Too little, too late for Preckwinkle?

I remember back to the 1998 election cycle for Illinois governor – the one in which Democrat Glenn Poshard had hopes that Southern Illinois would prevail over the rest of the state and make him governor.

It didn’t happen. Republican George Ryan took advantage of Chicago apathy toward Poshard along with solid voter bases in Republican parts of the state, to prevail on Election Day.

ALTHOUGH THERE WAS one point in time when the Poshard people felt optimistic. It was in the autumn when their operatives started spouting the word that a news development would become public in about two weeks – one that they insisted was so shocking and appalling that it would ensure a Poshard victory.

As I recall, it was about two weeks later that the public became aware of that accident involving an illicitly-licensed truck driver that resulted in the deaths of children.

Which later turned into a matter of Ryan’s political people accepting bribes and Ryan’s willingness to look the other way – so long as campaign donations kept coming in.

In short, the first hint of the stink that later would result in Ryan having to spend just over five years in federal prison.

NOT THAT IT made one bit of electoral difference. Because by that point in time, Poshard’s public perception amongst many voters was so low that there was nothing that could have revived him.

Will 'dead kids' work for Preckwinkle … 

If anything, all it did was reduced the size of the landslide by which Ryan would have won. It may have caused many people to decide that a vote just wasn’t worth the time to take to cast in that election cycle.

So why am I bringing up this political history from some two decades ago?

Because it popped into my mind when I learned Wednesday that mayoral hopeful Toni Preckwinkle IS going to use the final five days of the election cycle to air campaign ads meant to devastate the electoral chances of a victory by Lori Lightfoot.

THE CAMPAIGN AD is meant to remind us of a fire on the city’s West Side – one in which four children were killed. How is this relevant?

… any better than they did for Poshard?

It was during a time when Lightfoot was on the city payroll as chief of staff of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Which means she was in charge of the 911 emergency dispatch system.

Which ultimately took the blame for the fact that firefighters were not properly sent to the fire scene in time to make a difference. The courts called for sanctions, particularly since they claimed city officials – including Lightfoot – were “shockingly lax” and “cavalier” in their attitude toward addressing the problem.

Or, as Preckwinkle has a narrator say in her advertising spot that we’re likely to hear a lot of in coming days, “With lives on the line, Lori Lightfoot didn’t bring in the light, she covered up the truth.”

TONI PRECKWINKLE IS resorting to trying to smear the blood of long-dead children on Lightfoot in hopes that it will shock and appall so many voters from jumping on the Lightfoot bandwagon – and perhaps shift back to supporting her desires to be mayor.

Will voters believe allegations against Lightfoot?

It just seems so much like the Poshard tactic; resorting to the images of dead children to try to make people appalled at the very idea of a “Mayor Lori” serving at City Hall. Or course, it didn’t work for Glenn. Which is why I’m skeptical it will serve Toni any better.

It may shock and appall some would-be voters into not casting a ballot for Lightfoot. But I can’t help but think that Preckwinkle has already sustained so much damage to her public image that there’s nothing to be done to revive her electoral chances.

If anything, use of such a tactic may merely convince some voters that both of these candidates are unworthy of our support. Could it make some of us wish that Bill Daley’s mayoral campaign could have prevailed and that we were voting for “Mayor Daley III” when our votes are tallied come Tuesday?

  -30-

Who’s to blame for Preckwinkle fizzling out at end – if that’s what it is!

This election cycle that was supposed to be of a historic nature is turning out to be absurdly anti-climactic. I’m ready for it to end – without really caring who will prevail.

PRECKWINKLE: Is it over for her?

There are those who sense that the momentum has swung to the mayoral campaign of Lori Lightfoot – even though on paper she’s clearly the inexperienced candidate. Or at least no one this time around is willing to reward Toni Preckwinkle for her superior (on paper) qualifications.

IT’S TO THE point where both Chicago major metro newspapers have reported that the Preckwinkle campaign has pulled back the funding they would have spent this week and next to flood the airwaves with a lot of advertising messages whose purpose would be to make us think Lightfoot is totally unfit for the office she seeks.

Is Preckwinkle broke? Does she privately realize she’s lost and doesn’t want to waste the money? After all, it would benefit her if she was the county board president/Cook County chairman who had something of a financial stash that she could then distribute to other political people.

Emphasizing her clout in future years when clout won’t be held against her.

Or it could be that we’re in line for some incredibly negative and nasty surprise gesture – something meant to show that Preckwinkle can play political hardball with the best of them.

SOME SORT OF last-minute surprise a week or so from now meant to create one incredibly nasty negative impression that could sway all the people who actually wait until Election Day April 2 before casting a ballot.

