* “Saving Illinois taxpayers” via jet helicopter? From the Illinois Review…
Aboard a jet helicopter this morning, on his way from Joliet’s Lewis University airport to Cahokia, For the Good of Illinois founder Adam Andrzejewski just sent Illinois Review a photo of the Illinois River with these words, “It’s a beautiful state and we are going to restore our historic greatness.”
Andrzejewski will join House Republican Leader Tom Cross, State Senator Kyle McCarter, State Representative Dwight Kay and GOP candidates at the first of four planned stops in Wednesday’s “Save Illinois Taxpayers” fly around in Cahokia at 10:00 am.
*** UPDATE *** There’s now a video. Leader Cross talks about the helicopter ride at around the 4 minute mark. Among other things, Andrzejewski claims that the Democrats want another $2 billion tax hike…
* Ignoring complaints about their last ad, which used local Democratic Party officials, the DCCC is running a new ad blasting Congressman Bobby Schilling featuring those same local Democrats…
* Script…
42 years I’ve been working?
Paying all those years into Medicare.
That’s part of my future.
Congressman Bobby Schilling voted to cut Medicare, costing seniors sixty four hundred dollars more per year for health care…
People can’t afford $6400 a year.
$6400 is not affordable.
…Just to fund tax cuts for millionaires.
I don’t know how we’d handle that.
There’s just no way.
Bob just doesn’t get it.
We worked all our lives.
And to take that away from us now would be a lie.
Congressman, you broke a promise to me.
* And AFSCME is also getting involved in the district with this TV ad…
* Script…
Bobby Schilling’s negative attacks on Cheri Bustos? Pure fiction. The facts? Another hundred and seventy Illinois jobs going to China. After Bobby Schilling voted to protect tax breaks that help companies ship jobs overseas. Yep. After all the jobs we’ve lost in Illinois, Schilling voted to help outsource even more. With Bobby Schilling in Congress, the truth hurts. The real story? Cheri Bustos is a working mom who’ll stand up for the middle class and fight for Illinois jobs.
So, here is the hard truth: in less than four years, payments to meet our pension obligations will comprise 22 percent of the City’s budget – one out of every five dollars. That’s $1.2 billion of taxpayer money, and growing, each year after that.
Think about it this way: $1.2 Billion dollars is close to what we spend on all salaries for our Police Department. $1.2 Billion dollars would pay for the resurfacing of 32,000 blocks in Chicago’s neighborhoods. $1.2 Billion dollars could build 10 new high schools and 12 new neighborhood libraries every year. $1.2 Billion dollars could pay for the combined cost of public health programs, garbage collection, tree trimming, rodent control, street light fixing, pot-hole filling, recycling, street cleaning, snow-removal, and programs at our parks and for our seniors every year.
Our taxpayers and residents should not be asked to choose between pension payments and public safety or pension payments and paved streets, or pension payments and public health.
If we choose to keep those services and make no changes to our pension system, you and I would have to ask taxpayers to pay 150 percent more in property taxes. That is unacceptable to me. I think it is safe to assume it is unacceptable to you. And I know it is absolutely unacceptable to the homeowners of Chicago.
No one should underestimate the difficult choices involved in delivering the reforms we need to stabilize our pensions and our pension payments. But they pale in comparison to the alternative – eliminating all of the essential services that Chicago’s residents expect and pay for.
We must come together to ensure security for both our city retirees and our city taxpayers. And what we really need is for our representatives in Springfield to step up, take their share of responsibility and not miss this critical opportunity once again.
The 30-second TV spot refers to Dold as a “Tea Party loyalist” and quotes a Sept. 16 column in the Houston Chronicle. Although the print version of the Chronicle used the phrase, the version available online doesn’t.
Dold, who paints himself as a moderate and has distanced himself from the conservative Tea Party, attacked the ad during a joint 10th District candidate interview last week at the Daily Herald’s headquarters in Arlington Heights.
“The Houston Chronicle actually corrected that, and I’m calling on my opponent to actually take down that ad because I’m not a Tea Party loyalist,” said Dold, of Kenilworth. […]
In an email Monday, Schneider campaign spokeswoman Staci McCabe stood by the commercial.
She provided a copy of the printed version of the Chronicle column to show the “Tea Party loyalist” phrase was used. She had no comment about the phrase’s later removal from the digital version of the column.
