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* The University of Minnesota’s “Smart Politics” blog analyzed Lexis/Nexis news transcripts from ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and NPR since January and looked for mentions of new US House freshmen.
As might be expected, Republican Joe Walsh was interviewed or mentioned the second-most times among all freshmen. Walsh was interviewed or mentioned on 148 broadcasts, for 12 percent of the total. Top finisher was Allen West of Florida, who was interviewed or mentioned in 222 programs, for 17.9 of the total. There was a huge dropoff between Walsh and third place finisher Tim Scott of South Carolina, who was interviewed or mentioned just 45 times.
The rest of Illinois’ freshmen class isn’t even close…
8th - Adam Kinzinger - 22 broadcasts - 1.8 percent
29th - Bobby Schilling - 11 broadcasts - 0.9 percent
59th - Randy Hultgren - 5 broadcasts - 0.4 percent
66th - Robert Dold - 4 broadcasts - 0.3 percent
Hultgren starts this campaign with a serious PR deficit against Walsh. Then again, he’s not accused of cheating his kids out of over $100,000 in child support, so there’s that.
* As part of their legal challenge to the new Democratic map, incumbent congressional Republicans have privately agreed not to formally announce campaigns or even actively campaign in their new districts until the court battle ends. But the clock is ticking and some folks can’t wait…
Political sources who would know say that U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, has begun circulating nomination petitions to run in the 11th, which includes portions of Aurora, Joliet and central DuPage County.
Ms. Biggert also is circulating petitions in a different, somewhat friendlier district drafted by Republicans who are challenging the Democrat-drawn map in federal court. But that challenge is considered a long shot — meaning that Ms. Biggert is likely to end up running in the new 11th.
The Democrats put Ms. Biggert’s home in a new 5th District dominated by Chicago Democrat Mike Quigley. She’d have no real chance to win there, ergo the move.
If she does run in the new 11th, Ms.Biggert’s Democratic opponent likely will be former Congressman Bill Foster, who lost his seat in the far west suburban 14th District in the GOP’s 2010 election rout.
The problem with waiting is that the other side is given an advantage. That’s a big reason why Tim Johnson decided not to go along with his party and started campaigning immediately. Most others are still publicly hedging…
If re-elected in 2012, U. S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Manteno, will continue to represent La Salle County.
However, which district he will run in is still in question.
Kinzinger told The Times Friday he will run for re-election in either the 11th or the 16th Congressional Districts, depending on the unlikely success of a Republican-backed lawsuit now in the courts, which challenges the new Democratic drawn redistricting map sanctioned by Gov. Pat Quinn in June.
“If the Republican (revised) map wins in the courts, I’ll run in the 11th District,” said Kinzinger. “If not, I’ll run in the 16th District. Either way, Ottawa and La Salle County (which lies in both versions) will be included in my re-election campaign.”
Should the freshman congressman run in the 16th District, he may face longtime incumbent Rep. Don Muzullo, R-Egan, in a GOP primary face-off next spring.
* Johnson, meanwhile, will officially have another Democratic opponent tomorrow…
Jay Hoffman, who served in the state House for 22 years and narrowly lost a race for Congress in 1996, said Sunday he will run for the Democratic nomination in the 13th Congressional District.
Hoffman, who lives in Collinsville, said he will formally announce his candidacy at various stops throughout the sprawling new district on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, starting Wednesday in Edwardsville. He’ll be at the Illini Union at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Hoffman, 49, already has two Democratic foes, Bloomington emergency room physician David Gill, who has run and lost for Congress three times, and retired Litchfield educator James A. Gray. A fourth potential candidate, Green County State’s Attorney Matt Goetten, said he expects to make a decision later this month.
There are two Republican contenders in the district, six-term incumbent Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, and Springfield truck driver Sam Spradlin.
Spradlin ain’t gonna be much of a primary opponent, however…
Court records show that Spradlin took out bank accounts in someone else’s name and wrote checks on those accounts. The five checks yielding the charges included one to an auto service center, three to stores and one to a bank. The largest was $200, and the total was $540.
He wrote and signed a statement at the time saying he was “deeply in debt” when he came out of the service in 1983, and that he talked to a minister about it and wanted to confess but was scared of violence from people close to the person whose name he had used.
