A recent poll by RMG Research in the 8th Congressional District shows Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi leading Republican Chris Dargis 45 percent to 39 percent with 12 percent undecided. The 400 respondents in the poll also favored term limits and disapprove of President Joe Biden’s job performance.
The unspoken, yet very real concern among some Democrats, is that the party is returning to an unhealthy era of one man control, with Pritzker and his subordinates taking the place of Madigan.
“I guess that remains to be seen and we’ll know fairly quickly, ” said Rep. [Will] Davis. “Not only the effort to raise money but then determining how to spend it. If it’s about supporting incumbent Democrats then we’ll know fairly quickly if there’s going to be a resurgence of dictator-style rule.”
[Former Senate President John Cullerton] sees it differently. “There’s an opportunity for someone who can go out and fundraise legally, a chairman, to go out and make it a national effort to raise money for the Democratic Party in Illinois, ” said Cullerton. “We’ve never done that. When Madigan was chair, he only raised money for House Democrats. This would be for the lower-level candidates – the sheriffs and county clerks in the marginal counties downstate. Robin couldn’t do that legally. So of course Elizabeth’s going to raise more than Robin did. Almost by default.”
I’m guessing that Pritzker isn’t gonna want to be governor for 50 years.
Paul Lange believes someone should always have a choice when they walk into a voting booth.
Lange, 67, is recently retired commodities broker who worked in Quincy but lives near Mendon. He has thrown his hat into the ring to run as the Democratic candidate for Illinois’ 15th Congressional District.
It was a district that wasn’t configured to be favorable for Democrats, who had to cede most of downstate Illinois during the redistricting process. Most of the state south of I-80 now votes Republican.
So Lange is looking for a Rocinante, much less a Sancho Panza. He knows his opponent, Republican incumbent Congresswoman Mary Miller, who defeated Rodney Davis in the June 28 GOP primary, is one hell of a windmill in the bright red 15th District.
“I knew because of this district … I knew it’d be unlikely that another person would step up on the Democratic side,” Lange said in an interview with Muddy River News.
* I think the term for this is perennial opportunism…
Bob Fioretti, challenging Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, apparently on board the Darren Bailey governor campaign joining with Jeanne Ives pic.twitter.com/RonFZXBcZX
— FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: “Famous Friends” country star Chris Young will perform Wednesday afternoon for Illinois Democrats’ unity gathering at the BOS Center in Springfield.
The BOS Center thing is in the morning. Young will be performing at the Governor’s Day event at the state fairgrounds. Show should start at 1 o’clock or so.
* More…
* Chicago aldermen embrace The Great Resignation: “What Mayor Richard J. Daley did was surround himself with 50 aldermen, and he’s in the circle,” said former nine-term alderman Dick Mell. “And all the arrows and slings would hit the aldermen so he could do the big things he wanted to do as the mayor. Now the aldermen all think they’re these great legislators and they’re spending all this time deciding whether Lake Shore Drive should be DuSable Drive.”
In June 2012, I collaborated with public-radio reporter Sarah Koenig on an episode of “This American Life” to blow the whistle on Journatic’s shady tactics. The fallout was instant: The Chicago Tribune and others suspended Journatic or ended their contracts. But Journatic’s canny chief executive, Brian Timpone, didn’t fold; he went underground — rebranding the company multiple times in the process.
A few years ago, Timpone switched gears after hooking up with conservative pundit Dan Proft through the Illinois Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank that then had financial ties to Bruce Rauner, Illinois’ recent ex-governor. The pair began building a mini media empire that intentionally put a conservative slant on backyard journalism — the Sinclair Broadcast Group of local newspapers. (Timpone and Proft did not respond to requests for comment sent by email.)
That mission is accomplished if you look at the sheer numbers. Metric Media boasts that it publishes “over 5 million news articles every month” and claims to be “the largest producer of local news in the United States.” A 2020 New York Times investigation pegged 1,300 news sites with Timpone’s fingerprints on them — far outnumbering those of Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain. But because it’s pink-slime journalism, it’s not all under one banner. Many have been laundered through a web of networks with vague names such as LGIS News Service, the Business Journals and Newsinator.
