Two candidates trying to oust Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton were emerging Wednesday as leaders in the chase for campaign cash in the crowded Democratic primary field.
Though some candidates had yet to file their federal campaign finance reports in the hours before a midnight deadline, Kelly Mazeski of Barrington Hills, had more than $513,000 in her treasury as the year opened, and Sean Casten of Downers Grove had about $409,000. Neither Mazeski nor Casten has held elective office. She sits on the Barrington Hills Plan Commission. He is a scientist and clean-energy entrepreneur. […]
Mazeski has loaned her campaign $295,000 and Casten has loaned his effort $430,000, reports show. Including their own money, she led him in total campaign receipts so far, reporting about $688,000 to his $617,000. Casten started airing a TV ad after Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.
Congressional candidates filed their fourth quarter fundraising and spending reports today, giving us a first look at their financial status at the start of 2018.
The 3rd, 4th, and 6th Congressional Districts have raised particular interest from reporters and engaged voters across the country. In these top races, three Democratic challengers, Marie Newman, Sean Casten, and Kelly Mazeski, have contributed significant amounts to their own campaigns.
With this funding, Marie Newman was able to raise more than incumbent Congressman Dan Lipinski, with $262,092 to his $228,318. This was a major departure from the 3rd quarter of 2017, when Lipinski raised $1.5 million.
Lipinski had $1.6 million in the bank, however, compared to $237K for Newman.
The 4th District race hinges on a three-way primary between Democrats seeking to replace twelve-term Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia took a considerable fundraising lead, raising more than twice that of activist Sol Flores. The candidates raised $190,487 and $79,407 respectively in the 4th quarter of 2017. Garcia raised 140% more than Flores during that time period.
Garcia received just over 25% of his contributions from political committees, and was poised with $162,811 in cash on hand heading into 2018, compared to Flores’ $77,988. Alderman Ray Lopez and Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno recently dropped out of this race ahead of a candidate forum, after polling showed Garcia with a significant lead.
* From Democrat Brendan Kelly’s campaign manager in the 12th District race against Republican Mike Bost…
Hey Rich -
I know you’re probably getting swamped with digital ads AND I know we sent over our new ad earlier today - but I also wanted to highlight for you that we out-raised Bost again this quarter.
From my quick research - this is the first time in IL-12 that a challenger has had two back-to-back quarters over $300,000. Last quarter (Q3 - 2017) we raised over $355,000 and out-raised Bost by about $95,000.
Thanks,
Sam
* In the 13th District, Republican Rodney Davis raised $277K and had $1.1 million cash on hand. Among Democrats, Erik Jones raised $132K and had $238K in the bank. Betsy Londrigan raised $163K and ended with $238K. [These are updated totals.]
* I don’t think I’d ever heard of Bill Whittle until today, when a certain helpful somebody sent me the invite and a link to this backgrounder…
While discussing “black America” during a December 2015 appearance on Molyneux’s program, Whittle described African Americans who support the Democratic Party as literal slaves who prefer to remain in captivity. He said that that the party has “30 million” slaves and the “terms of their slavery are very simple — there’s a word for somebody who is fed, and clothed, and housed, and whose health care is taken care of by another person, and that word is slave.” Whittle then suggested that African Americans commit voter fraud on behalf of Democrats as a condition of their slavery, claiming, “On the voting plantation that the Democratic Party has set up in America, we demand two hours of work from you every two years. Every two years we demand that you go down to the voting places and vote, once, twice, three, four times, however [many] times as you can imagine, or manage, and that’s the work we expect for you in exchange for keeping you in bondage.”
During another 2015 appearance on Molyneux’s show, Whittle compared the “Islamic invasion of Europe” to “inner cities” in America “that are absolutely toxic, violent, enraged, bitter, [and] racist.” He went on to claim Black Lives Matter is “the street muscle” of the Democratic Party and that the group will make sure “everything’s gonna burn” if welfare is reduced. Again drawing a comparison between Europe and the United States, Whittle said, “We have the exact same problem here with these same kind of communities. They’re unemployable — unemployed and unemployable — they’ve been on assistance their entire lives, they’ve never had to work before,” and he said that these people should get jobs because a job “beats the laziness” out of people and “disciplines” them into “civility.”
Whittle called President Obama an “unqualified, unknown individual” who was elected “specifically and only because he is black” and said that electing Obama was “atoning for our slavery” during a January 2016 appearance on Molyneux’s show. Moments later he said, “I didn’t own any slaves, and therefore I’m not responsible for slavery. I’m not benefiting from slavery because I never owned any slaves,” and he said, “There’s nothing in this country that survived the Civil War that was the result of slavery.” Continuing to discuss the Civil War, Whittle said the “greatest tragedy in American history” is “not slavery, it’s not the Civil War, it’s what happened after,” before complaining about the philosophy of W.E.B. DuBois.
In 2013, Whittle published a video for PJ Media with the title “The Lynching” that discussed the February 2012 shooting of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. Whittle suggested that George Zimmerman, who killed Martin, had an experience tantamount to a lynching. Whittle said that text messages found on Martin’s phone, which he said were “not ‘airable’ here for extreme graphic content,” showed that Martin was “violent and highly sexualized.” What was “airable” on Whittle’s video, however, was an image (warning: disturbing image) of Martin’s body after he had been shot, which Whittle left on the screen for several minutes.
