORTH, L. TAMMY (D) NEW PROSPERITY FOUNDATION; THE Oppose $171,993.49
DUCKWORTH, L. TAMMY (D) FREEDOMWORKS FOR AMERICA Oppose $83,532.15
WALSH, JOE (R) CREDO SUPERPAC Oppose $26,586.89
KRISHNAMOORTHI, S. RAJA (D) SUBURBAN VOTERS FOR CHOICE Support $25,215.00
WALSH, JOE (R) LUNCH PAIL REPUBLICANS INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE ONLY COMMITTEE Support $6,618.75
DUCKWORTH, L. TAMMY (D) LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS ACTION FUND Support $70.52
WALSH, JOE (R) CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC Support $61.66
WALSH, JOE (R) LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS ACTION FUND Oppose $52.87
WALSH, JOE (R) ILLINOIS TENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT DEMOCRATS Oppose $6.39
* Duckworth’s latest [This may actually be an older ad that just popped up again on YouTube] TV ad…
Duckworth has raised a lot of money so far, so she can fight back. But this is obviously a ton of outside cash.
*** UPDATE *** I took a quick look at some more outside spending and here’s what I found…
* Outside spending for 10th District Democrat Brad Schneider is just shy of $69,000, according to the Sunlight Foundation. By comparison, outside independent expenditures designed to help Republican incumbent Bob Dold is over $1.2 million.
* Over in the 11th CD, total independent expenditures topped $1.7 million. Of that, almost $1.6 million has been spent either attacking Democrat Bill Foster or supporting Republican incumbent Judy Biggert.
* It’s a bit more weighted toward the Democrats in the 17th CD, where over $1.2 million has been spent to help Republican Bobby Schilling, and over $1.9 million has been spent helping Democrat Cheri Bustos.
* In my opinion, this is one of the best TV ads of the season so far. Republican Congressman Bobby Schilling totally undercuts a powerful ad run by the DCCC (click here to see the DCCC’s ad). Schilling wrongly blames Cheri Bustos for the spot, but you still gotta watch this one…
Script…
Narrator: “Why is Cheri Bustos running a Chicago-style false attack ad on Bobby Schilling?”
Steve Ballard: “You forgot where you came from.”
Narrator: “But we know where this guy’s from. Bustos is using party bosses posing as local workers.
Hank Gray: “Why does Cheri Bustos have to go to Wrigley Field to raise campaign money? This is her district—here—not Chicago.
Randy Gebhardt: “Cheri Bustos is a tax-raiser. Like Bobby, I’m fed up with Washington.”
Jerry Schreiner: “What sets Bobby Schilling apart is that he’s one of us.”
Lori Rotz: “Leads by example. Go Bobby!”
Bobby Schilling: “I’m Bobby Schilling and I approved this message.”
That “Go Bobby!” line really works well. Your thoughts?
* Some background can be found in a recent letter to the editor from a Schilling fan…
OK, now the anti-Schilling ads are getting silly.
I just saw one in which Steve Ballard, former Rock Island County Democratic chairman and East Moline prison warden, is saying that he is disappointed in Rep. Bobby Schilling. What a joke! This is the same Steve Ballard who appointed the son of Phil Hare to be assistant prison warden, even though there was at least one more qualified candidate.
So, let’s line up all of the Rock Island County Democratic machine nepotists and let them testify how they don’t like Bobby Schilling, duh.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the Schilling campaign…
The Democrats’ ad included Dave DeBaillie, a former Henry County Democratic Party Chairman, Steve Ballard (pictured), a former Rock Island County Democratic Party Chairman, Cecilia O’Brien, wife of former Chief of Staff to Rep. Phil Hare, and Derek Jones, a former staffer for Rep. Phil Hare.
Sheesh.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From the DCCC…
Priceless: Tea Party Congressman Bobby Schilling Enlists Campaign Donor and Activist in Latest Bogus TV Ad
Reeling from attacks from his own constituents, Congressman Bobby Schilling enlisted one of his own campaign donors to appear in his newly released TV ad. Congressman Schilling actually accuses Democrats of “posing” as local workers in his new ad while at the same time defending himself with his own campaign donor, Jerry Schreiner. The same donor spoke on behalf of the Schilling campaign to the Quad Cities Argus Dispatch at a Schilling sponsored protest opposing raising the minimum wage.
