to distract me, so now I am back to studying my Hultgren. Could be boring, after yesterday’s excitement, if it weren’t for some of the stuff that actually comes out of Hultgren’s mouth. Really, Hultgren? You actually said that? Details to follow…
Posts tagged ‘2010 elections’
Woah, Dillard
by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 11:27 pmThe Trib has Dillard ahead in the Repub Governor primary. I know Dillard. Shared an office building with his state senator’s in-district office, Rep Patti Bellock’s office (trivia, Patti is a Comisky, and her office is chock full of White Sox memorabilia), and the local Chamber – that was it, not a terribly big building. So not many of us in there. Once I watched Dillard and staff do a stellar job of manoevering every which way through the state legislature on an issue I was quite familiar with. He’s well-liked, well-respected, and well-connected.
Update: Brady pulls ahead of Dillard. Still a ridiculously tight race, but then so is the Quinn/Hynes matchup
For Quinn’s sake, I fear Dillard.
Baby Boy Hastert is losing
by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 10:52 pmNot the best of news for Foster, since the same factor making Ethan lose (overall disgust with Daddy and Daddy’s friends gushing ridiculous amounts of cash in an attemt to purchase for Baby Boy the equivalent of a title of nobility) would have doubly ensured his loss in the general.
Along those same lines, too bad for Dems that Giannoulias-the-annointed is continuing to remain rather smugly ahead of Hoffman. The Repubs are gonna shred Alexi to teeny tiny pieces, then bury him in his own dirt, come the general.
While I’m by no means a fan of choosing to vote based on electibility issues any reasonable analysis demands they be looked at, and at this point it seems next-to-certain that Dems will lose Obama’s former Senate seat. That they may possibly watch Hastert’s former seat – a seat I think would have remained safe for Foster if he was running against Baby Boy – flip back in the Repub column as well makes this suddenly a race to watch.
Primary Day
by Downtowner, posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 3:10 pmA day or so before registration closed for the primary a woman came in to the library where I work part-time to change the address on her voter registration. Process completed, she thanked me and said: “we just moved, but this has to be the most important primary ever so I had to make absolutely sure I got my address changed in time.”
She walked away and a co-worker, who I happen to know is a pretty active Dem, said: “Huh, guess she must be a Republican.”
I couldn’t really disagree with her and still can’t, as I am neither feeling, nor seeing, anything like enthusiasm from most Dems of my acquaintance.
I could be wrong though. Lack of real enthusiasm on my part for any of the candidate offerings could just be lack of effort on my part toi dig for information sufficient to get me excited. But then again I could argue that a failure to get through to me – not so hard to do as getting through to the average voter since lots of local party insiders know exactly where to find me – indicates a failure to, er, do the job.
Anyway, I did vote, of course. I took care to wait until after 9:00 a.m. to avoid any crowds. While I wouldn’t say I ran into “crowds” I was surprised to find more than half a dozen – perhaps seven or eight – other voters there. And that’s not counting poll workers, actual pollwatchers (not so common in this neck of the woods even in generals) and the press taking photos.
Still, early reports are that turnout is low.
Back later with results. Not the least factor in my lack of excitement is the fact that I bet I could post them now with little fear the voters will have proved me wrong when the last vote is counted.
Dems have a Kate Problem
by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pmMy youngest daughter, Kate, is 31. She’s married with three children. She has Type I Diabetes and was medically bankrupt at the age of 20 when she fell into a coma and spent two weeks in intensive care while uninsured. She is the principal breadwinner for her family, and despite her health challenges and past financial hardships they are doing okay now. In fact, Kate is doing so well right now that the most pressing personal family problem on her mind is that her brother will be deployed to Afghanistan this spring. And that is weighing heavily on her mind, though I won’t here go into what Kate thinks of the Afghanistan escalation.
Up until the 2008 election there was no force on earth – including me – that could move Kate to so much as vote. Her take on it: there is no point, big business owns government, and nothing will change. But in 2007 Kate changed, radically, sharply, suddenly, changed her mind.
