32 Comments - So_Ill - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 1:52 pm: Gross. Why even bother calling yourself a democrat? - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 1:53 pm: ===Webb voted for President Trump=== Great news for Congressman Bost that Senate Dems are running this… That’s my first take. - wordslinger - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 1:55 pm: This spot really needs the music for “Uneasy Rider” as background. “Watch him, folks, for he’s a thoroughly dangerous man….” - Texas Red - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 1:55 pm: Reagan Democrat, knows his district. - Retired Educator - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 1:57 pm: I am having trouble following the logic of this message. If you are courting the Democrat vote, your doing it all wrong. If you are trying to get Republican votes, what you may gain, you can lose from the other side. If you are a closet Republican, come on out in the open. If not your message is very confusing. - Actual Red - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:02 pm: I find this strategy interesting, but I sort of question the logic. If you are a conservative voter, why would you vote for a democrat partially aligned with your views when you could vote for a republican and get the full package? I can see this working for dems like Richard Ojeda in WV, who have somewhat conservative social views but really run on a left economic platform, but this ad doesn’t address healthcare or economic inequality at all. - Bruce (no not him) - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:04 pm: Southern Illinois is a strange place. I’m not sure conservative means the same thing there as in other parts of Illinois. - peteypablo - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:06 pm: Watching this ad I would assume he is the second member of the “Conservative Party” right behind McCann. - Exit 59 - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:09 pm: It has gotten some discussion locally. Some of the hardcore democrat teachers that were going to vote for him against the IEA recommendation…now will not. I’m guessing it will help him get some votes but, will lose him some votes. Sounds like a “Hail Mary” last ditch effort of a desperate candidate. - SOIL M - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:20 pm: It’s odd. Down here Dems are running away from the party. Phelps-Finnie is doing the same thing, just not going as far as Webb. Up north, Republicans are running away from the party. - NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:20 pm: Boy sure sounds confusing in his messaging. Seems to me there is little appetite for moderates in either major party. You either vote for all of our platform or we don’t want you. - chuddery - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:30 pm: ==Seems to me there is little appetite for moderates in either major party. You either vote for all of our platform or we don’t want you.== He says in response to an ad essentially paid for by the Democratic Party - Moe Berg - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:30 pm: Stacey Abrams, Democratic candidate for GA governor: “The realty is, Democrats cannot win by pretending to be Republicans, Republicans see through it and Democrats see through it.” - AlfondoGonz - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 2:35 pm: “Trump new TV ad” is not something I’d want people to google search right now and associate with me. - Montrose - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 3:09 pm: I don’t think every Democrat (or Republican) has to be in lock step with the party platform. I do wonder when how far away from the platform someone can get and still be in the party. Why does he wants to be a Democrat? - Northsider - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 3:09 pm: Maybe this is what will work in his district; I just hope he has no ambition for a statewide office, as he’s just made himself toxic to real Democrats everywhere else. - Saluki - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 3:13 pm: This state is not 1 state. That’s the difference. - DuPage Bard - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 3:22 pm: Good ad for Southern Illinois. Problem is Southern Illinois is lost for the Dems. Until folks downstate buy in to the arguments that tariffs are hurting farmers, coal is a dying industry that the world is moving away from and that not having healthcare sucks is more important than “he’s standing up for white people” there will be no winning for Dems downstate. The standing up for white people is the message they want to hear downstate, that guy in your nieces video isn’t wrong. So until the folks downstate start believing Trump is an abusive father they aren’t going to back the Dems anytime soon. - wordslinger - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 3:45 pm: –It’s odd. Down here Dems are running away from the party. Phelps-Finnie is doing the same thing, just not going as far as Webb. Up north, Republicans are running away from the party.– Not really. More the tail-end of a long-term national realignment: Southern/rural moving to the GOP, Northern/metro going more Dem. - Blue Dog Dem - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:21 pm: Have we reached agreement on where the line for southern illinois is yet? - Olmsted - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:21 pm: Glen Poshard ran as a conservative and was elected to the State Senate and congress. David Phelps ran as a conservative and was elected to the State House and congress. It’s a winning strategy in Southern Illinois. - Olmsted - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:25 pm: My guess is both Poshard and Phelps have advised Webb as to this winning strategy. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:28 pm: ===where the line for southern illinois=== 45 miles south of wherever you happen to be. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:29 pm: Olmsted, those days are just about over. - I Miss Bentohs - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:35 pm: = Have we reached agreement on where the line for southern illinois is yet? = I-80? More north than that? - Uh, OK - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:48 pm: Funny. For months this guy attacked Fowler for NOT voting for the education bill that sent money to Chicago. Now he is attacking him for voting for the budget that funded education all around the state. Fowler by 22%. Distraction play by the Dems. Someone’s in trouble and the Dems have the money to create a distraction from the real races. - Anonymous - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 4:56 pm: = Funny. For months this guy attacked Fowler for NOT voting for the education bill that sent money to Chicago. Now he is attacking him for voting for the budget that funded education all around the state. = My thoughts exactly. Webb’s message has strictly been about education funding from the beginning, and now he pulls this with a with a few days left until the election? This is the last gasp of a dying campaign. - Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 5:10 pm: Olmsted, Democrat David Phelps was a key supporter of Republican Gov Jim Edgar’s education tax swap that suburban Republicans opposed because it sent too much money to downstate and Chicago. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 5:10 pm: You are in Southern Illinois when the GPS lady says so. - One of Three Puppets - Thursday, Nov 1, 18 @ 5:14 pm: The campaign was never alive to be at a point of dying. - Red Eft - Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 12:15 am: Sadly, this ad came out after many of us voted early. With the push to vote straight Democrat to counter Trumpism (which was in full display last weekend with Trump in Murphysboro) and with the push to early vote by JB and Brendan Kelly, Webb will get votes from many who would not have voted for him if they had seen this ad before voting. The timing of the ad is not accidental. He does, at least, support unions and has said that he will support a progressive income tax if it doesn’t raise taxes on the middle class. It is also worth noting that he was picked by the party. No Democrat ran in the primary for the 59th. There was at least one progressive in the running when the nod was given to Webb. Both he and Natalie Phelps Finnie have told me that they are being told by the party to run to the right, stressing abortion and guns. This isn’t just an aberration bubbling up from the ground in southern Illinois. It is something that the Democratic party is pushing in this part of the state. - Blue Dog Dem - Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 7:38 am: Red. Yes indeed. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.