Originally posted at<\/i> Fireside 14, Prairie State Blue, MyDD, Open Left and<\/i> Daily Kos.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, I ran across\u00a0this comment<\/a>\u00a0from a dedicated Foster volunteer and supporter: \u00a0<\/p>\n This will be unpopular… (0.00 \/ 0)\u00a0 by: bridgetdooley @ Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 22:18:39 PM CST<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As anyone who lives in Illinois knows, anything not in the City or collar counties is routinely considered “downstate” (aka “Podunk” to Ms. Dooley) even if it’s\u00a0north<\/em>\u00a0of Chicago. \u00a0The distinction here, if you are local, is that Kane and (parts of) Kendall, being collar counties, are typically considered part of the greater Chicagoland region, while everything west of the urbanized strip on the far east of IL-14 really qualifies as “downstate.” \u00a0<\/p>\n Which would seem to imply Ms. Dooley\u2019s term “Podunk, IL” represents the vast majority of the geographic area of IL-14, containing somewhat more than half of the voters in the district. \u00a0(Of course, if you are a Chicago political insider, anything not in, oh, Chicago, pretty much qualifies as “Podunk.” \u00a0Much in the way that, to a DC political insider, anything not in New York, Chicago, LA, or DC pretty much qualifies as “Podunk” but we\u2019ll get to that later.) \u00a0But maybe she\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0meant\u00a0further<\/em>\u00a0downstate.<\/p>\n Fox Valley (0 \/ 0)\u00a0 So here is a single Foster supporter who clearly believes that “Podunk” is a waste of candidate time. \u00a0But can the attitude be attributed more widely to the Foster campaign? \u00a0Ms. Dooley is close enough, apparently, that she does get early information about what is happening in the Foster camp, as is evidenced by the fact that she was the\u00a0first to report<\/a>\u00a0on the details of Foster\u2019s latest petition filing. \u00a0On the other hand, there\u2019s nothing to currently show that she is working for the campaign \u2013 she describes herself as a volunteer and I\u2019ll take her entirely at her word for that.<\/p>\n So is it fair to assume Ms. Dooley\u2019s characterization of the voters of this vast area of IL-14 is the opinion of the candidate she supports? \u00a0While she has recently chided me in such a way as to suggest she thinks what supporters say should be fairly attributed to the candidate they are supporting, and while Foster\u2019s campaign manager, Tom Bowen, seems to think\u00a0that is how it is done too<\/a>.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t say I do agree: candidates can not be expected to be held accountable for every single thing that comes out of every supporter\u2019s mouth. \u00a0So I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to attribute any “Podunk, IL” type comments coming from Dooley directly to Foster.<\/p>\n But the whole thing did get me wondering: \u00a0Ms. Dooley obviously believes John Laesch (from Newark, so a resident, in fact of all the candidates in the race the only resident, of the, ahem, “Podunk” area) takes his grassroots neighbors in the cornfields too seriously. \u00a0She thinks it a “huge waste of time and resources” for John to spend time talking to voters there. \u00a0She is close to the Foster campaign, but does the campaign itself take the grassroots in the cornfields seriously?<\/p>\n Well, I haven\u2019t heard Foster\u2019s been out that way campaigning. \u00a0But to be fair, I haven\u2019t heard he\u2019s beenanywhere<\/em>\u00a0campaigning. \u00a0Not for Foster the spaghetti dinners and walking door-to-door that Laesch, Stein, and even the Republicans in the race undertake.<\/p>\n He has, to the very best of my ability to discover, not knocked on one door, talked to one random voter in the street or wandered into a diner to shake hands and answer questions. \u00a0His public appearances, again to the very best of my ability to discover, have been confined to appearances at (some of) the formal Democratic county forums and debates and a handfull of very controlled invitation-only small-group events. \u00a0And some stuff in Chicago. \u00a0<\/p>\n True, Foster failed to attend a Henry County Forum in the far west of IL-14. \u00a0But then Foster also blew off the DuPage Dems Forum in the far eastern end of the district to attend an (unspecified) event in Chicago instead, and he just recently cancelled an appearance at a coffee organized by a precinct committeeperson in St. Charles.<\/p>\n So, how does he communicate with voters? \u00a0Well, he is pronouncing to them via paid commercial advertising from their television screens. \u00a0He is sending out lots and lots (really a lot) of shiny, pretty mailers. \u00a0And he is sending his campaign manager to DailyKos to post diaries. \u00a0So he\u2019s talking to us, the netroots, right? \u00a0Well, I\u2019ll let his campaign manager Tom Bowen\u00a0answer<\/a>:<\/p>\n No he’s not (2+ \/ 0-) \u00a0\u00a0 Plus, you know, Bill Foster is a serious, serious candidate: all the pundits say he has the money to be so. \u00a0So how can we honestly expect that, while John Laesch tirelessly burns shoe-leather talking to the grassroots, posts diaries and answers actual questions in them when communicating with the netroots, while said grassroots supporters effortlessly handle things like, oh, filing his special election petition signatures while he concentrates on the voters and the issues, that the Foster campaign can take the time and trouble to do so? \u00a0As Tom\u00a0tells us<\/a>\u00a0in response to a Kossack suggesting that the issue of reproductive rights was left off Foster\u2019s website intentionally as a political decision:<\/p>\n It was not done on purpose (3+ \/ 0-)<\/p>\n Seriously, i’ve changed the issue section 1 time in 6 months. \u00a0We’ve been busy, understaffed and trying to contend with all this special election stuff.