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* UPDATED x1 * Pritzker nearly pulls off upset caucus win

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* The Madison County Democratic Party held an Iowa-style caucus last night. People had the choice of 7 locations throughout the county where they could listen to speeches and interact before cvoting. The party decided in advance that a majority of those voting would be needed to endorse. Nobody reached that majority…

That’s a pretty good turnout.

Bob Daiber is the Madison County Regional Superintendent, so he had been expected to win this thing.

* But the Pritzker campaign worked it hard and nearly took it…

“The argument for me to the people in the Democratic party — we want this to become a biannual event. We want to be like Iowa, we want to be an early testing ground for a candidate’s retail appeal.” Pritzker came down and organized, targeted social media ads and motivated laborers to support him, [Madison County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Von Nida] said. “Biss was smart,” Von Nida said. Keeping in mind the viability threshold rule, he concentrated on the two areas in the county where he had a toehold and flooded them with his supporters. “Kennedy had a presence at the different sites, but they were spread out,” not able to reach the 20 percent minimum at any of the sites, meaning he was deemed not viable.

“Getting no voters at all, you probably didn’t take it seriously and organize or you didn’t have a retail appeal,” Von Nida said. “We hope the candidates that run statewide will pay attention to Madison County and take it seriously and court voters … Candidates that were looking for a bounce or some momentum coming out of it, it is what it is.”

* From a loyal reader who was there…

At my site labor comprised 90% of the votes for Pritzker… That AFL-CIO endorsement payed off!

* From the Kennedy campaign…

There’s no question Chris has strong support in Madison County. Our campaign staff and volunteers were nimble and well-organized yesterday. Once it was clear that JB used his resources to bus people in, we teamed with the Daiber campaign to pool our votes so there would be no endorsement.

So, a “moral victory” then?

* Daiber didn’t seem pleased with Pritzker on Twitter…

*** UPDATE *** Statement from Anne Caprara, Pritzker campaign manager…

“First Kennedy complains about the press to the press and now he is upset that our campaign is building a statewide grassroots operation with field offices and organizers in every region. To make such a false accusation isn’t just petty, but Kennedy is using the Bruce Rauner playbook of blaming others when you can’t get the job done.

“We believe that every voter in every county matters and we organized voters in Madison County just as we would anywhere else in the state. To somehow suggest that their time and commitment to the caucus process in Madison County is manufactured is a disrespectful lie and the type of dishonest rhetoric voters have had enough of. The Democratic Party in Madison County did a terrific job organizing an energetic caucus and we commend Bob Daiber on his strong showing.”

OK, well, it’s on now.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:16 am

Comments

A win for Kennedy.

Comment by Blue dog dem Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:19 am
Who comes to a caucus and votes undecided?

Also when does Daiber find a running mate? Is he going to pick up Alex Hirsch when Drury jumps into the AG race?

Comment by Fax Machine Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:20 am
Yeah Bob, the way people win campaigns is to be gracious to their opponents when their opponents are at home. Okay, thanks. I’m sure I will remember who you are next April. Not.

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:21 am
Daiber seems like a really good dude. But really hard to take him seriously without a running mate at this point.

Comment by JoeMaddon Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:22 am
The fact that Daiber received any votes shows just how atrophied the corrupt old Madison County Democratic machine really is.

Comment by Collinsville Kevin Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:24 am
Pritzker punching back at Kennedy plus no poll being released by Pritzker despite his constant polling tells me Kennedy’s still leading.

Comment by Fax Machine Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:25 am
Fight fight fight

Comment by John Rawlssss Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:25 am
All these moral wins and victories for Kennedy. Except those don’t pay for staff, yard signs, and funding an organized campaign.

Huge props to Biss for playing by the rules of that slating process and still giving himself, albeit a small one, a chance to get a downstate endorsement.

Pritzker… just wow. I am impressed that he has managed to connect with that many people throughout the state.

Comment by The Muse Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:27 am
I’m not sure why a Pritzker win would have been seen as an upset. He has the backing of the unions and almost all of the party leaders in the county. In the location i was at, most of the Pritzker voters didn’t even know who he was. They were just told to be there. That Daiber won was surprising to everybody I talked to.

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:27 am
i honestly have no idea what the kennedy campaign is doing or talking about. They had handfuls of voters at every location, ensuring their votes wouldn’t be counted in the final tally. I received a call from his campaign last week telling me to vote for anybody but pritzker even if kennedy wasn’t my first or second choice

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:30 am
==Pritzker punching back at Kennedy plus no poll being released by Pritzker despite his constant polling tells me Kennedy’s still leading.==

Kennedy not even making viability in a region his fans had insisted he’d been doing well in tells me something else.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:30 am
voting undecided ensured no candidate got to 50%+1. Many would rather there be no endorsement that have to campaign for Pritzker

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:32 am
Pritzker is polling constantly. If he had a poll showing him leading, he would release it.