Of course, that idea is undermined by the fact that some people already have cast their ballots – the early voting center downtown opened during the weekend, and the neighborhood centers in each ward have been open since Monday.

Could it be that some have essentially given up – with the focus already shifting to placing blame. Just how could Preckwinkle – the one-time front-runner for the mayoral post – be the one who winds up trailing behind in the public eye.

LIGHTFOOT: Has she won already?

And no. We really can’t blame it all on the public sentiment being against incumbent political people. Because there’s always a little taste of that at work in any election cycle.

ACTUALLY, THERE ARE those who already are saying, “It’s Ed Burke’s fault.” As in voters are punishing Preckwinkle for the fact that she has been supportive all these years of Burke in his role as the most powerful alderman in the City Council.

Of course, Burke himself managed to get enough political support in the initial Feb. 26 election that he won re-election as alderman without having to face a run-off. And despite the fact that the ethnic demographics of his ward have changed so much throughout the years that Burke himself should have been a goner years ago.

Mostly because Burke knew how to turn out the vote in the precincts where his continued supporters live, and how to downplay turnout in the rest of the ward. He got his “people” to show up to vote in strength.

But in what most likely is the evidence that Preckwinkle isn’t a true hard-core old-school politico no matter how much the Lightfoot team tries to portray her as one, Toni likely won’t be able to do the same at the city-wide level.

THERE ARE POCKETS of people who will want to see Preckwinkle become mayor, and who will think it a travesty that it likely won’t happen. But Toni ain’t Eddie. If she really were the old political hack some want to say she is, she'd find ways to survive. While instead, the kind of people who wish they could vote Burke out of office (but can’t, they don’t live in his ward) will gladly use Preckwinkle as a surrogate.

BURKE: Did he cost Toni a mayoral victory?

Which will create the ultimate irony if, come May when newly-elected politicos are sworn in to office that Preckwinkle is vilified while Burke returns to office.

Admittedly, Burke has his legal travails to face. He may get a literal “day in court” at some point in the future.

But it will be annoying if, come this spring, Burke remains a part of the City Hall “scene” to face Lightfoot while Preckwinkle remains relegated to the County Building side of that massive concrete block downtown that has housed our local politicos for more than a century.

  -30-

“Mayor” Mendoza?

Susana Mendoza got political people all stirred up recently what with the word that she’s already starting up work on campaign advertising spots promoting a spring 2019 campaign for Chicago mayor.

MENDOZA: A political realist

Even though she’s, strictly speaking, a candidate for Illinois comptroller come Tuesday.

THE PARTISANS WHO hate the idea of Mendoza winning anything are trying to claim her behavior is that of a political hypocrite. A selfish person who’s trying to put her grubby little paws all over everything in sight.

Why doesn’t she just make up her mind? The latter thought literally was expressed by my father, who admits he’s inclined to hold the whole affair against her.

Although I can’t help but think the people who are turning this whole situation into an issue are the ones who realize, deep-down, that they got nothin’ on Mendoza, and aren’t about to beat her any other way.

This issue is the work of political desperation. Darlene Senger likely isn’t going to go anywhere following Tuesday’s elections. As for Claire Ball, she’s likely to be as insignificant as every other person who has run under the Libertarian Party political banner.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think of Mendoza? Personally, I’m swayed by the notion there have been many political people throughout the years who have decided to move up to a higher-ranking political post – even though they already have a post in which to serve.

Who's Susana's real opponent -- Senger … 

Mendoza wouldn’t be a “first” if she were to try to run for mayor come the Feb. 26 election cycle (and again in an April run-off election, if one turns out to be necessary).

I also get that circumstances such as having the mayoral post open with no incumbent seeking it does not come up every election cycle. This could be a matter of a politically ambitious person deciding the circumstances are proper right now for a move up.

So it likely will wind up that Senger will complain all she wants about Mendoza, but a majority of the electorate won’t be swayed. That GOP label could become so tarnished by Trump that it drags her down to defeat with a lot of others.

… or Preckwinkle?

ALTHOUGH IN ALL honesty, the Republican label in Illinois is so weak that there are many political posts up for grabs come Tuesday that there are NO Republican challengers.

That’s why it’s hard to get a grasp locally on how strong the support is for President Donald Trump. He’s irrelevant locally.

If it turns out there is a “red tsunami” of voters that benefits backers of the Trumpster, it’s going to mean creation of a governmental structure that will go out of its way to snub Chicago interests.

Of course, Mendoza could turn out to be right about the “bluenami” that will benefit the political interests of those people wishing to undermine Trump for the next two years.

