Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Here’s a very basic, quick rundown of several races in southern Illinois.

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Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Sun-Times endorsement editorials (fixed link) weighed in on the Rep. Beth Coulson race today:

This is one of the dirtiest and toughest races — with Democrats slinging a lot of mud at incumbent Beth Coulson… The Democrats have tried to tie Coulson to GOP Senate candidate Alan Keyes. They have hinted she is very close to some of the right-wing positions embraced by President Bush, and they have questioned her pro-choice stance, wrongly suggesting she is really pro-life. Opponent Michele Bromberg, a trustee for the Village of Skokie, is a talented candidate, but we are disturbed by her campaign’s efforts to taint the moderate and very conscientious Coulson. We endorse Coulson.

Coulson can add that to her Tribune endorsement for a very powerful mailer.

Meanwhile, the CS-T goes with Ralph Capparelli against Mike McAuliffe:

…It is only through redistricting that these two terrific candidates ended up running against one another. We have decided to endorse Capparelli, dean of the Illinois House, who has lived in the largely Democratic district for 50 years and remains an exemplary legislator.

Cap should be able to use that to help blunt McAuliffe’s recent negative assault that I wrote about in today’s Capitol Fax (subscribers only).

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Supreme Court campaign documentary

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The producer of this documentary about the Supreme Court race in southern Illinois sent me an e-mail today to say that some “rough cuts” from the movie would be posted at his site soon.

The filmmakers are causing a bit of a stir in the race. According to the Post-Dispatch, Judge Lloyd Karmeier has refused to be interviewed and Justice Maag only grudgingly allowed them a brief interview.

A little background from the film’s website:

The “Madison County Documentary” (working title) is a work-in-progress by filmmaker Wayne Ewing about the 2004 race for the Supreme Court in Madison County, Illinois. Democrat Fifth District Appellate Justice Gordon Maag is running against Republican Circuit Judge Lloyd Karmeier in a race that is attracting national attention. The US Chamber of Commerce has pledged to spend $50 million dollars defeating selected judges around America in 2004 (”The Secret War On Judges” - Forbes Magazine.

The correspondent is Paul Johnson, a television reporter with KUSA (NBC affiliate) of Denver. Producer is Wayne Ewing, who has “produced and directed over fifty documentaries for American television networks.”

Here’s a snippet from the Post-Dispatch article:

“I’m a serious filmmaker trying to do objective filmmaking about this race,” Ewing said.

But the Karmeier camp is convinced that Ewing has brought a liberal agenda to the project. They have refused to cooperate on the film.

“The Karmeier people turn away and duck every time a camera gets near,” Ewing said.

Steve Tomaszewski, a spokesman for the Karmeier campaign, said he suspects Ewing plans a “Michael Moore kind of film,” referring to the director of the anti-George W. Bush film “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

“I believe they are going after situations that are designed not to put our side in the best light,” he said.

Maag, on the other hand, reluctantly granted the crew about 20 minutes of taping time, said Brendan Hostetler, spokesman for Maag.

“Justice Maag’s feeling is they (the Ewing crew) are there, he wishes they weren’t, and we’ll agree to move on,” he said.

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Kids, don’t try this at home

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I drove to Iroquois County yesterday to take my grandma out to dinner. On our way to the restaurant I saw something that cracked me up.

Ahead on the left, I could see a row of Democratic yard signs along the road in front of a house. A car was parked nearby, and a little old lady was uprooting the signs and stashing them in her car, one by one.

There she was, a thick-legged old woman furiously waddling back and forth as she dashed to and fro between her car and the row of signs.

This was in broad daylight, mind you.

I slowed down to get a better look. As I drove by, I could see she had a big smile on her face and that her husband, sitting behind the wheel, was clearly frightened and yelling at her - most likely telling her to hurry the heck up before somebody called the cops. I couldn’t help but laugh.

No moral here. Just a story.

