Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Election coverage round-up

Posted in:

Illinois

* Precinct captains, when faced with a recalcitrant voter, will often try to bargain with them to get just a couple of crucial votes out of the household. The Tribune appoints itself a captain today.

If you feel confused, or fatigued, or intimidated, you may not want to vote Tuesday. Would you, though, give 10 minutes to prove that deceit and smear ads shouldn’t pay? To say you want an ounce of pride in the people you permit to spend your tax dollars, in your name, to shelter troubled girls and boys, and to provide health care to uninsured families?

We’re asking you to vote for Judy Baar Topinka for governor. And if you live in Cook County, to vote for Tony Peraica for Cook County Board president. You don’t have to share their every belief. You can, though, vote for them knowing they will disrupt the costly piracy by insiders that has corrupted your county and state governments. […]

Two votes on Tuesday will be most critical. If you’ll spare the minutes, you can renounce the Illinois culture of political sleaze. Or you can give that culture of sleaze bright prospects for more deals and crimes.

Judy Baar Topinka and Tony Peraica got where they are not by birthright or scheming, but by honest hard work. They deserve your votes. Their principal opponents–and the serial cheaters who got them where they are–do not.

Trouble is, captains understand that the votes they can usually bargain for are way down the ballot. People like to believer that they’re making up their own minds about top of the ticket races.

* The Sun-Times wrap-up article gives five reasons to vote today.

* Meanwhile, ">Bill Dennis calls Zorn out.

* After being buffeted on talk radio and tweaked on TV news, Topinka refused to apologize to Cub fans.

Topinka tried to downplay remarks she made Sunday in Bloomington in which she suggested Blagojevich should manage the Cubs because both are â€œlosers.â€ Blagojevich called on her to apologize, but no apology was forthcoming.

â€œHe needs to pay attention to state government. Thatâ€™s what Iâ€™m doing,â€ she said in Chicago, adding that issues like corruption and the state budget were more important.

* Mike Lawrence and Edwin Eisendrath each write about the election and the aftermath.

* The Tribune wrap-up article makes a good point.

Many Illinoisans–unused to figuring into the national political equation–saw for perhaps the first time how races have been conducted across the country in the last few years, with millions of dollars spent by national Republicans and Democrats on attack ads, automated telephone calls and micro-targeted direct-mail pieces.

* And it was some serious spending:

If money is the mother’s milk of politics, there are some fat babies out there among local TV stations this campaign season.

“They’re buying up every conceivable piece of time that you could see on television,” Emily Barr, president and general manager of ABC-owned WLS-Ch. 7, said of candidates and political advocates this election season.

Thanks to several tight races with national implications, particularly the Tammy Duckworth-Peter Roskam battle in the 6th Congressional District and David McSweeney-Melissa Bean fight in the 8th, Chicago-area political TV advertising has reached record heights in the run-up to Tuesday’s election.

Spending on campaign TV commercials on local outlets has been in the $40 million range, according to station sources. That’s more than double the $18 million or so spent locally on political TV ads in 2004, even with the White House at stake, in part because neither party saw Illinois in play.

* And the Daily Herald sets the stage.

Benumbed by more negative TV ads than any election in recent memory, suburban voters head to the polls today to decide whether to keep or dump their governor and offer the final word on a trio of hard-fought congressional races whose outcome will help determine whether Speaker Dennis Hastert and the Republican Party hold on to power.

With political scandals dominating the landscape and perhaps $20 million spent on negative ads in the governorâ€™s race alone, the state could be hard-pressed to match the 52 percent average turnout in a nonpresidential election.

Republicans were trying to motivate their core supporters, whose polls showed were less enthusiastic than usual, while Democrats used the prospect of taking back Congress to try to get their backers out.

Polls may open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. today, but the nightâ€™s biggest story might be whether the election comes off without major technical glitches both in Illinois and especially the rest of the nation, where new electronic voting equipment will be used for the first time.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 6:47 am

Comments

AND THEY’RE OFF!

May the people win.

Comment by Fan of the Game Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 8:09 am
Wait, the Cubs are losers, though. Surprisingly JBT was telling the truth. Apologizing for calling a losing team “losers” is like voting for Blagojevich as a “reformer”.

Comment by Mike Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 8:49 am
Today we will decide whether you can cover up your scandals and lies with TV ads smearing your opponent.

Ethical Democrats are voting for Whitney, Kool Aid Democrats are voting for the TV ads.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:02 am
Is it me or does it seem as though the Chicago Tribune editorial board will urge management to actually move OUT of Cook County if Stroger wins?

Seriously…whew!

I swear, I almost wrote-in TMX Elmo for governor.

Comment by The Picolo Player is a... Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:10 am
VanillaMan, ethical democrats are not socialists.

This ethical democrat voted JBT.

Comment by Mike Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:28 am
This ethical Democrat voting Peraica.

Comment by Niles Township Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:41 am
You call yourself an ethical democrat and you voted for JBT. I truly hope your joking!

Comment by Mike Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:43 am
Hey Mike, maybe you’re out of the loop; but Whitney’s not a Socialist. He wrote for the newspaper of a Socialist Party’s newspaper about 14 years ago; but he has said several times that he is not currently a Socialist and does not support the platform of any Socialist party. Maybe you’re just trying to mislead people here?

Calling the Cubs a bunch of loosers was a really stupid move by Topinka. It’s not surprising, however, as her campaign has started to degenerate over the past few days, even going to far as to dig back 14 years into the past in an effort to red-bait Rich Whitney and steal his votes.

Comment by Squideshi Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:44 am
Same here.

Comment by Mike Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:50 am
Not joking at all, Mike #2.

The fact that he was a socialist and never said anything about it is pretty suspect. So who is the one misleading? I agree he isn’t a spoiler because the whole system is rotten, but I voted JBT because at least she has a shot at winning. If Blagojevich wins, which he probably will, the next four years will be about covering his own a$$ and trying not to get indicted rather than do anything productive for the state.

Comment by Mike Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 9:56 am
Hey Squid your man’s name juet keeps getting longer now it is Comrade Also Ran Whitney.

Comment by DOWNSTATE Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 10:10 am
Massive problems reported in Kane County today, at least 40 Polling Places opened up to 90 min late this morning.

Voting Hours for Kane County (with the exception of voters under the jurisdiction of the Aurora Election Commission which is independant of the Kane County Clerk’s Office) have been officially extended until 8:30pm CST tonight.

CBS News-Chicago, The Daily Herald and other news sources have been reporting on this since midday.

Daily Herald Coverage:
http://dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=247520

This has also been covered outside Kane County

VoteTrustUSA:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php

Facing South (North Carolina)
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2006/11/late-opening-precincts-big-problem.asp

Comment by 14th Dist Voter Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 6:04 pm
Here’s the offical news report on the ruling to extend voting hours within Kane County from the Daily Herald: http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=247522

Comment by 14th Dist Voter Tuesday, Nov 7, 06 @ 6:20 pm