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It can always get worse

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Illinois

* When you’re a House Speaker with a statewide approval rating somewhere in the 20s and all of your candidates are getting tied directly to you with millions of dollars in advertising, your only play is to drag the other side as far down into the muck as possible.

And when you’re a governor with an approval rating somewhere in the 30s and a presidential candidate imploding before your very eyes, your only play is to depress the other side’s vote as much as you can by dragging the other side as far down into the muck as possible.

So that’s how we wind up with ads like these…

In the 117th House District race, incumbent John Bradley, a Democrat from Marion, as well as his Republican opponent Dave Severin of Benton, have been hit with these sex offender ads. One of the ads against Severin opens with a woman named Julie Yana speaking into the camera.

“I’ve worked with sex offenders for over 14 years. I don’t feel a child ever recovers from being a victim of a sexual predator,” she says as a picture flashes of a young girl comforting a younger child with a stuffed animal between them, both with sad looks on their faces. Then a picture of Dave Severin’s face flashes on the screen.

“The sexual predator is very much a danger in everyone’s community,” continues Yana. “I would not feel safe for Dave Severin being a state representative for this area.” Yana then goes on to explain her reason, that Severin is against funding to track sex offenders and owns a business that hired a sex offender.

Yana declined comment to the newspaper. According to the Department of Human Service’s website, Yana is an administrative assistant at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna. She also is president of a local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the labor union representing most state workers. […]

Severin vowed to rise above the fray. But it wasn’t long after his letter that an ad paid for by the Republican Party began airing on local networks against Bradley portraying him as sympathetic to sex offenders as well. A spokesman for Severin said the candidate wasn’t wasn’t aware that Republican Party officials had created that ad and asked that it be removed. But it continued to run for days after that.

As described in a column by Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax newsletter, that ad opens with footage of a Chicago anchorman saying, “Federal prosecutors now accusing a former state representative of possession child pornography.” A photo then flashes of former state Rep. Keith Farnham and a narrator says, “Unspeakable abuse from a Springfield Democrat.” In 2014, Farnham, of Elgin, resigned from office and pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

Footage of Rep. Bradley then appears on the screen and an announcer says, “But as Madigan’s top lieutenant in Democrat leadership, John Bradley stood by as the predator committed heinous crimes on his state computer.

“The sex assault victim was an infant,” the anchorman says, and the commercial closes with the narrator saying that Bradley wrote “a check to the predator’s campaign just to strengthen Madigan’s power. Cowardice so despicable you have to wonder, how does John Bradley sleep at night?”

Among a multitude of contributions Bradley has made over the years, he did give $1,000 to Farnham, but that was three years before Farnham’s arrest, according to Miller. “Nobody had a clue what was going on with Farnham back then,” Miller, a longtime observer of Illinois politics, wrote in his column.

You should go read the whole thing because the premise of the story is whether legislators from the two parties in southern Illinois can ever patch up their differences after this campaign season is over.

I would just say this about the premise: If you want to polarize legislators so that they stick together along party lines during a long, protracted and bitter war, there’s no better way to do that than by doing this sort of stuff.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 1:45 am

Comments

That’s the most horrific line of the whole thing! The title. My God, the thought of it getting worse than this.

Comment by Honeybear Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 7:14 am
maybe it goes without saying, but it is clear that the folks running these campaigns and the folks running our government not only won’t mend fences once the dust settles, they clearly don’t want to. That’s a shame but that’s reality. Seems like entrenched hacks on both sides have left far behind the thought of gentlemanly or gentlewomanly agreement and cooperation to focus solely on evisceration and elimination of their opposition. Along with that will go their oppositions supporters and any faith or trust that this State will change. Gonna take one catastrophe after another to change anything for the better. What a weird world.

Comment by hot chocolate Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 7:45 am
You reference Trump “imploding” and yet the most accurate poll from 2012, Investors Business Daily, has Trump and Clinton in a tie today nationally.

