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* The conservative Jobs and Progress Fund Super PAC isn’t just running TV ads blasting Congressman Aaron Schock, it’s also sending out mailers whacking the potential gubernatorial candidate. Here’s one [Fixed link]…
Discuss.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:03 am
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I find it hilarious that the same nonsense Schock has been using in attacks against Obama for years is now being turned on him.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:11 am
Conservatives probably ought to be for gun control because they keep shooting themselves in the foot….
Comment by Liberty_First Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:23 am
It looks like your PDF of the ad is a PDF of the entire front page of the site…
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:25 am
I don’t vote in Republican primaries, and I’ve never cared for Aaron Schock, but these ads are making him look better and better. Gee, I dunno, maybe they’ll get him crossover votes in the general …
Comment by olddog Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:27 am
Thanks, OneMan. Fixed.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:29 am
Who are these people?
Do they just want to punish Schock for Congressional votes? Or do they support someone else in the Gubernatorial primary?
Comment by walkinfool Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:30 am
Isn’t the phrase ‘by more than 16 trillion’ wrong? The debt ceiling IS 16 trillion. Not that I expect the people who wrote the ad have any idea what they’re talking about anyway.
Comment by Quizzical Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:35 am
It’s not “there” yet, but this has the possibility of spiraling out of control for Schock, and here is a Repub, who only has open real estate ahead of him in regards to a political “future”, and now his “present” could derail all he has worked for in the “past”.
Note: Has the potential to spiral, not saying Schock is in big trouble, in free-fall, etc.. Ranking GOP member on Ways and Means in a few terms sounds really good, and good for Illinois. Tough to think Schock gets out of the game for 2 years, and who is to say Schock could, or would want to, go back to Congress?
Schock has the most thinking to do.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:43 am
This is the challenge the GOP faces. If their candidates do not toe the line and march in agreement on all conservative talking points, then they will be called out by these millionaire PAC’s. How can they re-gain the middle of the country when they can’t even re-gain the middle of their party?
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:50 am
So they don’t like Schock and any Dem is propably worse. Who do they like? If he is losing touch with central Illinois what is the touch level/value that is acceptable? Must be nice to have enough money to simply blast away like this so campaign mode never ends.
Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:57 am
After the way January and now February has gone I would be, ahem, Schocked if he actually gives up his Congressional seat and files for Governor.
Comment by The Captain Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 9:58 am
Also is it just me but if you go to the website listed
http://www.jobsprogressfund.org/
Assuming I typed that correctly, you get a login prompt.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 10:00 am
So an attack ad from an outfit based in where, Ohio? thinks Schock is ‘out of touch’ with his Central Illinois district? And he is back in his district virtually every weekend. Are these millionaires afraid of Schock or what?
Comment by BehindTheScenes Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 10:04 am
Anyone who thinks raising the debt ceiling “creates” debt isn’t qualified to be commenting on how government is run.
Comment by TooManyJens Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 10:19 am
So since we have had ‘the largest tax increase of the past half century’ every few years now, how come we are not paying 100% of our income towards taxes?–or do conservative multi million dollar spending PACs not care that their message sounds just plain silly?
The sheer hyperbole of this would make me just throw it away if it came to my mailbox.
train111
Comment by train111 Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 10:25 am
Call me crazy but I’ll bet this is put out by Shock allies as part of his current campaign to redefine himself from conservative media darling to Illinois moderate. If he and his allies aren’t behind this, I’ll bet they’re saying thank you.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 10:31 am
Come on, its just a freaking mailer 13 months before the primary. If you want to run for Governor you are going to get whacked at some point, this will do nothing to disuade him from running if he is interested.
The bigger disadvantage he is going to have is his association with the Congress. It will hurt him in both the primary and the general and that association is going to have a lot more to do with his running or not than a mailer in Feb 2013.
