You ever wonder if Sen. Meeks looks in the mirror or sees Whitney's numbers and thinks. "I could have pulled it off". I think he could have created a true three-way race.

OneMan

As Rich points out The Rockford Register Star endorsed Rich Whitney. I don't agree with Rich's assessment of the impact of the endorsement on Judy, but it does say something about the two 'major' party candidates.

Old pal Beth had a post on her blog about my "What we should have done differently" post.

I can see how the post was me conceding, I knew that was a risk when I wrote the post. I don't think the race is over, I think the odds are against us, but I suspect when it comes down to it people when they step in front of the machines are going to have a hard time picking Rod.

That being said, we needed to do some stuff earlier in order to make the governor spend some of the huge coin he raised earlier than he had planned, before he had a post primary target. We could have brought his negatives up a over a year ago at a lower cost that it takes now.

We blew it.

Unfortunately I think the people of Illinois are going to pay for that.

OneMan

Thanks Senator

John Laesch, Lincoln scholar..



For only $10,000....



This is the guy you decided to nominate? At least find a guy next time who owns a suit that fits.

Tags: Laesch, Hastert

What should have been done differently this election cycle....

We should have been contacting and informing all of the groups that were impacted by what the Blago administration has been doing over the last 4 years.

Informing sportsmen about the changes at DNR.

Working with interest groups tied to every swept fund, to start writing letters. To inform them what happened, to get them ticked off.

We should have been illustrating the real economic costs of the issues due to the problems with the health facilities board (when there was in fact no health facilities board) that was costing health care providers, construction trades and others real money. We should have been running ads during that time pointing out the costs.

We needed to make this more than just about corruption, we needed to make it also about the costs of corruption. We needed to illustrate real victims of the corruption, vets who didn't get jobs. Projects that didn't get money because of waste, stuff like that. Arguing that Blago is not corrupt isn't enough, the sad truth is most folks are not real surprised that a statewide official has some ethics issues. What made what Ryan did real was the Willis family, right or wrong, they put a face on everything. We needed to find faces to put on the alleged corruption. We have failed to do that.

I think Judy is going to better than expected, she may surprise everyone and win it. We still have a week, a good ad, or some news can have a real impact on a guy with negatives as high as the governor. I suspect that Whitney may get enough votes to have a bit of an impact.

We needed to be framing the argument against re-electing this governor two years ago in a way that any nominee from the party could have used effectively.

More on this to come.

Tags: Blagojevich, Topinka, Illinois Politics

The Beacon had a story today about the East Aurora school district referendum. (I do not live in the East Aurora school district).

It contained some interesting facts, that I suspect might doom the district.

The period referenced is since 2000

The state's average teacher salaries climbed 19 percent during that time, and West Aurora's climbed 25 percent. East's 2005 average teacher salary of $48,335 is lower than the state's average of $55,558 and West's $58,669.
During that same time period, administrator salaries climbed 24 percent in East Aurora, 11 percent in West Aurora and 21 percent statewide. East's average administrator salary of $89,361 is now slightly higher that West's average, $87,524, but lower than the state average of $97,051.School officials respond by pointing to dozens of positions that were eliminated in the $3 million in budget cuts they made two years ago. The district also needs to pay competitive salaries in order to attract quality teachers and administrators and break from a reputation as a "training ground" for the inexperienced, Roberts said.

If you want to avoid getting a rep as a "training ground" wouldn't you want to have the teacher salary number closer to the West average vs. having the administrator number a bit below the West average.

I think it will end up failing. Issues related to the police station property (read the Beacon story) and to a lesser extent a perception that a windfall from Hometown 2 will be coming that combined are going to be a problem that they can't overcome.
They are asking for a tax increase in the Oswego district and there has been a strong effort to pass it, I have not seen the same level of effort when it comes to the East referendum.

Because if anyone knows what it is like and what happens when you go off your medication it's Rush Limbaugh...

Posting has been light recently. Been out of town a bit and with the stuff that has been happening lately within the county have to admit I have been a bit distracted.

Yes I knew him. I am not using his name since someday his kids will google/wayback their dad and I would rather stuff about the charges and the way he died not come up first.

He was my age and I considered him a friend. The charges did not match the man I knew, I know that sounds like something the neighbors always say on TV...

OneMan

Well it has taken a little while but the Sneedster yet again has a mention of the Burkes.

To wit: Scalia, who always read to mellow out, told the other brunch guests at the home of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke and her husband, Ald. Ed Burke, that he has taken up hunting as a way to relax.

OneMa
Sneed

If the Bears can win with that many turnovers, then there is still hope for Judy...

OneMan

Rich over at CapitolFax was looking for ads that put some pro-Rod spin on the Tony thing. Snark was encouraged BTW so here is my take on it.



