Will Fighting Irish kicker of some three decades ago have a chance at Congress?

It shouldn’t be perceived as a surprise that Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., is going to face some serious competition if she wants to keep her Congressional post beyond 2020.

The political establishment is going to be determined to think that a young, black woman managed to win a DuPage County-based House seat only as a total fluke – and that it will be time for the natural order of things to be restored by dumping her from office.

IT’S NOT EVEN odd that one of the potential Republican replacements for Underwood has plans to significantly play up the fact that he has athletic accomplishments.

For people who think that politics is dull or boring or confusing or irrelevant to their lives, it may well be easier to comprehend old football footage than any attempt to get at the issues confronting our society.

So the political aspirations of Ted Gradel shouldn’t be dismissed out-of-hand.

Gradel played big-time college football (Notre Dame, class of 1987), before going into business and establishing a life for himself out around the Land of DuPage. Now, the Naperville resident thinks it’s time for him to serve in Congress.

WHICH MAKES HIM one of three people saying they will run for the Republication nomination to challenge Underwood in next year’s election cycle – Jim Oberweis and Allen Skillicorn are the other two, as of now.

But Gradel, who admits he has no political experience and thinks we ought to view that as a “positive in my book,” has, according to the Capitol Fax newsletter, hired a political consultant and has already put together his first campaign at touting himself.

UNDERWOOD: Can she win re-election?

That ad features one-time Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz touting just how wonderful a football place kicker Gradel was – and is loaded with footage of Gradel playing for the Fighting Irish.

In short, a perfect spot to appeal to people who otherwise wouldn’t want to bother thinking about politics.

THERE’S JUST ONE thing that could wind up hurting Gradel – the fact that by so strongly reminding people he played football for Notre Dame, he’s going to stir up the resentment and hostility of all those sports fans who like to denigrate Notre Dame every single chance they get.

HARRIS: Former gridder now in politics

The ones who think that anything that was ever special about Notre Dame football was long ago in the past, and they seem to get upset any time anyone includes the Fighting Irish amongst the ranks of the best college football programs in the country.

Will Underwood’s re-election bid wind up gaining the support of every single person who feels compelled to trash-talk Notre Dame every chance they get?

For that matter, Gradel includes footage of a field goal he kicked against Alabama all those decades ago. Will all the fans of the Crimson Tide (a school that has made increasing efforts to recruit for students throughout the Midwest – including Illinois) become instantly appalled with the Gradel campaign so as to disregard it from its opening moments?

IT MAY SOUND irrational, bordering in crazy and downright nuts!

FLANAGAN: Is he Underwood equivalent?

But then again, it wouldn’t be the stupidest thing that ever happened on the political scene – particularly if someone is being asked to base the casting of a ballot on the fact that someone once played a sport at a highly-competitive level.

So it will be interesting to see if Gradel can manage to beat out a pair of business executives who, at the very least, have gained a little bit of political experience serving in the Illinois General Assembly.

Or more importantly, was Underwood’s 2018 electoral victory over incumbent Congressman Randy Hultgren just a political fluke – something along the lines of back in 1994 when Michael P. Flanagan managed to win a Congressional post for two years as a Republican from Chicago!

  -30-

How politically vulnerable will Underwood be come the '20 elections?

I have no doubt that Rep. Lauren Underwood, a Democrat from Naperville, is going to face one of the most aggressive political challenges when she seeks re-election in 2020.

UNDERWOOD: Already being challenged

She is, after all, a black woman Democrat who ran in last year’s elections for a Congressional seat representing one of the most intense Republican districts in Illinois. Meaning I expect GOP political operatives will think of her as THAT WOMAN who had the NERVE to take a seat away from their ranks.

TRYING TO REGAIN the Illinois 14^th congressional district post may well be one of the priorities for Republicans nationwide in the next election cycle.

Yet I can’t help but admit that I’m wondering if Republicans are going to be their worst enemies, and that they won’t be able to overcome the advantages of incumbency that Underwood will have as she seeks a second term in Congress.

As the Capitol Fax newsletter reported Monday, documents were filed with the Federal Elections Commission that would have state Sen. James Oberweis, D-Sugar Grove, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois.

Except that Oberweis has no intention of actually trying to depose Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill, who would be running for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate come that election cycle.

Oberweis couldn't even win in '02 … 

IT SEEMS A campaign aide for Oberweis marked the wrong box in filing the forms for his boss. He’s going for the House of Representatives seat – making him one of three Republicans thus far with an interest in taking on Underwood.

