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*** UPDATED x1 *** Bill Foster’s opponent Catalina Lauf revives old, completely debunked “litter boxes in schools” rumor

Monday, Oct 3, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* CD11 Republican nominee…

Andrew — with all due respect, this is not a hoax and is happening in schools in Illinois, too.

— Catalina Lauf (@CatalinaLauf) October 3, 2022

Debunked here, but the Google can be your friend, so click here for local stories. Here’s just one…

Marion Unit 2 school board president Joe Bleyer addressed recent bizarre social-media rumors that the district was adding litter boxes to the restrooms for students who wished to dress up in animal costumes.

“Apparently there is some sensation that we are going to have litter boxes in our bathrooms,” Bleyer said. “I can assure you of two things. One, the Illinois Department of Public Health and two, the Illinois plumbing code do not allow for non-functioning restrooms.

“So regardless of what you see on social media, litter boxes are not coming to Marion Unit 2 schools.”

How goofy do you have to be to believe this nonsense? It’s just so silly and downright stupid…

A Nebraska state lawmaker apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats.

That was in March.

An attempt at an explanation for this phenomenon is here.

Get off Facebook.

…Also, if she takes it down after work hours, the screen shot is here.

*** UPDATE *** Weak game…

Name one K-12 school in Illinois that has kitty litter boxes in their student restrooms. Just one.

— Capitol Fax (@capitolfax) October 3, 2022

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Campaign notebook

Monday, Oct 3, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Political Wire…

“During the 2020 election, Jared Kushner tried to artificially ‘inflate’ Donald Trump’s sinking numbers in the polls against Joe Biden, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book. Within Team Trump, Haberman reports, the purpose of Kushner’s request was clear — he just wanted to juke the survey numbers, in the hopes of keeping his father-in-law from flying into a rage,” Rolling Stone reports.

From the book: “Kushner, who oversaw reelection strategy from his post as a White House senior adviser, advised a campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, to inflate Trump’s standing in surveys that would be shown to the candidate by adding percentage points to his position in the horse race.”

Fabrizio is Dan Proft’s pollster. I’m not saying Fabrizio juked the numbers for Proft like he ~~allegedly did~~ may have done for Trump to make the governor’s race here look like it’s a five-point contest, I’m just saying that I’m probably never going to look at another Fabrizio poll the same way again.

* Oppo Dump: Before the primary, Illinois Right To Life Action rated 8th Congressional District Republican primary candidate Chris Dargis a “2,” meaning he was “Not in full support of all Pro-Life issues.” Dargis contributed $400 to IRLA in April. The group has since revised its Dargis rating to a “1,” meaning he’s “Fully Pro-Life.” IRLA also puts a “#” next to candidates who support rape and incest exceptions for abortion. Keith Pekau has one, but Dargis does not. Dargis is up against US Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is rated a “4,” which means he is “Totally opposed to Pro-Life issues.”

* Sen. Darren Bailey is on record as saying he opposes state minimum wage laws. He wants the wage set at a federal level…

I have trouble watching Pritzker interviews because I have to pause the video to fact check? Last week he could’ve factually said he raised minimum wage but he added he raised it to a livable wage. Where in JB’s Illinois can you live for $12 an hour? #FirePritker #RestoreIllinois pic.twitter.com/cJ44fXjrCm

— Stephanie Trussell (@ReaganMom) October 3, 2022

* Press release…

Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (D-IL) released his first TV ad of the general election. The ad contrasts Casten’s 100% pro-choice stance, and support from major pro-choice organizations, with his opponent’s extreme anti-choice views. The ad will run on TV through Election Day as part of a seven-figure ad buy.

You can watch the ad, “Even Further”, here.

Transcript
Newscaster: Roe vs. Wade is overruled.
Narrator: Keith Pekau wants to go even further. Pekau supports banning abortion here in Illinois, and would allow states to criminalize abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.
Sean Casten: I always have and always will protect a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions. Including the right to choose an abortion. And I’ll fight any attempt to ban or criminalize abortion access here in Illinois and across the country. I’m Sean Casten and I approve this message.

…Adding… So far, $38,763 has been placed on cable channels ESPN, HGTV, TBSC, TNT and USA. No word yet on broadcast.

* Politico…

— In IL-06, Congressman Sean Casten has a six-figure digital ad featuring the endorsement of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Both Casten and Dart are Democrats. The ad focuses on Casten’s support of funding for law enforcement.

The ad is here.

