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The governor’s race takes another nasty turn.

…Gov. Rod Blagojevich said his barrage of attack TV ads against Republican Judy Baar Topinka is only an effort to show voters how the two candidates differ on the issues. But Blagojevich’s campaign on Tuesday also used claims made in a Downstate gun-rights newsletter to claim Topinka supports allowing citizens to carry concealed firearms.

In a recent issue of the Gun News, a group member reported that Topinka had said in a conversation that she would sign a concealed-carry bill “as soon as the legislature could get it to her desk.”

Campaigning in the southwest suburbs, Topinka said she was opposed to so-called concealed-carry laws and was shocked by the governor’s allegation. But when asked if she would veto a concealed-carry bill if it passed the legislature, she said she “probably would, yes.”

Later, she said, she was adamantly opposed to concealed-carry laws

“I don’t support concealed-carry. Period,” she said.

It’s difficult to defend yourself against a well-funded opponent who will literally say anything to win.

Meanwhile, Christine Radogno’s campaign demanded that Alexi Giannoulias pull a TV ad off the air. From a press release:

State Sen. Christine Radogno, Republican nominee for Illinois treasurer, today called television ads run by her Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias false distortions designed to deflect attention from his refusal to explain loans his bank made to crime figures and asked that he provide proof of his sources or remove his ad from the airwaves.

In a negative ad released yesterday by the Giannoulias campaign, it claims Radogno voted to raise telecom and utility rates by 22 percent and cites a Chicago Sun Times story from Oct. 23. A search on the Sun-Times website found no stories with the words Radogno and utility rates. Nowhere in the only news story on October 23rd that discusses utilities does Radognoâ€™s name appear nor does the story mention a vote by the General Assembly, said Radogno.

â€œThis is simply a desperate distortion by Alexi Giannoulias,â€ said Radogno. â€œHe is again attempting to deflect attention from the fact that he has refused to answer questions about his involvement in loans he and his familyâ€™s bank made to organized crime figures. Itâ€™s no coincidence that he chose to run this negative ad at the same time new polls show this race is a dead heat.â€

Maybe so, but a whole lot of Democratic legislators are being whacked but good by their Republican opponents this fall for taking campaign contributions from utilities and for voting for the 1997 electric dereg bill - the basis for the slam against Radogno. I didn’t see Radogno standing up for them. While it may be an unfair hit, it’s been a common refrain this year.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:21 am

Comments

>>Itâ€™s difficult to defend yourself against a well-funded opponent who will literally say anything to win.>>

Difficult, yes. However it is IMPOSSIBLE if you are unable or unwilling to articulate your own message.

JBT would be winning this election if her campaign had a theme, if she knew what she stood for and if she had the slightest amont of energy. The state’s news outlets would have given her plenty of free media to negate the famous $15m — hers is the worst campaign in Illinois history as she would be winning if she had done ANYTHING right.

Comment by ChuckAmok Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:35 am
Rich - Help me out, why is it unfair to talk about Radogno’s voting record?

If Radogno didn’t want her voting record to be exposed, she probably should’ve thought twice about attacking Giannoulias. I’m sure he’ll pull his attack ad when she pulls hers.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:44 am
ChuckAmok, that was a bit of an overstatement. First campaign?

YDD, the hit wasn’t really explicit on what she is alleged to have done. Also, CUB supported the 1997 bill.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:48 am
Maybe Tom Cross can issue a press release explaining why Radogno’s 1997 vote wasn’t really a vote for the current rate hikes being proposed by ComEd and Ameren.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:55 am
Distortions?

You mean sort of like claiming that loans to former felons are somehow either illegal or a direct reflection of a lack of a character?

Is that the sort of distortion that she is referring to?

Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:57 am
Rich– major kudos for your “no spin” analysis on the front page of today’s Capitol Fax. I only wish every Illinois voter would read it before voting. Keep up the good work!

Comment by Anon Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:59 am
===If Radogno didnâ€™t want her voting record to be exposed, she probably shouldâ€™ve thought twice about attacking Giannoulias. Iâ€™m sure heâ€™ll pull his attack ad when she pulls hers.

