* Sources have said for months that Paul Vallas has reportedly been not so subtly promoting himself behind the scenes for an appointment as Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education. Perhaps that didn’t work out too well…
Chicago’s former schools chief has flunked the education foundation headed by Barack Obama and founded by 1960s terrorist Bill Ayers - saying it failed to monitor projects and funded school “reform” groups that campaigned against boosting academic standards.
“There was a total lack of accountability. If you went back and asked, you’d be hard-pressed to find out how the money was spent,” said Paul Vallas, the city’s school superintendent when Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Foundation from 1995 to 1999. […]
“Very little of the money found its way directly into the classroom,” Vallas said.
Most frustrating, Vallas said, was that Annenberg under Obama and Ayers funded groups that fought his mission, under Mayor Richard Daley, to impose uniform standards and stricter accountability in low-performing schools.
Vallas is respected here as a straight shooter, so it’s very possible that his comments had nothing to do with politics. Then again, his brother has been promoting Vallas as a possible Republican candidate for Cook County Board President in 2010.
The only fault I can find with this poll is it shows McCain with a 52-41 lead in the collar counties. Recent congressional and legislative polling in Lake, Will and even DuPage and Kane are showing Obama doing quite well.
Among its problems is its claim that Senate President Emil Jones “holds a position of exceptional prominence in Illinois politics,” and that the governor “may also be reluctant to send one of his few friends in Springfield out of the state.” Jones, we all know, is retiring at the end of his term.
* I didn’t hear the conference call, but this article sure makes it sound like Republican congressional hopeful Martin Ozinga III sees the light at the end of the tunnel and suspects it’s a freight train headlamp…
Republican Martin Ozinga sounded a somber note during a conference call with reporters last week as he charted a course for the final days of his congressional campaign.
The Homer Glen concrete company owner and first-time candidate for public office said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is spending overwhelming resources in the 11th Congressional District in an attempt to “financially bury us.”
“That’s the circumstances we find ourselves in,” Ozinga said.
With just a over a week to go before voters in the 11th district head to the polls, Ozinga finds himself down in some polls and behind in money in the race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller of Morris.
* Republican incumbent Peter Roskam throws the kitchen sink at his Democratic opponent. She’s a Blagojevich crony, tax-hike lover and doesn’t live in the district…
* An ultra conservative 527 is dumping big bucks into the avowed moderate Republican Mark Kirk’s reelection bid…
A conservative group with ties to the Bush administration has donated about $453,000 for television ads to benefit GOP Rep. Mark Kirk’s tough re-election bid in Chicago’s affluent suburbs.
The ads funded by Freedom’s Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization, accuse Democratic challenger Dan Seals of favoring higher taxes.
Freedom’s Watch has made three major advertising-related expenditures of around $150,000 each since late September and as recently as mid-October, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
One ad says, “Families are hurting, small businesses are struggling, times are tough, that’s why Dan Seals plan for higher taxes is so wrong.”
As the race for the 13th Congressional District draws closer to the finish line, Democratic challenger Scott Harper is criticizing Republican incumbent Judy Biggert’s approval of pay raises for members of Congress.
At his Naperville campaign headquarters Friday, Harper, 47, pledged to vote against any Congressional pay raise if elected.
“Judy Biggert has … voted against raising the pay of combat veterans and increasing the minimum wage but voted for giving herself $33,000 in pay increases over the past 10 years,” Harper said in a statement. […]
“She’s never voted for an actual pay raise while in Congress,” Biggert campaign spokesman John Noak said. “All of those were part of larger appropriations bills, for the departments of Treasury, Transportation, and Health and Human Services.”
The cost-of-living increases for Congress ranged from 1.9 percent to 3.4 percent, he said.
* As I told you below, a Democratic poll reportedly has Dan Seals leading Republican Congresscritter Mark Kirk by about a point. GOP polls have Kirk up by 4-5 points. A new Research 2000 poll taken for Daily Kos has Seals leading Kirk. Previous 9/30-10/1 Research 2000 poll is in parentheses…
The Highland Park Republican’s campaign also continues to bring in thousands of dollars a day in donations just more than a week out from Election Day. For example, [Kirk’s] campaign took in nearly $40,000 on Wednesday and Thursday alone.
