Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I had heard about this from the governor’s people a while ago, but completely forgot to follow up. Oops on me.

Sneed hears Edwin Eisendrath’s Dem gubernatorial primary bid may have hit a bump in the road. A big bump.

*To wit: With only 30-plus days to go before the primary, word is Eisendrath’s campaign manager Brandon Hurlbut . . . has quit!

And that’s confirmed in an EE press advisory:

Felicia Shallow Davis has joined the Eisendrath for Governor Campaign as Campaign Manager.

“I’m delighted that Felicia Shallow Davis, the deputy field director for the Obama Senate campaign and a former Chicago Police Officer with deep ties to the community, is stepping in to do this job,” said Edwin Eisendrath in Chicago.

“I’ve worked with Felicia before and she has my complete confidence,” said Eisendrath. “I thank Brandon Hurlbut for his service and wish him well back in Washington.”

38 Comments

Question of the day

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I wrote in the Capitol Fax today that I found it a bit strange that the male Republican gubernatorial hopefuls have a habit of attacking Judy Baar Topinka when she’s not in the room, but clam up when she’s around (except for a brief to-do during the debate yesterday with Jim Oberweis).

Why do you think this is? Do you think it will change?

59 Comments

Unsolicited advice

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m not sure that either of these points help showcase the governor’s new contention that he has learned hard lessons, matured and is growing into the office.

With Elvis’ “Blue Suede Shoe’s” blaring over the sound system, Governor Rod Blagojevich walked onto stage with his wife Patti and daughters Amy, and Annie to officially kick of his re-election bid. […]

He was also about 30 minutes late to his own re-election rally.

Clinton ditched the saxophone for his re-election bid. Blagojevich might want to consider dumping Elvis and start showing up on time. At the very least, they should adjust the schedule to his reality.

Add your own unsolicited advice below.

UPDATE: Pete Giangreco says in comments that the story quoted above is in error. The governor was not late to any of his events Sunday. So, he’s got that going for him. But let’s go ahead and continue with the unsolicited advice.

UPDATE: The reporter stands by his original story. So there.

35 Comments

Morning shorts

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Did anyone else find it odd that the Illinois Federation of Teachers announced its endorsement of Gov. Rod Blagojevich on a Saturday during a three-day weekend?

Â· The blogger behind the Elginite blog has a couple of great news feeds devoted solely to Elgin happenings. I’m a big fan of news feeds, as you’ve probably figured out by now, and this is a fantastic idea for micro-politics bloggers.

Â· The Post-Dispatch had a story yesterday about an Illinois political fundraising event in Arizona and ran an editorial calling Gov. Blagojevich “Lord Bountiful.”

Â· Best satire of the past week. Blagojevich introduces his pizza franchise.

Â· DuPage tries to win back Republicans who took Democratic ballots.

Â· The Tribune appears to be moving towards a 24-hour a day coverage cycle. Before, they’d wait until early morning to put big stories online. But yesterday at noon they had a story up about the GOP gubernatorial debate, and then updated it at 7:18 with a full story. At 5:30 they posted a full story on CUB’s efforts to fight a ComEd rate hike. At 8:27 pm, they ran a piece about how Bob Kjellander no longer represents The Carlyle Group. And at 10:20 pm, they had a story up about how car dealerships are fighting a new law in Springfield.

Â· The Decatur Herald & Review gives a thumbs down to Gidwitz ad. “Hard-hitting ads are fine, but they should be based on facts.”

Â· The original headline on this article was “Republicans Smear Blagojevich During Debate,” which I thought was weird. It was eventually changed to “Republican Candidates Lash Out At Topinka’s Ethics.”

Â· Was Mike Lawrence muzzled? Sure looks that way.

Â· Two Illinois congressional races make Larry Sabato’s “Dirty Thirty” list of the most contested US House races in America.

20 Comments

Debate replay

Monday, Feb 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

If you missed the Daily Herald/Chicago Public Radio Republican gubernatorial debate this morning, you can hear the replay here.

UPDATE: Go to 56:33 into the debate and have a listen. Hilarious.

UPDATE: The Trib’s story is up.

UPDATE: Comments are now open on this post. Debate the debate.

1 Comment

We have the winners

Monday, Feb 20, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Illinoize blogger Abraham Lincoln and I have chosen the winners for our two contests.

You will recall that I promised dinner for the best humorous comment about Edwin Eisendrath’s new TV ad.

Most were pretty good, but I thought Archpundit and Lamont Cranston did the best. Since I haven’t seen Larry in a while, I figured I might as well choose him. At least I know what sort of dinner companion I’m getting. Here’s his post.

Rich points out the horrendous production problems with the Eisendrath ad quite well.

But there is another quality about it that I couldn’t quite place which transcended bad production into a classic of bad campaign advertisements. It just struck me what it was, but I had to go back to January 14, 1972 when Christopher Knight hit that awkward point in his character’s life when his voice changed–yes, the Brady Bunch sings the “Time to Change” song with Peter Brady croaking out his lyrics in a heartwarming episode about growing up and adjusting to life’s challenges.

Can’t you just see Edwin there with his lines “I love this state” and “It’s just wrong that…”

It’s Peter Brady with his voice changing. Lyrics Available here

And who the hell runs as Edwin and not Ed?

Abraham Lincoln asked readers to complete this sentence from Jim Oberweis’ new TV ad: “When you get to know Jim Oberweis, you…..”

He chose OneMan’s line, which was my favorite as well.

try to remember what he is running for this time.

Congrats to both. Should be an interesting dinner.

UPDATE: I just found out who Lamont Cranston is. What the heck, he’s invited, too.

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