Lauren Underwood released her third ad of the General Election Oct. 24, after a dominant performance at her one and only public debate with her incumbent Republican opponent, Randy Hultgren.
The ad, which will run on broadcast, cable and digital platforms, highlights the story of Plainfield residents Carrie and Tom Jackson. The couple’s son, Tyler, was diagnosed with cancer at age 18. Carrie attended Hultgren’s one and only town hall event of 2017, and heard her representative make a promise.
“When I attended Randy Hultgren’s town hall in April 2017, I felt as though he made a personal promise to protect my son Tyler’s health care. He broke that promise,” Carrie said. “Lauren Underwood heard the same promise. I’m voting for Lauren because she will fight for my son.”
Carrie: A few years ago, we found out our 18-year-old son had cancer. Randy Hultgren had a chance to protect people with pre-existing conditions like our son, and he failed us. And that’s when all my activism started. It’s not just about politics. It’s not about Republican and Democrat. It’s about the lack of humanity that’s being shown. The lack of common decency.
Tom: And we need people like Lauren Underwood who will bring us together. And she definitely will do that when she’s in Washington.
A robust six figure buy will blanket the Chicagoland cable markets starting tonight through Election Day targeting sensible conservatives that continue to support our President and candidates with like minded values.
President Trump: This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
Announcer: With Sam McCann as our conservative governor, he will fight alongside President Trump and the police to protect our borders and this state from illegals. Our nation is being overrun by illegals and our values are being attacked by extremist liberals. Illinois must elect Sam McCann as governor to work with President Trump and our police to rebuild Illinois together.
McCann recently reported a $430K contribution from the Fight Back Fund, a dark money group that appears to be controlled by Local 150 of the Operating Engineers Union.
Please see State Rep. Marty Moylan’s statement demanding that Marilyn Smolenski calls on her benefactor, Dan Proft to remove an unethically obtained advertisement from the airwaves.
Smolenski is a Republican running against Moylan. Rep. Moylan’s press release is here. The president of the Park Ridge League of Women Voters demanded this week that the video clip of the debate be removed from the TV ad, which is paid for by Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC. Apparently, there was an agreement by both candidates not to use any video taken of the debate in advertisements.
* So, what’s everybody all excited about? I asked Moylan’s spokesperson…
The ad is a sad attempt to disparage Representative Moylan’s record of independent leadership by using an unethically obtained sound bite from the forum to deceive and divide voters in the 55th District.
By the way, Moylan leading the “Who do we like? Mike!” chant near the end of the ad was from a union rally ahead of a screening of that Illinois Policy Institute documentary on Speaker Madigan the last election of Madigan as House Speaker. The Illinois Policy Institute had some demonstrators there, so the unions organized a counter-protest. Proft has reported spending a whopping $785,000 on ads attacking Moylan.
An election guide posted on the Communist Party USA’s (CPUSA) website said that the party is “deploying its resources” to unseat U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), as part of a larger effort to flip 24 Republican seats the Democrats need to capture control of the House.
“A plan for staff travel is being worked out with each district (it considers a close race),” the party’s Sept. 20 posting said. […]
Political analyst Chris Robling said that the Communists and other fringe groups in American society have absorbed the message of the Democratic Party, one that’s no longer resonating with a broad national base.
“The Democrats are incapable of appealing to a majority of voters outside the major urban areas,” Robling said. “That’s why the over the past recent elections they lost the presidency, the House and Senate, governorships and state legislatures.”
“They are reaching out to groups, including criminal illegal aliens, that are rightfully marginalized, “ he added. “Don’t underestimate their willingness to do anything for what they perceive as the greater good.”
The linked “election guide” doesn’t actually say which Illinois districts those dastardly commies are trying to flip.
Robling, by the way, predicted two years ago that Donald Trump’s candidacy could help Sen. Mark Kirk and Comptroller Leslie Munger in the suburbs and even in Chicago. Both lost. Trump lost every collar county but one.
Responding to a moderator’s question at a recent political forum in Barrington, Democratic state representative candidate Mary Edly-Allen said campaigns should be limited to $100,000 in contributions and lamented her opponent’s spending on “very expensive” mailers and television commercials.
Edly-Allen is running against appointed Rep. Helene Miller Walsh (R-Mundelein).
* Up until that forum, Edly-Allen had reported raising just $38,845 since getting into the race on June 4th.
Perhaps unbeknownst to her, two days before the forum the House Democrats spent $14,000 on a poll in her district (the in-kind contribution wasn’t actually reported until October 15th).
The HDems must’ve liked what they saw in that poll. Since then, they’ve pumped in close to $270,000. Also since the forum, Personal PAC has spent about $52,000 both for Edly-Allen and against Miller Walsh.