It’s not that he’s talking about her record, it’s that he’s citing non-existent stories and such. If he wanted to just attack the vote, attack the vote–but that would have consequences for several downballot races too.

Comment by archpundit Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 10:10 am
Radogno just can’t handle getting a taste of her own medicine. I’ll bet she dressed up like a mobster for Halloween. Her whole campaign has been based on negative that’s long on spin and short on facts. At least she actually did vote for the bill he’s talking about.

Chuck, you’re assuming free media can trump well funded and produced paid media. I’m not sure you’ll find too many, if any, expereienced campaigners who agree with that.

Comment by whatever Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 10:26 am
>>First campaign?>>

Hardly, but I appreciate the condescending attitude.

Rich, here’s my opinion, if it’s ok with you.

RB will be reelected with negatives of historic proportions. In my view, letting JBT off the hook because RB had $15m obscures the fact that a good campaign by an energetic, focused candidate, offering interesting ideas, would have, IMO, been successful.

When every news department in Illinois, to varying degees, mistrusts/dislikes the candidate with the big campaign $$$, they are more than willing to level the playing field through news coverage. JBT squandered that opportunity.

In short, the negative ads against JBT are just a part of the story and did not represent an insurmountable hurdle by any means, though that is, and will be, the conventional wisdom.

Comment by ChuckAmok Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 10:28 am
Radogno voted to raise telecom and utility rates by 22%. There is nothing alleged here just the fact that she voted for the raise. If anything unfair is being alleged in this campaign it is being alleged by Radogno.

Comment by (618) Democrat Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 10:41 am
===#

Radogno voted to raise telecom and utility rates by 22%. There is nothing alleged here just the fact that she voted for the raise. If anything unfair is being alleged in this campaign it is being alleged by Radogno.

Which vote was this? The dereg bill or another bill?

Comment by archpundit Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 10:53 am
ChuckAmok, the reason I mocked you is because I’ve seen far worse campaigns than this. Your response didn’t include a justification for your original remarks, so I assume my mocking tone was on target.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 11:15 am
Bottom line, on November 8 Topinka will be the happiest person in Illinois. She will be able to retire from politics with a pretty nice pension, and will no longer have to worry about the cesspool Illinois politics has become, or the absolute disaster Illinois State Government has become.

She really didn’t want to be Governor anyway, and I don’t think her heart was ever in it. She had to be drug into the race kicking and screaming after Edgar once again backed out of returning to politics. The only thing she really lost in all this was a year of her life and her good political name. The former she will never get back, however I believe she will get the latter back in time as Illinois citizens will forget Blago’s distortions on her career.

Blagojevich’s second term will be marred by indictment after indictment maybe even culminating with his own indictment and conviction. My guess is many voters will soon regret their idiotic choice on November 7, 2006. Illinois will be totally run again by Democrats, but, as is the case with Republicans in Washington, Democrats will soon find out that is not a good thing as they will not have anyone to blame but themselves.

Comment by Jaded Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 11:45 am
Can anyone help me find the actual vote tally from the 1997 bill? If you have the list of legislators that voted on this bill and how they voted, please send me a link, or more information on how I can see this information.

Comment by Chris McNeil Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 11:53 am
Rich:

I’ll modify my position to say that, given the office at stake and the opportunity presented by the unpopularity of the opponent (with both the public and the media), there has never been a worse campaign.

As Charlie Wheeler pointed out last week, her failure/refusal to take advantage of “free media” is certainly hard to understand or defend.

My only point is it would be a big mistake to claim, on election night, that “With an opponent who had $15m to spend, there was nothing JBT could do.” That’s simply untrue.

What sort of grade would you each of the campaigns, based on your experience?