Should we really think that highly of a candidate whose staffers are inept enough to misfile their candidate’s forms? They can’t even tell which office he wants to run for? Unless they’re really amongst the few deluded enough to think Oberweis is worthy of one of Illinois’ top political posts?

… against Durkin, how could he think … 

It’s certainly obvious enough that the voters don’t think much of him. He’s run for U.S. Senate and Illinois governor. In fact, he would have been the candidate who tried to take on Durbin way back in 2002 – except that Oberweis couldn’t even win the Republican primary that year.

It wound up being Jim Durkin (now the Illinois House Minority leader) who won that primary, only to get his behind whomped by Durbin’s desire for a second term in the U.S. Senate (he’s now on term four, and would be seeking a fifth if the 74-year-old Springfield resident actually makes it all the way through the process).

… of beating up on Durbin

MY POINT BEING that if Oberweis truly is the best the Republicans can come up with for the 2020 election cycle, they may well be handing Underwood a victory already.

Because despite his multiple election campaigns throughout the past three decades, the only post he’s ever been able to win is that Illinois Senate seat from DuPage County.

He may be just the local jamoke who’s incapable of taking on anybody bigger – particularly if the Democrats are able to build up Underwood’s national reputation to any degree.

Ocasio-Cortez younger by three years

Because she is the woman with a medical professional background who currently has the so-called title of the youngest African-American woman (age 32) to be elected to the House of Representatives.

SHE’D ACTUALLY BE the youngest woman ever if not for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortex from New York, whose victory last year came at age 29.

Admittedly, Underwood doesn’t have anywhere near the mouth that Ocasio does – the one that manages to offend Republican partisans so intensely that they usually wind up managing to put their feet in their own mouths whenever they try to attack her.

STAVA-MURRAY: Dem really faces tough times

But I have to admit, Underwood is going out of her way to respond to just about every issue and put herself in the mix of what is happening in D.C. I’ve literally lost count of the number of statements she has issued that wind up in my e-mail box.

And if it turns out that she has challengers as inept as Oberweis, she could wind up being the favorite – particularly since I get the impression that Naperville political operatives are going to be more focused on causing the political defeat of Anne Stava-Murray, the Democrat with a mouth who says SHE wants to take on Durbin come 2020.

  -30-

Simon to use Illinois state Senate for comeback, just as Oberweis did

I wonder if we should start thinking of James Oberweis and Sheila Simon as the “Comeback caucus.” Or maybe more accurately, the “Desperate to Stay in Electoral Politics” caucus.

SIMON: Wants a political comeback

That was my initial reaction to learning that one-time Carbondale alderman and former Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon has plans to run for election to a state legislative district from Southern Illinois.

SIMON, OF COURSE, is the daughter of the legendary senator – and former lieutenant governor himself – from Illinois, Paul Simon (but not the one who sang “Slip Slidin’ Away").

She was the lieutenant governor under Pat Quinn who chose in last year’s election cycle to run for state comptroller – a sign of a lack of faith in his ability to win re-election. Of course, he wound up not winning – so perhaps she was on to something.

Anyway, the woman now working at Southern Illinois University Law School (she has to eat) wants to be an elected official again.

Hence, her statement that the Associated Press reports says she will seek the state Senate seat currently held by David Luechtefeld – who has been in the state Senate for two decades, but has said he does not plan to seek re-election come the 2016 election cycle.

AS TO WHETHER Simon can win, we’ll have to see. For next year’s election cycle has the potential to be a big year in Illinois for Democrats. What with it likely that whomever the Dems nominate for president will be preferable to the GOP dreamer who manages to overcome Donald Trump’s money.

OBERWEIS: Used the same route

And the fact that Dems angered by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s anti-labor actions will be motivated to turn out to vote in ways they didn’t feel compelled to when their top pick was Pat Quinn.

Going against Simon is that the same Southern Illinois voters who overlooked Paul Simon’s Democratic Party leanings to keep re-electing him to Congress haven’t felt the same toward his daughter. She is a loser for a Carbondale mayoral bid, and also her comptroller post.

There are those who would just as soon see her wither away and never run for public office again!

SHEILA IS NOT compelled to do that. She’s choosing to use the state Senate (which isn’t anywhere near as prominent as the U.S. Senate, even though she’d be able to run around calling herself “senator”) for a comeback. Getting her back into office, from where she can plot a future run for a higher office.

 

LUECHTEFELD: Will retirement boost Sheila?