“We need to take a real closer look at finance reform,” Edly-Allen said. “When I spoke on Saturday, that (lack of cash) was the truth. I actually had a conversation with the (House) Speaker (Michael Madigan) on Sunday afternoon. And I was like, ‘I need help. She’s got mailers. I can’t afford them.’ I needed to counterpunch.”
Hilarious. “Money is BAD!!!” *Gets tons of money* “Money is NECESSARY!!!”
“It’s one thing to accept $300,000 from Mike Madigan and his cronies, but it is completely hypocritical for Mary Edly-Allen to announce to the League of Women Voters that she wants to limit her campaign — and all others — to $100,000, then immediately cash every $50,000 check Madigan brings to her campaign coffers,” Miller Walsh said in a statement to the Daily Herald. “If Mary were honest, she would give Madigan his money back and tell him she won’t be bought off and vote for him for speaker of the House.”
Courtney: I have been living with endometriosis for 20 years.
Linda: I was healthy, except for the MS. Scared to death with the MS.
Courtney: I was having to make choices between groceries or the medication I needed. When people like Erika Harold threaten Obamacare, I can’t believe how little she values people like me with preexisting conditions.
Linda: The threat of Obamacare being taken away is one of those sort of bad dreams. So when I hear that politicians like Erika Harold wanting to repeal Obamacare, I get angry, and honestly get scared.
Courtney: I can’t vote for Erika Harold.
Linda: Absolutely not.
* The Champaign News-Gazette editorial board, which endorsed area resident Erika Harold, is spitting mad…
If politics wasn’t such a sleazy business, this advertisement would set a new low for being misleading.
Harold, like Raoul, is running for attorney general of Illinois, not for federal office.
Obamacare — aka the Affordable Care Act — is federal legislation passed during former President Barack Obama’s first two years in office.
Court challenges have been filed against Obamacare and been rejected. There is nothing that Harold could do about repealing Obamacare, even if she wanted to do so.
This is classic scaremongering engaged in by a loser candidate who fears he’ll lose an election if he can’t drive his opponent’s negatives sky high.
* I asked the Raoul campaign for a response…
That’s false. Donald Trump and Republican state attorneys general are in Texas district court trying, yet again, to destroy the ACA and take healthcare away from people with preexisting conditions. Democratic AGs, including Lisa Madigan, have intervened to vigorously defend it. In 2014, Republican Erika Harold said she wanted to “repeal it all,” regarding the ACA. Not only could she do something to destroy Obamacare — we have every reason to believe she would.
The campaign is right about the court case and the News-Gazette is wrong.
* From the Champaign News-Gazette in 2014, when Harold was running for Congress…
Harold said she wanted to “repeal it all and start all over again with consumer-driven” reforms.
“Specifically on the issue of the Affordable Care Act, I don’t think it’s a bill that can be reformed. When we look at the consequence throughout the district, with people losing plans they liked, having to pay increased premiums and I think we’re going to see the full effect of it when the employer mandate goes in effect … I think it’s fundamentally flawed.”
Kwame Raoul is lying about Erika’s record because he can’t run on his own fourteen-year record of failure in Springfield. The truth is Erika supports the Illinois law barring insurance companies from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions, and Erika would not have joined the lawsuit seeking to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional.
This week Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs released his first television ad for his re-election campaign: “Numbers.” This ad highlights how Frerichs’ has been standing tall for Illinoisans by protecting our tax dollars, finding savings through a performance audit, cutting Wall Street fees in half, and modernizing operations to better serve veterans, the disabled, seniors and consumers alike.
“For me, standing tall isn’t just a political slogan. It’s the values I learned growing up in the small farming community of Gifford, Illinois and it’s what I’ve taken to Springfield to stand up for people every day,” Frerichs said. “Being a good steward of taxpayer dollars is vital to bringing stability to our state for generations to come.”
As the state’s Treasurer, Mike Frerichs has been an aggressive watchdog of our tax dollars, using his office to put the public’s money to work through smart and sound investments. Mike, who grew up in the small farming community of Gifford, Illinois, is a Certified Public Finance Officer (CPFO), and he has put those skills to work to cut fees charged by Wall Street banks in half and improve investment returns for Illinois’ college savings program, run his office more efficiently to save tax dollars, and provide opportunities for more Illinois workers to save for retirement.
Frerichs has put his office to work for regular people and will continue to stand tall for all Illinoisans by providing them the tools they need to succeed.
As a Certified Public Finance Officer, I work hard to make sure the numbers add up, but even I won’t try to make sense of these numbers. As Treasurer, I’m always crunching numbers to protect our tax dollars.
That’s how I found savings through a performance audit of my office. I reduced Wall Street fees and improved investment returns. I modernized operations to better serve veterans, seniors, and consumers.
I’ll always help Mom around the house, and I’ll always stand tall for Illinois taxpayers.
