A DIFFERENT MARCH MADNESS I asked Christopher Z. Mooney, professor at the
Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at
Springfield, to point out a few things to look for in Tuesday’s
general primary. Here goes. The race for treasurer, Mooney says, may be the
one to watch because it pits two factions of the state party against each
other, with Paul Mangieri as the “party establishment
candidate” and Alexi Giannoulias as the political upstart with tons
of money who’s backed by a rock-star senator. Mooney says it’ll
also be interesting to see what happens to the three losers in the GOP
primary race. It’s still possible for Judy Baar Topinka to lose,
though unlikely, he says. If Jim Oberweis loses, does he maintain his role
as the spokesman for the right? Or does Bill Brady, especially if he beats
or makes a strong showing against the milk magnate, become the
right’s new young face and make Oberweis look like a three-time
loser? If Ron Gidwitz loses, Mooney says, he may end up in “Blair
Hull territory,” looking at how many thousands of dollars he spent
per vote.
FINDING FAITH According to the Sangamon County clerk’s
office, Faith Logan, Democratic committeewoman for the 75th Precinct, lives
at 509 S. 13th St. Unity for Our Community president Mike Williams —
one of Logan’s challengers for the 75th seat — doesn’t
believe Logan actually resides there. I took a spin to see for myself, and
indeed, found a boarded-up domicile with a “No Trespassing”
sign affixed to the door. Logan did not return messages asking for her side
of the story. “If she lived there, I would have seen her. I see Faith
walking up and down the street. I don’t know where she’s going
to, or coming from,” says Williams, who lives around the corner at
1214 E. Edwards. “The issue is out of our hands,” says Sangamon
County Clerk Joe Aiello. Because no one objected to Logan’s petition,
he explains, she will remain on the ballot. If she wins, it’s at the
discretion of Sangamon County Democratic chairman Tim Timoney whether to
seat her. “Personally, I don’t think she should be on the
ballot,” Aiello says.
POLL CONTENTION In a poll conducted recently by Kankakee City News, 68 percent of
the voters in U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller’s district say the congressman
shouldn’t serve a 13th term in Congress. The newspaper said it polled
300 voters. According to the News, when a reporter called Weller’s campaign office to
discuss the poll’s findings “we were told that the campaign did
not believe that the opinion of African-American voters would affect their
candidate’s chances of victory in November.” Weller’s
press secretary Chris Kennedy says no one in either Weller’s
congressional or campaign offices recalls the conversation. He also
questioned the newspaper’s journalistic integrity and called their
story the “pinnacle of ridiculousness.” Asked if his reporter
could have misheard the staffer, News publisher James Taylor Sr. stands by the story, saying
that accuracy and adhering to high journalistic standards are very
important to him. “We don’t do anything precipitously.”
This article appears in Mar 16-22, 2006.