\u00a0 Seriously people, don\u2019t you understand how seriously busy, and overworked, and understaffed, this shockingly well-funded campaign is? \u00a0How dare you ask questions!<\/p>\n Like\u00a0this cheeky inquiry<\/a>:<\/p>\n Mr. Foster, I’d also like a simple yes or no . . (1+ \/ 0-)\u00a0 I\u2019d add the response, but there isn\u2019t one. \u00a0<\/p>\n Get a grip, people: neither Bill “Mr. Grassroots” Foster, nor his campaign, has the time to address issues on their website, or discuss them with either people from “Podunk, IL,” or people who hang out on scary blog-sites.<\/p>\n So how is Mr. Foster and his campaign spending their time?<\/p>\n Serious candidate. \u00a0Serious campaign. \u00a0<\/p>\n And, oh yeah, serious support from the\u00a0New Chicago Machine<\/a>,\u00a0 So how does one become the primary pick of the New Chicago Machine?<\/p>\n Well, for Bill Foster that journey began shortly after he walked off his project at Fermilab over funding. To be utterly fair to Mr. Foster, what\u2019s been done to high energy physics funding in this country during the Republican War on Science is an absolute tragedy. \u00a0But one wonders how Mr. Foster, who had this:<\/p>\n I apologize to all of you who have worked on technical aspects of the Proton Driver, that the battle for the project has been lost on the political front…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n and this:<\/p>\n But I also realize that my voice will not be heard, since after years of insisting that unpleasant technical realities be respected in strategic planning in HEP, I find myself branded as a troublemaker with an axe to grind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n to say in his\u00a0farewell letter<\/a>\u00a0could think he would be more effective in taking his marbles to the big show of all funding \u2013 DC. \u00a0And yes, it may be an assumption on my part that his frustration with funding at Fermi played into his relocation to DC, but it strains credulity to think his sudden interest in politics coming within mere months of this departure from Fermi was coincidental.<\/p>\n How sudden was his interest in politics? \u00a0Well, as his campaign manager\u00a0tells us<\/a>:<\/p>\n What I said was he was busy working as a scientist. He wasn’t involved in politics<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, in February of 2006, after over 20 years as a physicist, Foster walks away from an entire career in frustration over political wrangling over federal funding and, despite an adult life devoid of an interest in politics:<\/p>\n “In May 2006, I moved to Washington DC to explore possibilities for a $1\/year, non-partisan career on Capitol Hill or elsewhere in government…<\/p>\n It soon became abundantly clear, however, that you can just about forget about a non-partisan career on Capitol Hill. Signing up to work for the Sunnis immediately puts you on Shiite death list, and vice-versa.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n from an essay entitled “Bill Foster – Political Stuff,” formerly posted at\u00a0http:\/\/gwfoster.com\/…<\/a>\u00a0on Foster’s personal website. \u00a0This essay was pulled from the website after Foster declared his candidacy for Congress.<\/em><\/p>\n Oh, don\u2019t worry, once forced to choose he picked the Dems. \u00a0It would be too much to expect he did not see which way the congressional wind was blowing in 2006, as is fairly obvious from this bit, also in his Fermilab farewell letter:<\/p>\n Within a few years, Fermilab is to be a $300M laboratory doing $150M of ILC R&D, an accelerator division operating a JPARC-scale synchrotron, and a limited number of neutrino physicist users. Then, in the likely occurrence that we do not immediately get ~$10B of federal and international funds to build the ILC, congress may tire of funding R&D for a project with an uncertain time scale, and the HEP budget at both US universities and labs will collapse.\u00a0(By this time, of course, Rep. Hastert will have retired as Speaker of the House and we will no longer have him to defend our budget<\/strong>….)(emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While in DC, he experienced another sudden political epiphany, deciding to give up his quest for a non-partisan job on the Hill in favor of going to work for one of the congressional campaigns underway. Foster (who quite nicely fits the profile of the candidate the DCCC is looking for, a fiscally conservative Democrat and potential self-funder from a district who everybody knows will have a seat opening up soon) attended a DCCC (then chaired by Rahm Emanuel) “Red to Blue” program (then co-chaired by current DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen) fundraiser, where he met several candidates, including Patrick Murphy. \u00a0For six whole weeks Foster roughed it:<\/p>\n “So, on September 20th 2006 I abandoned my nice comfortable apartment in DC and spent six weeks camped out in the Ramada Inn in Levittown PA, volunteering my time for the Patrick Murphy for Congress campaign.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n from an essay entitled “Bill Foster – Political Stuff,” formerly posted at\u00a0http:\/\/gwfoster.com\/…<\/a>\u00a0on Foster’s personal website. \u00a0This essay was pulled from the website after Foster declared his candidacy for Congress.