* And I’m not sure this means much of anything…
Rep. Danny Davis (D) is backing former Illinois Deputy Treasurer Raja Krishnamoorthi Monday in the hotly contested Democratic primary for the new 8th district. Davis will also host a fundraiser for Krishnamoorthi on Sept. 30 in Illinois.
Davis’ support puts him on the opposite side of at least one of his home-state colleagues, Sen. Dick Durbin (D), who endorsed Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth earlier this year.
The new 8th District has an African-American voting age population of just 4.2 percent. And Davis hasn’t exactly been a major fundraiser in the past.
…Adding… This, however, is starting to look like a trend. From a press release…
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced today that she will host a fundraiser for Democratic Congressional candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi on October 12, 2011. In explaining her strong support for Raja, President Preckwinkle cited Raja’s progressive solutions to problems facing the people of Cook County and Illinois.
President Preckwinkle said, “Raja’s focus on empowering small businesses is the exact type of economic policy we need right now. Raja knows that small businesses are the key to economic prosperity and middle class job creation.” Raja’s focus on strengthening small businesses so they begin to create jobs is a key component of his campaign. President Preckwinkle also noted that Raja will be a strong leader and a key partner on these issues if elected to Congress.
Raja Krishnamoorthi raised more than $412,000 in his first five weeks of fundraising in the 2nd quarter and support continues to pour in during the current 3rd quarter. President Preckwinkle’s fundraiser in October will provide even more momentum and resources to fuel the campaign.
* Related…
* Numerous battles haven’t slowed Rep. Bobby Rush
* Tea Party Invites Presidential Candidates to Schaumburg
* Cook County GOP has new leader
* Alderman Fioretti looted own law firm for campaign cash, suit claims
* The Masters of Hispanic Destiny: “Democrats are so intent on making Hispanics the next victimized minority seeking entitlement programs and all that, that the Republicans are starting to believe it!” exclaims [Juan Rangel, CEO of Chicago’s United Neighborhood Organization]. “And they’re wrong on both ends. This is a great community that’s poised to do great things—but you gotta challenge it. Don’t pander to it.”
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 5:43 am
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Nothing like a national audience for fundraising…
Comment by Allen Skillicorn Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 7:29 am
Everybody’s so different, I haven’t changed.
Comment by Curious Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 7:46 am
They say I’m lazy but it takes all my time
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 7:49 am
They write me letters, tell me I’m great.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:02 am
“The Masters of Hispanic Destiny: “Democrats are so intent on making Hispanics the next victimized minority seeking entitlement programs and all that, that the Republicans are starting to believe it!” exclaims [Juan Rangel, CEO of Chicago’s United Neighborhood Organization]. “And they’re wrong on both ends. This is a great community that’s poised to do great things—but you gotta challenge it. Don’t pander to it.””
I’m not sure what he’s saying here. Is this sarcasm or what? I live in DuPage where Biggert’s teletownhall conference calls almost always devolve into racist whining against Hispanics she clucks along with. On August 27th the Kendall County Republicans had Sheriff Joe Arpaio from AZ out at their annual picnic as keynote speaker where Tom Cross, Hultgren, Denny Hastert and the rest of the crowd cheered for the bigoted publicity hound. I don’t see Democrats trying to make Hispanics “the next victimized minority” but out here Republicans have no problem making them scapegoats.
Comment by markg8 Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:12 am
I’d like to see the R’s start pushing into Cook County a litte more. Take some young ambitious novices and have them ring doorbells in ’safe’ D areas. Get some real competition going in the D’s base….go after all the CC Board seats, etc. With Obama’s popularity plummeting and the economy heading south again, they might just start plucking off a few spots. Need better leadership at the top to make this happen.
As far as Judy Biggert, she’s had a long political career. Probably time to let some one with more of a future take the district.
Comment by park Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:14 am
Maybe the hyperbole about “knowing” the constituents and unique issues affecting a district will be toned down a bit in 2012.
Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:15 am
So I got me an office, gold records on the wall.
Comment by Lil Enchilada Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:25 am
Peter Roskam was in Barrington for a 9/11 commemoration last week - pretty far afield from his district’s current boundaries but well within the remap.
Comment by davidh Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:27 am
So I got me an attorney diplomas on the wall
they want me in court, maybe I’ll call…
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:29 am
In the new 11th we don’t have a whole lot of candidates who actually live here.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:30 am
I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do….