“Could Congressman Bobby Schilling be any more desperate to change the subject from his record of voting to end the Medicare guarantee just to protect tax breaks for corporate outsourcers and millionaires?” asked Haley Morris of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “When his own constituents condemn his failed priorities in Washington, the best Congressman Bobby Schilling can do get his campaign donors to come to his defense.”
Background
Jerry Schreiner Donated to Schilling. According to FEC reports, Schreiner gave $300 in May 2012, and $100 in June 2012. [FEC.gov, filed 7/15/12]
Adelson, the billionaire owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino and many other resort venues, and his wife, Miriam, are the primary nonparty donors for campaign ads.
Last month, the Adelsons’ YG — for Young Guns — Action Fund spent $557,750 to buy media attack ads against Plummer’s Democratic opponent, Bill Enyart, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Adelson’s superPAC, which provided the most money of any of the independent groups buying ads in the 12th and 13th District races, exemplifies the “new normal” of fundraising since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision allowed outside groups to spend unlimited amounts on campaigns as long as they don’t coordinate with the candidates.
All told, Republican and conservative groups have spent almost $1.2 million on attack ads against Enyart.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent $503,350 in attack ads on Enyart’s behalf against Plummer, plus another $335,170 to support Enyart, according to the FEC reports.
Worth just over $21 billion and now in the cross hairs of the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Adelson has made history: He is the first person to spend $70 million to sway a presidential election, and he plans to spend more — perhaps as much as $100 million — by Election Day. An estimated $20 million to $30 million of the giving went to groups that do not disclose their donors and had not been reported before.
Adelson (pronounced ADDLE-son) is the dominant pioneer of the super PAC era — by far the biggest donor to the web of secretive groups that are adding nearly $1 billion to the more traditional spending by the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee.
The 79-year-old literally spreads the wealth: He sent $5 million to the super PAC run by Boehner allies and $5 million to the super PAC run by Cantor allies.
* And as the AP is reporting today, the US Chamber has spared nothing in its attacks on Democrat Bill Enyart. Rate the Chamber’s latest ad…
The judge said he’d never received so many letters. Then Zagel really shocked me, and a few other reporters in the courtroom, when he talked about a few of the pro-Cellini letters. Among these, Zagel said, were “letters from three prominent journalists.”
Prominent journalists? Is that why he was able to fly under the radar for so long?
Those names are sealed in the court file per Zagel’s orders, I’m told, but whoever they are, the three prominent journalists and the others and Mrs. Cellini got what they asked for. They wanted mercy from Zagel. And that’s what he gave them.
I wasn’t asked to write a letter, and I wouldn’t have written one if I had been asked.
“I think there is something to be said for incarceration for a person in Bill Cellini’s position,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro after the sentencing. “… In certain communities, sentences of incarceration do send messages, and this is a small community we are talking about — the sort of bipartisan cabal of Illinois, the people that are the behind-the-scenes folks that fuel the corruption and raise the money. Those people pay attention to things like this, and they pay attention when someone who is almost 78 goes to prison.”
Prosecutors were so convinced he was a criminal that they sent him away over a fantastical scheme. Stu Levine and Cellini were supposedly shaking down a Hollywood guy for a $1.5 million contribution to Rod Blagojevich’s campaign fund. In 2004, that sort of contribution from an individual was absolutely unheard of in Illinois. I don’t believe the scheme actually existed beyond Levine’s drug-addled head. Cellini never asked the target for the cash, and Tony Rezko - who was alleged to have been in on the scheme - was acquitted on that particular count.
But a letter of support? Nope. No way.