Joe Walsh is not the only Illinois Republican in trouble. Four tea party loyalists were targeted by Democrats who control the legislature. Robert Dold, a freshman from the Chicago area, was placed in a Democratic district represented by liberal Rep. Jan Schakowsky. He moved to the neighboring district where most of his current constituents live. His race with management consultant Brad Schneider is highly competitive. The fate of the Illinois Five could depend on the margin of President Barack Obama’s victory in his home state.
Fair or no?
…Adding… From the DCCC…
Congressman Robert Dold really wants to cover up his record supporting the Tea Party Majority in the House of Representatives. Too bad.
In Washington, Congressman Bob Dold went along with extreme cuts to the Great Lakes, slashes to education or Pell Grants, and even restricting a woman’s right to emergency contraception. Now, Congressman Dold seems to have a problem when anyone holds him accountable for putting the Tea Party ahead of Illinois.
“Where was Congressman Robert Dold’s outrage when the Tea Party Majority in Congress pushed cuts to the Great Lakes or restricting a woman’s right to emergency contraception? He was too busy voting alongside them,” said Haley Morris of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Congressman Dold caved to extreme Tea Party cuts that gutted everything from environmental protections to Pell Grants and now he wishes no one knew about it. Apparently the only way to get a reaction from Congressman Dold is to hold him accountable for putting the Tea Party first.”
Background
Congressman Dold Voted to Cut $250 Million from Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. In February 2011, Dold voted to pass the House continuing resolution (H.R.1) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, that cut funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by $250 million – from $475 million to $225 million. In March 2011, Crain’s Chicago Business wrote that Dold had previously promised to protect the Great Lakes but then voted for the Republican’s continuing resolution that included a $250 million reduction in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Dold responded saying, “We have to tighten our belt,” even though “some of the things we cut will be things I disagree with.” [HR 1, Vote #147, 2/19/11; WHTC, 3/02/11; Crain’s Chicago Business, 3/28/11]
Congressman Dold Voted to Cut Pell Grant Funding. Dold voted for two House Republicans budgets that cut critical education programs. “The Department of Education would be cut by more than $115 billion over a decade. Approximately 9.6 million students would see their Pell Grants fall by more than $1000 in 2014, and, over the next decade, over one million students would lose support altogether.” [H Con. Res. 34, Vote #277, 4/15/11; H Con Res 112, Vote #151; OMB, 3/21/12]
Congressman Dold Voted to Allow Hospitals to Refuse to Provide Emergency Care. On October 13, 2011, Dold voted for a “bill to ban effectively abortion coverage in state health-insurance exchanges. The bill also would allow hospitals to refuse to provide emergency abortion care, even when a woman’s life is in danger, and gives states the ability to undermine coverage of many health related services, such as contraception.” [HR 358, Vote #789, 10/13/11; NARAL’s Congressional Record on Choice, 2011]
Illinois freshman Rep. Bob Dold holds the distinction of representing the most Democratic congressional district currently in Republican hands. Add to that the fact that Illinois is President Obama’s home state and he’s going to win biiiiiiiiiiig there. One Tea Party freshman from Illinois, Joe Walsh, is already toast. But Dold, one of the most independent of the GOP freshmen, has run a solid campaign and remains in a competitive contest with Democratic businessman Brad Schneider. Romney’s performance could well determine Dold’s future.
* If you listened to last night’s debate between Tammy Duckworth and Joe Walsh, you might’ve noticed that the audience was quite rowdy. The Daily Herald has one explanation…
a boisterous crowd free to purchase liquor throughout the night — fueled the heated, vitriolic two-hour match between the two candidates
Oy.
I dunno who made that stupid decision, but booze at a debate? At a Joe Walsh debate? You’re just asking for trouble.
“I never said she wasn’t a hero,” Walsh said of Duckworth, who lost both her legs while piloting a helicopter in Iraq. That caused a major groan to wash over the auditorium.
“Yes you did!” someone shouted.
Walsh was responding to a question about whether he was “too extreme.”
Walsh won a chorus of groans later when he tried to defend another comment he made over the summer. He was explaining his remark about Duckworth picking out an outfit to wear at the convention when he said she should have been back in the district talking to people.
It was at that point that Walsh held up the photo he said showed Duckworth shopping for a dress.
He couldn’t even finish his remark. The crowd drowned him out in disapproval.
“What a dork!” said one man, who was wearing an anti-Walsh sticker.
Duckworth was quick with a retort: “I wear one color, it’s called camouflage.”
