44 Comments - @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:45 pm: “But, is it fair?” No. It’s despicable. – MrJM - anon - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:48 pm: The unfortunate reality is that both parties play fast and loose with the truth. The GOP is no stranger to distorting the truth when it serves their campaign purpose. - Anonymouth - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:49 pm: I think that these types of ads are so over the top that their impact is pretty minimal. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:50 pm: Answer the question, please. - Spliff - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:50 pm: Would I send that out? No Is it fair? yes The republicans and democrats have used these attacks for years against each other. Guilt by association. You oppose the budget then you oppose what is in it. If you take hundreds of thousands of dollars from a party or an individual then you take the heat for how that persona acts. Because Madigan … Because Rauner. - Mongo - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:52 pm: It is fair. When a candidate or an incumbent has a record, it will get exposed. Long opposed the budget so it is on him to carry that baggage and explain why he opposed it. - m - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:52 pm: No. Though I would be shocked if anyone is actually reading the mailers at this point. This does nothing but distract from real issues and helps turn more and more people off to the idea of even trying to pay attention. - Deft Wing - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 2:58 pm: It’s despicable and unfair … which is why Madigan’s using it. Skoog should be embarrassed. - One hand //ing - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:00 pm: Yup. It’s awfully easy to say you’ll vote against Mike Madigan’s unbalanced budget and pretend the whole thing is waste, but you’re actually voting on real services and real people. - walker - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:00 pm: It is not fair to take any given vote out of context. It is a deliver attempt to mislead. Such standards of fairness seem never to have been much valued in American democracy. The question remains: Is it so over the top as to backfire? I’m guessing not. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:03 pm: ===That’s always the danger with opposing a state budget. Lots of programs in there that people like.=== That’s why being called on what you are for or against (in this case, the budget) is fair. Blanket statements like “well, I oppose the budget”… that gets candidates in trouble. It’s fair. - Wetwork Specialist - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:03 pm: The Republicans have commites themselves to destroy my way of life, take my pension, slash my wages, takenrights away from my wife and daughter. Yes its fair and I have no problem that I am sending even more inflammatory mailera to the children, parents and any friends I can find of these republicans. Many aren’t even in the state and I am sending them to them anyway. I want to make these people and their families feel how miserable their policies are. I want to make it so personally painful these people won’t ever show their faves in public again. I don’t want to merely beat them. I want everyone around them crushed and the rule book is thrown right out the window on this. Total war. - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:07 pm: Yes. It is fair because it recognizes that a budget is about priorities and choices. It is fair because it recognizes that there are many programs, essential to the public welfare, that require a budget, not political games driven by a frothing hatred of working-class families. - A guy - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:07 pm: No it’s not fair. Yes it will continue in races like this. Sometimes, sometimes, you get penalized for being so blatantly unfair. Hard to imagine anyone would really believe that someone is “for” predators. If Skoog gets a high hard one under the chin coming back at him, he’ll know who to blame. - steve schnorf - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:08 pm: No, but unavoidable - Norseman - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:09 pm: It’s fair considering today’s anything goes political standards. I don’t like it and wish it would change, but we don’t have the leadership to make that happen. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:16 pm: “Am I opposed to the budget? What I’m opposed to is the politics surrounding the ‘yes or no’, one or the other deciding on liking or not liking a budget. There’s programs constituents like and want, there’s programs and spending constituents don’t like or want, and like both sides, there’s things I like and don’t like. When we’re talking about spending $30 plus billion here in Illinois, let’s not simplify like or don’t like, making all spending equal to everything else in one swoop.” - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:17 pm: It’s fair, probably shouldn’t be, but a return volley just as slimy is now also fair. - DuPage - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:19 pm: Not really fair, but like Rauner said when asked about his attack ads during budget negotiations “it’s all part of the process”. - d.p.gumby - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:21 pm: Of course it’s not “fair”, but politics ain’t “fair”…If you want fair, go to Springfield in early August! Otherwise, put on your boots, hold your nose, and slog ahead (which is sort of like the State Fair). - Doug Simpson - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:41 pm: Is it fair? No. But then Conservatives (not Republicans) have spent years dividing the country. Liberal media? Mainstream media? Lifestyle choice? Welfare queen? Voter fraud? Pick your poison. - Century Club - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:44 pm: It’s fair. If you are against the budget, you’re against the things in the budget. Particularly this year. