*** UPDATE 2 *** Quigley claims he didn’t vote for the resolution calling on the General Assembly to pass the transit bailout. From a press release…

The Quigley for Congress campaign responded today to false statements made today by state Rep. John Fritchey.

“Just like when it came to vote on sales taxes, John Fritchey got it wrong again today,” said Tom Bowen, Quigley for Congress campaign manager.

Bowen added:

“Fritchey is doing what all politicians do when they are in trouble, they mislead the voters. Mike Quigley never voted for the resolution Fritchey cites, nor did he co-sponsor it. Quigley has said consistently that the reason the CTA was in such a dire condition was the direct result of John Fritchey and Sara Feigenholtz voting for budget after budget that shortchanged mass transit, while failing to hold the CTA accountable for the money it was wasting on mismanagement. When faced with a similar crisis in Cook County, Mike Quigley held his ground and voted against the Stroger sales tax hike while Fritchey and Feigenholtz voted for a sales tax hike, helping make Chicago’s sales tax the highest in the nation.”

“Mike didn’t vote for sales taxes on that day, any day before, or any day since. John Fritchey can’t say that. Sara Feigenholtz can’t say that.

“And that’s why the taxpayers of this district are saying they support Mike Quigley.”

Fritchey’s campaign claims that Quigley missed the committee vote, but was present for the floor vote, which was unanimous and a voice roll call. Quigley’s people deny it. Stay tuned.

*** UPDATE *** This is a very legit hit by Rep. Fritchey. Several legislators were talking about Mike Quigley’s attacks this week and weren’t happy about them. We’ll see if the media covers it. From a press release…

State Representative John Fritchey (D-Chicago), a candidate in next week’s Special Primary Election to fill the 5th Congressional District vacancy, today chided one of his opponents in the race as an opportunist and a hypocrite. Rep. Fritchey’s comments came in response to mailers and statements made by Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley regarding the state’s bailout of the CTA, Metra and Pace mass transit systems, and his supposed opposition to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.

A recent Quigley campaign mail piece attacked Fritchey for supporting legislation that kept the buses and trains running in the Chicagoland area. But at the time the legislation was being considered in Springfield, Quigley actually voted for a Cook County resolution ‘urging the Illinois General Assembly to take such action as is necessary and appropriate to increase
operating funding.” (County Resolution 07-R-310)

“Mike Quigley has crossed the line from political spin and jumped right into the realm of deceiving the voters,” stated Rep. Fritchey. “When it was politically popular to keep the buses and trains running so people could get to and from work, Mike was fully on board. Now that he’s running for higher office, he’s criticizing the same bailout that he wanted passed at the
time.”

You can find the resolution on this page.

I wrote about Quigley’s attacks on Fritchey and Rep. Feigenholtz on this issue yesterday. You can click here to see one of the mailers in question.

* Also, Jesse Greenberg points to this whack of Quigley by Forrest Claypool after the 2007 budget vote….

On February 10, Commissioners Quigley, Gorman, Goslin and Silvestri switched sides and voted for President Stroger’s budget, which protected politically connected upper management personnel and sacrificed frontline personnel. These same commissioners then proceeded to vote against the very amendment they publicly supported a week prior, resulting in the defeat of our omnibus budget amendment 10 to 7.

[ *** End of Update *** ]

* While Rep. John Fritchey’s ketchup on a hot dog mailer will probably go down as the goofiest ad of the season (if not the decade), his TV closer is quite strong…

Fritchey doesn’t have nearly the money behind this ad that Rep. Sara Feigenholtz and SEIU have behind their TV buys. But this isn’t a normal campaign. Phil Crane won a 1969 special congressional election (after Donald Rumsfeld left for the Nixon White House) with something like 3,000 votes in an 18-candidate primary. Weird things can happen when the ballot is crowded and nobody votes.

* I really don’t get the Chicago media’s aversion to this race. For instance, today’s Tribune profile of Ald. Pat O’Connor (at least the online version) makes no mention of the paper’s weeklong series of articles about O’Connor’s zoning “issues.” The paper’s edit board also made no reference to the series when O’Connor was mentioned in its endorsement of Mike Quigley. Also, the Trib’s Quigley profile posted online is only a small portion of the print story.

* Speaking of Quigley, David Ormsby claims the candidate is being hypocritical with his attacks on Feigenholtz and Fritchey over the mass transit bailout vote…

Fritchey and Feigenholtz had the courage to take a tough vote to keep the buses and trains running for thousands of their constituents and thousands of Quigley’s. Quigley had the cowardice to attack them for it.

* If you want to follow the campaign via Twitter, WindyCitizen has a handy new tool.

* I banned someone for life yesterday because of a very inappropriate comment about a candidate. That commenter will never be allowed back in, no matter what, for as long as this blog exists. I even deleted all of his/her previous comments for good measure. It was a very satisfying Orwellian erasure.

Besides that one idiot, the comments weren’t too horrible yesterday, but things have gotten out of hand in previous posts. I will ask one more time for a bit of civility and common sense. I’m in no mood and have no time to babysit overzealous campaign hacks today. Grow up or leave.

Also, please use only one screen name in comments. I can see your IP addresses, so I know when you’re attempting to post multiple “thoughts” under different names.