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Campaign videos and campaign rancor

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* Democratic US Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson claims in an e-mail that she’s going on TV tomorrow with a new ad. Rate it…

* House Republican Leader Tom Cross was asked today about a subscriber story I ran this morning about how the HGOPs are paying for a robocall blasting a House Democratic candidate in the Quad Cities area. My intern Barton Lorimor was there and we have video of Cross’ non-response…

* A video of GOP state Rep. Beth Coulson is making the rounds. Coulson is running for the Republican nomination in the 10th Congressional District. But she was asked in 2000 if she was supporting fellow Republican George W. Bush or any Republican candidates. Coulson refused to commit, including on Mark Kirk’s congressional bid. “I have to wait and see where they are on some of the issues that are important to me.” The full video is here, but I excerpted the best part. Watch…

* A new ad from Cook County Board President candidate Terry O’Brien goes after Toni Preckwinkle and Dorothy Brown. Rate it…

At least O’Brien kept his eyes open in this one.

Preckwinkle has a response ad. Rate it, too…

* I’ve never seen a candidate apologize via robocall, but it happened this week in the 14th CD Republican primary…

In the flier, [state Sen. Randy Hultgren] alleges that [Ethan Hastert] is “employed by the same law firm that lobbies on behalf of foreign mining companies with deplorable human rights records and a history of human trafficking.”

Hastert is an attorney with the law firm of Mayer Brown in Chicago, which does represent several mining interests around the world. The firm is also a major donor to Hastert’s campaign.

But Hastert campaign spokesman Andrew Nelms said the candidate has “never had anything to do with human trafficking,” which he called “reprehensible.”

In an automated call to voters on Monday, Hultgren apologized for “discussing some questionable clients of my opponent’s law firm.”

* Village President Hartstein has a lot to learn about how the House Democrats operate. These are definitely not the most “absurd” pieces that they are capable of…

Calling it the “most absurd campaign piece he has ever seen,” state House District 59 candidate Elliott Hartstein said his Democratic primary opponent is using “distortions” in two direct mail campaign pieces sent in recent days.

Hartstein, who is currently Buffalo Grove village president, said state Rep. Carol Sente claims he tried to take away free speech rights for people attending zoning hearings.

The ad uses quotes from 2005 newspaper stories about Hartstein’s visit to Springfield to lobby for a bill that focused on zoning hearing rules. It concludes by stating, “For Elliott Hartstein, sometimes the First Amendment is just a suggestion, not a right.”

He’s also upset by another piece warning voters of his support for a tax increase to bolster the state’s budget.

“She was appointed by party leaders and her political godfather, Mike Madigan, who is bankrolling a good portion of her campaign,” Hartstein said Monday. “They should be ashamed of themselves for their current tactics in the primary races.”

* 10th state House District Democratic candidate Jonathan Goldman is having no luck with a FOIA request to DCFS. They have some explaining to do. From a press release…

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has failed one of the first tests of a new law that went into effect Jan. 1of this year that requires state agencies to respond within five business days to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

On Jan. 8, Jonathan Goldman, a Democratic candidate for state representative in the 10th District, filed a request to DCFS concerning State Rep. Annazette Collin’s employment as a social worker with the agency. He specifically asked for information about her hiring date, salary and who authorized her hiring.

“My curiosity was piqued when I saw that Ms. Collins, who is already employed by the State as a legislator, making $76,732 in 2008, had landed another job with the state during a time of record unemployment when the state has laid off thousands of workers,” said Goldman. “I made a simple FOIA request 18 days ago and still haven’t heard from DCFS.”

When five business days had passed with no response, Goldman contacted DCFS on Jan. 15 to inquire about his request and was told he would receive a letter requesting an extension from the agency in the mail. He still hasn’t received correspondence of any kind from the department.

What’s the point in having a new FOIA law if the Quinn administration won’t follow it? It’s like déjà vu all over again. Sheesh.