Seals, on the other hand, reported having $269,344 on hand as of Oct. 15. His fundraising since that point as continued to lag Kirk’s, according to 48-hour updates recorded with the Federal Election Commission.
LBJ had the good sense to run his infamous “Daisy” ad — the one where a little girl picking petals off a flower is annihilated by a nuclear explosion — once. Here’s Democrat Colleen Callahan suggesting Daisy could get wiped out by her opponent’s support of nuke sales to Taiwan.
The ad…
…Adding… Statement from Callahan campaign…
Colleen Callahan, Democratic candidate for the 18th Congressional seat, will be canceling scheduled campaign events until further notice in order to be with her family after the death of her mother. Elaine Callahan passed away earlier today at the age of eighty-four.
• Emil Jones, the president of the Illinois state Senate, mentor of Obama, and one of Blagojevich’s rare allies in the legislature. Furthermore, Jones will be without a job at the start of next year; he announced in August that he plans to retire in January, 2009.
• Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who would serve two political purposes. First, her appointment could please the faction of the state legislature led by her father, Michael J. Madigan, who is Illinois House Speaker and a bitter opponent of Blagojevich on spending issues. Second, it would literally get a potential gubernatorial rival out of town.
• Iraq veteran Tammy Duckworth, who narrowly lost a House race in 2006.
• Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. , who was an early supporter of Obama and is an experienced congressional hand.
Whatever. If anyone knows what our governor will do on something this important, then please come work for me. We’ll make lots of money.
The story ends with this…
Those pondering the possibilities, though, agree that Blagojevich is unlikely to want any direction from Obama, and unlikely to get it.
“Obama will not step foot into Illinois politics. It’s a minefield,” said Paul Green who is a professor of policy studies at Roosevelt University. “He’d go to Kabul before he’d go to Springfield.”
My own view is that anyone who gets this job is gonna be horribly tainted by the Blagojevich appointment. It’s a political death knell.
Obama Illinois State Director Ken Bennet, who has been keeping a low profile all this time, emerges in a video to ask Illinois Obama backers to flood the neighboring key battleground states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Indiana. Since there is not much Obama work to do in Illinois, the Illinois movable feast has been targeting the adjacent Big Ten states.
The Obama campaign has told me this export of political talent will not drain big House campaigns in Illinois where Democrats have a chance to make red districts blue.
U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean’s newest TV commercial is a folksy piece that touts her background as a working mom and former business owner.
The 30-second ad, which launched Thursday, is softer than the congresswoman’s first TV piece, a fairly somber spot that focused on the nation’s economic crisis.
* C3 Presents, the Texas concert promoters who bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park each summer, have been tapped to stage the massive celebration the Obama campaign is planning to hold in Grant Park on election night.
* And the folks pushing for a “Yes” vote on the constitional convention have a new video…
Most private polling shows Kirk up in the single digits, but that’s not anywhere near a comfortable position for a Republican incumbent in a district like this one and in a year like 2008. The key to this race may be the extent to which the DCCC or Democrat Dan Seals use taped endorsement messages from Sen. Barack Obama to get over the top.
Democrats would love nothing more than to knock Kirk out before he could become a serious Senate candidate in 2010 if Obama wins and an appointed Democratic successor is up for a full term. While Kirk can no longer be considered a clear favorite in the race, he remains in slightly better shape than some other GOP moderates in marginal districts.
GOP internals reportedly have Kirk up about 4 or 5 points. A Democratic poll is said to have Kirk down by a point. If there’s a big Obama wave, Kirk could very well get swept away. Remember, however, that there are thousands and thousands of ticket-splitters in that district.
* Immigrants appear to be a big part of the electorate in the 10th District…
Immigrants could be a deciding voting bloc in at least eight Illinois congressional races where they make up more than 12 percent of the population, according to a report released Thursday by an advocacy group.
Among the tightest races mentioned by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is the 10th District, where Democrat Dan Seals is challenging Republican Rep. Mark Kirk. Experts say the longtime GOP district, which covers portions of Lake and Cook counties, could be trending Democratic based on recent presidential elections.