Comment by Fax Machine Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:33 am
===tells me Kennedy’s still leading===

I wouldn’t bet on that.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:36 am
==There’s no question Chris has strong support in Madison County. Our campaign staff and volunteers were nimble and well-organized yesterday. Once it was clear that JB used his resources to bus people in, we teamed with the Daiber campaign to pool our votes so there would be no endorsement.==

Take this at face value and it means that Pritzker had the most “true” supporters and three other campaigns had to consolidate into one to beat him. That’s an important clue as to the dynamics of this race, but also a limited one. There’s no sense at all right now that 2 of those 3 campaigns are ready to hang it up.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:36 am
“Kennedy not even making viability in a region his fans had insisted he’d been doing well in tells me something else.”

Ding. Ding. Ding. It tells you that he’s not organized and that his support is pretty tepid. But I’m sure some of the Kennedy folks on this blog will spin it differently.

Comment by Anon0091 Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:36 am
The Kennedy campaign seems to have an excuse for everything - lack of political endorsements, lack of union endorsements, lack of fundraising, on and on. If feels kind of insulting at this point that they think those of us paying close attention to this race are dumb enough to buy into their spin. And Daiber’s complaints about the Pritzker are ridiculous. Every candidate should be in it to win it and you can’t take any opportunity like this for granted.

Comment by Shytown Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:37 am
== “true” supporters and three other campaigns had to consolidate into one to beat him.==

That’s not how it went down. Daiber and Pritzker both had lots of “true” support. At my location, there were only 3 “consolidating” voters. There were 0 first round votes for Pawar, Hardimon, Paterakis, and Drury

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:38 am
“If he had a poll showing him leading, he would release it.”

I wouldn’t bet on that either.

Comment by Anon0091 Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:38 am
“The Kennedy campaign seems to have an excuse for everything - lack of political endorsements, lack of union endorsements, lack of fundraising, on and on.”

Can you imagine what Joe Kennedy would say about the Chris Kennedy campaign’s excuses?

Comment by Anon0091 Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:40 am
Also, the Kennedy organizing angle is laughable. The guy that called me told me that was going to be the strategy. But at the location I attended, the Kennedy voters evenly split themselves among the Biss, Daiber, and Pritzker campaign. IN fact, the Kennedy people stood up and gave a speech essentially saying “we’ll support whoever you guys pick. We like Biss and Pritzker, but we like the Kennedy name and he’ll get money we promise.” So bizarre

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:44 am
At at least 3 of the locations, Mr. Kennedy had 1 organized supporter. One. The Kennedy campaign did not “consolidate” with Daiber, they had nowhere else to go.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:48 am
To Kennedy’s original criticism - you are allowed to provide transportation to your supporters to caucuses, so if Pritzker teamed up with union locals to get Madison County registered voters who happen to be members of Pritzker-endorsing unions to these locations, I don’t see anything inherently untoward about that.

Comment by Fax Machine Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:48 am
Heard Daiber will announce lt gov pick today or tomorrow. Also, heard from people in the caucus that no ID checks or cross checking to voter rolls were made. The SIUE site in fact had a Pritzger surrogate (paid staffer) give a speech and said he was a Mad Co resident for the past 10 years but heard he drove over from his loft on Washington Ave in St. Louis for the event. So take it all for what it’s worth. Interesting though that Kennedy has no support from black caucus in St. Clair/Madison County which is very telling I think for his chances in urban areas. This is Pritzger by a mile at this point. When does Biss start uses his stockpile of cash? Still think Rauner beats Pritzger head to head. Just my opinion.

Comment by Hit Em With The Hein Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:56 am
==That’s not how it went down.==

As I said, taking Team Kennedy’s statement at face value, Kennedy has “strong”, “nimble” and “well-organized” supporters, but Pritzker had more. Seeing that, they joined with Daiber’s campaign to deny Kennedy the win.

Is that what really happened? I wasn’t there, I have no idea. But it’s what Team Kennedy wants us to think happened, and even if it is, it shows that the Kennedy campaign was pretty weak last night.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 10:56 am
==to deny Kennedy the win.==

Urk, to deny *Pritzker* the win.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:05 am
At my site there was exactly ONE Kennedy supporter

Then she went and stood with Daibers people.
Kennedys talk of campaign support
In the south

Is a fantasy

Labor turning out for Pritzker

Is a reality
I was actually pretty upset at Biss’ people
For being dismissive of the huge groups of LIUNA Laborers who showed up to vote.
Your privileged snobbery and upturned noses were noted.
Dickens said it best
” you’ll find us rough sir, but you’ll find us ready”

No more 2/5 OW.

Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:13 am
I voted at one location and visited another, only Daiber and Pritzker had a real showing and the vote count reflects that. Biss & Kennedy staffers telling people to go to Daiber so Pritzker isnt endorsed really helped. Is that coordination the cost for class?

Comment by MadisonVoter Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:29 am
I was in Marine last. One Kennedy speaker, but did not appear he was a Madison County voter - no green dot. Pritzer had a staffer from Belleville speak. One Biss supporter spoke on his behalf. There was one undecided person.

No one checked voter registration.

Comment by Highland Il Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:31 am
== Pritzker is polling constantly. If he had a poll showing him leading, he would release it. ==

Not if the game is chess and your main opponent is a dilettante.

Comment by Downstate43 Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:37 am
I think it would be interesting to see the breakdown by caucus sites. I has heard that Pritzger was offering “incentives” to some in the African American communities. Buying an election in Illinois is nothing new, Rauner did it, but isn’t the idea to get someone who can govern as apposed to someone who can just buy an office?

Comment by NoNewTax Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:48 am
==Your privileged snobbery and upturned noses were noted.==

Odd statement. I was at the only location where there were plural Biss supporters and certainly saw nothing of the sort. I spoke to lots of people, had no problems

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:48 am
They weren’t checking IDs, but at the location where I was you had to fill out a card with (I think) your address in order to get a green dot, which you needed in order to vote

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:49 am
==Is that coordination the cost for class?==

Here are the choices: The county endorses your opponent, or the county endorses nobody. Which do you choose? Not hard

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:55 am
No ID check at my site. Filled out a card to volunteer for the Democratic Party but no one looked at it before giving me my green dot to vote. Seems screening could have been a little more rigorous to preserve integrity.

Comment by TheBuzz Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 11:56 am
==I think it would be interesting to see the breakdown by caucus sites.==

It was Pritzker 46, Daiber 24, Biss 22 at the East Alton Location. I heard Daiber packed the edwardsville location. Biss people were instructed to go to East Alton to insure their votes were counted

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:05 pm
After reading all the comments here– in other words no one should bother to take seriously anything about the results of last nights Madison County caucus.

Comment by Responsa Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:15 pm
So Biss’ strategy ensured the no endorsement by having all his supporters in one location so the 22 votes for him counted instead of going to Daiber as the second choice had they been dispersed - giving Daiber 337 & enough to win.

So Kennedy, Pawar & Biss actually secured their desired result - so I guess they shouldn’t be sweating the process.

Comment by Grand Avenue Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:15 pm
I was at the Collinsville caucus, the vote was 55-Daiber 46-JB with 14 undecided. At least 30 of the Daiber supporters told me that they would support JB once Daiber dropped out. Big win for JB IMHO

Comment by Pyrman Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:17 pm
I am also surprised Daiber was able to muster as many people as he did

Comment by Grand Avenue Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:20 pm
With regards to polling, all the polls taken before today are junk now that Drury’s exit has reshuffled the race.

Comment by Grand Avenue Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:31 pm
Gas if Kennedy was so Bing or had meaningful support he would have had folks vote for himself to show how well he was dooing with his amateur hr canpaign.

My take is Kennedy numbers were so low he bailed to avoid embarrassment. JB I suspect is holding back numbers to pay a bit in the weeds. He doesn’t want Kennedy to get up off the apathy couch, dust the chip crumbs from his shirt and try to get energized. Better to leave Kennedy with his dare to be adequate campaign.

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:33 pm
===holding back numbers to pay a bit in the weeds===

Freudian slip? lol

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:35 pm
You know what JohnyPyleDriver my bad. The snobbery came out in several private conversations (with Biss supporters who were there and at another site but chose not to speak as there were no other supporters) I had after the caucus. I wasn’t there at your site. Thank you for calling me on it. I misspoke.

Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:35 pm
Grand Avenue, that was snark, right?

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:35 pm
Prescient as always, Rich

Comment by Grand Avenue Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:36 pm
==So Biss’ strategy ensured the no endorsement by having all his supporters in one location so the 22 votes for him counted instead of going to Daiber as the second choice had they been dispersed - giving Daiber 337 & enough to win.

So Kennedy, Pawar & Biss actually secured their desired result - so I guess they shouldn’t be sweating the process.==

I was in direct contact with the Biss and Kennedy campaigns.

