…Adding… From Rich: Laura Fine has updated her red box page…
Voters who have strong opinions on foreign affairs looking for a progressive vision need to know that they cannot trust Daniel Biss. There are multiple candidates in the race who have been consistent and clear on these issues, like Mike Simmons and Laura Fine.
Looks like that could be an invitation to the outside groups to start boosting Simmons and therefore eat into Biss’ numbers with progressives.
AIPAC-backed Chicago Progressive Partnership is already running anti-Abughazaleh ads…
The AIPAC network, learning from NJ blunder, hitting the other progressive in IL08. (They want Dan Biss to lose but if half of his voters moved to Kat she'd win) https://t.co/UUC2jN9vvu
In a new ad, congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh says her campaign is backed by “no billionaires, no corporate PACs,” but federal disclosures show she has accepted campaign contributions from two scions of some of America’s wealthiest families.
In late October, Abughazaleh accepted the maximum individual contribution of $7,000 from James Cox Chambers, the billionaire grandson of the founder of Cox Enterprises and former Governor of Ohio, James Cox.
Chambers’ net worth is estimated to be $6.8 billion, according to Forbes, landing him in the middle of Forbes’ lists of America’s 400 wealthiest people.
After Evanston Now reached out for comment about the donation and the ad, Abughazaleh’s campaign said they had missed the donation and planned to donate it to the Niles Township Food Pantry, pointing to a campaign promise made in July where she said, “if a billionaire donates, we will refund [or donate] their money.”
So far, two rival umbrella organizations have dominated the AI spending in congressional races. Leading the Future — which has received significant funding from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna Brockman, as well as venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz — is one major super PAC pushing a national framework for AI and criticizing the prospect of different state regulations governing the industry. […]
Leading the Future had $39 million banked away at the end of last year and is wading into races via a pair of connected groups, one associated with each party: Think Big, which backs Democrats, and American Mission, which supports Republicans. […]
Think Big is also spending more than a million dollars each in support of two former Illinois members of Congress, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Melissa Bean, in their comeback bids. Ads in both those races tout Jackson and Bean’s accomplishments in Congress, including voting for the Affordable Care Act — long before the AI debate entered the halls of Congress. Both Illinois Democrats are scrapping in competitive primaries for open, deep blue, Chicagoland seats where the March primary will serve as the de-facto general election.
* If you don’t buy up all your possible domain names, you’re basically inviting shenanigans. 2nd CD candidate Robert Peters…
Donna Miller hasn't been honest with voters about who is bankrolling her campaign.
Chris Getty, elected the youngest mayor in Illinois at age 26, announced Thursday that he is a candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 4th District, following U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García’s decision not to seek re-election.
Getty criticized the manner in which García announced his retirement, stating that waiting until the last minute to name his chief of staff as a successor “denies voters a true election and the public accountability taxpayers in this district deserve.”
The supposed path here is a white guy against three Latinos. But only one of those candidates will have “Democrat” next to their name: Patty Garcia.
This can therefore be seen as an interesting development…
I asked the Raja campaign if this meant the US Senate candidate was endorsing Getty. I didn’t hear back.
With just over two weeks until election day, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) is endorsing Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in her bid for the United States Senate to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin.
In endorsing Stratton, Schakowsky passes over two of her current colleagues in Congress, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly, making Schakowsky the fifth member of Congress to endorse Illinois’ current lieutenant governor.
— In IL-09: Democrat Phil Andrew has been endorsed by former Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty, also a Democrat, who led the city during the pandemic. Andrew has also been endorsed by Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors coach and prominent advocate for stricter gun control laws. That’s how he and Andrew got to know each other. . Watch here.
— In IL-09: Democrat Bushra Amiwala has been endorsed by Courage for Democracy PAC and its grassroots advocacy group Citizens’ Impeachment in her bid for Congress. […]
— In IL-08: Republican Jennifer Davis has been endorsed by Kane County GOP Chair Andro Lerario and Barrington Hills Village Trustee Marsha McClary in her bid for Congress.
* More…
*Evanston Roundtable | On the issues: Where the 9th Congressional District front-runners align and diverge: One area with divergence appears to be congressional ethics around stock trading: Biss and Abughazaleh both committed to a pledge from the “Political Integrity Project” that includes not holding individual stocks and supporting a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, while Fine apparently has not. Fine holds multiple individual stocks according to her personal disclosure form, including shares in Eli Lilly, Live Nation, Microsoft and Nvidia.