TO THAT END, Mendoza appears to have interests in becoming mayor (which is a more prominent post than that of Illinois comptroller, which many people stumble over when trying to pronounce).

TRUMP: How much of a factor is he, really?

I’m inclined to believe her when she says her political operatives shot some stray rough footage touting her for mayor, while also doing the work on comptroller campaign ads. She’s being real in admitting that she’d have to make a sudden shift in focus, IF she decides to make the move up.

So anybody who expects her to make a solid decision now and commit to one post is not being realistic. If anything, they’re showing their support for a political opponent who isn’t capable of running a credible opposition campaign.

And as for the idea of “Mayor” Mendoza, the real issue is whether voters think she’s too young (she’s 46) now, or whether they think other candidates (including Toni Preckwinkle, who’s 71) are a batch of old fuddy-duddies?

  -30-

Are we in for five months’ worth of annoying broadcast campaign ads?

We’re five months away from Election Day for Illinois governor, yet the two major party candidates don’t think it’s the least bit too early to start tormenting us with their broadcast ads attacking each other.

BLAGOJEVICH: A gubernatorial issue?

Both Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker came out with attack ads this week – Pritzker wants to remind us of how inept Rauner has been in terms of the state being able to come up with a budget in a timely manner.

WHILE RAUNER WENT for the jugular – the tape recordings made by federal investigators of Pritzker talking with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the telephone that provided the Chicago Tribune with the details of the stories they wrote earlier this year to imply Pritzker was a bigot against black people will now be heard in brief advertising spots.

Specifically, we get to hear Blagojevich making tacky jokes about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who back in 2008 was the outage of the right wing because the man who was pastor of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s church in Chicago was the one who included the line “God Damn America” in some of his sermons – actually a reference to some of the racial intolerance that has been tolerated within our society.

It seems Blagojevich joked about making Wright his choice to be U.S. Senator to succeed Obama when the latter was elected president. It was a tacky joke, kind of lame.

For the record, Pritzker thought the gag was funny. We hear him say it is “hilarious.”

RAUNER: Budget ineptitude?

IT DOESN’T REALLY tell us anything about J.B. It’s a trivial tidbit.

But I’m sure it has the potential to grab at the emotions of people moreso than the initial Pritzker spot – which tells the story of a construction worker who wound up losing his job because of the fact that the state went for so many years without being able to pass budgets.

Which meant that state government for several years was unable to go through its daily operations.

That didn’t happen this year, because for once Rauner put aside his ideological fantasies (most of which are meant to undermine labor unions that do work with state government) and signed off on a budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

PRITZKER: Racial hang-ups?

WHICH IS WHAT I’m sure Rauner wants us to remember. Forget about all those past years.

And remember a 10-year-old moment of stupidity whose only real point is to remind us that Pritzker for many years was a prominent financial supporter of Democratic candidates for government office.

We could make similar arguments against Rauner, who for many years prior to running for office himself was a prominent financial supporter of those political candidates who preferred to run under the symbol of the elephant, rather than the donkey.

The real point, of course, is that the campaigns now feel the need to start tormenting us with their rants and rhetoric. For the next five months, exactly (that’s how long we have from now to Election Day).

IT DOESN’T SURPRISE me that Rauner would bring up Blagojevich – who is back in the news again on account of President Donald Trump’s suggestions that he’s willing to grant some form of clemency to Rod that would let him out of prison some six years early.

TRUMP: Will he impact Ill. gov. race?

I would have thought he would have waited to see exactly what Trump chooses to do. Because it could wind up that the kind of people Rauner is hoping turn out to re-elect him as governor are the same ones who think highly of Trump – and won’t really like anyone suggesting that the man whom their guy (a.k.a., the Donald) is supporting is really just a political dirt bag.

But perhaps Rauner is just desperate enough to get in the first serious punch of the general election campaign cycle. Which he has managed to do.

One potential plus – it could force many of us to ignore television so as to avoid all the inanities. Admit it, turning off the TV set and finding something else to do is something that would benefit all of us.

  -30-

What’s more important to Illinois govt.; a state budget or partisan politics?

I’d like to be wrong.

I’d like to be dismissed as being overly cynical.

RAUNER: How badly does he need a budget?

I’D BE VERY happy if, by the time you read this commentary, Illinois government has a tentative budget for the state’s upcoming fiscal year.

But the decades of time I have spent writing about the workings of our government officials bring me to the conclusion that I’m not going to believe we will have a budget for the 2019 fiscal year (which begins July 1) until I actually see evidence that the governor has put his “Bruce Rauner” on the bottom line and signed it into law.

Not even the reports I have been reading saying that officials could start off the process of approving a budget late Wednesday, which could result in something getting final legislative approval on Thursday, ease my skepticism.