Whittle bizarrely labeled CNN anchor Don Lemon “racist” against white people because Lemon pointed out that President Donald Trump sounds different when he is using a teleprompter, as compared to when he speaks without one, during a March NRATV appearance.
Yesterday on Fox News’ “Dayside,” conservative radio host Mike Gallagher proposed that airports institute a “Muslims only” line for airport travelers during a segment Tuesday on racial profiling.
*** UPDATE 1 *** GOP state Rep. Grant Wehrli…
“Bill Whittle has a history of espousing racist ideas. That type of shameful rhetoric has no place in the Republican Party and Representative Ives should cancel her fundraiser with him.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Rep. Bourne…
Exactly. Civility and respect in our public discourse are more important than campaign contributions. Whittle's racially-charged comments are embarrassing and reprehensible. Rep. Ives should do the right thing - cancel her fundraiser. #twillhttps://t.co/dw7UN4jSax
Bill Whittle’s racially infused rhetoric shouldn’t be tolerated in the Land and Party of Lincoln. Representative Ives should disinvite him from her event. #twillhttps://t.co/Wzyrc1RTkh
The Ives for Illinois campaign was unaware of the remarks made by Bill Whittle, reported in Capitol Fax. Whittle was a guest of the event organizer. His comments are obviously offensive and objectionable. Whittle has been disinvited from the event. Representative Ives, additionally, disavows any endorsement from Mr. Whittle. A video of Whittle speaking in support of Ives has been pulled from the campaign’s social media pages.
Rauner campaign weighs in on @JeanneIves having to disinvite controversial radio host with history of racist remarks to her fundraiser: “This just shows how unelectable Representative Ives really is.” #ILGov@GovRauner
Chancellor Carlo Montemagno’s daughter and son-in-law were hired for university jobs created for them, that they never formally applied for and that were never advertised, documents show.
While the chancellor proposes campus-wide cuts, his daughter, Melissa Germain, and her husband, Jeffrey Germain, began working in newly created positions.
“It’s not unusual because that’s part of what you do to negotiate to get the people you want here,” Communications and Marketing Director Rae Goldsmith said of a verbal agreement between Montemagno and SIU President Randy Dunn to bring aboard family.
Faculty Association President Dave Johnson said spousal hires are not uncommon in academia. However, he said, this is the first time he has heard of an administrator bringing a child and her spouse on board.
“I’m not a lawyer and I don’t understand all the legalities involved, but I do take the ethics test on a yearly basis and it says you can’t hire people just because they’re family members,” Johnson said. “They have to be the best people for the position. It would be surprising if the new chancellor’s daughter and son-in-law suddenly became the best people for positions in the weeks and months after he was hired.”
Montemagno’s appointment was approved by the Board of Trustees on July 13. On July 24, Montemagno sent his daughter’s resume to Goldsmith, according to documents obtained by the Daily Egyptian. Two weeks later Melissa Germain signed her new contract, making her assistant director of university communications.
It’s difficult enough to advocate for the interests of higher education without stuff like this happening. They create two new jobs for the dude’s kid and son-in-law as part of his hiring package?
SIU’s Office of Internal Audit, Compliance and Ethics on Thursday opened two inquiries related to the hirings of Chancellor Carlo Montemagno’s daughter and son-in-law, as well as searches involving previous coworkers.
But the decision to allow for this agreement was not easily reached, said Dunn, who added he was given a directive by the Board of Trustees that “I needed to do whatever I could to make this [hire] happen.”
After wrestling with this directive and coming to a consensus with the board that the decision was not illegal, unethical or immoral, Montemagno’s request was supported, he said.
“Legally, it looked like we were probably OK with a broad reading of nepotism law,” Dunn said. “Then I went ahead and moved forward.” […]
“We’ve had a campus that’s come through the worst two years fiscally speaking that it’s ever seen since its founding days,” Dunn said, referring to the budget impasse that left hundreds of positions at SIU unfilled. “In some cases, departments were barely hanging on, so to think that the irony that we’re going to bring in two new people for jobs that may or may not exist at that point was a tough one for me.”
* Yeah, it’s Morning Consult, and their methodology is more than a bit opaque, but they’ve got Gov. Rauner’s job approval numbers, so let’s take a look…
So, he was still underwater back then, but he was doing significantly better than he is now.
What changed? Well, do you remember what happened on July 10th, the last day of the poll? The governor began a purge of his administration by firing his chief of staff Richard Goldberg and bringing in people from the Illinois Policy Institute.
By the time the next results were released in October, Rauner’s approval rating fell to 30 percent and his disapproval had risen to 55 percent. Pretty much exactly where they are today.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
New national polling by Morning Consult shows that Bruce Rauner is the least popular Republican governor running for reelection, with a net approval rating of -24.
The new polling comes as Bruce Rauner is facing a strong challenge from his own party, with primary opponent Jeanne Ives holding him accountable while he dodges responsibility. As Rauner flails in his re-election bid, he has desperately attempted to defend his nonexistent record, earning him the title of the Worst Republican Governor in America.
“Bruce Rauner can’t defend his own record, can’t name a single real accomplishment, and has mismanaged the state government with fatal consequences,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “The most vulnerable incumbent in the country is under water as Illinoisans prepare to end his reign of crisis and devastation across Illinois.”