Comment by Bakersfield Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:02 am
Schock has the most or arguably 2nd most Republican congressional district in the state. As Republican as it is, there are than 26% Democratic voters in the 18th District, and yet Schock got 74% in the last election. Even if every Republican and independent voted for him, he also got a big helping of Democratic votes to get to that margin. Schock is not weak in his base by a long shot. Attack ads and mailers like this were sent by Madigan Inc. in his two elections for state house, but his popularity surged nevertheless and he won re-election by a big margin in a very Democratic seat. No one can control what opponents do in attacking. But the idea that Schock has had 2 bad months because of negative attacks that were certain to occur at some point, is not a make or break point. First, the attacks are priceless on Schock’s behalf for the general election which was always the big “if” about him running statewide in this very Blue state. Second, the attacks are confirmation that another Republican candidate for Governor sees Schock as the big obstacle between him and the nomination.
To answer another question, this has nothing to do with punishing Schock for a congressional vote. There were 85 Republicans voting the same way, several from Illinois, and not one in the nation has attacks like this coming at them. This is being used by an opponent in the primary for Governor who has an excess of money and a deficiency of concern for the truth.
Comment by refuter Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:05 am
Though the mailer says Schock can’t be trusted, I trust him more because of the “massive” tax increases of 4.6% for top earners and 5% for capital gains. Nothing will make the people behind the Super Pac want to share the pain of fixing the debt with poorer people.
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:27 am
There’s a war going on in the GOP. It’s long overdue and it’s going to get a lot nastier.
Here’s rooting for those who walk upright and don’t think “The Flinstones” are a documentary.
To me, the canary in the coal mine was the celebration that occurred in some circles when Mourdock beat Lugar. How anyone could have viewed that with anything other than alarm for a national political party is beyond me.
Now, even a loyal, do-nothing water carrier like Schock is a threat to the true believers?
Mel Brooks said it best:
“Hey Torquemada, whatta you say?”
“I just got back from the auto-da-fe.”
“Auto-da-fe? What’s the auto-da-fe?”
“It’s what you oughn’t to do, but you do anyway”!
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:40 am
Refuter- you make some excellent points. I was wrong in my earlier post. This ad campaign is not about an out-of-line GOP Congressman but about damaging a possible Gubernatorial candidate.
This will backfire on Rauner “the candidate” if he is proven to be linked to the Jobs and Progress Super Pac. There are many observers who see this as more than “politics”. It seems more closely associated with “dirty pool”.
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:43 am
This is nothing more than Tea Party Talibanics: intolerance for independent thought or decision making that doesn’t toe their strict interpretation of the issues.
And a hamfisted way to dirty up Mr. Six Pack.
I’m no fan of Schock, but this attack is actually making me feel sorry for him.
Comment by anon sequitor Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:48 am
- This will backfire on Rauner -
I agree, but not because of the optics. I think the real issue is that if these ads are coming from Rauner, he’s wasting his money because Schock is probably the weakest candidate on the list right now.
Unless Rauner is just shooting for a 4th place primary finish, then it makes sense.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:48 am
And what if Shock is connected to this group? The only person I can figure it helps is Shock and maybe Brady. There is simply no way Rauner is going to run to the right of Shock - not with his Democratic wife, Democratic donations and ardent support for Dem causes like early childhood education.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:48 am
===Here’s rooting for those who walk upright and don’t think “The Flinstones” are a documentary.
To me, the canary in the coal mine was the celebration that occurred in some circles when Mourdock beat Lugar. How anyone could have viewed that with anything other than alarm for a national political party is beyond me.===
Well said. Funny, its the Far Right that wants the war, but this war could find them without a Party…
===This is the challenge the GOP faces. If their candidates do not toe the line and march in agreement on all conservative talking points, then they will be called out by these millionaire PAC’s. How can they re-gain the middle of the country when they can’t even re-gain the middle of their party?===
- E.M.S. -
I have thought the same thing many times…and you articulated it beautifully. Someone, somewhee is going to start counting “noses” of the “Purists” versus the “Reagan Republicans” and they will find there are more “Reagan Republicans” to be found in the General Elections to win…gotta add to win in my Party, not “Litmus Test” us all out… to lose.
