Betsy Dirksen Lobbyist, who has taken thousands from Mike Madigan’s cronies under federal investigation, keeps a tight circle of other fellow lobbyists, including her corporate lobbyist husband.
Betsy Dirksen Londrigan sure knows a lot of lobbyists. Betsy was a lobbyist and political fundraiser tied to corrupt politicians. Betsy’s husband, another lobbyist. He worked as a top aide to Rod Blagojevich. Yikes, that’s his campaign is bankrolled by her lobbyist friends. She’s taken thousands from lobbyists under federal investigation for corruption and a rape coverup. Lobbyist, family, lobbyist, friends, lobbyist money. That’s Betsy Dirksen Londrigan. The NRCC is responsible for the content of this average.
I really do not like this trend of dragging family members into campaigns.
* As an aside, the GOP can’t figure out if Rod is a bad guy or a good guy…
* Back to the ads. Press release…
Today, Rodney Davis’ campaign for Congress released a new ad titled “Pam,” which highlights Betsy Londrigan’s support for a government-run insurance plan that could force the closure of over half of America’s rural hospital, including 39 in Illinois. The ad also highlights Rodney’s record of strengthening rural hospitals and protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Pam: As a nurse, I want the best care for my patients. That’s why I won’t vote for Betsy Londrigan.
Londrigan supports a government-run health insurance plan that could force rural hospitals to close and take away your choice of doctors. Betsy Londrigan’s liberal plans would jeopardize your family’s care.
Rodney Davis is fighting to strengthen rural hospitals and protect those with pre-existing conditions. Rodney Davis is on our side.
* Londrigan response…
Rodney Davis and his allies are currently airing misleading attacks against Betsy and her family in an attempt to distract voters from the fact that Rodney Davis’ own family received over one million dollars in PPP loans, which Davis repeatedly voted against disclosing to the public.
Davis voted against the TRUTH Act, which was intended to bring much-needed transparency and oversight of funds to the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as against the formation of a House committee to oversee coronavirus relief spending.
“Instead of explaining why he repeatedly voted to hide that his family took more than $1 million in PPP loans, Rodney Davis and his party bosses are airing misleading attacks against Betsy and her family,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. ”Davis’ allies are desperately trying to distract from his record of votes against transparency for the Paycheck Protection Program, but taxpayers in Central Illinois won’t fall for it.”
When asked about the President only paying $750 in federal income taxes, Congressman Rodney Davis brushed aside any concerns that many working and middle-class families in Central Illinois pay more in taxes, saying that “those are things [he’s] happy to address in Washington.”
But Davis has had his chance to address that in Washington and instead he voted for his party’s massive tax handout to the wealthiest Americans and big corporations.
Davis’ vote was also considered “a major victory for pharma manufacturers” and gave a tax break to the top five pharmaceutical companies to the tune of $42.7 billion – the same industries that bankroll Davis’ campaign.
“Either Rodney Davis is on the side of working families in Central Illinois or he’s with the wealthiest few that bankroll his campaign. Judging by his votes in Washington, we know where his loyalties lie. For Congressman Davis to claim otherwise is a bad joke and nobody’s laughing,” said DCCC Spokesperson Courtney Rice.
Video…
We asked US Rep @RodneyDavis how it's fair that @realDonaldTrump pays so little in federal income taxes. His answer? He offered to drop off your check at the Treasury Dept if you'd like to pay extra in taxes. pic.twitter.com/eIDLIPjH1K
After winning a slew of suburban state legislative seats long held by Republicans in 2018, Illinois Democrats are looking to expand their reach even further in November as renewed controversy swirls around their powerful leader, longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Republicans for years have built their campaign strategy around vilifying Madigan, who has been speaker for all but two years since 1983, but it hasn’t paid off in a big way at the ballot box. This year, however, the GOP hopes its anti-Madigan message will resonate in a new way after federal prosecutors in July alleged that Commonwealth Edison engaged in a “yearslong bribery scheme” designed to curry favor with the speaker.
But Madigan, who has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing, is only on the ballot in his Southwest Side district, and Democrats are hoping to capitalize on a changing suburban electorate’s dissatisfaction with the name at the top of the Republican ticket: President Donald Trump. […]
“Voters across the state, and suburban voters in particular, are responding to the intersection of the pandemic, the economy and access to affordable health care,” [Senate President Don Harmon] said. “That’s been our message across the state. It’s resonating, especially in the suburbs.”