There’s just too many ways that the talks taking place thus far can be thrown all out of whack, and not just because of the details that will come up in any legitimate spending proposal.

WHAT’S ULTIMATELY GOING to decide whether a budget can be put together is the degree to which ALL officials decide they’re willing to engage in, what some people cynically call, “the people’s business.”

MADIGAN: Will a minion thwart a budget?

The fact is that IF government officials in Illinois manage to put together a budget for Fiscal ’19, it would be the first time they’ve been able to do so in years. As in dating back to the days of Pat Quinn as governor.

Which isn’t really any testament to the political abilities of Quinn himself. It’s more a matter of the degree to which Gov. Rauner has placed his political agenda (a desire to undermine the influence of organized labor within state government) above the daily operations of Illinois.

If Rauner can’t get a budget in place for state government prior to the actual beginning of the fiscal year (which many, many governors have managed to do – even many Republican officials who had to deal with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago), then he literally will become the governor who never was able to do a budget during his gubernatorial term.

QUINN: At least he passed budgets

THAT’S EXACTLY THE kind of “talking point” that would sway voters into thinking this Rauner guy is too inept to be worthy of a new term.

I understand that part of the reason we may get a budget agreement this time around is because Republicans are loosening up any opposition they might usually have. They want a budget, over all.

Yet it wouldn’t shock me if there are at least a few legislators of the Democratic political persuasion who would love for the Rauner campaign to have to seek re-election as an inept governor who couldn’t even handle a “basic” task as budgeting the state’s monies.

They may decide that such an “issue” is more important than another year of financial problems. A petty (and craven) way of thinking of things, yet it is one that political people of all persuasions are capable of thinking.

NOT THAT I’M saying I think Rauner is giving up on any of his principles. If he does manage to get re-elected come Nov. 6, I suspect he’ll become even more hard-headed in a second term than he ever was in a first.

Consider his new digital ad, the 43-second spot where he touts his desire to do a rebuild of Illinois similar to the idea that the Chicago Cubs turned themselves from a historically-pathetic joke of a baseball franchise into a championship ball club back in 2016.

The way Rauner puts it, the Cubs’ rebuild took 7 years, and he claims giving him another term in office would ensure he has seven years to rebuild Illinois (it probably would take much longer, but that’s a point for debate in a future commentary).

A part of me thinks this ad is Rauner’s backup plan, in the event that something comes up and the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session ends Thursday night (the deadline) without a budget on its way to the governor’s desk for review. A short-sighted strategy in that it manages to offend the sensibilities of the more rational amongst us in Illinois who prefer the White Sox or St. Louis Cardinals.

  -30-

Six more months of retaliatory Rauner bashing by organized labor interests

It almost seems like a stereotypical image to the point where it is amusing – the sight of a couple of guys in a bar wearing ballcaps talking about how the interests of everyday people benefit from organized labor.

Will these 'guys' become TV regulars between now and Nov. 6?

With Gov. Bruce Rauner being the guy intent to undermine the influence that labor unions have within Illinois state government. How dare he!?!

OF COURSE, WHEN one considers the large amounts of money that Rauner and business-oriented organizations have spent in recent years to try to push the message that the unions are all that is wrong with our state (and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is their corrupt champion), this may be a long-overdue bit of political payback.

What motivated me was a few hours I spent earlier this week with my grandmother, who at her age isn’t the most mobile of people around. Which means that for a bit, we had the television on.

Somewhere between “Judge Judy” and the local television news (which usually gets her all worked up into how stupid our political people can be, and at her age of 96, she’s seen a lot of nonsense spewed in the name of government), I saw the latest advertising spot by the Fight Back Fund.

From what I can tell, the group is headed by a suburban Countryside attorney, Marc R. Poulos, whose own interests are in defending the political people who have been taking quite a rhetorical beating because of their refusal to think of labor unions as some sort of criminal conspiracy.

ACCORDING TO THE group’s web site, they are, “tens of thousands of workers who are standing up for middle class families by standing up to politicians and profiteers who seek to serve their own special interests rather than the greater good.”

Aside from putting together political spots for television, the group says it has worked to prevent Illinois from becoming a “right-to-work” state (one in which businesses can openly behave in ways meant to discourage their workers from joining labor unions) and to force Indiana officials to adequately maintain state highways.

But what caught my attention was the advertising spot, which I’m wondering if we’re going to see much of over and over and over again between now and Nov. 6.

I’m talking about the spot set in a bar with many people enjoying an alcoholic beverage or two following a hard day’s worth of work. The focus is on two particular guys, one black and one white (got to keep a sense of balance, which I’m sure will offend the ideologues amongst us) talking about how peoples’ work benefits us all.