* I listened to the debate last night. In retrospect, I should’ve live-blogged it. If you scroll down in the ScribbleLive feed in the center column, you’ll see a lot of Tweets from the debate. The Sun-Times Storified it, so you can look at the play-by-play. I can’t find an audio file, so if you know where one is, please let us know in comments.
Duckworth talked quite a bit about bipartisanship, about Republican bills she could support and about how she backed Speaker Boehner’s budget compromise. But, mainly, the debate was all about the zingers…
Chicago Prime Steakhouse in Schaumburg — where Walsh and Duckworth had met, separately, with area business owners — became a talking point for both candidates over how to reform health care. Walsh challenged Duckworth to sit down with owners together to ask “what they’d like to do with Obamacare.” If the restaurant owners said they would keep the controversial legislation in place, he said, he’d personally donate $2,500 to her campaign.
Duckworth dismissed the bet as “classic Joe Walsh grandstanding.”
“He’s voted against this district time and again; he’s not there to serve this district, he’s there to serve the tea party and that simply is not good enough,” said Duckworth.
“She has established a long track record at the Illinois V.A. as a failed bureaucrat who wasted taxpayer dollars,” said Walsh.
* A lawsuit filed by a couple of Duckworth’s former employees was also an issue. From a Joe Walsh press release…
“However what really concerned me is that tonight Ms. Duckworth lied to every voter in the 8th dstrict. When I asked if she was being sued for terminating and humiliating employees that tried to expose political corruption, she said that was not true. Unfortunately for Ms. Duckworth and the taxpayer, who is footing her legal bill for the past three years, she is currently being sued and she should come clean about what happened during her time at the Illinois VA.”
It wasn’t exactly clear what Duckworth was responding to, but the lawsuit does exist. Click here to read it.
* Walsh distributed copies of the lawsuit during the debate, and Duckworth was asked about it by reporters after the debate ended…
“This is what Walsh does,” said Duckworth, who later described suits as “common to a head of any agency.” “He tries to distract from the issues at hand. If you want to make this about finance and being sued by former employees we can talk about the fact that you were sued by your former campaign manager for not paying his salary,” she charged.
* Related…
* Marin: Walsh gaining ground on Duckworth’s territorial advantage: But there is a growing sense that the race is tightening. Sean Trende, an election analyst for RealClearPolitics.com, said Tuesday that the website, which aggregates polling data, is considering downgrading its rating of the Duckworth-Walsh contest from “likely Democratic” to “leans Democratic.”
(T)he American Action Network has a new reserve of about $1,020,000 in broadcast television in Illinois’ 13th congressional district, in both the St. Louis and Champaign media markets.
This reserve is in addition to AAN’s initial $350,000 buy that included television and digital advertising against David Gill.
David Gill is running against Republican Rodney Davis in the district.
* Tom Kacich has more about the $16 million being spent by outside groups in Illinois and in the 13th District…
Almost $2.5 million already has been spent in the 13th District contest. And that doesn’t include spending by the candidates’ campaign committees, which will be officially disclosed next Monday. When all the numbers are added up later this year, total spending on the congressional race undoubtedly will set a local record.
Voters in Champaign-Urbana aren’t accustomed to this kind of free spending and aggressive television advertising in a congressional race. The last competitive congressional contest here was in 2000 when Republican Tim Johnson beat Democrat Mike Kelleher, 53 percent to 47 percent. In that race — and in the days before outside, independent groups got involved — a total of $2.9 million was spent. Since then, total spending in Champaign-Urbana’s old 15th District never exceeded $559,000 in an election cycle. […]
In the 13th District most of the spending has been done by groups opposed to Gill. Four groups — the National Republican Congressional Committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Action Network and the New Prosperity Foundation — have spent more than $1.5 million on ads opposing the Democratic candidate.
The biggest spender among that group is the NRCC at $585,594. […]
Opponents of Davis, meanwhile, have spent a little more than $940,000 in the 13th District, most of that ($886,000) from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
While nonprofits like American Action Network do not disclose their donors, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity revealed that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, better known as PhRMA, gave $4.5 million to the group in 2010, which accounted for 15 percent of its income that year.
American Action Network spent $26 million on ads in 2010, making it the second-most active outside political spending group that year behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Center for Responsive Politics also uncovered several other donors to the group including the American Natural Gas Alliance ($35,000), Crossroads GPS ($500,000) and the Republican Jewish Coalition ($4 million).