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:46 pm: this is not the only district where this exact mailer is up. time to make a list on this site of where the mailer is being used. that it is an attack, and a nasty one, in more than one place shows the true intent. - pundent - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:53 pm: Fair in the sense that advancing Rauner’s agenda has supplanted the funding of government services. When you “starve the beast” you starve all forms of it not just the parts and pieces you dislike. - Just Sayin' - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:55 pm: Its not fair unless someone actually said that, not just because they happen to oppose certain legislation because they believe, e.g., there is not adequate funding. If it said something like, “voted against a proposed budget that included sex offender tracking”, that would be accurate and fair. - Gooner - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:56 pm: Heck yes it is fair. People want to oppose budgets and then be off the hook when the State fails to provide services. Budgets have consequences. Failing to support the budget would mean that certain things could not be done. I would like to see more of this type of argument. The “no” votes, with no alternative budget presented, were bad policy. Voters should hear about it. - Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 3:59 pm: Long was in trouble when opponents learned he had blown his due diligence and rented to a registered sex offender. He had the right to refuse to rent, his background check was inadequate. He could have countered the budget vote attack by voting for a budget that had good things in it. But there was no alternative budget submitted. These errors are on him. - Timmeh - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:01 pm: ==Blanket statements like “well, I oppose the budget”… that gets candidates in trouble.== Isn’t a vote a blanket statement? Politics requires several things to be attached to one budget. Eventually, a choice must be made whether a bill becomes law. That there isn’t a budget that funds (your pet issue) is a fair attack. Attacking someone for voting against one bill, a mix of billions of dollars and hundreds of priorities, on the basis of one issue is unfair. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:09 pm: - Timmeh - Keep in mind, Long wasn’t, and isn’t, a member of the General Assembly… - Timmeh - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:17 pm: OW- All the more reason for it not to mean anything. Candidates should be asked about current bills, simply to get a better idea of where they may stand in a real scenario. But the same principle applies as I stated before, being for or against one budget isn’t the same as being for or against one issue. - Not It - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:18 pm: When has anyone ever cared about fairness in Illinois politics? - Annonin' - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:24 pm: Beyond fair He said he checked the pervert He said he opposed budget - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:26 pm: - Timmeh - Candidates use broad brushes to support or oppose merge things, like overall budgets, they walk into this. No one is stopping a long-winded answer, or even requiring candidates to blanket statement things. Not the way campaigns should be run, especially when we all crave substance, but the climate right now has both sides blanket statement things. Tough business right now… - Triple fat - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:36 pm: Ask John Kerry if it’s fair. I doubt Long was ever for a budget (with an amendment attached) before being against it. When you have to explain your vote - you’re losing. - Wondering - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:37 pm: It is fair. Long is one of the “Hang in there Governor, Damn the consequences!” crowd. This is a consequence he damned. - Ahoy! - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:38 pm: Some of it probably, but I believe making false allegations that someone supports/opposes something based upon their stance on a completely separate issue or something that is only .0000000001% of an issue (position on a budget vs specific line items in budget) is just plain lying and while expected in politics, I do not support it nor do I think it is fair. Stating that he rents property to sex offenders is fair, because he does. - Triple fat - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 4:38 pm: So… Of course it’s fair! - flea - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 5:14 pm: whoever said politics is fair - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 5:27 pm: I believe this is slanderous and libelous… So, the answer is that it is not fair, and actionable legally. - Enviro - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 5:41 pm: I agree with 5:14 pm. - PENSIONS ARE OFF LIMITS - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 5:56 pm: Yes it’s fair. The deviants have to live somewhere, but it takes a real superstar to run for office while renting to one. - Yooper in Diaspora - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 9:55 pm: Not fair to attack for having rented a house to a registered sex-offender. I’d rather belong to a Democratic party that can imagine compassion for some of the most despised members of society. Where would this Democratic candidate like to see registered sex-offenders living? - DuPage Bard - Tuesday, Sep 6, 16 @ 10:25 pm: It is fair. Maybe Long should have kept his mouth shut about the budget and just called Skoog a pawn. - PrairieFire - Friday, Sep 9, 16 @ 11:46 am: Yes, quite fair. Remember the words, or the sentiment perhaps, of Lyndon Johnson, “Make the (jerks) deny it” Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.