* Roundup…
* Mark Brown: Cellini sentence another step forward for honest government
Gov. Pat Quinn, who has faced relentless criticism from state employees’ largest union for withholding pay raises, boosting retiree health-insurance costs and trying to reduce pension benefits, has fired the union president’s wife from a state job as a workers’ compensation arbitrator. […]
Kinnaman, a lawyer who has worked for the state since 1990, had been a full-time arbitrator for the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission since 2004. She earned $115,840 a year. Before that, she was a full-time appointed member of the commission’s predecessor, the Illinois Industrial Commission. […]
Kinnaman, who remains unemployed, said Thursday she applied for reappointment. She said she wasn’t told why Quinn chose not to renew her appointment. […]
Bayer and AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall declined to speak with the newspaper about Kinnaman’s firing. But Lindall wrote in an email: “We have no direct knowledge that the failure to reappoint her was retribution for who she is married to. If it was, it is both unethical public policy and a slap in the face to every woman who has worked to achieve her own independent role in public life.” […]
Lindall said in his email: “Jackie Kinnaman has more than 20 years’ experience as a workers compensation commission (member) and arbitrator in a career that predates Mr. Bayer’s directorship at AFSCME. First appointed by Gov. Thompson, Ms. Kinnaman was subsequently reappointed by both Republican and Democratic governors, and recently earned unanimous recommendations for a new term from both business and labor representatives.”
Kinnaman said she is not eligible for state pension benefits or health insurance.
This kind of reminds me of when Rod Blagojevich fired Tim Mapes’ wife. We all know how that one worked out.
The final case to stem from the corruption investigation into imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich comes to a close Thursday, when a multimillionaire who once wielded enormous political influence in the state is expected to face a judge for sentencing.
William Cellini, 77, was convicted last year for his role in trying to get a $1.5 million campaign contribution for Blagojevich from the Oscar-winning producer of “Million Dollar Baby” in exchange for state business. The Springfield businessman was once known to political insiders as the King of Clout for his behind-the-scenes influence in state government.
Federal prosecutors want a 6 1/2- to eight-year prison sentence, while defense attorneys have asked for probation.
* The Question: Do you lean more toward the prosecution sentencing request or the defense request? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* After initially denying there were any problems with a TV ad attacking Democrat Tammy Duckworth, a Super PAC has decided to pull the ad back and retool it a bit…
Tyler Harber, a spokesman for Now or Never PAC, confirmed that changes are being made to a commercial set to run on Chicago cable and broadcast stations criticizing Duckworth’s tenure as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He described those changes, however, as minor. […]
“We made no substantive or topical changes to the ad,” Harber said in an email. “The ad conveys the same message as before. We were not asked to take out any of the arguments we made in the ad. It is not unusual to make minor adjustments to ads. People who see the first version and the second version will notice virtually no difference whatsoever.” […]
Duckworth’s campaign first became aware of the ad after it received a “tip” from a source at WLS-TV, spokeswoman Kaitlin Fahey said, that the ad did not pass muster from the station’s legal department. Stations often ask for additional documentation when they vet political ads, The campaign then began contacting other area TV stations. Sources at WBBM said the ad was on “hold” until they were told it was being recut.
Other stations did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The commercials from the $405,000 ad buy are set to air over the next week.
The PAC has already spent $800K building up incumbent Joe Walsh. Subscribers know the results.
* Meanwhile, Duckworth might want to use this Joe Klein interview against Walsh ASAP…
[Walsh] told me, for example, that while he would oppose any budget deal that raises tax rates, he does support the complete elimination of such popular tax loopholes as the mortgage-interest and charity deductions.
The Democrats didn’t take this guy seriously two years ago and he won. They’ve been spiking the ball in the endzone for months. It’s obviously costing them.
* An August poll taken for Democratic congressional candidate David Gill had him leading Rodney Davis by six points. Gill’s latest poll has him up by just a single point…
The poll, paid for by the campaign of Democratic candidate David Gill, shows Gill with 40 percent, Republican Rodney Davis with 39 percent and independent John Hartman with 8 percent. The survey of 400 registered, likely voters was taken Sept. 26 and 27.
