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* The House Majority PAC isn’t giving up on the “Meltdown Mike” theme in the 12th District. This is a smallish St. Louis TV buy of $50,000…

* Cheri Bustos and Bobby Schilling debated last night…

When questioned about accusations that he turned his back on workers in Freeport, Illinois, whose jobs were being shipped overseas, Schilling said the claims were simply untrue.

“I tried to have meetings with these people. I actually wrote a letter to the president of the company,” said Schilling.

In turn, Bustos responded to criticism that she failed to follow through after saying she’d voluntarily cut her own pay by 10 percent if elected.

“I made a mistake when I appeared before the Chicago Tribune editorial board, and I’ve acknowledged that. What I do support, the same thing my opponent supports, is a collective 10 percent pay cut for Congress,” said Bustos.

Oy on both…

“It really is a shame how these campaigns are run these days,” Bustos said. “I feel for the people who have to watch these commercials.”

Bustos cited a report by www.factcheck.org which said a Schilling ad that accused her of voting to cut veterans is false.

Schilling referred to an article on www.politifact.com that discredited a common theme for Democratic ads, including ads against Schilling, which say Republicans voted in favor of tax breaks for companies that shipped jobs overseas.

Both Bustos and Schilling defended their own ads when asked about reports that claim they are misleading.

* The Mike Bost campaign sent me this yesterday and I missed it…

I’ve attached a picture of the actual pamphlet that Enyart kept referring to last night about Mike allegedly endorsing the Ryan Budget when, in fact, he never did. As you can see from the literature, it doesn’t say anything like that.

Enyart’s actual claim is that Mike endorsed it on a piece of campaign [literature]. At 31:45 in the capfax video, “It says #1 I would vote for the Paul Ryan budget.”

Yep. Click here to see it.

* The Daily Herald endorsed Bob Dold today. From a press release…

The Daily Herald today endorsed Bob Dold (R-10) for Congress in Illinois 10th District. The newspaper opted to endorse Dold over incumbent Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL) due to Dold’s independent, bipartisan and effective leadership when he served in Congress, in contrast with Schneider’s highly partisan record.

In their endorsement, the Daily Herald wrote, “When Dold held the office, he maintained the district’s tradition of independent representation, with a voting record that was one of the most bipartisan in Congress. In the two years that Schneider has held office, he has not. His voting record is considerably more party line, as a comparative review of The Washington Post’s Congress Votes Database indicates.”

The newspaper continued, “Only one of these two candidates carries on the dynamic independent tradition of Mark Kirk and John Porter. That candidate is former Rep. Bob Dold, and we give him our endorsement.”

* On the same race, Brad Schneider is still bombarding people with fundraising e-mails like this one entitled “out of options”…

Brad needs your urgent support. Here’s why:

– Last month, polls showed our race in a dead heat.
– Last week, Roll Call named Brad one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.
– Now, Boehner’s Super PAC dumped $1,000,000 on Chicago airwaves to distort Brad’s record.

Look, this race is TIED. If we fall behind on this week’s ad buy goal, Republicans will POUNCE.

That’s not an option.

So far, the ad isn’t posted on the PAC’s YouTube page. Anybody seen it?

* And Stu Rothenberg goes way out on a limb (/snark)…

Illinois’ 13th District. Ann Callis was one of the most highly-touted Democratic recruits this cycle, but the challenger never really got untracked, and Democrats failed to put much of a dent into Davis. This is the one seat state Democrats failed to win in 2012 after they redrew the congressional map. The big question is whether Democrats will make this district a priority in two years or decide that the Republican congressman is fundamentally much stronger than they initially assumed. We’re changing the Rothenberg Political Report rating of the race from Lean Republican to Republican Favored.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 3:27 pm

Comments

That the Daily Herald’s editorial board considers Bob Dold the standard-bearer of a “dynamic independent tradition” a la Mark Kirk and John Porter, and that they think he’d be allowed to vote that way in today’s Republican party, tells you all you need to know about the Daily Herald’s editorial board.

Comment by Northsider Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 3:34 pm
If this were a presidential year and Hillary Clinton was at the top of the ticket I think Callis’ chances would be far different.

Comment by The Captain Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 3:45 pm
One of my co-workers got an email from the Brad campaign that he was laughing about today at work. It said something about he needed money to ‘win California’ or some such non-sense.

Comment by anon Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 3:52 pm
Captain, why? 15 points of coattails? Are you also assuming she would run a decent campaign?

Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 3:52 pm
I am not sure we have any

Comment by Disgrace Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 4:28 pm
I am not sure we have a politician I could 100% support. But for a US congressman ENYART (Retired General) to openly Lie in a debate is WRONG. I guess he has no record in Congress to fall back on. He did get endorsements, but every current office holder does. I guess he only claim to fame is voting NO on Allowing Chaplin s to Volunteer to do religious services during the Government shutdown. I can say ENYART does NOT have my Religious or family values!

Comment by Disgrace Friday, Oct 10, 14 @ 4:38 pm