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Lynn Sweet reported yesterday on a “pressure tactic” to force Ed Eisendrath out of the governor’s race.
Backfire. Two Blagojevich allies cooked up a plot designed to pressure Edwin Eisendrath not to challenge the governor in the March Democratic primary — a letter signed by 25 A-list Illinois progressives urging him to stay out of the race.
But the folks solicited to sign — almost all dwell in the world of state public policy and it would have been hard to decline — include friends of Eisendrath. Some tipped him off before he got the letter on Friday.
Once the letter started to circulate, “some people called in advance,” Eisendrath said. “Some apologized.”
Eisendrath said he considers the whole exercise, orchestrated by state Sen. Carol Ronen (D-Chicago) and Democratic donor Leo Smith, a child welfare advocate, “irrelevant.”
“It was something I thought was a good idea,” Ronen said.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 2:52 pm
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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: a primary challenge is a blessing in disguise for the Governor.
1. It forces the Governor to go back to key constituencies in his base, particularly women, minorities and organized labor, to lay out his record and solidify support;
2. It keeps anti-Blagojevich Democrats from crossing over to the GOP ticket to help Topinka;
3. It provides an early opportunity to air dirty laundry and test responses to negative attacks;
4. It provides a field test for his canvass and GOTV operations.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 3:01 pm
Eisendrath is running. And while Yellow may be right, it also provides cost-free dirtying up of the Governor for the Republicans, and makes the Governor sweat out the timing of the pending indictments all the more.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 3:06 pm
Who signed the letter besides Ronen & Leo Smith?
Comment by AngryJolietan Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 3:12 pm
blagojevich has a 71% disappoval rating downstate and substantial diapproval ratings in most other voter categories in the state. all he needs is someone pointing out more of the problems. I like the guy(staffer for the blagojevich campaigns) above positive spin attempt.
Comment by ron Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 3:22 pm
Yellow Dog - if a primary opponent is such a good thing, why are Blago’s supporters trying to discourage it? I cannot imagine an upside if he barely beats a virtual unknown (and don’t kid yourself YDD, his poll numbers at this point do not indicate an upcoming blowout) then has to face JBT fresh off her primary win.
Comment by Bluefish Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 3:44 pm
Why is Eisendrath running? Are left leaning liberals trying to signal to Blago that they aren’t happy with what they consider to be his more centrist policies. Not to mention the contract and patronage scandals and the potential of an indictment…the liberal left considers itself above all that. What will the Eisendrath supporters be asking for from the Blagojevich Dems? A tax increase?
Comment by Cassandra Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 3:54 pm
personally, i agree with ydd’s belief that primaries are good for candidates. but i think that’s true for every candidate, not just the governor! (*i* would have pointed out the contradiction in ydd’s call for cegelis to step out — even though it’s not at all clear that duckworth will be able to run! — with this contention, but that’s just me.)
primaries are great testing vehicles for one’s political/electoral organization, and i’m one who wants to work out all the kinks ON (general) election day. this is especially true if you expect a tight general contest.
Comment by bored now Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 4:02 pm
I guess there is no Roland Burris this year round…if they need one.
Comment by Wumpus Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 4:07 pm
Is Eisendrath really going to run? He keeps pushing back the timing of his announcement. According to the Sweet article, he’s going to file his papers and then decide whether he’ll run after that. It’s really too late already but if he pushes the decision to run into January, it will be ridiculous. It sounds more like he’s not going to run a real campaign–that he just wants to be on the ballot in case Blago gets indicted.
Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 4:09 pm
The other good aspect of a primary opponent for Blago is that he will have to spend some of his campaign war chest - not a whole lot though - which will leave him a little depleted before the general election. I agree with Bluefish that Blago’s numbers are WAY down - so much so that a decent primary opponent could pull off the unthinkable. YDD, I’ll agree with you on one major point. A primary opponent will force Blago to go back to his Democrat constituents. But what is he going to say to them? That he’s been an irresponsible, pathological lying, traditional, run-of-the-mill politician? No, he’s going to hone his skills further on them and if it works, keep on keeping on for the General election. I’m not buying it this time. Where in the world is Paul Vallas?