A snarky parlor game being played by some these days is guessing which number will be higher after the election: Membership in the Senate Republican caucus (currently at 19 with one on the bubble) or Madigan’s excess majority (currently at 14).
* Some of the spending has been horribly lopsided…
If you don’t subscribe to Scott Kennedy’s Illinois Election Data, you need to change that. Click here.
* Both parties are airing brutal ads. Here’s one from a week ago…
Script…
They’re called the Eastern Bloc, a group of ultra-right-wing extremists. And Seth Lewis is their newest recruit. Their agenda? Dismantle Planned Parenthood and block women’s health care, strip away a woman’s right to choose even in cases of rape and incest. The Bloc are for unlimited gun access and against vaccinations for school children. And they’ve removed life-saving COVID protections for essential workers and seniors. Seth Lewis’ agenda? Radical, bizarre, dangerous.
As focus of a local celebrity roast more than three years ago, Monica Bristow downed six shots of Fireball whiskey while listening to several roasters, one of whom said she “drinks all the time.” […]
However, one of the most controversial statements made by Bristow during the Jan. 19, 2017 roast, held as a fund-raiser for Pride, Inc. at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, was a joke she told about a retired teacher whose remains were found inside a vehicle in the Mississippi River in 2005, three years after her disappearance. […]
“About Miss Bricker. I was Miss Bricker’s favorite student…Miss Bricker was the one who met her end going into the river,” Bristow said at the roast. ”I shouldn’t do this but I’m gonna because I’ve had Fireball. She had no children so they’re not here.”
Bristow joked that Bricker was identified by lipstick on her teeth.
“I know it’s in poor taste,” Bristow said, “but I love that joke. God, I love that joke.”
Oy.
But will the HGOPs have enough cash to make sure people hear about it?…
That district is in the St. Louis media market, and those TV ads ain’t cheap.
Good morning – I’m reaching out to connect you with a source who can talk about why sportsbooks are creating more-accurate political predictions than some of the country’s leading polls.
David Strauss, lead oddsmaker at sportsbook MyBookie, can discuss why political polls are oftentimes wrong, and why sportsbooks have done a better job at getting it right. For example, 2016 polls suggested Clinton would win, while gambling lines were more indicative of the actual outcome.
* Politicians and pundits always reference polls when the results are in their favor but are quick to point out their inaccuracies when they are not. Strauss can discuss why sportsbooks are different, including:
* People are willing to lie on a poll but are unlikely to gamble their hard-earned money on something they don’t believe in
* Sportsbooks/oddsmakers also have money to lose if the political odds are set inaccurately
* Why sportsbooks are seeing a Trump win in the 2020 election, and how that differs from current polls
For more of an in-depth chat on this topic, let me know what time you’re able to connect with David Strauss this week for a phone interview.
Thanks,
Natasha
Um, there’s a reason casinos are so opulent: Gamblers do not generally make rational decisions, even when they’re only betting a few bucks. Add our insane national politics into the equation and you’ve got a real problem on your hands.
…Adding… From a good buddy…
(A)s someone who’s made decent money wagering on elections I’ve always found the prediction markets to be trailing indicators. Also, it’s much easier to make money on the political markets by monetizing the yo-yo than betting on the outcome, I’ve been frustrated by how stable this race has become, it’s interfering with my monetization.
The general idea is to take advantage of the mopes.
* So, in an unfortunate moment of uncoolness which I now regret, I sent this reply…
Seriously, y’all need to watch this video and take me off your list
House Democrats started off the 2020 cycle looking to protect roughly four dozen vulnerable members, including 30 whose districts voted for President Donald Trump four years ago.
Now as they enter the final month, Democrats are scaling back defensive spending and funneling their remaining millions to knock out vulnerable Republicans and expand their 34-seat majority, according to a POLITICO review of recent advertising data. […]
In a sign of their growing optimism, Democrats canceled millions of October TV reservations for lawmakers like Reps. Jared Golden in Maine or Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania — in two districts that Trump had won by about 10 points in 2016. And party officials also nixed ad time in a pair of purple Michigan districts belonging to freshman Reps. Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin, which Trump also won in the last presidential election.