<\/em><\/p>\n In fact, Foster was\u00a0still living in DC<\/a>\u00a0a couple of months later, when he attended the Take Back America conference in June of 2007 but by then, his website issues section had already been developed (back in April, per campaign manager Tom), and he was hiring consultants.<\/p>\n Foster hired his major consultants first. \u00a0His\u00a0campaign prospectus<\/a>\u00a0lists these consultants, Pete Giangreco of The Strategy Group, Jim Mulhall and Keith Kincaid of Squier Knapp Dunn Communciations, and Jefrey Pollack of pollster Global Strategy Group as major selling points for his campaign.<\/p>\n Foster doesn\u2019t announce his candidacy until May 30, but DC insiders are apparently enough in the know to be aware of his candidacy and to have been prepped with some salient bio bullets, as a couple weeks before that\u00a0US News and World Reports says<\/a>:<\/p>\n In a sign of Democratic optimism, at least three possible candidates are openly threatening a challenge to Hastert. Perhaps the two most credible are state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia of Aurora and Bill Foster, a wealthy, self-financed entrepreneur and physicist who started a company that is now the world’s largest manufacturer of stage-lighting equipment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Heh. \u00a0They don\u2019t call it a Machine for nothing. \u00a0It\u2019s efficient. \u00a0Especially at the anointing of its unknown and previously apolitical candidates before they even announce. \u00a0Or move back to the district.<\/p>\n So who are these New Chicago Machine types behind Foster?<\/p>\n First up (and most prominently) there\u2019s Pete Giangreco of The Strategy Group, a guy who, along with Rahm Emanuel, David Wilhelm (Clintonian DNC Chairman) and David Axelrod (regular campaign manager for Chicago Mayor Richie Daley) came out of Chicago at the same time. \u00a0Giangreco and Emanuel\u00a0go back together<\/a>\u00a0to Daley’s early mayoral campaigns, if not earlier. \u00a0Giangreco went on to work on the Clinton and Gore presidential campaigns, among others, and was already a key advisor to Blagojevich when he entered the race for Governor. \u00a0Giangreco was also at the center of the “turnkey campaign” Tammy Duckworth was given by Emanuel in 2006.<\/p>\n Or to put it very bluntly indeed, here\u2019s a\u00a0Chicago guy with enough clout<\/a>\u00a0that he can\u00a0call in favors for a Republican<\/em>\u00a0from Rahm Emanuel at will:<\/p>\n Democratic House nominee Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton White House adviser, has written a letter highlighting pro- Clinton votes a South Carolina Republican candidate for governor made while in Congress. \u00a0…<\/p>\n Emanuel said he wrote the letter as a “favor” to Chicago-based political consultant Peter Giangreco. Giangreco has a client running for attorney general in South Carolina, Steve Benjamin. Giangreco “thought it would be helpful” for him to write the letter, Emanuel said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n…but you know I’m going to say it anyway!\u00a0
\nI am much more interested in what goes on in Northern IL than I am in what happens downstate. With work, I get more than my fill of politics in Springfield and the rest of the cornfields in IL.\u00a0
\nI just really don’t care what is happening in politics in Podunk, IL unless it’s really sexy and scandalous.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Otherwise, I am bored. \u00a0(emphasis added)<\/p>\n
\nPlus, it\u2019s an isolated comment from a single supporter, and I dismissed it as such, until I saw the exact same supporter (under different id\u2019s on different blogs)\u00a0post this<\/a>\u00a0in Foster\u2019s manager\u2019s latest DKos diary:<\/p>\n
\nSure, there’s more to the district than the Fox Valley. But by far, the majority of voters in the district are in Kane and Kendall Counties. People in Kane and Kendall know all about both labs.\u00a0
\nHate to say it because I love me some farmers, but “agriculture country” just doesn’t have the numbers to swing the election.\u00a0Saying that the majority opinions matter in Henry, Bureau, Lee and Whiteside counties is just not realistic.\u00a0
\nI know John Laesch is really into the idea of spending all sorts of time campaigning out west, but it’s a huge waste of time and resources if one knows how to count ;) \u00a0<\/strong>(emphasis added).\u00a0
\nThe fact that Bill is a scientist is a huge plus. People like the idea of a scientist in government. It makes sense that people who don’t support Bill want to downplay it.\u00a0
\nby RedheadLiberal on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 09:22:55 PM CST<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nBecause he is on the phone doing what a candidate is supposed to be doing. \u00a0Building support. \u00a0If he had to answer every specious claim made by a John supporter, he’d be here all day.\u00a0
\nby BillFoster4Congress on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 04:22:41 PM CST<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIf you don’t believe me, fine.\u00a0
\nTOM\u00a0
\nby BillFoster4Congress on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 03:53:14 PM CST\u00a0
\n[ Parent | Reply to This ]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIf elected to Congress, will you support and become a co-sponsor of HR 676?\u00a0
\nYes or no?…\u00a0
\nBy nyceve on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 08:01:52 AM CST\u00a0
\n[ Parent ]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nwhich recent history\u00a0tells us<\/a>\u00a0does not think highly of the ability of “Podunk, IL” to pick its own candidates.<\/p>\n