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Despite union battles, Quinn helps DGA set fundraising record

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* Back on March 1st, when the Wisconsin labor protests were still raging strong, the Democratic Governors Association announced that Gov. Pat Quinn would be their new finance chairman. Quinn’s strong fundraising record the previous year among unions, particularly public sector unions, was a major asset at the time, and a counterpoint to what was happening in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states with Republican governors…

DGA Vice-Chair North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said Quinn’s “strong record of fighting for working families has earned him the support of Democratic donors, and I have no doubt he will be successful in his new role as Finance Chair. Gov. Quinn knows the importance of successful fundraising and will be a tremendous asset for us as we expand the ranks of Democratic governors.”

* That relationship has since soured, of course. And as subscribers found out several weeks ago, Quinn’s legislative push to strip some state workers of their union cards and prevent others from joining the union brought a nasty little rebuke from the the AFL-CIO, which ominously tied the issue to DGA’s fundraising…

Governor Quinn has recently taken a more active leadership role in the National Democratic Governors’ Association, particularly in fundraising efforts. He has, as recently as April 2011, chided Republican Governors for stripping public employees’ collective bargaining rights around the country. Behind the scenes, national labor leaders, including National AFL-CIO President Trumka, called Governor Quinn to request further negotiations on this issue. Quinn continued to pursue SB 1556 despite the calls. It remains unclear whether Governor Quinn will be an effective fundraiser for the Democratic Governors’ Association following his pursuit of this anti-worker legislation.

Trumka’s involvement set off some serious alarm bells. But, so far at least, this conflict hasn’t impeded DGA fundraising. In fact, the group just broke its own six-month fundraising record…

The DGA’s $11 million intake doubles what the committee raised in the first half of 2007, when the same set of governorships were up for election. In that cycle, the DGA raised $5.38 million in the first six months of 2007 and ended the reporting period with $3.7 million in the bank.

This time, the DGA finished June with $8.6 million cash on hand for this year’s elections in Kentucky, West Virginia, Louisiana and Mississippi, and the larger set of races coming in 2012. […]

“While Republican governors have focused on divisive and partisan politics, Democratic governors are leading the way by creating jobs, improving schools, and making the responsible budget cuts necessary to live within our means,” said O’Malley, who became DGA chairman this year amid speculation about his national aspirations.

The Republican Governors Association doubled the DGA take, by the way. The governor is heading for Salt Lake City tomorrow for another DGA fundraiser.

* Meanwhile, Gov. Quinn appears to be getting around the state’s new individual fundraising cap by soliciting contributions from husbands and wives at the same time. For instance…

* In other “campaign” news, former state Rep. Mike Boland continues to get lots of media coverage for saying he hasn’t made a decision yet…

Former Illinois state Rep. Mike Boland said Tuesday he won’t announce a final decision on whether to run for Congress until after Labor Day. But he rejected the idea that waiting until then will put him at a disadvantage with three others who already are in the race.

You gotta give the guy credit. I mean, heck, Cheri Bustos announced last night that she planned to kick off her congressional campaign today and was barely covered at all.

* But Boland is an amateur compared to Congressman Bobby Schilling. First, he leaked a little item to a Rockford TV station that he would be in town last weekend…

The man who could represent parts of Winnebago and Stephenson Counties in Washington, D.C. will be in Rockford this weekend. Congressman Bobby Schilling plans to go to a Rockford Forrester’s game Saturday night at Marinelli Field.

Because of the newly approved congressional boundaries, Schilling would take over areas that Congressman Don Manzullo used to represent. The new maps put parts of Winnebago and Stephenson Counties in the 17th U.S. Congressional District. They used to be in the 16th District.

* Then, Schilling showed up in Rockford and told the same TV station that he wouldn’t be campaigning in his new district…

Schilling also says he’s holding off on campaigning in his new district until the lawsuit is over.

“We’re not doing that much preparing for it we’re waiting to see what the lawsuit holds. We could end up with the same district we had before. We’ll let the courts decide what they consider to be a fair and balanced map and that’s pretty much all I can say on the map.”

Yeah, he was just watching a ballgame. Sure.