Comment by ChuckAmok Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 12:17 pm
So, Radogno can tell the truth about “shady” loans and how Giannoulias had no idea about them. Either he knew about them, or he wasn’t really a vice-president of the bank. But the democrats say that is not fair. Then, Giannoulias makes up a story saying it ran on October 23. Which there was a story, it did not even mention Radogno or any vote that she made. Somehow, that is getting a taste of her own medicine. She tells the truth, he tells lies. Talk about a taste of good-ole-fashioned democratic distortion politics. Nice try, but I am afraid I have to say “gotcha!”

Comment by Lovie's Leather Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 12:57 pm
Let’s put this in perspective.

Blago simply has the financial resources, by hook or by crook, to do to Topinka what the Republicans are trying to do to Democrats all over the country in terms of the Republican congressional and Senate races: the Harold Ford commercial; ” The Stakes” commercial; “cut and run”; Bush and Cheney remarks that a Democratic victory means the terrorists win! Etc,etc,etc…

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 1:02 pm
re Judy and Gun News…..it’s in print for all to see in a publication from the gun rights people, it’s not made up. this is probably a case of upstate Judy denying what downstate judy said trying to get primary voters.

Comment by bench coach Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 2:00 pm
To be fair, Bench Coach, Judy said that she wasn’t in favor of banning assault weapons during the primary. She never said anything about concealed weapons at all during the primary.

Comment by Lovie's Leather Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 2:05 pm
So now the Blago campaign is using secondhand hearsay from a biased source in their ads and passing it off as facts. Maybe the latest Copley poll showing the governor and Topinka in a statistical deadheat has the blago camp pulling out all stops.

Comment by Poor Milorad Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 2:21 pm
lovie’s leather….my point is that she said it, she will sign a concealed carry bill, and as you point out she is against banning assault weapons. She is probably still playing upstate judy - downstate judy and trying to be all things to all voters. we are not fooled.

Comment by bench coach Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 2:48 pm
I went back to look at the original Sun-Times story.
Here’s what it says:

News of the proposed ComEd rate hike came as a shock to many Chicagoans, but the issue has been brewing for years. If you’re wondering how we got here, here’s a primer on the coming rate hike, and the fight to prevent it.

How much are rates rising and when?

ComEd rates for residential and small-business customers will rise about 22 percent starting Jan. 2 after the end of a nine-year rate freeze. Rate hikes for non-ComEd customers Downstate will be higher — 45 percent to 55 percent.

Why did we have a freeze, and why is it ending?

In 1997, Illinois lawmakers approved a law to deregulate the market for electric power, which meant state regulators would not control the price for electricity. The hope was that competition would provide better prices and more choice.

It seems pretty clear to me that the Sun-Times is linking the 22% rate hike in Com-Ed’s territory to the 1997 dereg bill. It clearly does mention that the dereg plan was approved by the legislature, contrary to Radogno’s press release, and Radogno did vote for the bill. Linking Radogno to the rate hike through the Sun-Times story seems like a pretty square hit to me.

Yes, the ad doesn’t mention that most everybody back then believed that the dereg bill would lead to competition — I’m betting that includes the Sun-Times editorial board. It also doesn’t mention whether or not Radogno voted to extend the rate freeze a couple of years ago, which I’m guessing she did.

But then again, Radogno’s ads don’t mention that Giannoulias hasn’t been accused of any criminal wrongdoing, nor does it mention that neither state nor federal law require banks to perform criminal backgound checks before issuing loans.

If Radogno is so upset about being linked to the rate hikes, she can replace her ads attacking Giannoulias with ads telling her side of the story and defending her record, but her whining is just that, whining.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 2:50 pm
“ChuckAmok” Charlie was wrong. Plain and simple. Topinka’s getting more earned media than just about any gubernatorial candidate I’ve ever seen. Or did you miss all those stories about Blagojevich corruption?

Sure, the stories aren’t her doing and I agree that her press operation isn’t fabulous, but, please. There’s been more negative coverage of this governor than any gubernatorial candidate in my life.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 3:36 pm
JBT has picked up some great newspaper endorsements, if I may add to our forum host’s excellent comment that was aimed at “ChuckAmok” there.