Nicely done, - E.M.S. -.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:49 am
===There is simply no way Rauner is going to run to the right of Shock - not with his Democratic wife, Democratic donations and ardent support for Dem causes like early childhood education. ===
You forget, there is ONE way to run Right of Schock…
Get Schock out of the race, then tere is no fear of being being left, right, or center of Schock.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 11:52 am
Any word on the impact for campaign finance limits in the IL Gov’s race given these recent SuperPAC expenditures? It’s not an IL PAC, so we don’t know the value of either the ad buy or the direct mailer. Also, would the limits be blown off both the GOP and the Dem primary?
Comment by Empty Chair Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 12:27 pm
Schock (and all of the other GOP Congress-critters who are getting whacked over the “fiscal cliff” deal) should punch back on this nonsense. The FACT is that tax rates were going to go up for everyone unless legislation was passed to extend the cuts. Since there was no other viable, alternative legislation a vote against the deal would actually have been a vote to increase taxes. The deal Schock (and Paul Ryan, for that matter) voted for extended - and made permanent - taxes on the overwhelming majority of Americans. Yes, some people saw their taxes go up - despite the legislation, not because of it. Call that a distinction without a difference if you want, but it is the truth.
Comment by grand old partisan Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 12:28 pm
What the hell is a mailer and who reads them? I thought if these folks wanted to reach out to one another, they just burned a cross?
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 12:49 pm
O.W.,
Your theory makes sense to me. In order to win the primary the candidate must be on the right.
Rauner, “the candidate” will eventually need to neutralize the candidate who has the most appeal to the base, which seemed to be Schock.
Rauner gives Schock some tough love now and Schock might stay out of the race or he will enter the race defending his fiscal conservatism (am I Republican enough).
Old political adage: “If your explaining, you’re losing.”
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 1:27 pm
–Rauner, “the candidate” will eventually need to neutralize the candidate who has the most appeal to the base, which seemed to be Schock.–
I find it hard to believe that Mr. Hothead Hedgie will run. What does he expect to win, the Blair Hull Prize for silliest rich dude?
Still, I would love to the see the contracts his charter schools have doled out with taxpayer money.
Memo to Rauner: That question will come up.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 1:32 pm
Word,
Politics has an allure for silly rich dudes with big egos. Trump, Oberweis, Hull, etc.
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 1:40 pm
===Blair Hull===
My fear with Rauter is that he wins the Primary, then the Dems give him the “Blair Hull”…
- E.M.S. -,
You took it to its end, and my next thought was of “Blair Hull” if Rauner gets the field he thinks he can win in. The only mistake, and its a Geography mistake more than anything, is Rauner would want both Rutherford AND Schock AND Brady all in, and run TV money at Dillard all day, while the 3 downstaters fight for the hundreds of voters in the central and downstate counties….
Unless someone… anyone… can put together a Field Organization …but I digress …
If I were Rauner, I would hope he knows all the skeletons, besides his wife’s voting record, are going to dragged out … like Blair Hull…like “Jack!” Ryan … like …
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 1:45 pm
===Rauner would want both Rutherford AND Schock AND Brady all in, and run TV money at Dillard all day, while the 3 downstaters fight for the hundreds of voters in the central and downstate counties….===
Sorry brain strain!
Should be …
Rauner should want Rutherford AND Schock AND Brady all in, and run TV money at Dillard all day, while the 3 downstaters fight for the hundreds of voters in the central and downstate counties….
Apologies.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 1:48 pm
grand old partisan, exactly right about the deal. Grover Norquist doesn’t even score the vote as a tax hike.