Comment by LittleEgypt Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 4:15 pm
Looks like Edwin found a way to get back in the news. That only took two weeks. Hard to imagine he cannot get more media attention with the media looking for opportunities to bop the governor. Hell they are even requoting GOP nonsense.
Anyone seen petitions. Some are beginning to wonder if GRod put Edwin up to this little gambit to fake out others.
Comment by reddbyrd Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 4:25 pm
Sounds like BBOY has a problem.I would say just the start of bigger things that are going to fall on his head.There is a lot of Democrats that want someone,anyone, other than BBOY.Hey what ever happened to all the investigations on this governor.Maybe the smart Democrats figured they needed a spare.
Comment by downstate Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 4:51 pm
Hey Bluefish, JBT might win the primary, but I doubt she comes out of it fresh.
Badly wounded and broke is more like it.
Comment by Bobby Hicks Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 5:17 pm
Rich, do you have a copy of the letter to post ?
Comment by HST Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 5:48 pm
No. Sorry.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 5:51 pm
YDD is wrong on this one-the last think Blago and his band of merry men want is a primary. I am involved in the Eisendrath petition drive and have been joined by several people who are not elected party officials. To date nobody has refused to sign and almost all of them say Blago has not kept his promise to clean up state government. Then, when you run into a state employee they practically take the petition away to sign it over the pension deal. Blago lacks credibility downstate. He is a good campaigner with lots of dough but he fooled me once, it won’t happen again. I can assure you that party folks after having a few doors slammed in their face or phones hung up will drop Blago like a hot potato and concentrate on the rest of the ticket and local races.
Comment by Paul Powell Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 6:11 pm
The Comedy Channel did a little bit about our
Governor. here is the link address, its pretty funny
http://easylink.playstream.com/urqmedia/SR.Colbert.Report.All.Kids.F.wvx
Comment by HST Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 6:46 pm
Merit Comp workers got 4% raise today so they will be a little less angry. Like you could ever count on them anyway Most people will sign any petition, so it sounds like Edwin has not quite caught on. Maybe tomorrow
Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 7:12 pm
I would love the opportunity to find out if YDD is right. Frankly, the only point that I agree with is that some disenchanted Democrat voters may stay in their own primary. The benefits to JBT far outweigh the loss of these few voters. A primary will result in Blago spending money he could otherwise have used on his smear campaign. With all the negatives about his fundraising, he may not be able to replace these dollars as easily as before.
Rich, tomorrow’s question should be whether the governor’s MC increase announcement will have any impact on their negative feeling towards him. My answer is NO!
Comment by Norseman Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 7:59 pm
andy shaw on 7 had this friday afternoon and daily herald mentioned it briefly saturday.
Comment by anon Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 8:09 pm
Well, since I started it, I’ll finish it:
Anon 3:06 - I doubt Eisendrath will spend any time or money attacking the Governor, at least if he wants to win and isn’t just on McKenna’s payroll. The reason is pretty simple — Rod’s negatives are already pretty high among Democrats, so if Eisendrath wants to win, he needs to establish positives for himself. Eisendrath may have other thoughts though, we’ll see.
Ron - Everybody knows I’m no staffer for Rod, and in fact was a strong Vallas supporter in 2002. I’ve been a frequent critic of the Gov and his strategies here.
Bluefish - I don’t think Rod’s staff sees things as I do, that was the purpose of my post. Conventional Wisdom says you don’t want to spend money shoring up your base, but Rod’s numbers in his base are so bad, he was going to have to do that anyway.
bored now - glad we see eye-to-eye for once. The difference in the political calculus is that I do not believe Eisendrath will have any negative impact on the election next fall. If, on the otherhand, Cegelis and her supporters continue to poison voters minds regarding Duckworth, it could end up electing a Republican. And let’s be honest - Cegelis’s camp, I believe you included, complained very hard about O’Malley getting into that race, so you’re not as in love with contested primaries as you claim.