NOBODY’S HERE IN a suit. We’re talking ballcaps, with one of the men in a purple sweatshirt and the other in a green t-shirt.

A vision of the “common man” upset about the political people who want to use them as a punching bag to benefit their own Election Day interests.

Not that this should be surprising. I have long wondered how long it would be before the union interests started fighting back against all the cheap shots that Rauner & Co. have been spewing out in their direction.

A part of me has wondered why it took this long. Although I’m sure the level and intensity will step up later this summer when the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat J.B. Pritzker begins spending his millions of dollars to put up their own ads that will directly bash Rauner upside his head in its desire to “Dump Rauner!” come Nov. 6.

SO AS FOR these purple and green guys taking up the cause of the working man, are we going to see far too much of them this summer? Will they become regular characters in a series of ads that mean to tell us of the evils of Republican politicos (and Democrats who feel compelled to suck up to conservative ideological interests)?

Are they going to become a 21^st Century equivalent of Harry and Louise – the characters of those 1993 television ads who told of us the evils of then-first lady Hillary Clinton’s efforts to bring about health care and insurance for all people; rather than just those who were fortunate enough to have jobs that provided it?

I literally wonder if these guys are going to get names and develop backstories of their own, as though we’re supposed to think they’re real people instead of characters in a commercial spot we see on television?

Considering that we’re nearly at the six-month mark (it’s Sunday) until Election Day, that’s going to be a lot of advocacy television spots we’ll have to endure between now and then. Will it become so much that we’ll have to hide from our TV sets?

  -30-

EXTRA: Politically poisonous mailings out of Cook County Board district

Presta not really a Democrat

A pair of political mailings received Wednesday, trying to influence the votes of those casting ballots for the sixth district of the Cook County Board.

Patricia Joan posing as her mother

That was the seat held for many years by Commissioner Joan Murphy, D-Crestwood, until her death in 2016, and her replacement wasn't interested in keeping the post any longer the necessary.

WHICH MEANS THIS south suburban post is vacant, and up for grabs.

The center of the district’s population is Crestwood (which many of us know only for allegations of a tainted public water supply, and its cantankerous former mayor, Chester Stranczek), but the district shoots all the way to the southernmost Cook County border then travels east to the Illinois/Indiana state line – winding up in places like Sauk Village and Lynwood.

As a result, two of the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination (most likely to be the real election, with Nov. 6 being a mere formality) are Crestwood residents.

Current Mayor Lou Presta wants the post, and is going around with the slogan “Lou Can Do.” Although a new political mailing contends he’s not really a Democrat. He has a history of being a Republican backer and political operative.

Vote for Miller, instead?

WHICH WOULD MAKE sense, since Crestwood has a history of being a Republican enclave. But like I said, the larger area is Democrat – and Presta would be condemning himself to defeat if he tried to run as a GOPer.

But Murphy’s daughter, Patricia Joan Murphy, wants us to know he’s “a Republican running in a Democratic primary election.” In addition to being a financial deadbeat – she included excerpts of a Chicago Sun-Times story about the liens filed against Presta for unpaid taxes

Of course, Presta feels the need to retort. His mailing refers to Murphy, the daughter, as “an imposter.” He contends she is running for office on a name so similar to that of her mother in hopes of confusing voters who might not realize she is deceased.

Although personally, I feel that anybody who doesn’t realize which of their government officials is alive, and which are no longer with us, doesn't deserve a ballot -- no matter how much it is their Constitutional right..

I FEEL FOR anybody who received these mailings, particularly if they came one on top of the other on the same day. More of the trash that causes many people to turn away from an interest in electoral politics.

It might even be enough to write both off and vote for the third candidate in that particular primary – Donna Miller, a healthcare issues expert and the spouse of former Illinois state Rep. David Miller – who gave up that post back in 2011 to go back to being a dentist.

Sixth district will see share of political smears

Then again, Miller comes from Lynwood, which I suspect means many of the Crestwood-area types will want to view the district as their own – and not one to be held by someone from outside their enclave.

Which is why I’ll be watching this Cook County district come Election Day; to see not only who won, but which brand of knuckleheaded nonsense managed to prevail.

  -30-

It’s that time of year again – having to hide from lies on my television set

One of the rules of electoral politics people ought to keep in mind this time of the year is that all would-be officials spin. It’s not lying, although they want you to believe that everybody else’s spin is a lie and they tell nothing but the absolute truth.

Newman has some establishment backers

It doesn’t matter which candidate you support or which political party you back. Everything is described through the mindset the candidate wants you to adopt – which is that they’re wonderful and the problems lie with everybody else.