* Politico…

Gov. JB Pritzker has given $350,000 to Democrat Josh Shapiro in his run for Pennsylvania governor. It’s all part of Pritzker’s effort to fund governor candidates who he sees as key to keeping abortion rights legal in their states. Pritzker has given an additional $100,000 to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The Midwestern governors had previously received $250,000 from Pritzker this election cycle.

The Illinois governor also gave $100,000 each to Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Democratic governor challengers Charlie Crist in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas.

* From Mary Ann Ahern’s coverage of the Friday joint candidate interviews…

I did follow up with the Bailey campaign to ask ‘Has the candidate been vaccinated?’ They will not answer that question.

Meanwhile…

New study of almost 600,000 deaths in Ohio and Florida shows that registered Republicans had far higher excess-death rates than registered Democrats during the pandemic, with almost all of the gap coming after vaccines were available.https://t.co/OG4kVq3SrB

— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) October 3, 2022

One other thing to note: this study looked at excess deaths, not Covid deaths. So if the vaccines were killing people, you'd see it in this data. You don't see it, because they're not.

— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) October 3, 2022

* CD13…

Today, Nikki Budzinski announced that her campaign raised over $1,000,000 in the third quarter of 2022. Budzinski entered the general election in June with over $1,000,000 cash on hand, putting her in a strong position to communicate with voters. To date, Budzinski has raised over $3,000,000 since announcing her campaign in August of 2021.

* Sun-Times…

Sean Morrison finds himself in a precarious position. He’s the lone incumbent Republican on the Cook County Board of Commissioners fighting to keep his seat in the November general election. […]

In the last general election in 2018, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is also chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party, targeted three out of four incumbent Republicans on the board — and defeated two of them, including the head of the Illinois Republican Party.

Now Preckwinkle says she plans to topple Morrison, go after Silvestri’s seat and defend the two seats the Democrats flipped to blue four years ago. Buoyed by a new district map that gives Democrats the advantage, Preckwinkle thinks her party has the opportunity to run the entire Cook County Board of Commissioners.

* More…

Former Ugaste campaign chair endorses opponent Democrat Robertson in Illinois’ 65th Dist. race

Ugaste has since taken over as chair.

* Illinois treasurer candidates Mike Frerichs, Tom Demmer spar over role of office: “The treasurer should be speaking up and advocating for taxpayers in the big public discussions of the day,” Demmer said. “The state treasurer should be someone who is going to be an outspoken advocate for taxpayers and challenge the status quo.” Demmer, a five-term state representative from Dixon, called Frerichs a “rubber stamp” for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration who has supported various tax hikes over the years. Frerichs argued that Demmer would be an obstructionist rather than an advocate. He said Demmer acted as former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s floor leader on failed budgets that led to a two-year budget impasse during Rauner’s single term in office that “devastated social service agencies and decimated our public universities” due to lack of funding. “For two years he sat there and said nothing about the devastation that was going on. Let it happen,” Frerichs said. “I won’t sit here and be lectured about policies by someone who tried to destroy social service agencies and pursue an anti-worker agenda.”

* Lake County candidates skipping League of Women Voters forums: ‘We consider this a real problem’: Lara Cooper, spokesperson for Democrat Elizabeth “Liz” Rochford’s campaign, blasted Curran for not agreeing to the forum. “Mark Curran has refused three times to share a stage with Judge Elizabeth Rochford to hide his extremist anti-abortion positions and ‘not recommended’ rating from the Illinois State Bar Association, thereby backing out of campaign forums by making up lies about reputable, nonpolitical organizations like the Lake County League of Women Voters, which has absolutely no agenda other than to inform voters,” Cooper said.

* In the fight for the US House, one of the most important battles is in northwest Illinois: King said she’s opposed to abortion and she’s glad the Supreme Court returned the decision on abortion rules to the states, “especially here in Illinois, where our extreme laws are out of touch with over 80% of Americans.” But she said she doesn’t think the recent proposal by Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to limit abortion rights nationally will go anywhere. “I don’t think too many people are paying attention to Lindsey Graham, especially here in our area,” King said.