* Other stuff…

* Dold reports $541,330 for Q2

* Rock Island lawyer Eric Reyes joining race in 17th

* Gill launches Congressional campaign with jab at Johnson

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 11:08 am

Comments

Your comment about the Bustos announcement being “barely covered at all” isn’t really fair. She began a media rollout today in Rock Island at 9:00 and was featured on the 11:00 local WQAD news. She will be in Rockford at 12:30 today and will meet with Peoria reporters at 3:45. Tomorrow she’ll meet with various media outlets of the 17th CD (press release didn’t say where).

So she’s just getting started. From the short report on the local tv news, she aims to run as the Bobby Schilling With Two X Chromsomes–she’s just an ordinary gal who wants to make a difference, etc.

She’s also revived the hoary mantra I thought had died years ago—she’s gonna bring back those good paying union manufacturing jobs. Politicians have been saying this in the QCs since our farm equipment factories took a serious hit back in the ’80s—and Lane Evans was congressman!

Comment by qcexaminer Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 11:30 am
===isn’t really fair.===

In this context, it is. Boland continues saying he doesn’t know and gets constant coverage. Schilling gets two TV stories in Rockford for doing absolutely nothing.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 11:40 am
= In this context, it is. Boland continues saying he doesn’t know and gets constant coverage. Schilling gets two TV stories in Rockford for doing absolutely nothing. =

And Eric Reyes gets 4 for doing even less than Shilling!

Comment by tada Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 11:49 am
Scratch that last post… I meant gets 4 stories for doing even less than Koehler. The 17thCD is turning into a huge joke.

Comment by tada Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 11:50 am
But Rich, Boland made his non-announcement yesterday and Schilling did his non-campaign campaign appearance in Rockford days ago over the weekend.

I’ll say it again—Bustos just began today at 9:00, so why don’t you wait and see what the 17th CD media report by tomorrow. The Dispatch/Argus and QCTimes already have stories up; I suspect Peoria and Rockford media soon will too.

Comment by qcexaminer Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 1:17 pm
===Boland made his non-announcement yesterday ==

That was like the tenth non-announcement, accompanied by stories the day before each non-announcement announcing the pending non-announcements.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 2:14 pm
I enjoy how you worked Mike Boland, a strong union supporter, into the story about Quinn losing that base. (:

Comment by Dirty Red Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 2:36 pm
Where are Trumka and the unions going to go? In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is King.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 5:37 pm
1. QC, If you think Bustos has “just started,” then you haven’t been following this at all. She’s been “started” for weeks. Maybe she’s been too busy in Des Moines to actually do any work on the campaign, but any normal person running for office would have done a ton of work prior to her announcement today. I’m surprised that someone who should really know media can’t seem to get any media.

Bustos, like Koehler, are both having very sloppy rollouts for their campaigns. In retrospect, this could be expected from Koehler. He probably has amateurs working for him, and he has virtually no experience in a primary. Bustos, however, is sort of a shock. I’d really expect her to do good media, but I guess it isn’t turning out like that. Boland already seems to get the most buzz and he isn’t even a candidate.

2. RM, I’ve been reading over the last few weeks how you keep poking fun at Boland for kind of, sort of, possibly, maybe considering thinking about thinking about running for Congress. I seriously get a kick out of it every single time. It’s not mean-spirited, and it’s almost like a Sarah Palin Saturday Night Life skit: hilarious, true, but not actually offensive or crude.

I think sometimes you’re a bit unnecessarily harsh, but so far you’ve been pretty fair in the 17th race.

Comment by TreeHugger Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 8:18 pm
Bustos would mop the floor with Boland in the Quads. He’s staring at a phone that won’t ring.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 13, 11 @ 11:39 pm
===Bustos would mop the floor with Boland in the Quads.===

The 1 1/2 term alderwoman would mop the floor with the former 16 year State Representative, BHC Trustee, former East Moline School Board member, former East Moline Library Board member, husband of a Dem. State Central Committeewoman. You can say all of the negative things you want, but all of those people elected him in contested primaries and tough general elections. He didn’t just glide into it. He has received more votes in just one election than she has in her entire political career. Now multiply that by eight terms. Yea, people don’t have an issue voting for Boland.

His name recognition and history in the QC is strong.

Comment by PoliGeek Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 11:23 am