Gill’s tiny lead is well within the poll’s 4.9 percentage point margin of error, according to pollster Donna Victoria.
A new report by the Federal Election Commission on so-called “independent” or “superPAC” spending in the race shows that $1.795 million has been devoted to the race, most of it against Gill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce entered the race over the weekend, saying it would put $500,000 in advertising to oppose Gill. A 30-second ad posted online by the Chamber of Commerce hits Gill for his support of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and for a plan to raise taxes “on job creators.” […]
The DCCC is still the biggest spender in the race, having devoted $567,122 on ads attacking Davis.
But according to the Gill campaign, slightly more than $1 million has been spent either by the independent groups or by the Davis campaign on ads opposed to Gill.
If all goes well, subscribers will have their own poll results for this district tomorrow morning.
* And, no surprise, the negative ads in that district aren’t gonna stop. Retiring Congressman Tim Johnson called for a cease fire the other day. Nobody is heeding it…
Neither the Republican nor Democratic candidates has embraced the idea, and both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee indicated they’ll continue to use attack ads in the new congressional district that runs from Champaign-Urbana southwest to the Edwardsville and Collinsville areas in southwestern Illinois.
In fact, the DCCC made a $238,669 media buy on Tuesday — the day the retiring Republican congressman made his request — for more ads opposing Republican candidate Rodney Davis of Taylorville. The DCCC now has invested $805,791 in the 13th District race, almost half of the $2 million that six separate superPACs have spent in the district since August.
“We stand by our ads,” said Haley Morris, a spokeswoman for the DCCC.
The Republican congressional PAC also indicated it would not abide by Johnson’s request. It has spent more than $330,000 on ads opposing Democrat David Gill.
“Bottom line, David Gill and his extremely partisan policies are bad for Illinois families,” said Katie Prill, a spokeswoman for the NRCC.
* Either this is irresponsible hyperbole to prevent lawmakers from overriding the governor’s veto of the prison budget cuts (Quinn wants to use the prison money for DCFS), or it’s a stark admission that Illinois is a failure at protecting kids. Read every, single word of these two paragraphs…
In the wake of an estimated $90 million budget cut, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has slashed a program that works to keep kids with their families and is shifting focus from prevention to meeting its legal obligations and simply keeping kids alive.
“We took a look at how could we minimize our risk and still maintain the level of services that we are responsible for. When I say minimize risk, I’m talking about death of children. Because that’s ultimately what the Department of Children and Family Services is responsible for, is protecting children from dying,” DCFS Director Richard Calica told a Senate committee at a Chicago hearing. He added, “Well-being is nice, but death is what lands in the papers, and death is what I’m responsible for.” Calica said the reduction means the agency would reduce services that are not required by law or consent decrees.
The union and Calica urged legislators to approve supplemental spending for the agency to either eliminate or soften the blow of the cuts. Quinn has spoken out against the cuts, too. However, AFSCME opposes the funding source that he has suggested to pay for supplemental spending. Quinn is asking lawmakers to sustain his vetoes of funding to keep open several state facilities that employ AFSCME members and instead spend the money at DCFS. […]
[Calica] said that the changes at the agency are the product of the budget approved by the General Assembly. “The layoffs that you’ve been hearing about have to do with the budget that you all passed. You gave me the mandate to save $27 million. I don’t know how to save that without firing people, and I don’t know how to choose other than to choose based on the well-being of the children that I’m responsible for.”
[DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe] reiterated his boss’ statements about the department’s priorities, albeit in a slightly less blunt fashion. “We have core responsibilities to safety, permanency [of placement of children either back with their families or in adoptive homes] and well-being. But permanency and well-being can’t happen if a child is [not] safe. We need to protect lives. And in tight times, we still work to give children permanency and well-being, but we do have to prioritize their lives and their safety.” But both acknowledge that scaling back the intact families program could lead to more children becoming wards of the state. However, Marlowe said that he suspects it would not be a substantial increase.
* Yesterday, I asked you to give me one word to describe your feelings about the upcoming presidential debate. Now that the debate is over, how about giving us one word to describe your take?