Now Democrats are pouring that cash into capturing red seats — in Michigan, Colorado, Montana and Alaska — that the party hadn’t been eyeing until late in the election cycle as Trump sagged in the polls and GOP campaigns entered crisis mode. […]
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) said in a brief interview, stressing that party officials began early with recruitment and on-the-ground staff in battleground districts. “We’re raising money like it’s falling from the sky.”
Here’s to the doers, the ones who feed the world and make America work, even in tough times.
I’m Cheri Bustos and I’m doing everything I can to get us moving again. Better trade deals, so our farmers sell American products. New infrastructure projects. and demanding they use products made in America, not China.
I’m Cheri Bustos,and I approve this message because we’re doers here and it’s time to get to work.
Another snippet has been leaked of a now-infamous recorded fundraising call made by state Rep. Amy Grant, R-Wheaton, in late August. And it’s a doozy.
Grant already is reeling badly from the backlash to other comments she made during the call. She has insisted that she is neither a racist nor a homophobe and has tried to claim her words were taken out of context, without explaining how.
You may have seen the news about this. Grant is running against Ken Mejia-Beal, a gay Black Democrat. In the call, Grant dismissed Mejia-Beal to someone she believed to be a potential campaign contributor by saying, “That’s all we need is another person in the Black Caucus.” She mocked “the way he talks,” saying “He’s all LGBTQ. He wants to work for the chronically ill. He just gives us, like crazy, and every week it’s a different reason for why he wants to get into the race.”
In the latest clip, Grant is heard telling the potential contributor how groups like Planned Parenthood would be attacking her for opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
“Well, of course, you know, people don’t want to hear that,” Grant admitted about her position on the issue.
But Grant went on to explain why she continues to stick by her beliefs. “For starters, the percentage of incest,” she said. “Peter Breen, who said, ‘Amy, don’t worry about that; the percentage of incest is so small it’s ridiculous. And in the case of rape it’s even small.’”
Breen is a former Republican state representative who is campaigning to regain the seat he lost in 2018 to Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn. He’s also vice president and chief counsel at the staunchly anti-abortion Thomas More Society.
The House Republicans turned down an opportunity to respond.
Grant’s opponent Ken Mejia-Beal pointed to a series of recent Republican attack mailers that essentially accused him of helping cover up a rape. “It really is the height of hypocrisy,” he said of Grant’s recorded comments.
Similar mailers apparently have been used against Democratic House candidates this cycle. The front of one of the mailers has the words (in all capital letters) “Rape, Cover-Up, Mike Madigan” and the candidate’s name. The headline on the other side was: “Ken Mejia-Beal: Silent When It Mattered.”
“When Mike Madigan’s political organization was implicated in a rape cover-up, top Democrats called for him to step down. What did Ken Mejia-Beal have to say? Nothing.”
The mailer referred to an emailed comment made by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former consigliere Mike McClain, who was trying to protect a state worker’s job by claiming the guy had kept his mouth shut about “the rape in Champaign.” The explosive story broke in January of this year, less than two months after Mejia-Beal had filed his nominating petitions.
Mejia-Beal said the mailers were particularly hurtful because he’s been a mentor for sexual assault survivors. He issued a press release at the time saying he had no knowledge of the issue and called the attack “pathetic” because Grant was “using the unfortunate story of someone else’s abuse to earn political points for her own campaign.”
After the latest audio clip was leaked, Mejia-Beal issued a formal statement: “While millions of women in the U.S. have become pregnant as a result of rape or incest, Rep. Grant’s heartless and disgusting remarks are a reminder of how out of touch she is with reality. These comments from Rep. Grant also serve as a reflection of her extreme record against women’s health care and victims of abuse.”
Terry Cosgrove, who runs the pro-choice Personal PAC, also weighed in: “It’s the height of cruelty that Peter Breen and Amy Grant are so callous to victims of rape and incest… I would like to see Breen and Grant look into the eyes of a 15-year-old girl who has been victimized repeatedly by a relative or neighbor and tell her ‘it’s ridiculous.’”
One other thing: Grant has some trouble saying what she means during the recording. For instance, she claims, “You know, life is going to come after me, Planned Parenthood.” And “They’re going to say, oh, Amy Grant supports abortion even in case of incest and rape.”
Obviously, what she meant was pro-choice groups were coming after her for opposing abortion even in cases of incest and rape, because it wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.