Comment by park Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:43 am
And we don’t need the ladies crying ’cause the story’s sad.
Oh, wait. Wrong song.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:46 am
Is Duckworth seen as Rahm’s candidate? Any Davis / Preckwinkle backing the anti-Rahm candidate?
Comment by Bill Baar Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 8:47 am
Why is the WSJ giving Juan Rangel a platform for his outdated ideas? Juan Rangel has a B.A. in Communication from Northeastern Illinois. So his credentials for speaking on these issues are that he’s Hispanic, knows how to follow orders and suck up to those in power? He’s a great Hispanic leader!
Comment by Anonimo Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:07 am
Looks like Danny Davis is more concerned with the 8th District than in the east side of his own district.
Comment by Skeeter Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:21 am
Preckwinkle was supporting Raja before Duckworth got in the race, so I don’t think this is a slight at Tammy.
Comment by wow Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:34 am
What is the targeted demographic for the anti-Rahm vote?
Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:34 am
Rich, I’m begging you - no more mindworms. In the name of all that is holy, no more mindworms….
Comment by soccermom Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:39 am
@Kasich My experience with suburban Dems is they don’t care much for Rahm. The stuff with the Teachers Union can’t have helped much either (as most of the suburuban Dem activists I know are Teachers or retired Teachers too).
Comment by Bill Baar Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:39 am
–(New Cook County GOP Chief) Mr. Vaznelis certainly has his work cut out for him: The county party no longer has even an office in a county that’s home to 40%-plus of the state’s population, and its website doesn’t list a contact number.–
The GOP’s indifference if not outright hostility to Cook County never ceases to amaze. It’s beyond reason.
Aren’t you guys in the business of winning elections? Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? Because that’s where the money is.
To the 98 County Romantics, here’s a question: Which county delivered Bill Brady the most votes?
That would be Cook, with 400,000, more than he got in DuPage, Lake and Kane, combined.
That was 29% of the Cook vote. If he gets 30%, he wins.
In 25 years living in Cook, I’ve never had a GOP worker knock on my door. The only mail I ever got was from the young man who ran for louie gov. last year (forgot his name).
Conversely, at election time, the Dems are out in the streets in force and the mailbox is full. Starting to see the problem here?
For those who think Cook is some monolithic liberal enclave like Marin County, you’re obviously drinking in different bars than I do when you’re up here.
To the state GOP establishment, I guess you know your business. Keep running down Cook in the media and running up the score in Cass, Clay, Carroll et. al. The results speak for themselves.
No GOP voters here. Where did that phrase Reagan Democrats ever come from, anyway?
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:44 am
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Howard Dean Doctrine of putting boots on the ground and offices in non-traditional party areas should be the GOP’s mantra for Cook County. Yes, some areas are so “D” that it may seem pointless, but it doesn’t hurt to pass out some lit and solicit petition signatures to at least increase name ID. There are plenty of suburban areas in Cook County that we could flood with walkers and lit but apparently we are not.
Joe Walsh will be a tough out for Randy Hultgren. I know the child support issue will be Randy’s low-hanging fruit, but the TEA Party supporters will be undeterred and they will back Joe with cash, walkers and GOTV efforts. The TEA Party types who propped Walsh up are rabid and are more likely willing to put Joe’s ideas above his character. Rich, I like the point you made recently about how Joe Walsh tests your theory about “Manchurian” candidate types who all wear the same suits and comb their hair the same way. Joe Walsh is an interesting test of that. Will voters as a whole be willing to give Joe a pass or will they hold his feet to the fire and question his alleged child support shenanigans?!
Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:52 am
Teachers Union Presidents
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 9:56 am
Joe Walsh is the poster child for the Tea Party and deadbeat dads. Kinzinger just agrees by shaking his head yes to everything Hannity says.
It’s time to toss out the imcumbents.
Comment by mokenavince Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:01 am
So, OneMan: What do Teacher Union Presidents and the Cook County GOP have in common?
Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:04 am
….besides potential anti-Rahm leanings.
Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:05 am
In the 8th Congressional Dist., the winner will be a Republican, Rich Evans, a conservative who has been campaigning since June 20.
