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* LIVE * 2nd Congressional District debate

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* Tonight’s debate begins at 6:30. It’ll be on public access channel 27 in Chicago, but you can also watch it on YouTube right here…

* And you can also watch updates on our ScribbleLive thingy. Blackberry users click here, everybody else can just watch it all unfold when it starts…

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 4:18 pm

Comments

Debbie Halvorson opened whining about the Bloomberg ad. Yes, that is a thing that just happened.

Comment by Will Caskey Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 6:44 pm
Just tuned in.

Two questions: Is this debate meant to be restricted to education? Any mention of Peotone?

What about the Bush/Obama war protestors? Give War protestors free education, too!

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:24 pm
There goes one: Toi sez we “all know” that we “desperately need” an airport in Peotone.

A few airlines disagree & residents disagree. Int’l airports within 15 minutes of every home is not a necessity.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:32 pm
Kasich there are five sections, of which education was the second. Housing was the first. The current one is jobs.

Comment by Will Caskey Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:33 pm
The pile on is beginning.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs are on their way once an airport in Peotone is built.

i missed it if Kelly said anything about Peotone Int’l.
At least Fenton held back on support of the airport.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:37 pm
Maybe I should move to the places where Debbie (Joliet) and Beale have already created all these jobs, but I think I’d rather work for Fenton’s import/export shop.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:40 pm
Sounds like Toi likes the sprawl.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:46 pm
If I had to chose one of these candidates, I’d vote for Fenton.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:52 pm
I guess Toi Hutchinson just lost the will county vote.(I know it is not a big % of voters) but with a race with many candidates any voter block helps.

For a state with financial problems spending money on a project not many people want is crazy.

Comment by DoubleDown Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 7:53 pm
You would think if your constituents do not want a airport you would abide by what they want.

Comment by DoubleDown Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 8:06 pm
Fenton’s discussion of stability in housing is right on. This airport talk 20 miles south of the the communities hurt most just creates bedroom communities further away.

That airport won’t help Harvey, Phoenix, Markham, or Englewood.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 8:13 pm
This is what I observed.
I saw three ladies and two men competing for my vote.
I was one of about 50 folks watching, probably one of the few not working for one of the candidates.

Toi and Robin speak like ladies speaking to ladies. Toi especially, speaks emotionally about personal touches, people and events which personally touched her. That’s a nice thing to do and she does it well.

Robin comes off more knowledgable to me with her presentational style. She is still a lady speaking to ladies, but she does it with a lot of chutzpah and authority. Not bad. She obviously knows politics enough to be a player.

Debbie is different. She is a lady that speaks like a lady, but also speaks in a way a man doesn’t mind listening to. She isn’t being softly emotional like Hutchinson, and she matches Kelly in her confident delivery. Halvorson gets ticked off, and that’s OK. She looks tougher than Toi or Robin.

I don’t know who is going to end up the winner, but I do see how each lady brings a little something to the table. They are on agreement nearly 100% of the time, so it is a bit sick to see the politics of attack towards Halvorson.

If the old people turn out and men show up, I see Halvorson with the edge. If it is a small turn out, I see that favoring Halvorson too. So my gut is saying that it is Halvorson’s to lose and I wouldn’t be surprised though, if she does lose it.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 8:48 pm
Toi, Debbie, & Anthony support an airport in Peotone.

For over 20 years an airport in Peotone has been at the center of the plans made by Congressmen serving the 2nd district — both JJ, Jr. & Mel — and their opponents. Not getting the airport built was messing up their district.

Did I miss the comments of Ernest & Robin regarding Peotone International, or did they not say anything about it?

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 9:02 pm
I hope everyone appreciated my tweets on this event as I’m pretty sure I lost like a third of my Facebook following with excessive updates

Comment by Will Caskey Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 9:09 pm
Oh yeah my thoughts.

Halvorson was defensive and angry. Opened with whining about the Bloomberg ad, kept yelling about community colleges in a way that was almost but not quite like she actually polled on them.

Kelly sounded tired. Her thing on education was very weird, explicitly saying “funding will never be fair” and “there’s not enough funding for all priorities” which is, well, fine, but not something one typically says in a Democratic primary.

Beale was hilarious. Opened crowing about “winning the Wal-Mart fight,” closed rattling off committees in the council he’s been on. And at one point he ranted about Bush administration block grant levels which, like, pick up a paper sometime dude?

Hutchinson was pretty great! She gave the only coherent case for infrastructure funding creating jobs, used some powerful anecdotes and seemed energetic.

Comment by Will Caskey Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 10:26 pm
@Kasich Walker Jr. Here is a snippet from Progress IL’s website regarding Robin’s stance on the South Suburban Airport:

“Kelly writes that Jackson “had the right priorities and the right voting record for our community”, including the third Peotone airport. Kelly would work with Will County, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to complete the project, she writes.”

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 10:30 pm
Thank you, 6 Degrees.

Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr Wednesday, Jan 30, 13 @ 10:33 pm
VMan, you’re just messing with me. I’ve been trying so hard, based on your expressed feelings, but then you roll this out?

–I saw three ladies and two men competing for my vote.–

–Toi and Robin speak like ladies speaking to ladies.–

–Robin comes off more knowledgable to me with her presentational style. She is still a lady speaking to ladies,–

–Debbie is different. She is a lady that speaks like a lady, but also speaks in a way a man doesn’t mind listening to. — (C’mon, man)

–I don’t know who is going to end up the winner, but I do see how each lady brings a little something to the table. –(Seriously? I have to pass on that?)

Giggetty. Alright. But it begs the question: The VMan/Tom Jones/Quagmire endorsement goes to:

“Who’s the lady? Whoa, whoa, whoa, who’s the lady? Talking about, who’s the lady?…. .Which lady’s mine?….. yeah, yeah, yeah….”

But the decision is in. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty:

“So my gut is saying that it is Halvorson’s to lose and I wouldn’t be surprised though, if she does lose it. ”

C’mon, man. Give a non-lady a break.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jan 31, 13 @ 1:16 am
Caskey, if you weren’t on Toi Hutchinson’s payroll I’d almost thing your continued social media crusade against Debbie Halvorson was personal!

:)

I’m rooting for Debbie, but I’d be quite pleased if Robin won, too.

Can anyone tell me why the rest of the 17 candidates (16 as of today?) weren’t at this debate?

Comment by Cal City Crew Thursday, Jan 31, 13 @ 1:17 am
The other candidates were not invited. There was some article that said the other candidates were upset that they did not receive an invite. I think the perceived frontrunners were invited to speak. Mel Reynolds could not be invited because of his (cough) background. I have not seen a poll with Mr. Ernest Fenton included but he was there.

The candidates all sounded similar. It was interesting to hear how they believed they were job creators and how their record would help in creating jobs in the 2nd District. I think most of their claims were a bit exaggerated but hey, you want to convince others you can handle the job.

Halvorson sounded defensive the entire night. She had a few opportunities to tout her record but rambled on more than she made concise points. Hutchinson was the most polished in her answers and made emotional appeals using stories to the audience. Overall, a good night for her. Fenton attacked Beale throughout the night forcing Beale to move away from some of his talking points and respond to his attacks. Beale was more competent during the debate than I expected but he did seem to conflate local, state, and federal issues. Kelly listed a lot of things during her answers but did not give the best explanations. She also made comments that seemed weird when discussing education funding. Strongest on violence question which she has made focus of her campaign.

Comment by BitMoreComplicated Thursday, Jan 31, 13 @ 7:22 am