* One of Peter LaBarbera’s websites is currently attempting to out a suburban county candidate for having adulterous affairs. No link. Try to avoid the Google. It’s really disgusting. LaBarbera has stooped to a new low.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:25 pm

Comments

Coulson’s interview with Berkowitz shows why her support is so thin. She has always been all about herself.

If any of her opponents can put this out in any widespread way it could really hurt her, especailly the part about not supporting Kirk.

Comment by E Pluribus Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:46 pm
the hartstein link is off, being hhttp.

Comment by observer Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:47 pm
Cheryle’s spot makes me seasick. First with the camerawork, then with the swinging from topic to topic without making a real point. Looked for the “detailed 5-point plan” and it must be more than three clicks deep on her site, I only found broad platitudes. And any senator should be careful not to over-promise what it takes an entire congress to pass into law.

Comment by Gregor Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:47 pm
In her list of endorsements, Toni forgot to mention Ben Franklin. She sure has discovered her smile in this race though, hasn’t she? Her jaw must ache.

I’m sad to see that O’Brien has abandoned his Cook County sign prop — you know, the one he “straightens out.” That was creativity of the highest order.

I like Jackson’s spot, but she should re-edit before she goes on air. Take a listen, about halfway through, she swallows the word “immediately.” It comes out “immediate.”

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:48 pm
observer, thanks. Fixed.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:48 pm
- Hultgren apologized for “discussing some questionable clients of my opponent’s law firm.” -

Sounds like a non-apolgy, doesn’t it? - I’m sorry I talked about what a disgusting person my opponent is. I’m sorry I mentioned that he is a thief and a liar and a child molester. I really shouldn’t have said anything about his vile conduct and lack of morals …

Comment by titan Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:52 pm
The Jackson ad is pretty good. She should run it for a few weeks to boost her numbers, then close with an endorsement ad about a month from now.

Yep, that should do it.

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:52 pm
47, you’re on a roll today. lol

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:54 pm
The worst thing about the Cheryle Jackson ad is Cheryle. She’s far too smile prone and her voice has no gravitas. She looks and sounds more like a real estate broker selling homes on a Sunday showcase.

Comment by QRBNST Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 12:57 pm
QRBNST,

She has practice selling as she had to sell the crap Blago was peddling.

Comment by Lake Voter Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:08 pm
Cheryl Jackson’s ad is soft and sounds like an infomercial. I don’t think it would catch my attention in between my shows. It should have had more grab the last week of the election. I agree, this is an opening ad, not a closing ad. (And why does everyone say XX-Point Plan? Everyone knows that whoever gets elected won’t be able to do anything as a Jr. Senator).

Comment by Paul S. Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:09 pm
Isn’t there supposed to be a new Dan Hynes’ ad coming out? I’m anxious to see this one.

Comment by Paul S. Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:10 pm
Why do I suspect human rights violations isn’t a big negative in a GOP primary? Anyway, the big Chicago law firm with the appalling human rights record is Winston (we represented George Ryan) & Strawn — they were the lawyers for the attack on Sen. Collins’ anti-genocide sanctions law.

Poor Harstein — he should have read capitolfax before deciding to run.

Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:12 pm
I liked the Cheryle ad until I read the comments.

Hanging on her every word eh, Word?

Comment by Will County Woman Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:13 pm
As for the Jackson ad, the bonus thing is a nice sound bite but totally illogical…

As for the Hultgren apology, it reads a bit like how my 8 year old apologizes when he hits his sister.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:27 pm
{Coulson’s interview with Berkowitz shows why her support is so thin. She has always been all about herself.}

E-Pluribus

audi alteram partem,

{“I have to wait and see where they are on some of the issues that are important to me”}

Coulson was independent in her views long before Scott Brown brought the concept into vogue.

My experience with Rep. Coulson is quite different. Her response here was atypical to what she actually believes and would customarily express under similar circumstances.