Comment by Conservative Veteran Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:12 am
i think the republicans (well, the real conservatives) have already won the culture war. sure, the tea bagger can count as his single accomplishment the down-grading of our sovereign debt ending any confidence the markets had in economic recovery, but still! the real joe walsh was a great guitarist with an original sound that wrote some pretty good stuff (even when he was just jammin’ — supposedly funk #49 was “written” during a soundcheck). let’s not lose sight of what’s really important here, and that is that the hall of famer is much more relevant to our lives than the tea bagger. even if the latter craves the attention and needs our approval more…
Comment by bored now Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:13 am
Kasich Walker, Jr.
There are very few of each?
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:21 am
The 14th looks like both sides want it to be a referendum on walsh. Hultgren on Walsh’s character, Walsh on Walsh’s advocacy for the tea party.
A lot of those primaries will give us good insight into what voters think of the last few years. Kinzinger-Manzullo a test of if the gop is ready to move on. Duckworth-Dan Seals jr-whether democrats want a locally backed candidate or someone recruited by dc.
Comment by Shore Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:31 am
===Rich, I’m begging you - no more mindworms.===
It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 10:58 am
I always shuddered when I heard Fioretti speak or saw pictures of him…I just had this feeling he was a slimeball that would do just about anything to win political office…radar working? Check…
Comment by Loop Lady Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:11 am
I think the study shows that the news media has long since stopped caring about substance. Instead, whoever says the most outrageous things gets invited to say more outrageous things. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Neither Walsh nor West should be blamed per se, they are skillfully playing this situation to their advantage. But it is a sad commentary about the state of public affairs in this country when buffoonery replaces facts and reason. It’s the triumph of celebrity appeal over rational self-interest. So we elect goofy politicians who do goofy things and then we wonder why our country is a mess.
Give the people what they want I suppose. Like I said, it’s sad that this is what gets ratings, and these men are considered “leaders.”
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:13 am
Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through
Comment by Bluefish Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:18 am
Life’s been good to me so far.
Comment by Curious Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:20 am
*glued to the monitor, combing through the internet* Danny Davis…check. Toni Preckwinkle…check. *surfing…sobbing now* What?!!! Nothing from Hillary or Bill or Barney or Daley or Putin?!!! See them walking around the community here ALL.THE.TIME and nothing from THEM?!! My GAWD!!! How are we going to make a decision?!!!
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:29 am
OneMan — read Wordslingers earlier post (9:44am). The slinger cites hundreds of thousands of Cook County GOP votes.
Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:33 am
==Is Duckworth seen as Rahm’s candidate? Any Davis / Preckwinkle backing the anti-Rahm candidate?==
I don’t believe so; it isn’t always that complicated - Raja probably simply outworked Duckworth for the endorsement of Preckwinkle and Davis.
Comment by Robert Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:46 am
There’s the child-support explanation: “I have accountants [who] pay for it all.
Comment by david starrett Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 1:54 pm
Joe Walsh made CREW’s Most Corrupt list: http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/mostcorrupt/entry/most-corrupt-report-2011
Comment by Cheryl44 Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 2:14 pm
==Is Duckworth seen as Rahm’s candidate? Any Davis / Preckwinkle backing the anti-Rahm candidate?==
++I don’t believe so; it isn’t always that complicated - Raja probably simply outworked Duckworth for the endorsement of Preckwinkle and Davis.++
Working for a Preckwinkle/Davis endorsement sounds complicated.
Comment by Kasich Walker, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 3:03 pm
–But if you are running into a lot of Republicans at Maya del Sol, I’d be surprised…–
Soccermom, at home I’m more of a Madison Street guy — Healey’s, Docs, Duffys. Not a lot of kumbayah-singing going on in those joints, more like an extended Irish wake for the Sox right about now.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 3:31 pm
@Rich:
They say I’m lazy but it takes all my time
I keep on going guess I’ll never know why
Life’s been good to me so far baby,
*Oh yeah*
Comment by globalguy Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 4:12 pm
Will you still love me tomorrow?
Comment by Wensicia Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 4:48 pm
Duckworth is Durbin’s protege just like she was last time.
Comment by markg8 Tuesday, Sep 20, 11 @ 11:21 pm
–Will you still love me tomorrow?–
That’s Carole King, dude, not Joe Walsh. Is she on the ballot? I’d vote for her in a heartbeat.
Takes me back to Memorial Stadium and the first Farm Aid. Just Carole on the piano, playing a set from Tapestry, simple and moving.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Sep 21, 11 @ 8:28 am