I COULDN’T HELP but think that as I went through my e-mail Tuesday morning and noticed a pair of messages that included video snippets of campaign commercials that will air on television in coming weeks.

One of them is about how wonderful Erika Harold is, and how we all ought to be casting our ballot in the Republican primary so we can pick her to be Illinois’ attorney general.

While the other is about how disgusting Marie Newman is. She’s the woman seeking the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Third Congressional district, wishing to take away the position from Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., on the grounds that he’s not liberal enough to be a Chicago-area congressman.

But as this ad tells us, Newman is really someone who won’t look out for the interests of people who work at Midway Airport, who has no real liberal credentials and, in fact, once ran a restaurant that was infested with fruit flies.

THE ACTUAL NEWMAN campaign is the one that rants about Lipinski not being a “real” Democrat because, on many social issues (most prominently abortion), he doesn’t side with the party platform. In fact, Lipinski is one of those individuals who’d just as soon see abortion become a criminal act.

Is ad a retort to this write-up?

Although he’s not likely to lead the charge for THAT cause. But he doesn’t side with a woman having a “right” to choose to terminate a pregnancy, which has many of the woman’s rights activists upset – and even has Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., publicly backing Newman.

That has the United for Progress group paying good money to air an ad that bashes Newman about. Since Lipinski is the only other choice (unless you want to take Republican Arthur Jones – a white supremacist activist – seriously), he becomes the benefactor.

HENCE, WE’RE HEARING allegations of foreign airlines taking over the slots at Midway, the inability of political operatives to find federal records for charitable funds Newman allegedly oversaw, and the health code violations at her one-time restaurant (with the tacky tales of fruit fly infestation).

The high-minded approach would be for someone to tout that Lipinski is one who consistently backs the interests of organized labor and unions – which is why he identifies as “Democrat” and most likely would be hostile to GOPers like Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Are these Dems of past the Lipinski backers?

But this is the campaign season – with Election Day less than two weeks away and some people (myself included) having already cast their ballots. Sickening fruit fly stories work better, I guess. Particularly since Newman got a nice write-up Monday on the New York Times’ front page. Is this ad a rebuttal tactic?

Although in terms of distortion of fact, I kind of find the Harold spot (one produced and paid for by her own campaign) to be more outrageous. Aside from constant references to the “Madigan machine,” it talks about how Harold in her life has “beat the odds” to win.

TO MY KNOWLEDGE, Harold actually has lost every single Republican primary she ever has run in (for Congressional seats from central Illinois).

The “victory” referred to that has her beating odds? It was in 2003 when the then-Miss Illinois went to Atlantic City and became Miss America. The last time an Illinois contestant won that competition.

I’m not going to say Harold is not allowed to cite her status as a former Miss America. But I’m also going to shout “Bull!” the next time she, or political operatives, try to lambast any Democrat who tries to trivialize her by saying she’s nothing but a former Miss America.

And as for “Madigan’s machine” that Harold supposedly would “hold accountable,” one could argue that what it has done is held Rauner accountable as governor – preventing him from imposing a series of anti-labor measures into law under the phony label of “reform.”

  -30-

Truly offended? Or just candidates in desperate need of attention?

Jeanne Ives, the Republican state senator from Wheaton who wants to run for governor as the candidate who will impose conservative ideologue thoughts upon all of Illinois, is managing to play off so many stereotypes in her latest campaign advertisement that is drawing far more attention than it deserves.

You know, the ad that features a transvestite, a black union member, a non-citizen who shouldn’t be in the U.S. anyway and a slutty liberal woman who keeps needing abortions to terminate her pregnancies – all of whom “thank” Bruce Rauner for his policies since becoming governor early in 2015.

IMPLYING THAT NONE of these kinds of people would be supportive of an Ives governorship, and do you really want to be among these freaks of nature come Election Day?

This ad is bound to offend, although I’m sure the Ives camp views it as one where the people offended most are the ones who never would have considered casting a ballot for her in the first place.

Which is why I have found it interesting to see a few political candidates of the Republican persuasion who felt compelled to issue a public statement lambasting Ives.

Specifically, GOP attorney general candidate Erika Harold and state treasurer hopeful Jim Dodge are the ones speaking out when most establishment Republican types are keeping their mouths shut!

HAROLD: Crown not enough to win?

AND WHO, QUITE frankly, are among the fringe candidates that show how weak the Illinois Republican Party has become in this century. Surely, none of these people would have been taken seriously by the GOP of 1994 – the year that Jim Edgar got re-elected overwhelmingly and every single Republican running for state office also won.