Which seems to be the same strategy as James Oberweis. Although in all fairness, he differs in that he was a political nobody before winning a state Senate term in the 2012 elections.

Oberweis was the guy who had run for seats in Congress, the U.S. Senate and Illinois governor – banking on his personal wealth to take him over the top.

But the only post that he has ever been able to win is that state Senate seat from the Fox Valley region of the far west suburbs. He was willing to give up that seat in last year’s elections for a Washington-based post from Illinois, but once again failed.

IT WOULD SEEM that Oberweis, a financier and chairman of the Oberweis Dairy family business, has found his niche in the political scene. He’s a “senator,” although not the kind he’d like to be. Instead of hanging around Capitol Hill, he’s at the Statehouse checking out the statue of Abraham Lincoln and fantasizing that he’s at the same level once occupied by Barack Obama.

SIMON: Will Paul help daughter at all?

Of course, Obama rose up the ranks rather quickly to the post that every political person fantasizes about having (and which few Illinoisans will ever be capable of achieving).

So if Sheila Simon is capable of winning that seat in the state Senate, she could wind up being the Democratic equivalent to Republican Oberweis.

Walking around the halls under the Statehouse rotunda and being a part of a somewhat-exclusive “club,” while wishing they were a part of something bigger that they may never achieve.

  -30-

EXTRA: Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner?

So how much change will Illinois government experience now that there is a governor of the opposition political party to the General Assembly?


Is the Statehouse Scene about to become the Bizarro-world version of the federal Congress, where a GOP Congress fights the chief executive.


WILL THE DEMS in the Legislature unite in opposition to a Gov. Bruce Rauner so as to keep him in his place and prevent his anti-organized labor attitude from running roughshod over the rights of workers?


Or is that a bit of overkill.


Personally, I noted the fact that Rauner's victory speech (about an hour after the Associated Press projected the era of the Mighty Quinn to be at an end) singled out the fact that he placed telephone calls to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton -- both D-Chicago.


He said he doesn't want to "fight" and "bicker" with the Legislature, but wants, "to find solutions ... to solve the problems facing Illinois."


OF COURSE, RAUNER also said he will, "work with anyone and everyone who shares the goals." As though he expects the Legislature to follow his lead.


That will be the big key to determining what state government will become like for the next four years.


Because to be honest, Quinn wasn't all that well liked by his fellow Democrats in state government. Madigan often regarded the governor as being weak and capable of being pushed around, and that attitude trickled down to the rank-and-file of the General Assembly.


So maybe Madigan can work with Rauner, particularly since this election result now makes him the undisputed most powerful Democrat in state government -- rather than having to defer authority to a governor of his same political party.


IT WAS AMUSING to hear state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, talk about the issue with WMAQ-TV. Of the Legislature, Lang said, "we'll work with anybody."


But he also said that it is Rauner who's going to have to moderate the anti-union talk that had organized labor all so riled up during both the primary and general election cycles this year.


""If he doesn't do that, we'll have four years of gridlock" just like the activity on Capitol Hill, Lang said.


So what led to an apparent Rauner victory?


IT SEEMS THAT Rauner got the roughly 20 percent of the Chicago vote he was hoping for (21 percent and kept Quinn to 52 percent of the suburban Cook County vote.


Which makes one wonder how well he actually did amongst African-American voters. James Oberweis, in conceding his defeat for U.S. Senate, said he thinks he and Rauner achieved something significant in actively campaigning in South and West side black neighborhoods in Chicago.


"We showed that campaigning in African-American communities is possible" for Republican candidates, Oberweis said.


There also was an ethnic "first." Ecuadorean/Cuban-American Evelyn Sanguinetti becomes the first Latina elected to a statewide government post with her win over Democrat Paul Vallas to be lieutenant governor.


NOT THAT HER presence added that much to the campaign cycle. So little that while she tried making her own victory speech Tuesday night, every Chicago television station broke away from her ramble so they could broadcast Quinn.


Who, as it turns out, is not about to concede until every single vote is counted -- a process that could take the bulk of the week to complete.


Quinn tried to show some spunk (which reminds me of actor Ed Asner as Lou Grant telling Mary Richards "You've got spunk. I hate spunk!") when he told his followers, "our government of the many takes on the government of the money."


Although Rauner tried to put his own spin on Tuesday night's victory by saying, "This is the victory for every family in Illinois."


  -30-

EXTRA: Electoral unpredictability; or looking to place political blame?

