A Super PAC with ties to the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth commercials have begun airing television ads today in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District criticizing Democrat Tammy Duckworth for supporting higher taxes and more government control.
Among New Prosperity Foundation’s largest donors is Missouri Republican businessman Sam Fox, who was also a major donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group behind the infamous ads questioning John Kerry’s military service in the 2004 presidential race.
The foundation is also running commercials against 10th District Congressional Candidate Brad Schneider of Deerfield and 11th District Democratic candidate Bill Foster, claiming they support higher taxes and more government control.
Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates, cited the PAC money and quoted in a news release Walsh’s recent comment at a town hall, when he noted “Now I’m running against a woman who, my God, that’s all she talks about. Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about” to indicate that he doesn’t care about veterans.
* From a Tammy Duckworth fundraising appeal…
It’s starting. A Super PAC called New Prosperity Foundation has launched the first round of attack ads against Tammy, paid for with unlimited, undisclosed funds that threaten our democracy. This is one of the largest Super PAC expenditures to date against a Democrat in Illinois.
This race is officially a top target for right-wing Super PAC spending. Help us fight back against these unlimited, undisclosed funds by contributing $10 today.
Here’s the worst part: one of New Prosperity Foundation’s largest donors, Sam Fox, was also a major donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group behind the infamous ads attacking John Kerry’s military service in 2004.
We already know Joe Walsh will stop at nothing to attack Tammy. Now we know he has the wealthy allies he needs to promote whatever malicious attack he wants. We can’t let him get away with it.
New Prosperity Foundation, a Chicago-based funding group headed by former gubernatorial hopeful Ron Gidwitz and Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President Greg Baise, yesterday began running cable TV ads in the north suburban 10th District, northwest suburban 8th District and west suburban 11th District.
The amount of money isn’t huge — around $40,000 collectively, the biggest chunk in the 8th — but the expenditure, coming fairly early, is also a clear sign of where much bigger cash is headed.
$40K split over three congressional districts is basically nothing. More people may read online stories about these ads than actually see the ads. And just because somebody gives the PAC money doesn’t mean the PAC is focusing on Duckworth’s military history. C’mon, man.
* And the ads themselves aren’t all that stellar. Here’s the one running against Duckworth…
Republican U.S. Rep. Robert Dold today picks up the endorsement of the National Education Association and their Illinois affiliate over his opponent, Democrat Brad Schneider.
That endorsement will go a long way to help Dold make the claim in a district known for widespread ticket-splitting that he’s a trustworthy moderate.
* Meanwhile, Bobby Schilling was elected to Congress in 2010 as an aggressive tea party conservative, but he’s moderated himself a lot since those days. So, a press release he sent out the other day got my attention, albeit belatedly. I found it in my in-box while I was looking for something else.
As Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faces a withering attack over outsourcing and layoffs by his former firm, Bain Capital, employees at a Bain-owned company are appealing to Romney to stop their jobs being shipped overseas.
Romney has played no part in Sensata Technologies Inc.’s decision to move its auto-sensor business to China. But he owns millions of dollars worth of Bain funds that hold a controlling stake in the Massachusetts-based company.
The planned closure of its plant in Freeport, Illinois, could create further headaches for Romney, who is struggling to divert attacks by President Barack Obama and his campaign that portray him as a job killer who does not understand ordinary Americans.
Schilling sent out this press release earlier in the month…
U.S. Reps. Don Manzullo (R-Egan) and Bobby Schilling (R-Colona) today urged the CEO of Massachusetts-based Sensata Technologies to abandon plans to offshore production to Asia and instead keep the work and the jobs in Freeport, Illinois.
In a letter sent this morning to Sensata CEO Thomas Wroe, Jr., Manzullo and Schilling expressed their concerns with Sensata’s plans to shut down its Freeport plant and move the production and jobs to China. Instead, Sensata should follow the lead of other multi-national corporations who are “reshoring” American jobs — bringing back production from overseas – to boost lead times, innovation and quality. Citizens of Freeport contacted both Manzullo and Schilling for help in appealing to Sensata to keep operations in Freeport.
Carl Green just couldn’t get his head around the idea of people complaining about not getting paid enough.
“I don’t know what their problem is,” the Coal Valley man said. “Why would you even go out and look for a minimum wage job?”
Mr. Green was among about 40 supporters of U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Colona, who held a counterprotest in Moline on Tuesday.
About 30 others attended a protest organized by Action Now, based in Chicago, to urge Rep. Schilling to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been at $7.25 per hour since 2009. They said they want that rate raised to $10 an hour to make it closer to a “living wage.”
Before the protest, Rep. Schilling’s office sent a message to supporters stating, “Some astroturf, Chicago-based, rent-a-protesters are getting paid to distort the Bobby Schilling record in a protest scheduled for today. We need you to help us with a counterprotest.”
Action Now spokeswoman Veronica Resa said all the protesters in Moline on Tuesday were from Rep. Schilling’s 17th District and none were paid to attend.
Stuart Levine — who admitted his role in the corruption scandal that sent former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to prison and provided key testimony against Blagojevich and others — was sentenced Thursday to 67 months in prison. […]
In sentencing Levine, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve called him one of the “most corrupt politicians” in northern Illinois.
“The havoc that you wrecked is certainly substantial,” she told him.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* John Kass makes the case that the national GOP ought to think twice about using Chicago corruption against President Obama this week because this week also just happens to be loaded with Republican court hearings…
Former Gov. George Ryan is still in federal prison. His lawyers are scheduled to appear in court for him Friday, to argue that his jury was given improper instructions.
On Thursday in federal court comes Stuart Levine, the financier who used his political influence on state boards and commissions to squeeze profits and is now up for sentencing. […]
The third Republican, and most powerful of all, is William Cellini, the de facto Republican boss who stayed hidden in the shadows for decades and who used his contacts to deal with Ryan’s now-imprisoned successor, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and — wait for it — Obama’s very own personal real estate fairy, the imprisoned influence peddler Tony Rezko.
It was Cellini and Levine and Rezko and their wives who went to the White House for a Christmas party. And it wasn’t the Obama White House. It was the Bush White House.
If I were conspiracy-minded, I’d suspect Barack Obama has deployed several moles to sabotage his opponent. Take John Sununu, who yesterday attacked the president for having used drugs, spent time abroad and lived in Chicago. Or Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who now claims to have proof Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud. Mitt Romney’s aides are vowing to expose Obama’s past, insisting he wasn’t “vetted” the last time around. If I were David Axelrod, I’d be smiling.
Why? Because we’ve heard it all before. It didn’t keep Americans from electing Obama in 2008 and it won’t stop them this time. These claims do resonate with some voters — but only those who wouldn’t vote for Obama if he were running against Vladimir Putin.
Most Americans just won’t buy it. The president’s personal approval ratings have consistently held up even amid our economic mess. A recent poll found that by a more than 2-to-1 margin, they find him more likable than Romney. Americans know Obama well by now, and they aren’t going to change their minds about him as a person in the absence of powerful new information, which Republicans don’t seem to have.