About 19 percent of the 10th District’s population is made up of foreign-born residents who are now U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old, making them eligible to vote, the report says. The group did not know how many of those individuals are registered to vote on Nov. 4.
Ozinga’s campaign… now claims they are just two points behind Halvorson after they conducted a recent survey. Earlier polls had Halvorson leading by as many as 17 points.
* The AP has a story today about the role of Rod Blagojevich’s image in the Ozinga vs. Debbie Halvorson race…
Republican businessman Marty Ozinga repeatedly has knocked Democratic state Sen. Debbie Halvorson, of Crete, for being a bigwig in Blagojevich’s Democratic-controlled state government. But she has tried to turn the tables on Ozinga - with help from the DCCC.
Halvorson has criticized Ozinga for previously donating to the governor’s campaign - primarily a $10,000 donation in 2005. To drive home the point, the DCCC funded an ad that called Ozinga “the last guy you’d send to clean up Washington” and featured a sheepish picture of Blagojevich.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said the governor is a convenient bad guy for candidates in the heat of an election.
“If people are frustrated, they take it out on the person that they know,” Guerrero said. “He’s the top guy, so it’s him.”
* Ozinga organized a counter-protest to the NRA’s endorsement announcement of Halvorson…
As reporters, NRA members and Halvorson supporters entered the Downers Grove Sportsmen’s Club for Halvorson’s press conference, they had to drive through a group of sign-toting Ozinga supporters.
The NRA was not impressed…
“Debbie has a record; she earned this rating,” said Todd Vandermyde, a legislative liaison with the NRA. “Marty Ozinga can talk all he wants, but (he) is an untested quantity. All we know is what he says.”
* And now Halvorson is mocking Ozinga on guns via a YouTube “ad”…
* In another race, Public Citizen has filed a complaint alleging that Peter Roskam misused the franking privilege…
The House’s franking commission is investigating whether Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) violated franking rules, after the nonprofit group Public Citizen filed a complaint Thursday.
Members are prohibited from sending out official, unsolicited mail 90 days before an election. But Public Citizen alleges that Roskam sent out several brochures to his constituents after the Aug. 6 cutoff. […]
Roskam’s office didn’t immediately return calls for comment Thursday, but a spokeswoman for the Republicans on the House Administration Committee — which oversees the franking commission — said Public Citizen will have to prove that Roskam sent out more than 500 pieces of official mail. If it’s less than 500, the mail would not reach the threshold for a “mass mailing” and thus not fall under franking rules, other than for content. […]
“Right up into October, just weeks before the election, voters have been receiving two-page color mailers paid for by taxpayers, with Peter Roskam’s name splashed all over them,” Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said in a news release. “Taxpayers should not be footing the bill to advertise Roskam’s candidacy for Congress.”
* There’s a whole lot to go through in a new, comprehensive poll released by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, but let’s start with the media coverage. Daily Herald…
A new poll of Illinois voters finds support for balancing the state budget through cuts rather than tax increases, just so long as the things voters support aren’t on the chopping block.
And that favorites list includes school funding, police and prisons, state parks, help for the needy and a litany of other big-ticket programs that make up the overwhelming majority of state spending.
The head of the Southern Illinois University think tank that commissioned the statewide poll said the findings show people are uninformed about state finances and unable to grasp the depths of budget problems.
“The public really has no idea what the scale and the scope of this crisis is,” said Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
Absent cuts to those programs, Lawrence, a former Statehouse reporter and top aide to Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, said Illinois will need some kind of tax hike to climb out of its budget hole.
“We need to have a reality check,” Lawrence said.
When it comes to raising money, the poll found that voters supported a graduated income tax, in which wealthier people would be taxed at a higher rate.
But, because such a change in tax policy would likely require a change in the state constitution, it could not serve as a quick fix to the state’s current financial challenges.
Sales and income tax increases were soundly rejected, and expanding gambling and selling or leasing state assets such as the lottery were turned down.
Lawrence blames that on voters not understanding how big the budget problem is.
For example, he said respondents want to cut legislative salaries or those of high-paid state employees but noted that would cover only a tiny piece of a budget facing billions of dollars in debt and deficits.
“There’s no painless way out of this budget situation,” Lawrence said. “We need to have a reality check.”