Q: You want to roll back the 2017 income tax increase; if so, which programs will you cut to make up for the revenue loss from the income tax reduction?
A: The exciting thing is we don’t have to cut programs. What we need to do is grow the economy faster which we can do very quickly and I’m doing that right now. But also there is about $6-billion in excess spending in our government’s structure itself. Not social programs, not human services or education. The cost of Illinois government, our government in Illinois is much more expensive than it is over in Iowa. We have 7,000 units of local government in Illinois, way more, like double what most states have. And we also have more mandates and restrictions on our schools and requirements on our cities and our counties. And as a result we have the highest property taxes in America. We don’t need to cut human services, what we need to do is make government more efficient and effective.
Sounds like he’s mixing up local property taxes with state spending.
A: We don’t need to cut programs, what we need to do is shrink the government bureaucracy. I’ll give you an example for your viewers, when I got into office, many of our departments didn’t have computers, if you can believe that. And those that did were running software from 1974. Very inefficient. We’ve now, rated Grade A as one of the most innovative technology state governments in America. And we’re saving hundreds of millions of dollars by using computers and using mobile apps to bring down the cost of providing our services and increasing the efficiency. Those are the kinds of things that we can change so we don’t have to raise taxes in fact when you get lower taxes and not cut human services.
Q: But as far as your relationship with Speaker Madigan and others, what will you do differently? How will you recast your, rebuild your relationship?
A: The Speaker is, he’s one of the most corrupt of politicians in America. My relationship with him will be very cordial but it’ll also be very just matter of fact. What we’ve got to do is work sometimes with him but often times around him. We’ve got the balanced budget done even though he didn’t want to, we worked around him on that. We got the new school funding formula done, we had to work around him.
They got the budget done this year by working around Madigan? You mean during all those meetings in Madigan’s office?
Q: Reaction to Pres. Trump’s positive comments yesterday about the Montana congressman who assaulted the news reporter? He said the assault was nothing to be embarrassed about.
A: I have to say I’m appalled, I’m deeply disappointed. There’s no room in our society, in our civil society for physical assault let alone verbal assault. We should respect each other, have direct honest communication that’s appropriate and proper and respectful. No place for those sort of actions.
We should respect each other by running appropriate and proper ads about how Illinois is f-d if Pritzker is elected?
A: The polls are baloney. The polls have been proven wrong many election cycles. In Illinois and in the past and the ones I’ve seen have been way wrong. When I’m talking to people it’s very, a lot of enthusiasm, ‘Governor stay strong, don’t back down.’ I don’t know whether we’re winning at the moment but I wasn’t winning in the polls 4 years ago either. And we’re moving up fast, the truth is getting known and when the truth is known, I’ve had great success, we need to get more progress and we’re going to fight for a better future and do a lot more my second term and I’m fighting against a guy who’s loyal to Mike Madigan, funds the corruption, cheats on his taxes and all he’s running on is raising the income tax more on the people of Illinois. Disaster. Turn out the lights with that guy, we’re going to stay strong, we’re going to win.
I’m Erika Harold. If JB Pritzker is elected governor, he and Mike Madigan will have total control over state government. That much power in the hands of any one political party isn’t good for Illiniois. I’ll be a check on the Pritzker-Madigan agenda and work for you, not them.
Can Harold win? The “wave” environment would suggest not, but if voters are looking for a check on JB Pritzker and Speaker Madigan and they can’t bring themselves to vote for Gov. Rauner, she might be a realistic option. At least, that’s what the Republicans are hoping for. It’s probably too bad she can’t just come right out and say that in an ad, but much of her money is coming from Rauner, so it’s unlikely that she can or will.
Wall: The polls show he’s down, but the governor remains upbeat, but he may politically need to do something this Saturday that he didn’t do in August - go Downstate and stand with President Trump. What do you have to do to overcome the polls that show you trailing?
Rauner: Well first of all, the polls I think, are very wrong. They’ve been wrong the last few election cycles. I don’t know if I’m trailing or leading right now, but I think I’m trailing a bit.
Rauner: We are not a sanctuary. I have blocked sanctuary status for the state of Illinois, and I’m strongly against illegal immigration. And I have fought to elect good conservatives like Mike Babcock, like Dwight Kay, and this guy McCann, he’s a phony. Nobody should vote for him. A vote for him is a vote for Mike Madigan and Pritzker. And Pritzker is a nightmare for the state. Nightmare. Turn out the lights. Job losses. Taxes. Corruption. We’ve gotta stay strong. […]
Host: What the heck is Sam McCann doing?