* Press release | Mike Simmons for Congress Announces Support from National Slate of LGBTQ+ Elected Officials: State Senator Mike Simmons’ campaign for Congress in Illinois’ 9th District has been endorsed by former Governor Kate Brown (D-OR), State Senator Keturah Herron (D-KY), State Representative Brianna Titone (D-CO), and State Representative Ian Mackey (D-MO). Simmons is the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve in the Illinois State Senate and would be the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent any of Chicago in Congress.
* Press release | Moms Demand Action Awards the Gun Sense Candidate Distinction to Bushra Amiwala: Congressional candidate Bushra Amiwala has earned the Gun Sense Candidate Distinction of Moms Demand Action (MDA), the foremost national organization combatting gun violence. The distinction is a signal to supporters, volunteers and voters across the country that Amiwala fervently advocates for gun violence prevention and will govern with gun safety in mind. “My generation is intimately familiar with the threat of gun violence,” said Bushra Amiwala, an elected member of the Skokie District 73.5 School Board. “We grew up hiding in place, sheltering under desks and locking classroom doors to prepare for the event of a school shooting.”
The timing of our unprovoked and unauthorized attack on Iran which we coordinated with Israel could not be worse for a candidate that has been trying to quietly accept AIPAC contributions and has been red boxing to help AIPAC out.
If y’all hadn’t been giving out instructions to AIPAC it would be a little easier to defend your positions.
This issue is about to be front and center if it wasn’t already.
I love how explicit the red box instructions get this close to the election. Might as well just add targeted zip codes at this point:
“Likely Democratic primary voters in the 9th Congressional District — particularly older voters and suburban voters, with a focus beginning in the outer suburbs and moving toward the city – should spend the next several weeks seeing in broadcast, cable, and digital ads, and reading in mail the following message:”
==I love how explicit the red box instructions get this close to the election. Might as well just add targeted zip codes at this point==
I would recommend you check out the red box pages for the two Democratic candidates running for the Texas Senate seat, especially Talarico. Talk about granular!
TKMH - That was a good laugh! Right down to the mailer instructions.
- charles in charge - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 1:44 pm:
Campaign shenanigans are always a given, but it really feels as though almost everyone running this year has calculated that the upside of flagrantly lying about their opponents outweighs any possible downside. I’ll never view some of these folks the same way after seeing the depths to which they’re willing to sink (and there’s still time to go lower).
@charles in charge: I think this has been known to be true for a long time. We used to generally just talk about “going negative.” But it turns out ever since swift boating proved super effective, that it doesn’t matter whether what you’re saying in your attack ads is true or not. Anyone who tries to counter the lies is automatically considered “on the defensive” and hit with the “if you’re explaining, you’re losing” schtick.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 12:37 pm:
The timing of our unprovoked and unauthorized attack on Iran which we coordinated with Israel could not be worse for a candidate that has been trying to quietly accept AIPAC contributions and has been red boxing to help AIPAC out.
If y’all hadn’t been giving out instructions to AIPAC it would be a little easier to defend your positions.
This issue is about to be front and center if it wasn’t already.
- NIU Grad - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 12:49 pm:
I love how explicit the red box instructions get this close to the election. Might as well just add targeted zip codes at this point:
“Likely Democratic primary voters in the 9th Congressional District — particularly older voters and suburban voters, with a focus beginning in the outer suburbs and moving toward the city – should spend the next several weeks seeing in broadcast, cable, and digital ads, and reading in mail the following message:”
- TKMH - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 12:57 pm:
==I love how explicit the red box instructions get this close to the election. Might as well just add targeted zip codes at this point==
I would recommend you check out the red box pages for the two Democratic candidates running for the Texas Senate seat, especially Talarico. Talk about granular!
- NIU Grad - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 1:22 pm:
TKMH - That was a good laugh! Right down to the mailer instructions.
- charles in charge - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 1:44 pm:
Campaign shenanigans are always a given, but it really feels as though almost everyone running this year has calculated that the upside of flagrantly lying about their opponents outweighs any possible downside. I’ll never view some of these folks the same way after seeing the depths to which they’re willing to sink (and there’s still time to go lower).
- Homebody - Monday, Mar 2, 26 @ 2:04 pm:
@charles in charge: I think this has been known to be true for a long time. We used to generally just talk about “going negative.” But it turns out ever since swift boating proved super effective, that it doesn’t matter whether what you’re saying in your attack ads is true or not. Anyone who tries to counter the lies is automatically considered “on the defensive” and hit with the “if you’re explaining, you’re losing” schtick.