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Brick Wall

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Rockford Register-Star’s Aaron Chambers has another fine column on the continuing saga of Alan Keyes, state Sen. Dave Syverson (who brought Keyes to the dance) and the future of the Illinois Republican Party. In this segment, state party chair Judy Baar Topinka argues for moderation and Syverson doesn’t listen.

Topinka, a social moderate, argued that the party should stay clear of such [social] issues altogether.

“We are good managers. We deal very well with fiscal issues. We work very well with solving problems,” she said. “When we start getting into people’s bedrooms and when we start getting into some of these divisive, social, splintering, factionalized issues, we don’t do the party any good and ultimately wind up disassembled and unable to elect candidates.”

Syverson, a social conservative, says party leaders are focused on reinforcing the notion that conservative candidates can’t get elected. Yet, on one point, he agrees with Topinka.

“What Keyes is doing is wrong and what Topinka is doing is wrong,” Syverson said. “Both are alienating the other side of the Republican Party by continuing to raise the social issues instead of raising the issues that ought to be the focal point of the discussion.”

Um, Dave, try paying attention the next time you talk to Chambers.

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Couldn’t ask for anything more

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Follow this link to the Southern Illinoisan’s endorsement of GOP Supreme Court candidate Lloyd Karmeier. They’re pretty blunt at that paper, and they obviously don’t like Democrat Gordon Maag.

Maag and Karmeier are as different as night and day.

Maag has worked as a trial attorney in Madison County, notorious for outlandish jury verdicts, which have enriched many, many lawyers. Maag also served as an associate judge in Madison County.

But ask Maag about his Madison County ties and he grows visibly angry and tries to disassociate himself from Madison County.

In Illinois State Bar Association polls, fellow lawyers have given Maag a big thumbs down.

That editorial is so good for Karmeier that his campaign probably couldn’t have written it better themselves (especially considering Friday’s campaign press release referring to a “tidle wave”).

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Direct mail opportunities…

Saturday, Oct 16, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

House Democratic candidates took a beating in the Tribune editorial page today. Excerpts:

75th District (northern Illinois): Appointed Rep. Careen Gordon, a Democrat, speaks as though she has memorized her talking points but hasn’t processed what they mean. She’s a young, conservative former prosecutor, but she has trouble articulating her ideas and grasping details…

79th District (Kankakee area): Kay Pangle… faces a weak opponent in Democratic Rep. Lisa Dugan, who says Illinois has “to tighten our belts and avoid unnecessary spending,” but can’t say how that should be done.

92nd District (Peoria area): In one of the most intriguing races in the state, 23-year-old Aaron Schock is giving Democratic incumbent Ricca Slone a serious challenge… Slone has been in office four terms but displays a remarkably weak grasp of issues. Her argument for why she should be re-elected–that incumbents are more effective than freshmen–falls flat. Schock is endorsed.

103rd District (Champaign-Urbana area): Deborah Frank Feinen is a potential star for the Republican Party. Democratic incumbent Naomi Jakobsson has proved to be a lackluster legislator.

108th District (south central Illinois): [Nothing negative about Bill Grunloh, but they endorsed David Reis.]

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Negativity

Saturday, Oct 16, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Associated Press is running a story this weekend about the negative Supreme Court ads, but it’s just a standard AP he-said, he-said, with a quick quote from a watchdog. Not worth quoting, but here’s the link.

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Spooky

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Ok, this has nothing to do with politics, but click the link. It really kinda freaked me out.

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Just use the headline

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Daily Herald grudgingly endorses Bob Churchill. For some reason, I just don’t think the text of this nod will make it into Churchill’s mailer:

We still have concerns over Churchill’s track record of inflexibility with his fellow legislators, but we also believe this is a critical time for the suburbs in the state legislature, and it is important to have a representative who knows the system and how to work it. While we admire Elman and believe she makes a strong case for change, we don’t think this is a good time to be using the district as a training ground. Therefore, we endorse Robert Churchill with hope that, if re-elected, he will work with his fellow legislators to support and hold firm the interests of the District 62 and the suburbs.