Little Egypt - Just a rundown of what Rod might remind voters:
Minority - Signed Racial Profiling, Expungement, and Death Penalty Reform measures. Increased funding for minority AIDS prevention. Raised the minimum wage and expanded the earned income tax credit.
Women - Signed equal pay for equal work. Stopped insurers who refuse to cover birth control. Expanded funding for early childhood learning.
Working Families - Signed the Corporate Accountability Act. Expanded workers’ right to organize. Extended health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of working families. Increased the minimum wage, benefitting 450,000 working Illinoisans.
A good record that most folks don’t know about.
Norseman - Blagojevich is on pace to raise $30 million. He will have plenty of money to say whatever he wants about whomever he wants.
Finally, a word of caution to all of those who think Topinka is going to win this election hands down. My money is on Brady or Oberweis.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 9:04 pm
YDD
Last time around when Blogo campaigned, he had no real record, he was a not a GOPer, and not named Ryan. He promised everyone everything.
This time around when he hits the campaigne trail, he is not going to get free pass as he did get last time.
I believe most people have formed an opinion that the state is in need of some adult supervision.
Eisendraft will bang away on Blogo’s pay to play government.
Comment by just a thought Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 9:30 pm
ah yes, merit comp employees got a lovely letter from the boss today fawning about how their dedication,hard work and sacrifice has finally paid off and effective last friday we’re all getting a whopping 4% increase. So for those of us who have gone without a raise for three years and whose paychecks were decreased 4% for each of those years as we had to pay into our own pensions, that’s only a net loss of approximately 20% instead of 24%. And that’s the simple math. AND that 4% increase is also going to all of the new hires from the past three years who got their pay raises up front. Yep, this magnificient gesture is bound to put the governor back in the good graces of all the state employees he’s ticked off. However, even with a primary challenge, s lot of us are afraid that there are still too many people who are buying into all the PR stuff without counting the long term costs. Go Patrick Fitzgerald!
Comment by cynically anonymous Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 10:11 pm
Hold your fire on the 4 percent stuff until tomorrow. I feel a Question of the Day coming on.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 10:17 pm
Primary or not, Blago will have plenty of money to flood the state with his garbage. It may not be a cakewalk, but my money is on JBT.
Comment by Norseman Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 10:24 pm
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned this, but this was orchestrated by state Sen. Ronen, she of all the good government, ethics and fair campaigning legislation? I’m shocked and appalled.
Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 10:39 pm
Hey…I am Merit Comp, but work for one of the other State Constitutional Officers. Is this 4% confined just to the Blago’s Office? Any response from your Bloggers wouls be appreciated. Thanks.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 10:42 pm
I think Ronen is terrible! She has done nothing up here in my district. It’s kind of sad if she’s the best and the brightest. Her relationship with Blago is disturbing enough, and I am a democrat!!
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 10:46 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with what Ronen did. She has a right to support who she wants, to gather support for her view, and to urge someone who she thinks might hurt the Democrats’ chances of holding the office to stay out of the race. Eisendrath is a big boy who could choose to ignore the advice if he wanted to, which he did. What’s the big deal? I’m not a big Blago fan, but when you make a list of his accomplishments, as Yellow Dog does above and as Ronen apparently did in the letter, it does remind me that, by Democratic standards, his policies (in contrast to his political maneuvering and fundraising) have actually been pretty good. Ronen was obviously trying to make this point to Eisendrath. He wasn’t convinced–so its time to move on.
Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 11:21 pm
Anon 10:42 — your boss can give you any kinda raise he or she wants.