I’m done with this blog. Same dishonest crap as the rest of the corrupt “media.”

You like other Hillary shills hate Trump and any suggestion of anyone trying to fix a system whose dysfunctional you milk. We get it.

Comment by just sayin' Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 7:46 am
Voting against my Democratic State Representative felt liberating.

Comment by Ron Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 9:05 am
All those millions and they’re still going to lose. They deserve it.

Comment by Chucktownian Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 9:19 am
I read the full article yesterday. The focus was on Southern Illinois, but the implication and conclusions could well apply to any part of the State. And to the toxic atmosphere that does seem to permeate much of politics.

We do deserve better from both parties.

Sen. Dave makes some excellent points. He will be missed in Springfield.

Comment by illini Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 9:24 am
just sayin: It must be so hard to be a victim. Hope you are able make it through the day.

Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 9:34 am
See my post on the “amateur nails it” thread. Rich is right. This is happening everywhere. People in the suburbs, northern Illinois, central Illinois, southern Illinois and the Metro East are going through this. The only race I can think of that is “civil” is The Other Mike Madigan vs. Scott Bennett - and that is likely only because Mr. Madigan has no upper level support. If he did then it would turn into another Seth Lewis vs. Tom Cullerton or Mike Ammo vs. Melinda Bush race.

Comment by Team Sleep Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 9:46 am
Here in beautiful DuPage County I received a similar mailer attacking Tom Cullerton. The fine print detail was that he received campaign contributions from some person or some group that had also made campaign contributions to Keith Farnham, the state representative convicted on child pornography charges.

That’s not even guilt by association, it’s guilt by association once removed. I’m sure most members of the General Assembly have parked their cars in the same parking lot at Keith Farnham, so there’s no end to that kind of malarkey.

Thanks to the Illinois Republican Party who printed the mailers. Stay classy.

Comment by DuPage Dave Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 9:48 am
This is what happens when people debate personalities rather than ideas…not to mention the fact that one party views bipartisanship as a “bug” rather than a “feature” of legislation.

Comment by Jocko Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 10:09 am
For the GOP these days at all levels, bipartisanship means getting everything you want.

Comment by Chucktownian Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 10:20 am
Bradley’s in trouble.

Comment by Deft Wing Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 10:22 am
Lol, Trump is down by 7% in polling aggregates. IBD/TIPP tracking poll always has Republican bias up until a few days before the election. Then they stop adding the special sauce to show the Republican up. Similar to Rasmussen.

Comment by Ron Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 10:24 am
I’m done with this blog. Same dishonest crap as the rest of the corrupt “media.”

Don’t forget your Binky!

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 10:37 am
@MrJM - I saw the post and almost commented. Glad that you did respond. But you were much more succinct and pointed than I would have been.

Comment by illini Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 10:46 am
I absolutely “hate” that this disgusting child predator/molester theme is being used anywhere. No one is for this. I don’t care who started it. It should be abandoned. It’s disgusting.

Comment by A guy Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 11:09 am
Mr JM does it again—with only a few words, he says what we were all thinking.

Comment by Belle Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 12:00 pm
Ryan, Blagojevich, Quinn and now, Rauner.
Yes - it could get worse, and has been over the past twenty years.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:16 pm
===Same dishonest crap as the rest of the corrupt “media.”===

So, what are you gonna do? Call me a member of the lugenpresse and put me on a hit list? https://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/trump-supporters-are-harassing-journalists-by-tweeting-these?utm_term=.xczwEn65gQ#.pdBzLrBZqG

Such a tough life you must have, being so delicate and all that you’re triggered into fleeing away from mere words.

Be gone, coward.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 2:32 pm
Wow, learned something tonight, Lugenpresse. Loving God I didn’t realize that was happening. I knew he has been blaming the press but man.

Comment by Honeybear Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 6:53 pm
wow. an all time low in IL politics, reaching the depths near a place called hell.

Comment by shytown Monday, Oct 24, 16 @ 7:54 pm