The Daily Herald? Crain’s Chicago Business? The Chicago Tribune? Heck, even with the way the Sun-Times endorsement went, the actual reporters have been blasting away at the incumbent. She has a ton of support.

So much support that even sensible Dems are going to vote for her. Plus, voters know they have a chance to make history by electing the first female governor of Illinois. And not just due to biology, either, but because she’s well qualified.

It’ll be a nail-biter on election night, though.

Comment by Angie Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 4:07 pm
Rich -

Thanks for covering this story about Ms. Topinka telling a downstate gun lobby group that she would sign concealed carry as soon as it hit her desk, and now denying it.

I did want to comment on it to give the real story of what happened because I am the one responsible for this at yesterday’s press conference with the Governor.

I am concerned that your comment, “Itâ€™s difficult to defend yourself against a well-funded opponent who will literally say anything to win” implies that this story was made up.

It was not made up.

And thanks to Bench Coach for confirming that as well.

I am a gun violence victim, as I have reported here on your blog before. And I am very concerned about the 1200 deaths a year in Illinois from guns that the gun lobby seemingly cares nothing about. It is very personal for me. My sister, her husband, and their unborn child are three of those victims.

Concealed Carry has led to many unnecessary and impulse-based deaths in other states - the documentation flows in regularly, and is heart-breaking.

The pseudo-science from the now totally discredited John Lott that led to its passage in other states has now been revealed to be based on completely manufactured data.

Concealed Carry in Illinois only would mean more victims.

I also work for the Brady Campaign, Illinois’ own Jim Brady, a life-long Republican, and a man of real integrity. We are very concerned about this issue.

I am the one that saw the statement attributed to Ms Topinka in the GUN NEWS May 2006, a monthly Champaign based newspaper. I was the one that called the Governor’s campaign and shared my alarm.

The Governor did not make this up.

I have talked to people who have verified Mr Seten’s report in the Gun News that Ms Topinka said she would sign Concealed Carry. She has been endorsed and is fully supported by the Illinois Gun Lobby.

And I have had a conversation with Mr. Birkett, the running mate for Ms. Topinka, wherein he reported to me their strategy of not stating publicly his personal support of Concealed Carry because it just would not help them win the race.

He said publicly they were going to say that they opposed it.

So who is the one doing whatever it takes to get elected here?

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify.

Jennifer from Brady

Comment by Jennifer from Brady Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 4:17 pm
Jennifer, I’ve read “The Gun News.” Not exactly the New York Times.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 4:22 pm
You are certainly right about that, Rich!

Comment by Jennifer from Brady Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 5:09 pm
Rich, Didn’t Chris blamed the “Media” for bringing up the bank loans issues on Alexie when they were all on WTTW. She stated that thoes questions prevented her from bringing up her message. Well there were no media asking questions in her TV spots, and she still brought it up. Now she is getting a little taste of a jab right back and saying “foul”.

Sorry but Thats Fair…if she voted for a rate hike as a elected official, then the voters need to know.

Comment by WWDMD Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:15 pm
Unless it was the 1996 post election veto session, deregulation passed because it was supported by Pate Philip and Mike Madigan - which means it is a bipartisan scandal. Further, unless a member of that General Assembly, such as Radogno, can show they voted against it, they can be legitimately accused of giving the utilities the authority to raise rates the 21% (or whatever it eventually turns out to be). Totally fair shot.

Comment by Smitty Irving Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 9:57 pm
>>Topinkaâ€™s getting more earned media than just about any gubernatorial candidate Iâ€™ve ever seen. Or did you miss all those stories about Blagojevich corruption?>>

Rich, somehow, you’re missing my point. Negative Blagojevich stories do not, as we continue to see,increase JBT’s standing with voters. Her campaign has failed to use free media to give people a reason to vote FOR her.

A smart, energetic campaign would have her in the lead, despite her many shortcomings. (Does anyone really belive the Copley poll?)

I guess we’ll agree to disagree. The post election spin will be that, because RB had money, JBT never had a chance. T’aint so.

Comment by ChuckAmok Wednesday, Nov 1, 06 @ 10:44 pm