I found it intriguing Tuesday night to hear the allegations of how Republican operatives arranged for a batch of “robo-calls” to would-be polling place workers to cause enough confusion that many of those election judges didn’t show up at their posts on Election Day.

The end result was several polling places that opened late, confusion reigned, and some of those places remained open until as late as 9 p.m. to try to accommodate voters.

LANGDON NEAL OF the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners called the activity “malicious,” and said he suspects it was the Chicago and Cook County Republican parties that were responsible for such activity.

Although WTTW-TV reported that officials with both of those GOP organizations denied doing any such thing, in large part because they don’t have the kind of money it would take to successfully pull off such a scam.

Considering that local Republicans couldn’t even find token candidates to run for Cook County government posts (guess what, Tom Dart was re-elected sheriff with ease), they may be right on their inability to do something so sinister.

What it really comes down to is that this is another potential ground for someone to claim after the fact that they were cheated out of an election. Just as GOP operatives have been whining about machines in the voter booths that were improperly recording votes meant for Republican candidates as going for the Democratic challengers.

WHY WORRY ABOUT actually turning out the vote when you can accuse the opposition of cheating you out of what you think you’re entitled to!

What should we think of the election results, which are far from settled for governor as of when this is being written?

Especially in the early stages, the numbers that roll in don’t mean much.

Consider that with 1 percent of precincts’ votes counted, Republican Bruce Rauner led Gov. Pat Quinn 62 percent to 36 percent. But by the time another 1 percent was counted, the tally shifted to 58 percent for Quinn to 40 percent for Rauner.

QUINN SEEMS TO be holding a slight lead through the early stages, but this is a tally that could easily shift in the wee hours of Wednesday. We’ll have to wait and see.

In the campaign for U.S. Senate, the results were more predictable. Within the first half hour after most polling places were closed, news media organizations rushed to try to be the first to say that Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., had defeated Republican challenger James Oberweis.

They were basing that on exit polls, not actual vote tallies.

As evidenced by WGN-TV, which at 7:37 p.m. reported that Durbin won – even though their tallies showed that with 1 percent of the vote counted, Oberweis was leading Durbin 53 percent to 44 percent.

FOR HIS PART, Oberweis conceded defeat publicly at about 8:30 p.m., although he made sure to point out that it appeared Republicans would wind up with a majority overall in the U.S. Senate.

“For that, I’m very grateful,” Oberweis told those who gathered at one of his family’s dairy operations in suburban Glen Ellyn, while adding he plans to focus back on Springfield, where he still has two years remaining on his term as senator from suburban Sugar Grove.

I have to admit to getting a kick out of Oberweis’ Election Night tie – depicting an ice cream cone. His dairy does make some good ice cream.

But I have to confess to a groan upon hearing political pundit and Roosevelt University political science professor Paul Green speculate on WGN-TV about how Oberweis might challenge Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., in the 2016 Republican primary – saying, “He might throw his cone in on that one.”

  -30-

For people who believe that bipartisan politics means, “Do it my way!’

There are those people who watched the debate earlier this week between Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Republican challenger James Oberweis who think the key moment related to Oberweis saying he’d support gay marriage.

He didn’t actually say that (he said he realizes the political fight is over, and that his side lost). But to me, the key moment came at several points during the event when Oberweis stressed the significance of political bipartisanship.

WHICH BY HIS definition means people should cast their ballots for him against Durbin, and should also shift control of the U.S. Senate to the Republicans, while keeping control of the House of Representatives with the GOP as well.

Because, he explained, Republicans would then be able to push their ideological agenda without Democratic resistance. Then, President Barack Obama would have to legitimately negotiate with Republican interests on issues of significance, instead of being able to ignore issues because a Republican House passed something and a Democratic Senate rejected it before it could get to a president for consideration.

I find it interesting to hear someone say that bipartisanship means putting Republicans entirely in control of Congress.

Because it really reinforces in my mind the concept that the modern-day Republican isn’t capable of governing a thing unless the process is rigged in their favor. “Bipartisan” is the ultimate dirty word (or maybe just as filthy-minded as “progressive” or “liberal”) to these people.

I ALWAYS THOUGHT the ideal situation was to have a legislative branch of government that is split between the political parties, with the head of the executive branch being the tie-breaker, of sorts, for the balance of power.

Which is what makes “president” or “governor” to be the ultimate political prize.

Oberweis, obviously, disagrees. Then again, the only political office he’s ever been able to win is a state senate seat from his Sugar Grove home town where he is in the minority party. It doesn’t exactly give him much in the way of influence.