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Protected: *** UPDATED x1 *** SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Campaign news and a GOP primary update

Monday, Oct 3, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

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The Daily Herald on Proft papers fiasco: “We’re sorry this has resulted in challenges to our staff’s integrity”

Monday, Oct 3, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Background on the Daily Herald dropping the printing and mailing of the Proft Papers is here if you need it. Here’s the Daily Herald Editorial Board’s open letter to its staff on the controversy…

We did not foresee this attack on our reputation. We found ourselves in the eye of the political firestorm between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his Republican opponent, Darren Bailey. The Daily Herald had become the story, and that wasn’t fair to Daily Herald reporters, editors and fellow staffers throughout Paddock Publications. We’re sorry this has resulted in challenges to our staff’s integrity.

As a result, the company will no longer accept print jobs from LGIS, but we will defend the reputation of the Daily Herald and our commitment to journalism and to the communities and readers we serve.[…]

We plan to take several steps to strengthen the harmony among Paddock Publications various business objectives.

Among them:

• Formalize a screening process for commercial printing projects and sensitive advertising. We are appointing a team tasked with identifying print job proposals and advertising that may be sensitive or controversial and then reviewing those for acceptance, rejection or modification. The litmus test for these reviews will for the most part be transparency and factualness. Outside of extremism that would conflict with our values and reflect poorly on the company, the point is not to arbitrarily reject points of view. The right to free expression is a central value that our company endorses. But it is to ensure any print jobs and advertising meet certain fundamental standards. Screening team members also will familiarize themselves with ongoing products so we have enough information to challenge them when necessary or defend them when unfairly questioned.

There’s more.

* Chicago Block Club reported on the mailers…

Nancy Wade, who lives in Lincoln Square, said finding the unsolicited publication in her mailbox made her livid.

“The tabloids aren’t as bad as this. It’s all misleading. If you don’t know much about any of these issues, and this is the first information you ever see, naturally I’d be worried, too,” Wade said. “They are like yelling at you from the page.” […]

“I don’t call them newspapers for a very good reason,” said Don Craven, president of the Springfield-based Illinois Press Association. “They’re not.”

Craven said that neither the Chicago City Wire, nor any of the other 34 Local Government Information Services publications across Illinois are members of the press association, or have applied for membership.

* Center for Illinois Politics…

It seems that a new phenomenon is taking hold with phony newspapers being sent to homes across Illinois. The goal of these publications is to confuse and fool people into believing they are reading news when in fact they are reading biased reporting that’s politically driven.

An example is Lake County Gazette, one of 34 publications, 11 of which are in print, published by Local Government Information Services (LGIS). The news outlet has seen steady growth since it was established in 2018. Other titles include Chicago City Wire, McHenry Times, North Cook News, and Sangamon Sun.

These publications are not traditional news, but are in fact hyper-partisan ventures engaged in media manipulation to advance the publishers’ agenda.

A Shaw News article recently reported, “They are drawing attention – including from Gov. JB Pritzker – for being politically charged and containing right-wing talking points just a couple months before the November election.”

* The Democratic Party of Illinois is warning voters about the papers…

* Crain’s Editorial Board commented last month on the Daily Herald’s apology to its readers…

“Many critics cannot or refuse to differentiate between a commercial printing operation . . . and the Daily Herald’s editorial mission to be unbiased and fair,” the letter states, without addressing the still-unanswered question of whether LGIS mailed these materials on Paddock’s dime. “The perception for some has become that the Daily Herald favors one party over another and by printing for LGIS, it’s somehow promoting its message. That is not true.”

Actually, producing and apparently providing postage for this stuff is pretty much the definition of promoting this message. And, to be clear, the look would be just as bad if Paddock had printed and lent its postal permit to sham newspapers that amounted to unlabeled ads for Pritzker or Lightfoot.

We’re not talking about slick pamphlets, brochures or posters here—the kind of material that voters are accustomed to finding in their mailboxes, stuck into their doorjambs or pressed into their hands as they run for the train during campaign season. We’re talking about deceptively designed mailers that are clearly meant to simulate newspapers—printed and evidently distributed by a company that, however inconveniently in this case, happens to be in the news business.

That juxtaposition is a particularly unhelpful one for the entire profession as journalists try to do what they do against challenging headwinds. Real journalists ask tough questions, hold power to account, correct the record when they get things wrong, and report only what they know—based on honest reporting and clear-eyed analysis—to be true. Journalism is a public trust. And as “The Journalist’s Creed,” a time-honored declaration first published by the Missouri School of Journalism more than a century ago, puts it: “Acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.”

What do you think about the Herald’s continued damage control?

…Adding… Walker’s comment…

What damaged DH credibility was not the political squabble between candidates, but rather association with a perverse undercutting of the expectations the public has of established newspapers.