Bakersfield, you’re exactly right about the effect of this on the decision. Every candidate out there has a ton of bad votes. It happens to any legislator who runs for office. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
In the end, the public largely tunes out many of these votes. They don’t know who to believe so they end up believing no one. That’s why dog euthanasia has more political curb appeal than pension reform.
None of these candidates, except Walsh, is really going to be able to grab the mantle of “THE” fiscal conservative. They all have too much baggage for that.
Comment by CU Voter Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 2:15 pm
===except Walsh, is really going to be able to grab the mantle of “THE” fiscal conservative.===
The Walsh Crazy-Train will expose itself the more voters hear from him. The Duckworth “anti-Joe” ads will be kids play to Rauner and his cash if Walsh gets close, and Walsh never does himself any favors… when he talks.
Walsh types don’t “bulid” parties, they destroy parties. Litmus Tests and Purity equal disaster.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 2:20 pm
Can you imagine a GOP primary with Walsh, Rauner, Schock, Rutherford and Dillard?
I now see why Quinn will stay in the race; because the Dem primary will again elect the Governor of Illinois.
Wood Worker are you out there? I think we may have the answer to your question.
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 2:42 pm
Radio ads with the same message have been running in central Illinois for about a month now. I have always thought it had to be coming from another Republican governor want to be. It makes sense as does a Madigan backed campaign to grease the skids for the female mini-Madigan in the general. But, I don’t think Mike Madigan has Schock on his radar.
Comment by johhnypizza Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 3:30 pm
Oswego, you are exactly right about Walsh. I definitely wasn’t suggesting he would have much appeal. Just that he’s the only guy with any degree of purity on fiscal issues.
Comment by CU Voter Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 3:37 pm
- CU Voter -,
No worries. I, too, was just making a statement, not relecting my thought of what I believed you, personally, meant.
All good.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 3:41 pm
– Just that he’s the only guy with any degree of purity on fiscal issues.–
How pure was it for Walsh to be one of the Top 10 reps. sending unsolicited mail on the taxpayer dime? You know, information you could get an intern to post on a website for nothing.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-05-15/house-republican-freshmen-mailings/54976668/1
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 3:49 pm
Word,
Walsh may be a bona fide Hypurecrite,
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 3:53 pm
===How pure was it for Walsh to be one of the Top 10 reps. sending unsolicited mail on the taxpayer dime? You know, information you could get an intern to post on a website for nothing.===
Well, execpt for that …I mean …
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 3:53 pm
===Can you imagine a GOP primary with Walsh, Rauner, Schock, Rutherford and Dillard?===
This time, I want the ultimate Open Primary - no slating, no forcing others out, whatever.
I want this race to be no holds barred, a race that no one, not one of them, can say, “well, I didn’t get to do this or that”.
Do it. Run. More the merrier.
Then, when the dust settles, and a winner is nominated, every single one of them better back the nominee. Conservates, moderates, Lunchpail Republicans, RINOs, Wingnuts …
Eventually, and hopefully, we will all see who is for the GOP building, who is for Purity and Litmus Tests, who is a Reagan 80%er, and who has no tolerance for the Right at any level … and hopefully the party decides we all need to work together, or what is the point?
Do we reall need to be taught any more lessons, because, boy, we got taught a huge lesson in 2012.
Ronald Reagan Republicans win. The 80% Rule is what a political party should base its growth on, not what should be scoffed at by RINOs or Wingnuts or whatever label is easiest to divide us.
Run ‘em all … let the chips fall.
As an aside, I only want Schock to stay in the Congress for purely personal reasons for Illinois (Ways and Means Chair down the road?) Being in Kendall County, I found having the Speaker of the United States Congress … helped. Wouldn’t a Ways and Means Chair (see Rosty), also help if we can’t have the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Just saying…
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Feb 5, 13 @ 4:08 pm
And a superpac from Ohio thinks they are going to influence MY vote?!?!?!?
Comment by IL voter Friday, Feb 22, 13 @ 3:43 pm