So this is all about Oberweis wanting to be a part of a political caucus that actually has influence. There’s nothing more insignificant than a freshman member of the minority party – which Oberweis has been in Springfield, Ill., for the past two years.

MY OWN IDEOLOGICAL leanings were heavily influenced two decades ago – the November 1994 election cycle saw Republicans take just about everything in state and federal government.

Chicago the city proper kept its Democratic officials, but everybody else went for Republicans that year. It resulted in Springfield in a two-year period (1995-96) where the GOP ran everything – and Madigan was reduced to “minority leader” who was blatantly ignored.

During that time, Chicago interests were made so secondary. The city was blatantly snubbed on so many occasions. It’s no wonder to me that city voters cast ballots for Democratic candidates so overwhelmingly. The current election cycle really is urban versus rural more than Democrat versus Republican.

It was the large part of why, when I cast my ballot Friday at an early voting center, I wound up backing Gov. Pat Quinn for re-election. And even Sheila Simon for state Comptroller – even though I’m not convinced she can beat incumbent Judy Baar Topinka of suburban North Riverside.

BUT BACK TO Oberweis, who has dreams of going to Washington, D.C., as part of a majority caucus of GOPers who will push their ideological agenda through the nation.

Instead, we’re likely to keep Durbin (whom I’ll admit I also cast a ballot for on Friday), with the real question being whether enough other states will feel compelled to dump Democratic incumbents for Republican insurgents to make Capitol Hill a GOP bastion – and give Obama serious headaches for the two remaining years of his presidency.

And Oberweis can remain on the Springfield scene for two more years in the minority party!

  -30-

How Dem are we?

We Ask America is coming out with more polls, trying to document how the electorate may have shifted in recent weeks leading up to Election Day.


If those polls are at all reliable (the only real poll that matters is Election Day proper), it would seem that Illinois is coming back to its roots.


AFTER HAVING SPENT a summer engaged in a fling with Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner, it would seem that we're returning to Mr. Democrat instead. The trend across several races seems to be that Democratic candidates for state and federal offices in Illinois are taking leads, or getting dangerously close to the GOPers who were counting on many Dem voters breaking away from our usual leanings.


Perhaps they think the electorate is the equivalent of a hussy engaging in an affair. But all affairs come to an end, and it seems that Mr. Democrat will be forgiving of his electorate spouse for flirting, so to speak, with the enemy.


That We Ask America poll for the governor's election shows Pat Quinn with a 4-percentage point lead over Rauner -- which is about as big a lead as anyone has had Quinn with (unless you believed that 11-point lead the Chicago Tribune poll gave Quinn a few weeks ago).


Their poll for the U.S. Senate race showed Richard Durbin with a 13-point lead over Republican James Oberweis -- even though the ice cream millionaire seems content to live off the memory of that one poll over a month ago that had him lingering only 6 points behind Durbin.


THERE ALSO WAS the poll for Illinois treasurer, which shows Republican Tom Cross only 1 percent ahead of Democrat Michael Frehrichs -- a state legislator from Champaign and one of the few Dems from outside of Chicago metro to get any attention this election cycle.


One percent for a Chicago no-name is bad. It's within the margin of error. Theoretically, Frehrichs may be leading in reality, but it's too close to show up in the polls. Or maybe he's not.


For Frehrichs to defeat a former leader in the Illinois House of Representatives would truly be sad. This ought to be one of the races in which Republicans actually hold on to what they have (let's not forget the current Treasurer is Dan Rutherford).


But it could be that the large Democratic victory margins of voters coming out of Chicago, along with slightly smaller margins from suburban Cook County (which account for about 45 percent of the state's population) could wind up overcoming all the notions that political operatives have tried to put into our heads that everybody is anxious to try the Republican brand this year, and that Democrats ought to be quaking in their pants.


I'M NOT SURE what we should think of what will happen when the polls close the evening of Nov. 4. It's going to be several close races -- including the fight for governor where Rauner has kicked in tens of millions of dollars of his own money into an effort to buy the political post.


It makes me wonder how irrelevant his campaign would be if he were not so wealthy that he could afford to spend his own money, and actually had to raise it from political supporters like other candidates do.


This is going to remain a Democrat-leaning government for Illinois, regardless of what happens in the top political post (even though technically the top spot on the ballot is the U.S. Senate race).


In fact, it makes me wonder if the person who ought to be concerned is state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, who could get caught up in the mess of people going out of their way to vote straight Democrat. Sheila Simon's campaign could wind up getting voter support from people who could care less about her personally.