Honestly, the only reason either Harold or Dodge will still be alive politically beyond March 20 is because they’re running unopposed in the Republican primary.

Now, they’re issuing statements condemning the Ives campaign’s bigotry – largely because it would seem they don’t want to get their unopposed candidacies dragged down in the muck of racial, gender or immigration politics before they even get started in their campaigning for the actual election come Nov. 6.

 

DODGE: Needs to break ties to GOP far-right?

It’s noble, but I suspect they wish they could get away with saying nothing. But unlike other candidates who have enough of a track record politically, they have to speak out now.

FOR WHAT IT’S worth, Harold is the one-time Miss America (2003) who has run for congressional posts from central Illinois (she’s an Urbana native), but has never won in her own primary.

While Dodge is a long-time official within municipal government in suburban Orland Park – a government I once covered back in my early late-1980’s days as a reporter-type person.

He tried running for Illinois comptroller in 2010, but failed. Like Harold, he’s only succeeding in this year’s primary because he’s unopposed.

Honestly, it’s not like Orland Park government is a path to higher office. I still remember when then-Mayor Dan McLaughlin tried running for state treasurer in 1998, only to lose to Judy Baar Topinka. McLaughlin went back to being mayor until losing his bid for re-election last year to a seventh term.

MAYBE DODGE THINKS being a suburban Republican (instead of a Democrat like McLaughlin) makes a difference. Although it could mean he gets caught up in all the ideologue nonsense that’s likely to hurt Republican candidates in general outside of the most rural parts of Illinois. Which makes their comment on such a campaign ad all the more essential.

 

IVES: How long until she's nobody?

The people who probably will see the Ives spot, focus on that frizzy-haired dame in the Chicago Teachers Union t-shirt and be particularly offended. Or maybe they’ll be most bothered by the masked-dude without the valid visa.

Although some have pointed out that the guy who appears in the mask is so clearly a white guy – possibly an Irishman of sorts. Could it be that no Latino actor could be found who would appear in such a tacky campaign ad?

Which will make it all the better if the Ives campaign withers away after the March 20 primary and becomes a soon-to-be forgotten memory – in large part because of campaign ads such as this.

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Pritzker wants your vote – puts self in middle of political brawl over insurance

For those people who actually rely upon the Affordable Care Act (myself included) in order to have something resembling health insurance, Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker is making what some might try to claim is a self-serving attempt to gain our votes.

PRITZKER: Buying our votes? Or taking interest?

Then again, those of us who are in need of the federal assistance in order to be able to afford health insurance may well be willing to give our votes to Pritzker because he seems to be one of the few officials willing to take an interest in the issue.

THE REALITY THESE days is that Republicans have always hated the idea of the Affordable Care Act, and not just because it was an accomplishment of former President Barack Obama.

They seriously want to believe that people make a conscious choice to go without health insurance. They want to believe that people who don’t have some sort of health plan are somehow too lazy to work a decent job or are otherwise incapable of providing for themselves.

In which case, it’s their own fault. It shouldn’t be a task of the government to help individuals come up with a medical plan.

I know in my case, I haven’t held a full-time job in 12 years. I have managed to earn income through assorted freelance work, which some people claim has the advantage of me being able to set my own work hours, get personal business taken care of during the weekdays and can also work from home.

TRUMP: Could care less about issue

I DON’T HAVE to show up at anyone’s office. Personally, I miss the newsroom atmosphere of past news outfits I’ve worked for. But also, it means nobody is providing me with a health insurance policy as a perk for my work.

Trust me, the cost of just about every health policy I ever looked into was above my freelance pay grade – particularly since one of the disadvantages of freelance work is that the pay can be irregular. The occasional week with a significant check, followed up by many weeks of piddling amounts of money – and the periodic time period for which my check resembles a strong resemblance to the kind of money I used to bring in when I was a kid reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago (grossing just under $10,000 per year back in those days).

IVES: Can she be viable Rauner option?

So yes, the stipends from Affordable Care are the reason I have been able to afford health insurance the past three years. It’s nice to know that the occasional doctor’s visit won’t put me further in debt.

Which is an issue the Republican partisans don’t want to be concerned with. They are the ones who have created so many bureaucratic messes that the financial stability of the Affordable Care Act is threatened. Considering they would just as soon see it go away, I don’t doubt they wouldn’t mind seeing it fail – they’ll refuse to take responsibility for the failure, so what do they care! Particularly our current president – who probably figures it won’t impact him at all.

THAT IS WHERE Pritzker is trying to gain himself some support, putting aside roughly $1 million to buy airtime across Illinois to remind people using the Affordable Care Act that we’re at that time of year (deadline is Dec. 15) in which we have to renew our participation.