Linda Healy backed by Mike Madigan to challenge Kay Hatcher
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 3:07 pmCalls started going out 2-3 days ago to Democratic activists in Kane and Kendall counties to notify them that Democratic Speaker of the House, Mike Madigan had chosen to support Linda Healy to run against Kay Hatcher for State Representative from the 50th District.
Linda Healy is the former director of Mutual Ground, a local shelter for abused women and men. In my opinion, Healy is an excellent pick to challenge Kay Hatcher who voted against funding for Mutual Ground earlier this year when Hatcher voted “no” for a fully-funded budget.
To learn more about Linda Healy or donate to Mutual Ground, follow this link.
Local activists pressured Hatcher and Republican Leader Tom Cross in efforts to keep the doors open at Mutual Ground, but both voted against the shelter.
New Candidate in IL-14
by Downtowner, posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 6:23 amJeff Danklefsen, 41, of Geneva has thrown his hat in the ring for the Repub nomination in IL-14. Danklefsen is a tea-bagger who doesn’t think any of the candidates on offer in 2008 were conservative enough – either fiscally or socially.
An “also-ran.”
Has anyone else been wondering whether Bill Foster is running for re-election or not?
by n0madic, posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 10:08 amWhen Ethan Hastert officially announced he was running for Congress a few weeks ago, a number of the stories made passing reference to Bill Foster’s intentions. Or perhaps I should say lack of intentions, because the impression that was initially given was that maybe Foster hadn’t decided yet whether he was going to run for re-election. Which seemed odd, because why on earth wouldn’t he? He just got the job, what, a little more than a year ago?
And yet, the first story I saw, in DeKalb’s Daily Chronicle, stated that “Foster said this afternoon that he hasn’t decided if he’ll run for re-election.”
The next story I saw, in the Kane County Chronicle, said Foster wasn’t undecided at all: “Foster is planning on running for re-election, according to a spokeswoman who released a statement Monday in response to Ethan Hastert’s announcement.” But all the statement itself had to say about whether Foster was or was not planning on running was this: “he is not thinking about elections right now,” which didn’t seem to unambiguously support the claim that he was indeed planning on running again. Washington Wire, a Wall Street Journal blog, quoted that same line from the official statement, but said nothing to indicate that he was nevertheless going to run again.
That Daily Chronicle story seemed pretty unambiguous. “Foster said … he hasn’t decided.” Where was the Kane County Chronicle‘s certainty coming from? Was it possible that some of these media outlets were running only a part of the statement that Foster’s office had released? “What’s the deal, here?” I wondered.
A Kennedy in Obama’s Senate Seat?
by Downtowner, posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 12:29 amThat’s what CNN’s Political Ticker is saying:
Chris Kennedy, the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, is taking steps to run for Senate and could announce his candidacy as early as next week, a source close to the Kennedy family told CNN Wednesday…
A spokeswoman for Chris Kennedy, an Illinois businessman, would not go as far as to say he is in the race, but acknowledged that he is “seriously considering” a Senate bid…
But a second source, an Illinois Democrat also speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNN that Kennedy’s political allies are telling state Democrats that he will indeed seek the Democratic nomination for the seat once held by President Obama.
Not that I want to see Burris keep it, but I’m completely fed up with the political dynasty thing, whichever side of the aisle is festering our ill-disguised trend toward annointing royalty, it always strikes me as disturbing, as it seems unlikely it will get us any closer to real representation of real people.
100 Days Without Rod Blagojevich
by Fox Valley For Quinn, posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 8:02 pm100 Days of Reform
Because Rod Blagojevich is still looking for a post-political TV gig, the title of this blog post should probably be 100 days of reform and leadership under Governor Pat Quinn.
Following the attempted sale of Barack Obama’s Senate seat and the subsequent removal of pay-to-play Rod, Illinois voters have had a taste of democracy under Pat Quinn. You all weighed in on Blagojevich and you deserve an opportunity to weigh in on the Quinn reform agenda.
We have had more progress under Governor Pat Quinn than we did under both of his predecessors who are, or will be in jail. We will use the space below to highlight Quinn’s 108 days of success, make a case for keeping Governor Pat Quinn and encourage Speaker Madigan to get behind Quinn’s reform agenda.