Biss’ strategy was to have his votes counted. In order to do that he needed to hit 20% viability at EACH location. Knowing he couldn’t do that, he sent everybody to one location so all the votes would be counted. It wasn’t a strategy to block anybody.

Kennedy’s strategy, as explained to me, was to ensure the frontrunner Pritzker didn’t win. I told his campaign I was team Biss, and he said it didn’t matter as long as JB didn’t win it.

Pawar didn’t appear to have the numbers to mount a strategy.

I know at least 3 truly undecided people who had no strategy whatsoever other than to show up and vote undecided.

I’m sure there were other undecideds who voted the way they did to ensure nobody got the endorsement, but we’re talking about ~3% of the vote spread across 7 locations. I doubt it was coordinated

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:39 pm
-Honeybear-

I was also wrong to say only my location had plural Biss supporters. I suppose there could have been a couple stragglers at each other location. The point I was trying to make was that we were all instructed to go to East Alton. If there were misbehaving Biss supporters at other locations, they likely weren’t talking to the campaign. Not that it excuses behavior, jus sayin they were rogue.

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:42 pm
Another observation from Collinsville- one of the speakers who spoke in support of Daiber stated that the #1 goal of Democrats in the next election should be unseating Speaker Madigan. I guess Daiber doesn’t think beating Rauner is very important.

Comment by Pyrman Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:42 pm
I was at the East Alton caucus last night, and I supported Biss. That was the only location where Biss was above the 20% viability threshold. I also got to hear Nonn and Aud Crowe speak there.

Comment by Justin Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:47 pm
=Pritzker punching back at Kennedy=

In some instances, one has to punch back at someone who makes completely baseless claims towards another campaign while theirs is clearly floundering.

Example: Where is Kennedy? Why is his staff hiding him from public events??? Why is
a politician with the last name “Kennedy” having such a hard time raising money????????

Comment by The Muse Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:50 pm
a summation of the speeches in favor of each candidate at the East Alton location:

-Pritzker - he’s a billionaire
-Biss - he’s not a billionaire
-Kennedy - he’s a kennedy
-Daiber - he’s your neighbor

Comment by JohnnyPyleDriver Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 12:51 pm
JPD- I didn’t hear about any misbehavior anywhere. After the caucus I was online and texting up a storm with a ton of people all over Madison county. Every Biss supporter I communicated with ( full disclosure 4) complained about the Laborers. They didn’t outright say they were stupid and unwashed but it was quite clean from comments about them that that is what they meant. At one point I even interrupted a screed to state “you realize that I’m a labor activist and helped organize labor to get there right?” Now chalk that up to Madison county privileged folk but it grumped me. I was super impressed with the Daiber turnout. Nice folks
So there’s my full disclosure.
Honestly in another time I could see myself going for Biss
But Labor knows it’s very survival is on the line.
Regardless of whether they could articulate it or if they changed their work shirt before coming
I was so proud and encouraged by their turnout.

Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 1:19 pm
Wow - this story and the comments make Bernie vs. Hillary sound genteel in comparison. I’ve seen downstate Dems turn on Dawn Clark Netsch. I’ve seen progressive Dems turn on Glen Poshard. I don’t know who “arroganted” first, but JB is going to have enough trouble attracting non-union votes without angering the rest of the party. Labor is going to vote for whoever wins the primary, not sure if that goes both ways (and I say this as someone who condemned centrist Dems for abandoning Dawn Clark Netsch and progressives for abandoning Glen Poshard).

Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 2:41 pm
I love the spin about how Kennedy got what he want. It’s very similar to the spin when Rod entered the Century Club on the gross receipts tax and called it an “Up day” because that’s just what he wanted to happen. I promise, no politician in history wants to have a straw poll show him at zero.

Comment by Anon0091 Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 3:03 pm
Lol Rich I guess I am repressing my true feelings about JB….

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 3:12 pm
===Once it was clear that JB used his resources to bus people in, we teamed with the Daiber campaign to pool our votes so there would be no endorsement.===

Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades Chris.

Comment by Boone's is Back Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 3:12 pm
Who the heck is Bob Daiber? Is he from Madison County?

Comment by Mama Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 3:22 pm
==Wow - this story and the comments make Bernie vs. Hillary sound genteel in comparison.==

My goodness. Kennedy complaining about his loss and some unspecific comments about Biss voters being rude hardly amounts to the pain of the ‘16 primary.

Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 3:57 pm
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Mr. Undecided. I think he has a bright future

Comment by MissingG Tuesday, Sep 19, 17 @ 4:54 pm