I know in my case, I’ve been informed by the insurance company that has provided me insurance that the specific health plan I have used will no longer be offered. I have to find something new to cover me beginning in 2018.

I’m curious to see how much confusion the Republican partisans will try to create amongst those who actually have to make changes in our plans, and I’ll admit I’m dreading the process.

RAUNER: Wishes insurance issue would go away

So to learn there’s an official in the form of Pritzker who isn’t eager to see the whole process detonate is a bit of a relief.

IT’S ALMOST ENOUGH to sway me to cast a vote for J.B. come the March 20 Democratic primary. Sorry, but I’m not the type disgusted by Gov. Bruce Rauner that I’d actually consider a vote for Jeanne Ives – the woman who messed up her nominating petitions and now has to start over if she wants to get on the ballot for the ’18 election cycle.

Although I’m not deluded enough to think J.B. Pritzker has any personal interest in my case. With all the money he has in personal wealth he’s willing to spend on trying to become Illinois’ new governor, this $1 million for Affordable Care Act advertising may well be pocket change to him.

But his “pocket change” could wind up impacting the livelihoods of many of the rest of us across Illinois.

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Can big bucks buy J.B. human persona?

J.B. Pritzker is the millionaire would-be politico who’s showing a willingness to spend his own money to try to run for governor in next year’s election cycle.

Gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker's late mother, Sue, is featured in his latest campaign advertising spot now airing on television. Does this make him appear more human? Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

Democratic opponent Daniel Biss (whose campaign appeal seems limited to anyone who lives in or near the suburb of Evanston, where he lives) is trying to use Pritzker’s wealth against him – he issued the statement that pointed out Pritzker’s campaign is spending some $120,000 per day – which he says is more than the annual income of he and his wife.

YET JUST WHAT could Pritzker be spending so much money on?

Perhaps it is those campaign ads that began appearing on television this week – the one where Pritzker doesn’t talk about the state of the state or how sleazy his gubernatorial challengers (or incumbent Bruce Rauner) are. Instead, we get to hear a first-hand story of how wonderful his mother, Sue, was.

He talks about how after his father, Donald, died when J.B. was merely a 7-year-old, his mother struggled to support he and his siblings. Her efforts were made all the more difficult by the fact that she was an alcoholic.

PRITZKER: Most empathetic?

She could easily have been overwhelmed by becoming a widow. Instead, she managed to raise all her children to adulthood where they succeeded in life, and J.B. says he gained “a kind of empathy and understanding” about people who struggle.

HE CLAIMS THAT empathy will be put to use if he becomes governor. He’ll sympathize with all of us.

Which usually I’d be inclined to dismiss as a whole lot of schmaltz.

But this particular statement is something off-beat and usual. I’ve never really seen a political campaign try to put forth such a statement. Usually, something personal would be more likely to have Pritzker allies (although not J.B. himself) telling us what a despicable excuse for a human being Rauner is.

BISS: J.B. nothing but money?

Turn this into a battle of the two candidates likely to try to self-fund their way to the Executive Mansion in Springfield following the Nov. 6, 2018 elections.

BUT IT IS because this statement is so much like something just about anyone would say about their mother. I could easily come up with a similar accounting of how strong my late mother became following her divorce from my father – all because she wanted me and my brother to not suffer due to the split some four decades ago.

In fact, my quarrel would be to say that my mother was just as special as his mother. Something I’m sure just about every voter would argue.

That touch of humanity, and not just another political geek looking to ram his ideological leanings down all of our throats, is what Pritzker seems to want us to think – and what he’s trying to buy with the dollars that the Biss campaign would like us to think are merely evidence of another rich guy trying to buy himself a government office so as to appease his ego.

Of course, that could also be evidence that the Biss campaign’s momentum is withering away on account of the smudge on his political image after having to pick a new lieutenant governor running mate.

RAUNER: Not just a GOP version of J.B.?

HE’S NOT RAISING money for his own campaigning at the same rate he was early on. Although in this particular campaign, the J.B. Pritzker campaign was always going to be the one that grossly outspent everybody else on the Democratic side.

With incumbent Rauner’s personal wealth and the roughly $50 million he claims he’ll come up with to support his own re-election and that of sympathetic legislators for the General Assembly likely to dwarf his own spending.

Which is why Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Chairman Michael Madigan has long been a Pritzker backer – his money could compete with the Rauner money.

Which also is why the Illinois Democratic County Chairs Association (Democrats in the rural parts of Illinois) are likely to do their own endorsement of Pritzker – even though the Republicans claim the association is “taking orders from Madigan” and nothing more. Maybe the GOP can’t think of something nice to say about their own candidate?

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