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* UPDATED x2 * Duckworth doesn’t play in Peoria

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Well, that’s a first — a major party candidate running for statewide office who does not respond to invitations to interview or to share her issue positions, even ignoring direct appeals from local party officials intervening on this newspaper’s behalf.

So it is with Tammy Duckworth, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, who with her conspicuous absences here in both the primary and general elections, has given us every indication she intends to be the U.S. senator of Cook County, not of Illinois. In our experience, if you don’t even see a candidate during a campaign, when they need something — votes, with their very livelihood depending on them — the odds go up considerably that you won’t lay eyes on them once they’re safely seated.

Duckworth, 48, of suburban Hoffman Estates, is a two-term congresswoman with a compelling personal story — she lost both legs in an attack while serving her country in Iraq in 2004 — but she has done little to earn the Peoria area’s support. She’s made but a handful of quickie visits over the last couple of years — two of them in Labor Day parades — in which her engagement with potential voters can generously be described as limited.

On the issues, she falls short in two major areas critical to central Illinois’ economy. She is not a free trader, which is not good news for export-benefiting farmers or for major employers/manufacturers such as Caterpillar. A lot of jobs are tied to such trade. It goes without saying that Illinois is a major farm state, which shines a very bright light on the low mark given Duckworth by the American Farm Bureau; she tied for lowest in the Illinois congressional delegation in 2014.

Duckworth is a viable candidate who’s leading the polls, but bottom line, we’ve never met her and her no-show automatically forfeits this newspaper’s endorsement.

Yikes.

She was just in Springfield, so she does travel Downstate.

*** UPDATE 1 *** I’m told by the Duckworth campaign that the paper “never reached out.”

“They did not formally invite us, and we knew there was no chance we’d get it,” I was told.

What a weird year.

*** UPDATE 2 *** She was just there yesterday. It’s even on the PJStar’s website…

Tammy Duckworth promotes infrastructure spending in East Peoria visit

OK, it was East Peoria, but whatevs.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:10 pm

Comments

Peoria is worth a visit as much as Springfield and for a variety of reasons.

Is everyone certain that she has not come to Peoria in her run for the Senate.?

Comment by Federalist Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:15 pm
Waiting in eager anticipation for Matt McGrath’s rapid response tome with respect to Peoria.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:21 pm
She skips it because she can….At least her campaign thinks she can. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a statewide campaign that didn’t include Peoria. Like, toward the top of the list. The PSJ is right. This campaign is for Cook and the surrounding counties. And frankly, you don’t see much of her there either. Odd.

Comment by A guy Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:26 pm
Unless I looked at something wrong, I thought she was in East Peoria yesterday…it’s close

Comment by HangingOn Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:34 pm
to the addition by Rich: You’d think that with a metro area of about 375,000 people Tammy’d be the one doing the “reaching out” to voters– not expecting it to come to her the other way around. What a cynical campaign she is running.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:35 pm
With all due respect to the Journal Star, Peoria ain’t downstate Illinois, it’s just Peoria

Comment by Steve Schnorf Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:42 pm
Top 6 paper in the state. Better to show up and give it the old college try even if you know you can’t get the endorsement. Make it really hard for them to go the other way, and maybe get your opponent to say something newsworthy. This seems disrespectful to an entire area.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:43 pm
the invitation got lost in the shaved beard

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:45 pm
Top 6 paper in the state? Good lord. Quite a stretch to make the PJS seem like it has influence on statewide races. Not to mention, their reporting is totally false.

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:48 pm
I took a quick look at 3 sites and by circulation they are 4th, 5th, 13th or probably something else

Comment by Steve Schnorf Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 3:59 pm
I’ve been seeing Duckworth ads here in Peoria area. Cable channels for sure.

Does anybody actually read PJS anymore?

Comment by Cindy Lou Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 4:02 pm
Heaven forbid someone from the edit board leave the building to go demand an answer from a candidate visiting the community. If her not visiting is bad, the paper’s not going and demanding time/answers is worse.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, Oct 21, 16 @ 4:04 pm