Not my best but I think it gets the basic point across.

OneMan

So according to the AP the speaker met this morning with K.A Paul who wants Hastert to Step Down. (Here are some pictures from the meeting)

From the Story

Paul's Global Peace Initiative is a nonprofit group that focuses on causes aimed at peace and humanitarian aid.

Dan Busby, an executive of an accrediting group that found problems with one of Paul's charities, said the meeting was "more shocking than surprising."

In 2005, the more than 1,200-member Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability terminated the membership of Paul's Gospel to the Unreached Millions for failing to meet financial accountability and governance standards....

Paul said he expects Hastert will step down and, if so, it will be because God worked through Paul during Tuesday's meeting.

He compared the visit to his meetings with Taylor.

"Charles Taylor stepping down was a great miracle," Paul said. "It's all the holy spirit, not me."

Paul said he believes Hastert met with him because of Paul's connections with prominent Republicans and donors to the evangelical movement. Dallas oilman Nelson Bunker Hunt, a contributor to Campus Crusade for Christ, has served on the board of Paul's Global Peace Initiative, Paul said.

I realize K. A Paul has some ties to Republican donors but still. Read the 'Liberty Under Attack' piece on his web site. My Favorite is #12

12) Three times FBI agents have boarded commercial airliners and detained Dr. Paul—usually in an attempt to keep him from appearing on a nationwide news program. He has never been given a reason why they wanted to detain him. They always hold him for several hours and then release him without explanation.

Number #15 is worth following the link on as well.

Also nothing like having him compare the visit with the Speaker to a visit with Liberian President Charles Taylor. Didn't anyone even check out this guys web site? How did this meeting help anything?

OneMan

Lets see if I am getting this right, since we now have a rule against political hiring there is no need for the Shackman decree in Cook County. Because since there is a rule against it, there is no need for the courts to enforce their own rule.

It makes me think of this scene in Casablanca

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once

Does anyone seriously buy their logic?

OneMan

The Beacon had a story about the Aurora Chamber's candidate forum. Candidates attending included Lauzen, Craig, Wintermute, Holmes, Chapa LaVia, Mitchel, Reid Lindner.

Not to much new in the story there was this

Democratic incumbent Chapa LaVia, an ally of the Blagojevich administration, acknowledged that the state budget needs trimming and that the deficit needs overcoming. On the other hand, she touted the state grants for economic development and crime-fighting she has been able to bring home to Aurora.

From what I heard (I wasn't there) Linda Chapa LaVia brought up the River Development grant and Mitchel pointed out it wasn't in fact funded.

OneMan

Tags: Illinois Politics

How Judy can do better in the TV debate.
First, start asking him questions when he goes on about stuff.

When he goes on and on about boards ask him.

Governor, you have eliminated a lot of boards, however on some boards you have added people to them shortly after they have given large sums to your campaign. For example person x and person y. Do you feel this is appropriate.

If he starts on about Ethanol.
Governor, under your administration Illinois went from first to third for ethanol production, now to try and fix that you want to spend state dollars to expand production. How come Iowa and X can expand production without spending significant tax dollars (verify this is true) but Illinois needs to.


If he talks about selling the lottery.
Governor, the state has had special pots of money in the past, like this lottery trust fund that covered such things as medical testing of infants to fire prevention even a donation from the Gates foundation for technology in the classroom. That your administration raided to pay for things the the House Music festival. How can the people of Illinois not rolls their eyes when they hear the phrase trust fund.

or

Governor, how can teachers outside the City of Chicago expect you to keep your promise about a 'Trust fund' when your administration has failed to make any contribution to their pension fund the last year and don't plan to make one next year. (With a wry smile) And try to answer this one without bringing up George Ryan.

Also have some campaign staffers (if they haven't been already) review all of the William Holland audits and start finding stuff to use in these questions. You can come up with a ton more. Toss him off his game by using them.


OneMan

She has to figure out how to get him off of his talking points and not sound so unhappy. Good luck with that.

If she gets another debate, she should start asking him questions.

OneMan

Public Official A as in Absent. That's the best his people can come up with?

Nice shot with the auditor general Judy.... Keep hitting him with that.


OneMan

It looks like it is good to be the Governor when it comes property assesment time. Now this clout story, if it can be explained correctly might make a decent ad that people in the city would get.

OneMan

Rich over at CapFax has a real good roundup of the Foley thing.

The House Republicans need to come out and say they are going to get to the bottom of who knew what when and do it now. They need to make it a real investigation in large part by having democrats involved.

If people knew things and didn't act, heads should roll. If people didn't know things because they thought it would be better not to ask, heads should roll. At this point regardless some heads should roll.

Seriously, the congress needs to get to the bottom of this now, didn't they learn anything from 1983.