RAUNER: He’s pure baloney, he’s a fraud, he’s a phony. He’s a plant by Madigan. Madigan does this all the time, he does this so many elections, he did it in his own election two years ago. He brings in phony people who are just there to confuse voters and try to divert votes from the real candidates. McCann – all you need to know about McCann is that his supporters and McCann are sending out mailers attacking good conservative legislators like Dwight Kay, like Sen. Connelly in the western ‘burbs and around the state. They’re working for Madigan and Madigan’s cronies – a handful of union bosses – that’s all they’re doing. McCann is not a true conservative, he’s a Madigan loyalist who’s planted there to confuse voters and try to divert votes.
Today Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza released her second television ad of her re-election campaign: “Champion.” The ad highlights Mendoza’s accomplishments as Comptroller over the past two years featuring editorials and endorsements from around the state.
In their endorsement of Mendoza, the Herald-Whig called Mendoza “a champion for those who couldn’t advocate for themselves.” The State Journal-Register called her an “Agent of change” who “has sought to create a more transparent government” in their endorsement. In September 2017, Mendoza was called “one tough lady” in the Chicago Tribune. And in their endorsement, the News-Gazette wrote “Mendoza has shown herself to be an energetic, thoughtful steward.”
Mendoza loves standing up to big bullies and Politico called her “one of Rauner’s worst nightmares.” She has the strength and determination to keep fighting for the people of Illinois as Comptroller.
Narrator: She’s described as an “Agent of Change” creating “a more transparent government”
“A champion for those who couldn’t advocate for themselves”
Susana Mendoza…“One tough lady”
Who has “transformed the Comptroller’s Office”
“Helping Illinois rebuild”
“Energetic, thoughtful”
Mendoza’s a “fearless financial counterforce”
And one of “Bruce Rauner’s worst nightmares.”
Susana Mendoza: I love standing up to big bullies. It’s who I am. And I’m going to keep doing that as long as voters give me the chance to.
Today, the Rauner campaign is launching a new digital video titled “Bruce and Diana on Illinois’ Future.”
Bruce and Diana raised their family here in Illinois and understand the promise that the state holds for the future. Illinois is their home, and they know that home is worth fighting for.
Governor Rauner: “I was born and raised in Illinois, we’ve raised six wonderful children here, and I just feel so connected to this place. Illinois is a very special place, it’s a very special home, and I never want to leave. I think Illinois has an incredibly exciting future, and I think we’re at a key inflection point, a key turning point for the state. We’ve had a lot of frustrations. Many of our children have been leaving the state, many residents have been moving, our taxes seem to go up all the time, we’ve had not nearly as many jobs growing in the state as we should. We’ve improved some of that, but we’re at a point where I believe we can achieve dramatic improvements in the next few years. We have such wonderful people in our state. We have such great location and natural advantages.”
Diana Rauner: “The natural beauty and the natural resources of Illinois, our strategic center at the middle of the country, is actually something that is undervalued.”
Governor Rauner: “We can be, and I believe will be, a booming economy with great opportunity for everyone.”
It’s the work of someone who knows he is in deep trouble and is desperate to break through, someone who still thinks he could change the minds of Illinois voters if they just stopped long enough to listen to his message, which is what it always has been:
If you don’t vote for me, you are sooo f—–. […]
Rauner spoke with students Tuesday at Chicago Hope Academy, repeating his oft-told story of how unnamed businessmen convinced him to run for governor to save the state.
And it occurred to me that it’s a shame that Rauner may soon pass from the public scene without ever identifying those public-spirited citizens so that the rest of us could properly thank them.
When he was finished, Rauner joined the students of the Christian high school in prayer, then retreated outside to explain to reporters why he thought it necessary to use “f—–” in a campaign commercial.
* Everybody was yakking yesterday about Gov. Rauner’s new “Unholy union” ad featuring a wedding ceremony between Speaker Madigan and JB Pritzker. This is a screen capture from US Rep. Peter Roskam’s new ad slamming his opponent Sean Casten…
Everybody’s getting into the act.
* And check this out. A buddy took this with his phone. The Roskam ad ran immediately after the Rauner ad this morning…
Beyond President Donald Trump and almost every issue they were asked about, Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam and Democratic challenger Sean Casten during their latest debate also clashed over a sex columnist.
In Monday night’s WTTW forum, Roskam referenced a recent Wall Street Journal story in which Casten cites sex columnist Dan Savage when asked to name a leader who inspires him.
“He bound himself to some people who were advocating political blackmail and political slander,” Roskam said of Casten during Monday’s debate. “And I think he should distance himself from these people.”
Casten didn’t back away from the comments.
“The person I embraced … is Dan Savage, who has been a voice for the LGBT community and particularly for the It Gets Better Project of teens who were considering suicide,” Casten said. “Mr. Roskam has been a horrible advocate for that community, and maybe he doesn’t like that I support them, but I do.”
We’re at peak something right now. I just don’t know what it is.