Her response actually reflects three things things that represent some of her better qualities; intelligence, humility, and advocacy.

Her typical response would be to withold support from an individual or for issues, until she fully understood where someone might be on issues, or how specific issues themselves were perceived as important to her constituents.

I heard this from her frequently, with respect to both individuals and issues. It could be that in this particular instance she just mis-spoke.

In my experience, she was smart enough not to get drawn into an ideological trap. She also never deluded herself with the hubris that her constituents might actually care about her opinion about federal candidates or federal issues over which her office had little ability to influence or control.

She also was reserved in her willingness to join forces with others; unless they shared the views and beliefs of the majority of her constituents.

Some aspects of Bush’s platform were diametrcially opposed to Coulson’s constituency. Kirk; despite having worked extensively for Porter IN WASHINGTON prior to 2000, was largely unknown in the 10th Congressional District, and perhaps she simply did not want to go on record as standing behind someone she did not know.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:49 pm
Paul S., the Hynes campaign will be releasing a new ad later this week touting last-minute endorsements from Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable and Anton Cermak.

Comment by Kyle Boller's Clipboard Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:51 pm
Tom Crosses attack ad against 71st Democrat House candidate Porter McNeil are wide of the mark!

Comment by TitforTat Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:52 pm
Why is Cheryle Jackson smiling while talking about a “jobless recovery???”

Comment by Big Policy Nerd Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:53 pm
“it’s like deja vu all over again” — that’s redundant. Just say that’s deja vu.

Polly vu fran-say?

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:55 pm
I thought that Collins worked for DCFS before she went into politics. Does Goldman have his dates right.

Whatever. We should be concerned in general because DCFS has a decades-long history of mishandling its child protection responsibilities, including under the current director, a Blagojevich appointee and, reportedly, a Quinn favorite.
Over the years, some reporters have, nevertheless, persisted, and used FOIA laws to expose some serious flaws in agency functioning which resulted in death and serious harm to many children.

This agency should definitely not be allowed to get away with any flouting of FOIA laws, because in many cases there is nobody else to speak for the kids.

Comment by cassandra Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:56 pm
Hartstein will pull an upset in Lake County. A Madigan backed incumbant should not need that much money flowing into the campaign at the end.

Comment by Crystal Ball Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 1:57 pm
Quinn,

At that point in 2000 she didn’t know enough about her nominee for president and congress to have an opinion? What a crock!

It was a spineless answer. Coulson was wooed extensively to run for congress in 2000. She knew plenty about Kirk and his positions by that time.

Nor was it an example of her humility. It showed she was only concerned with her own race. Her views on issues were a near carbon copy of Kirk’s, but she would never stick her neck out.

Self-interest is prudent in politics, but don’t try to paint it as anything other than what it is.

Comment by E Pluribus Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 2:03 pm
cassandra-

According to her resume, which is posted with her questionnaire on the Chicago Sun-Times web site, she worked for DCFS prior to being elected, then worked at Chicago Public Schools as both an employee and a contractor, and was hired back at DCFS some time in the past couple of years.

Comment by Jonathan Goldman Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 2:19 pm
pretty good answer by Coulson, considering the district. where is this video from year 2000 “making the rounds”? havent seen it elsewhere?

Comment by anon Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 2:41 pm
O’Brien’s ad (as it pertains to Toni Preckwinkle) smacks of total desperation. I’m sure all of the other aldermen who also backed those various tax hikes and who are listed as O’Brien endorsers (such as Stone, Burke, O’Connor, Solis, Cardenas, Levar, etc.) are going to love their constituents being reminded of tax hikes that they also supported.

The need by O’Brien to also bring up his political tag-team partner Dorothy brown in the spot (because O’Brien is still third in the polls) is another sign that Terry is toast. Does he think the voters are so stupid that they wouldn’t notice the stories about sharing circulators with Brown, or using the same people )on different days) to hand out their respective fliers at Jefferson Park?