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Missing Blogger

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I wonder whatever happened to this guy. Seems like he stopped posting right when things went totally crazy. Perhaps he’s the only sane one. Got while the getting was good.

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Oops

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

These things happen, but the publicity is never pleasant.

CHICAGO (AP) A foundation whose board of directors includes all the state’s Hispanic legislators will be subject to fines and late fees for failing to register with Illinois regulators, state officials said. [Snip]

The foundation failed to file because of a mistake by an accountant who was working for free, said state Sen. Miguel del Valle, D-Chicago, president of the group. A new accountant has since been hired.

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Kadner Whacks Dems

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I wrote about this mailer yesterday. The Daily Southtown’s Phil Kadner saw the story and made it the subject of today’s column.

The Democratic Party of Illinois is trying to smear a Republican candidate for the state Legislature who wants to improve public school funding.

In one of the most blatantly hypocritical attacks on a politician I have ever seen, the mailing sent out by the Democratic Party to 20,000 households claims that Kay Pangle, a candidate in the 79th House District, is pushing for a $5 billion income tax hike on Illinois residents.

And the money shot:

In other words, Democratic Party leaders in this state say they support school funding reform when it suits their political purposes and campaign against it when that position would help them win an election.

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Tribune Nods

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Chicago Tribune disses Bob Churchill:

62nd District (north suburbs): Rep. Bob Churchill once had influence as a top lieutenant to former GOP leader Lee Daniels. But since Daniels stepped down as House minority leader, Churchill has largely been reduced to creating obstacles for the new minority leader, Rep. Tom Cross. Democrat Sharyn Elman is a breast cancer survivor who was motivated to run in part by Churchill’s vote against requiring insurance companies to cover mammograms. The broadcast journalist is a ball of fire. She’s open to the idea of caps on non-economic damages for medical malpractice claims, state restrictions to end-of-career pension sweetener deals for public employees and expanded drug treatment programs for inmates. Elman is endorsed.

And doesn’t have kind words for Mike Boland:

71st District (northwest Illinois): Democratic Rep. Mike Boland’s nickname around the Capitol is “Squish,” because sometimes it’s hard to nail him down on issues. He occasionally comes up with interesting initiatives. His latest is to get keno added to the state’s lottery system. Republican Steve Haring, the economic development director for a six-county district in northwestern Illinois, is a creative campaigner. He has developed a 10-minute DVD where he talks in straightforward fashion about where he stands on jobs, education and other issues. Haring is endorsed.

I’ve been around more than a few years and I’ve spent a lot of time in Sen. Denny Jacobs’ office (Boland’s arch nemesis), but I don’t think I’ve ever heard Mike Boland called “Squish.”

I wasn’t able to get to the Boland race this week, but watch Monday’s edition.

And once again, if you were surprised at being automatically forwarded here from my old website, everything’s fine. If you just want the media links, click here.

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Obama gives a hand

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Via One Man and from the Obama blogwe see that Melissa Bean’s campaign against Congressman Crane has just received a nice little boost:

At the request of the Democratic Party, we are re-directing our Chicago area volunteers who were planning on going to Wisconsin this weekend. We are asking them instead to help staff the John Kerry phonebank in Buffalo Grove and canvass with the Melissa Bean campaign in the 10th Congressional District.

The Kerry phonebank is the largest in the nation(!) with 400 phone lines for volunteers to help make calls to swing states in the Midwest.

It appears that the Associated Press has picked up the story as well.

[Obama] is sending two busloads of volunteers to help Crane’s challenger, Melissa Bean, a 42-year-old technology consultant who hopes to unseat Crane, 73, an icon to the nation’s conservatives who has served in the House for 35 years.

And, just a reminder, if you’ve been unexpectedly forwarded here from my former home page, don’t worry, it was intentional. If you want just the media links, click here.

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FEELING LOST?

Friday, Oct 15, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ve moved my home page here for now. If you don’t care about a blog and just want a page of media links, then by all means click here.

If you get a “page error” message, just hit your “refresh” button.

Sorry for any confusion, but change is a good thing.

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