THEN AGAIN, JUDY was always the "crazy aunt" of Republican politics in that she got along with Democrats too, and lived in suburban Riverside. Which makes her yet another Cook Connty resident.


It always made certain Republicans a little queasy about dealing with her, as if they thought she wasn't truly one of them.


But it also makes her one of the few Republicans that Cook County residents are comfortable voting for. That, and the way Simon dissed Quinn for not wanting to continue as his lieutenant governor running mate, probably will be the reason Judy survives the Illinois political scene, even though for many of us she's the "wrong" political party.


  -30-

Oberweis wants us to pay him to promote his political campaign

Republican Senate hopeful James Oberweis wants us to think of him as the scrawny guy getting sand kicked in his face by the big, muscular bully in those ads of old that used to appear in comic books.

For the Charles Atlas bodybuilding plan of old allegedly gave you the kind of muscles that would let you beat up the bully AND get the babe in the bikini.

I HAVE LOST count of the number of e-mail appeals he has sent out advising us that he needs our money (in the form of campaign contributions) so as to beat up on the bully otherwise known as Sen. Richard Durbin.

To “Dump Durbin,” we need to give our money to the multi-millionaire who isn’t willing to pump in millions of dollars at a time (including another $1.5 million as recently as Friday) of his own money into his campaign fund.

I wonder how Bruce Rauner is going to feel when he realizes he spent so many millions to gain a job that pays under $200,000 per year and comes with a house that is in desperate need of a rehab.

But back to Oberweis, the millionaire businessman, dairy farmer and ice cream parlor operator (he does make a good banana ice cream, if I may say so myself) who I’m almost surprised doesn’t put together a campaign ad showing someone kicking sand in his face – so he can deliver that blow to the jaw to Durbin on Election Day.

I’M GETTING ALL worked up about Oberweis because of the e-mail message from his campaign that I woke up to Monday morning. He wants $25 (or larger) contributions from us.

In return, he’ll send us a yard sign that we can put in front of our residences to promote his campaign.

Actually, it doesn’t tout Oberweis, as much as tells people not to vote for Durbin.

His campaign staff took the old slogan of the British government – “Keep Calm and Carry On” – to motivate the people to keep up their morale in the face of attacks from Nazi-run Germany.

OBERWEIS WANTS ILLINOIS voters to “Keep Calm and Dump Durbin.” Which sounds more absurd than anything else.

If we truly were keeping calm, we wouldn’t feel the need to change much of anything. We certainly wouldn’t dump anything. Oberweis wants us to calm down, then act rashly.

It’s like that old “Hurry Up and Wait” cliché that is meant to mock wasted effort, rather than inspire serious activity.

The yard signs Oberweis offers up (at least according to the fundraising e-mail message I received) would even depict a British crown, which I guess is meant to bring to mind the original British slogan.

ALTHOUGH IT MAKES me wonder if Oberweis thinks he’s some form of Illinois royalty. Does that mean that if he gets elected, we would have a queen from Florida. Let’s not forget that the missus doesn’t actually live here anymore. She prefers the Southern sunshine.

The whole yard sign concept seems silly. The idea that we’re being asked to pay for it comes across as tacky. And then he wonders why, even in the most favorable poll taken to date, he’s losing by 6 percentage points!

The problem here is that Oberweis thinks the fact he operates stores offering quality dairy products makes him fit to represent Illinois in Washington, D.C., when he’d rather be the guy barking orders at minions and looking down upon some of us.

He had no problem in a past campaign being the bully who wanted to single out all those foreigners who don’t (as far as he was concerned) belong in this country.

BUT NOW WHEN that campaign ad of him flying over Soldier Field in a helicopter (claiming undocumented foreigners would fill the stadium full every day) is brought up, he says he’s sorry – even though he still stands behind the basic sentiment on immigration reform.

In short, don’t criticize him. He doesn’t want to hear it!

What would it take for Illinoisans to dump Oberweis from the niche he has developed for himself – that of being a perpetual candidate whom nobody outside of the people living near Sugar Grove have ever actually voted into public office.

  -30-

Who really benefits from Rauner’s donations to GOP organizations?

Much is being made of the fact that Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner is making regular donations to the Illinois Republican Party; supposedly to build up the party organization so as to bolster the chances that a “Gov. Rauner” wouldn’t be a lone Republican in a sea of Democratic officials with the appetite of piranhas.

 

Although it seems to me that the real effect of that money is going to be to bolster the chances that voters sympathetic to Rauner (actually, they’re openly hostile to Gov. Pat Quinn) will actually get out to vote.