Comment by fedup dem Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 2:42 pm
StateWideTom is pretty funny…he talks about IL jobs and sends his slim campaign cash to Iowa….Yikes….BTW- Is his Victory Enterprises (the Iowa company that makes the slimey calls) the same Victory that once jailed consultant Rod McCulloch now hustles polls for?
OMG…Bueller…Bueller….get me the nifty website

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 2:44 pm
it would be a lot easier for Cross to raise $$ if he did property tax work.

Comment by Easy Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 3:00 pm
Quintessential — Coulson loses a lot of credibility with me when she does disingenuous stuff like run an ad on the radio that says she “ran against the Chicago Machine six times and won every time.”

Dan Biss is not the Chicago Machine. In my book, she’s lying about her record when she really has no reason to. If she’s proud of her accomplishments, why embellish them?

I think a lot of people who witness that kind of behavior or something similar to it, they are more critical and questioning of other statements she makes.

Comment by P. Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 3:06 pm
jg-

I thought there was a conflict of interest if DCFS (and employees of other state agencies) employees ran for state office–that would explain why she left the first time. Something to do with loss of federal funding. On the other hand, this is Illinois. For Chicago Democrats with the right connections, it’s not that difficult to get the laws changed-or “waived,” heh heh.

Maybe she is under contract instead of directly employed. Either way, she must be making a ton of money off the taxpayer as are so many state legislators and state bureaucrats these days. The Blagojevich/Quinn administration of the last 8 years has been very very generous with our money.

My wider point remains the same. DCFS is an agency we most definitely don’t want to have
ditching their FOIA responsibilities. The agency is rarely forthcoming about its mistakes, so the public is mostly dependent on reporters getting what they can from FOIA requests and writing about what they find to keep this crucially important (and heavily politicized) agency honest.

Comment by cassandra Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 3:08 pm
Rich, I think you’re being a bit unfair on the FOIA question. The gov’s office at least has been remarkably better at their responsiveness. Some of the agencies are still dragging unfortunately.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 3:15 pm
CC, it ain’t just the agencies. It goes right into the executive office.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 3:16 pm
I love Preckwinkle’s response she rejects the negative ad of O’brien and still stays positive! Great job! Whoever is doing Preckwinkle’s ads should get a big bonus when she wins!!!!

Comment by YEP Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 4:42 pm
E Pluribus,

Her perspective is that her opinion as to other candidates for other offices is not relevant to her voters; and that the overwhelming majority of her voters do not care who she supports for other offices, which have nothing to do with the office for which she is running.

I would hazard an educated guess that the number of constituents that posed the same question to her at that point that Berkowitz had, was less than 10. The question was not relevant, so why be perceived as attempting to be a king-maker, by suggesting others that her opinion on the other races was important to anyone else.

While a storied tradition, in politics, her perspective is that the making of political endorsements by individuals for other individuals is an exercise in self agrandizement that she simply prefers not to partake in because she has no ego to feed in that way.

Her constituents did not care about her opinion on the question; so as a consequence, discretion is simply the better part of valor. Her answer simply signaled that she was neither for; or against either one of them at that point.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 6:11 pm
P;

Step 1.
Go back and look at the D-2’s for Coulson’s race against Dan Biss.

Step 2.
Follow the money.

Step 3.
See how many roads lead to Mike Madigan.

Step 4.
Look up the definition of “Chicago Machine” in your Funk and Wagnells dictionary of politics, and see the picture of Mike Madigan.

Step 4.
Rinse and Repeat.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 6:15 pm
Wow did Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable and Anton Cermak fire Quinn too? Great ad! LOL

Comment by Paul S. Tuesday, Jan 26, 10 @ 10:30 pm
Coulson really stepped in it. Yikes.

Comment by T.J. Wednesday, Jan 27, 10 @ 12:04 am