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I received this e-mail today about Mike Noland’s House race against GOP Rep. Ruth Munson.

I’m intimately familiar with this race. Considering Noland has walked the entire district, and has dozens (plural) of volunteers that are doing literature drops for him in different parts of his district, I think he has run the best low-budget campaign in Illinois.

Considering he has gotten _no_ help from the DPI, including no staffers, let alone $, he is doing awesome ! I am familiar with other state rep races and I think Noland does have one of the best chances of winning a state rep race in Illinois.

Munson, appointed… is in a blue collar district and voted against blocking the federal overtime regulations from taking effect, which even many republicans in the GA voted to block…

Noland has run a real grassroots shoe-leather campaign and has thousands of signs up in the district. Munson has barely any visibility in the district and barely any signs and has not walked door to door like Noland.

This kind of race brings me satisfaction, because it’s not all about raising 50,000 . I would rather spend 10,000 wisely and have a candidate that knows what “right to work” is and walks every precinct in the district to meet every voter individually, than raise 50,000 to have it blown on consultants salaries and other bull… Sweat Equity is worth more than a wad of cash. Noland will shock the world on Nov. 2nd (well maybe not the world but at least the punditocracy class and maybe Madigan & Cross).

And from comments, we get this:

This guy is not crazy (maybe a little too excited about a “Tier 2″ state rep race to be entirely normal), but word has it that Madigan has been monitoring this race for quite some time.

The Repubs may think they have a “sleeper” in the Schock/Slone race (though I’d say the cat’s out of the bag on that one - the GOP should’ve kept their mouths shut and pulled an ambush, might’ve won that seat!) - but the real sleepers are this race and the Churchill race.

Don’t be too surprised if late money and troops are dropped into the Munson race…it’s a fair bet it’ll happen folks…

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 21, 04 @ 4:30 pm

Comments

This guy is not crazy (maybe a little too excited about a “Tier 2″ state rep race to be entirely normal), but word has it that Madigan has been monitoring this race for quite some time.

The Repubs may think they have a “sleeper” in the Schock/Slone race (though I’d say the cat’s out of the bag on that one - the GOP should’ve kept their mouths shut and pulled an ambush, might’ve won that seat!) - but the real sleepers are this race and the Churchill race.

Don’t be too surprised if late money and troops are dropped into the Munson race…it’s a fair bet it’ll happen folks…

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Oct 21, 04 @ 5:05 pm
Hey, the dude did a pretty decent job in his first run with zero money, zero Party assistance and, let’s honest, zero experience running for office. He’s got one run under his belt - likely learned a few lessons from that experience. The most important lesson he seems to have learned is that statehouse challengers can only win by implementing the basic, lowest common denominator for any winning campaign: knocking on doors and aggressive precinct work.

Incidentally, door-to-door canvassing and asking (in person) for their vote remains the most effective campaign tool - and guess what? It doesn’t cost a dime. Low budget, local campaigns do win from time to time - especially in a race where broadcast television and radio really aren’t a factor.

Word has it the challenger in this race is working very hard in the precincts - and if that’s the case, he’s got a good shot at pulling this out - with our without Madigan’s troops or money. If the Democrats end up dumping some dough and workers in to this one - Munson’s in trouble.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Oct 21, 04 @ 7:35 pm