Comment by Anon Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 11:25 pm
I am normally quick to defend my public employee brethren. But, on the merit comp and pension contribution stuff, please keep in mind that most folks in the private sector aren’t guaranteed a raise every year and have to pay their own pension costs, while many of the folks in the non-profit sector don’t even have a pension.
I know what bugs you though — it’s busting your butt everyday while being supervised by a 25 year-old political hack who couldn’t find his butt with both hands and a map. Get rid of the schmucks, increase the frontline workers, and you’ll all be happier, yes?
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Dec 5, 05 @ 11:35 pm
YELLOW DOG I have been coming here for 2 months and the paragraph about the schmucks is about the most honest and intelligent thing you have posted.THANK YOU FOR SUMMING IF WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR STATE AGENCIES AND ANOTHER REASON BBOY HAS TO GO.
Comment by downstate Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 6:35 am
HI all….
1. Carol Ronen and any one else in a democracy can encourage or discourage any candidate she wants. (I’m not a Blago supporter, but it is fair game).
2. King Rod threw some crumbs to the Merit Comp. Serfs after calling them bums and theives for three years, and basically raping their retirement fund. All compensation decisions in his administration are driven by politics.
Today’s politics required some effort to try stop state employees from feeding info. to JBT (or perhaps even the Feds.) And it came with a personal letter from Rod, as if it were his money.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 7:25 am
Yellow Dog,
Nice list on the governor’s accomplishments. What is with the age thing? Part of what is wrong with this state is that agencies have stagnated over the past 27 years under the watchful gaze of the same OLD (Republican) managers. The Gov promised to shake things up and change the way business is done. One way to do that is to change the mid-management personnel who have become way too comfortable with their ,until now, jobs for life. As new (young?) managers take over, there may be some hurt feelings and resistance to change. Too bad! Noone is forced to work for the state. Congratulations to all of those hard working MCs on their ,in some cases, well deserved raises.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 7:27 am
Oh, Yellow Dog, you just tickle me sometimes. That last paragraph of yours just got me. hehehe Except in my position, I’m not lucky enough to have a 25 year old in charge to explain the mess.
Just get rid of the schmucks for me, okay?
Comment by Tessa Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 7:31 am
ydd contends that “Cegelis’s camp, I believe you included, complained very hard about O’Malley getting into that race, so you’re not as in love with contested primaries as you claim.”
*i* am not aware of any “hard” complaints about o’malley’s entry into the race, other than disgust at the thought of rahm interferring in the race. and you will certainly find no evidence of *me* complaining about it. i believe in primaries, and not just in this case. but, quite frankly, i don’t think i was even around (blogland) when the o’malley question was around.
i am also unaware of how cegelis is “poison[ing] voters minds regarding Duckworth.” is this another one of your strawmen? we don’t annoint candidates, so i’m not altogether sure what you’re trying to say. as for “it could end up electing a Republican,” nominating duckworth assures roskam’s victory. there are just too many problems associated with her candidacy — heroes are rarely good candidates. just ask john kerry…
Comment by bored now Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 7:42 am
Just for the record a lot of the merit comp people that he froze thier wages are no longer in state governorment.They have been replaced with BBOY’S people.So all he done was to take care of his people.
Comment by downstae Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 8:38 am
I spent five years in the 1980s as the Democratic precinct captain for the high-rise building Carol Ronen lives in, so I know first-hand what a hypocrite she can be. (As far as I can recall, the most she ever did those years for her community or for the Democratic Party was to bag her trash before dropping it into the garbage chute in that building.)
I can say for a fact that I got more cooperation while doing campaign work in those years from the sibling of a disgraced Enron executive (who also lived in that building) than I ever got from Ronen!
I hope that someone runs against Ronen this time for both of her offices (in neither of which has she done anything except embarass the many good people who reside in her district), State Senator and State Central Committeewoman.
RANDALL SHERMAN
Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government
Comment by Randall Sherman Tuesday, Dec 6, 05 @ 9:36 am