 

OR ELSE, THE fact that this has become a solidly Democratic-leaning state will send Rauner to the same fate as Jim Ryan, Judy Baar Topinka and William Brady.

 

For the record, records indicate that Citizens for Rauner gave $750,000 to the state Republican Party last month, and has donated $2.775 million to the state party since June.

 

Its money meant to bolster the organizations across the state that have become decrepit in recent years (1995-96 when the GOP was all dominant in Illinois seems like such a fantasy; did it ever really happen?). It is a step that will need to be taken if the Republican Party is ever to be a serious player in statewide electoral politics.

 

The Chicago Sun-Times did report recently that some $577,000 has been donated by the state Republican Party since June to the House Republican Organization.

 

THAT IS THE group supporting legislative candidates of the Republican persuasion in hopes that they can elect enough GOPers to make Michael Madigan a minority leader for only the second time (the aforementioned ’95-96) in the past four decades.

 

Although a more realistic goal would be to knock off just enough Democratic legislators so that Dems couldn’t automatically override any vetoes a “Gov. Rauner” would try to impose.

 

But it really is more about getting people to vote for Rauner, first and foremost. I suspect Rauner is more interested in getting himself elected, rather than worrying about whether he’ll have any Republican allies alongside him.

 

This could easily be a state government where the only GOPers are Rauner and Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka (whom some Republicans regard as their party’s “crazy auntie Judy” whom they wish they could disown).

 

I COULDN’T HELP myself but laugh when I received a pair of e-mail messages on Friday from the James Oberweis for Senate campaign. He’s crying broke. He needs our campaign contributions to pay for more broadcast ads to spread his message that we need to dump Dick Durbin at all costs!

 

“If you want to make sure that the Federal government and the State of Illinois stops raising your taxes, starts protecting our borders, begins implementing  Medicaid reform and stops spending more than they take in every year, then you need to get involved,” said the message signed by Oberweis himself.

 

Apparently, none of that Republican money being donated by Rauner is working its way up to the election that, theoretically, is the TOP of the ticket in this year’s election cycle.

 

Perhaps it also shows the difference between the wealth of Oberweis, an investment manager who also runs the Oberweis family dairy business, and the venture capitalist Rauner – who admits he’s in the top “0.0001 percent” of society’s wealth.

 

OR MAYBE IT means that Oberweis has the sense to realize that trying to “buy” a political office gives off the impression of sleaze that takes from any credibility one might have if they were actually to win on Election Day.

 

Regardless, Rauner seems well on his way to spending so much of his own money to prop up his campaign that he’ll set a record for the most money spent per vote – regardless of whether he wins or loses.

 

If it turns out to be the latter, that’s going to be one heck of a binge Bruce will go on come Nov. 5.

 

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Polling the polls for November 4; who’s to say if any of them are correct

The Chicago Tribune, that one-time voice of Midwestern Republicanism, is giving Democrats reason to be downright giddy.

 

The newspaper commissioned a poll for the U.S. Senate race and found incumbent Richard Durbin with a 23-percent lead over challenger James Oberweis, the perpetual candidate who should have been content to remain a state senator rather than try to move up so quickly.

 

THEY ALSO DID a poll of the governor’s race and found Gov. Pat Quinn with an 11-point lead over Republican challenger Bruce Rauner.

 

Which sounds downright incredible considering that just about every other poll taken by some group or other has found Rauner in the lead – albeit a lead that seems to be shrinking with time to the point where everyone else thinks this political fight amounts to a statistical tie at this point in time.

 

I may have Democratic Party leanings. But I’m not foolish enough to think that something has suddenly shifted in our society to create these big leads. Meaning I’m skeptical of these polling results.

 

Particularly since it was just a few days ago that the New York Times and CBS News commissioned a poll that had Rauner with a 4 percent lead over Quinn. They also had Durbin with an 11 point lead over Oberweis.

 

BUT LAST WEEK, the Chicago Sun-Times came up with a poll result showing Durbin with merely a 7 percent lead over Oberweis, and evidence that Oberweis was managing to close the gap that exists between him and the incumbent senator from Springfield.

 

A gap that the Tribune would have us think is actually growing, based on their poll results.

 

All along, I have been confused about this particular election cycle. Not that there are people desperate to dump Pat Quinn. That was predictable. There are those who wanted nothing to do with him in the 2010 election cycle, and I’m sure their hostility has only grown.

