Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Here’s a very basic, quick rundown of several races in southern Illinois.

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Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Sun-Times endorsement editorials (fixed link) weighed in on the Rep. Beth Coulson race today:

This is one of the dirtiest and toughest races — with Democrats slinging a lot of mud at incumbent Beth Coulson… The Democrats have tried to tie Coulson to GOP Senate candidate Alan Keyes. They have hinted she is very close to some of the right-wing positions embraced by President Bush, and they have questioned her pro-choice stance, wrongly suggesting she is really pro-life. Opponent Michele Bromberg, a trustee for the Village of Skokie, is a talented candidate, but we are disturbed by her campaign’s efforts to taint the moderate and very conscientious Coulson. We endorse Coulson.

Coulson can add that to her Tribune endorsement for a very powerful mailer.

Meanwhile, the CS-T goes with Ralph Capparelli against Mike McAuliffe:

…It is only through redistricting that these two terrific candidates ended up running against one another. We have decided to endorse Capparelli, dean of the Illinois House, who has lived in the largely Democratic district for 50 years and remains an exemplary legislator.

Cap should be able to use that to help blunt McAuliffe’s recent negative assault that I wrote about in today’s Capitol Fax (subscribers only).

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Supreme Court campaign documentary

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The producer of this documentary about the Supreme Court race in southern Illinois sent me an e-mail today to say that some “rough cuts” from the movie would be posted at his site soon.

The filmmakers are causing a bit of a stir in the race. According to the Post-Dispatch, Judge Lloyd Karmeier has refused to be interviewed and Justice Maag only grudgingly allowed them a brief interview.

A little background from the film’s website:

The “Madison County Documentary” (working title) is a work-in-progress by filmmaker Wayne Ewing about the 2004 race for the Supreme Court in Madison County, Illinois. Democrat Fifth District Appellate Justice Gordon Maag is running against Republican Circuit Judge Lloyd Karmeier in a race that is attracting national attention. The US Chamber of Commerce has pledged to spend $50 million dollars defeating selected judges around America in 2004 (”The Secret War On Judges” - Forbes Magazine.

The correspondent is Paul Johnson, a television reporter with KUSA (NBC affiliate) of Denver. Producer is Wayne Ewing, who has “produced and directed over fifty documentaries for American television networks.”

Here’s a snippet from the Post-Dispatch article:

“I’m a serious filmmaker trying to do objective filmmaking about this race,” Ewing said.

But the Karmeier camp is convinced that Ewing has brought a liberal agenda to the project. They have refused to cooperate on the film.

“The Karmeier people turn away and duck every time a camera gets near,” Ewing said.

Steve Tomaszewski, a spokesman for the Karmeier campaign, said he suspects Ewing plans a “Michael Moore kind of film,” referring to the director of the anti-George W. Bush film “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

“I believe they are going after situations that are designed not to put our side in the best light,” he said.

Maag, on the other hand, reluctantly granted the crew about 20 minutes of taping time, said Brendan Hostetler, spokesman for Maag.

“Justice Maag’s feeling is they (the Ewing crew) are there, he wishes they weren’t, and we’ll agree to move on,” he said.

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Kids, don’t try this at home

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

I drove to Iroquois County yesterday to take my grandma out to dinner. On our way to the restaurant I saw something that cracked me up.

Ahead on the left, I could see a row of Democratic yard signs along the road in front of a house. A car was parked nearby, and a little old lady was uprooting the signs and stashing them in her car, one by one.

There she was, a thick-legged old woman furiously waddling back and forth as she dashed to and fro between her car and the row of signs.

This was in broad daylight, mind you.

I slowed down to get a better look. As I drove by, I could see she had a big smile on her face and that her husband, sitting behind the wheel, was clearly frightened and yelling at her - most likely telling her to hurry the heck up before somebody called the cops. I couldn’t help but laugh.

No moral here. Just a story.

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Brick Wall

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Rockford Register-Star’s Aaron Chambers has another fine column on the continuing saga of Alan Keyes, state Sen. Dave Syverson (who brought Keyes to the dance) and the future of the Illinois Republican Party. In this segment, state party chair Judy Baar Topinka argues for moderation and Syverson doesn’t listen.

Topinka, a social moderate, argued that the party should stay clear of such [social] issues altogether.

“We are good managers. We deal very well with fiscal issues. We work very well with solving problems,” she said. “When we start getting into people’s bedrooms and when we start getting into some of these divisive, social, splintering, factionalized issues, we don’t do the party any good and ultimately wind up disassembled and unable to elect candidates.”

Syverson, a social conservative, says party leaders are focused on reinforcing the notion that conservative candidates can’t get elected. Yet, on one point, he agrees with Topinka.

“What Keyes is doing is wrong and what Topinka is doing is wrong,” Syverson said. “Both are alienating the other side of the Republican Party by continuing to raise the social issues instead of raising the issues that ought to be the focal point of the discussion.”

Um, Dave, try paying attention the next time you talk to Chambers.

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Couldn’t ask for anything more

Monday, Oct 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

Follow this link to the Southern Illinoisan’s endorsement of GOP Supreme Court candidate Lloyd Karmeier. They’re pretty blunt at that paper, and they obviously don’t like Democrat Gordon Maag.

Maag and Karmeier are as different as night and day.

Maag has worked as a trial attorney in Madison County, notorious for outlandish jury verdicts, which have enriched many, many lawyers. Maag also served as an associate judge in Madison County.

But ask Maag about his Madison County ties and he grows visibly angry and tries to disassociate himself from Madison County.

In Illinois State Bar Association polls, fellow lawyers have given Maag a big thumbs down.

That editorial is so good for Karmeier that his campaign probably couldn’t have written it better themselves (especially considering Friday’s campaign press release referring to a “tidle wave”).

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Direct mail opportunities…

Saturday, Oct 16, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

House Democratic candidates took a beating in the Tribune editorial page today. Excerpts:

75th District (northern Illinois): Appointed Rep. Careen Gordon, a Democrat, speaks as though she has memorized her talking points but hasn’t processed what they mean. She’s a young, conservative former prosecutor, but she has trouble articulating her ideas and grasping details…

79th District (Kankakee area): Kay Pangle… faces a weak opponent in Democratic Rep. Lisa Dugan, who says Illinois has “to tighten our belts and avoid unnecessary spending,” but can’t say how that should be done.

92nd District (Peoria area): In one of the most intriguing races in the state, 23-year-old Aaron Schock is giving Democratic incumbent Ricca Slone a serious challenge… Slone has been in office four terms but displays a remarkably weak grasp of issues. Her argument for why she should be re-elected–that incumbents are more effective than freshmen–falls flat. Schock is endorsed.

103rd District (Champaign-Urbana area): Deborah Frank Feinen is a potential star for the Republican Party. Democratic incumbent Naomi Jakobsson has proved to be a lackluster legislator.

108th District (south central Illinois): [Nothing negative about Bill Grunloh, but they endorsed David Reis.]

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Negativity

Saturday, Oct 16, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Associated Press is running a story this weekend about the negative Supreme Court ads, but it’s just a standard AP he-said, he-said, with a quick quote from a watchdog. Not worth quoting, but here’s the link.

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