 

But I’m not about to predict how this election cycle will turn out; although I will admit to telling someone last week who asked me my thoughts that I would not be surprised if Quinn managed to pull out a victory come the evening of Nov. 4.

 

HE COULD EASILY wind up giving yet another victory speech in a record-setting close election.

 

It is why I’m trying not to take any group’s polling results all too seriously.

 

For one thing, some of the results come across as so biased – someone is trying to concoct results meant to make their specific interest look good (or at least not totally pathetic).

 

For another, it’s just way too early. It’s more than a month until the point where people can start showing up at early voting centers to cast ballots (I’m likely to be one of them, so that I don’t have to take time out from working on Election Day).

 

AND IT’S SEVEN weeks until the aforementioned Election Day when we can actually show up at the polls (I’ll admit the experience of voting loses something when one doesn’t take time out on that day to cast a ballot).

 

The reality is that this election cycle in Illinois is going to be decided by those people who do not know right now who they support. Some of them may well not make up their minds until they walk into the voting booth (and some of them may kick themselves as they walk out for the “stupid” choice they just made).

 

That is why the polls are all over the place these days.

 

Illinois’ political leanings for the near future will be decided by those indecisive and wishy-washy enough not to be able to make up their minds right now. What a pleasant thought!

 

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Oberweis doesn't want Durbin/Quinn to get African-American vote on Nov. 4

It must be true if the Chicago Tribune says it is (slight sarcasm dripping). But Republican Senate nominee James Oberweis has a vocal African-American pastor working to turn out the vote on his behalf come the Nov. 4 general election.

OBERWEIS: Seeking support?

The Tribune reported Thursday that the Rev. Corey Brooks, clergy at the New Beginnings Church of Chicago, is coming out publicly in support of Oberweis -- who faces Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in the general election cycle.

ACCORDING TO THE Tribune, Brooks is discouraged by Democrats, whom he says take the African-American segment of the electorate for granted.

He says he doesn't want to be bound by any political party, and he says he is impressed that Oberweis (who lives in the outermost western suburbs) has actually been willing to make campaign stops on the South Side.

Brooks says that Oberweis listens to him, while he claims to have never actually met Durbin. Hence, an endorsement.

Now all of this may well be true. There certainly isn't anything wrong with people wanting to have options when in the voting booth on Election Day. No one's vote should be automatically determined by their race.

BUT EXCUSE ME for thinking there's something a bit funky about this particular endorsement, and that I don't believe we're about to see some massive shift in the voting tendencies of Sout' Side Chicago.

I suspect that Brooks' backing for Oberweis is very similar to the African-American pastors (including one-time state Rep. and Rev. James Meeks) who say they're publicly backing Republican nominee Bruce Rauner for governor -- rather than Gov. Pat Quinn.

RAUNER: Seeking apathy?

There are the rumors going about that both of these GOP candidates (who have significant financial wealth) are throwing about their money in ways to support the pet causes of the assorted pastors.

If that makes them appear more sympathetic, then so be it.

BUT WHAT I honestly believe the candidates are going to get from these efforts to "reach out" to the African-American vote is a sense of apathy.

Which is exactly what the Republican candidates want to create.

It is a unique factor of the African-American segment of Chicago that pastors can carry significant amount of influence over their congregation members.

DURBIN: Needs to do more for black vote?

It is why political people always are willing to make stops at black-oriented churches in an attempt to get the vote. Get the pastor to extend his influence, and you could wind up with a lot of voting booth touch-screens being touched in your favor.

LIKEWISE, GET THE pastors to promote a sense of apathy and the idea that it really doesn't matter much who you pick, or even if you bother to vote at all, and you drive down the overall vote totals.

Do that in an area such as South Side Chicago where it is likely that 90-something percent of the votes will be  for Democratic Party candidates, and you have the effect of making Republican-leaning areas all the more important on Election Day.

Personally, I'm offended that pastors, if this is so, would promote such an idea. Largely because I believe people express themselves politically when they cast ballots, and that people who don't vote lose any right they have to complain about the way government behaves.

Seriously, why should political people care about those who can't even be bothered to cast a ballot?

TO THE DEGREE to which this particular election cycle in Illinois is turning out to be the rich guys (a venture capitalist and a dairy magnate) trying to use their financial resources to buy themselves into political office, should we really be apathetic?

Because if they're willing to spend so much money of their own to get the office, I wonder to what degree they will go to entrench themselves to remain in office in future election cycles.

Would you willingly leave something you spent millions of dollars to "buy," just because the voters decreed otherwise?

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