Adrenaline of Desperation: A Dangerous Animal

CHICAGO (RPB) - The local blogosphere exploded yesterday with news of the latest dirty trick by supporters of Joe Moore. A fraudulent postcard was received in the mail yesterday by residents of the 49th Ward. The postcard was sent to neighbors living north of Howard Avenue.

The pink postcard claimed to be from a nonexistent conservative organization, purportedly giving its support to Democrat Don Gordon. Gordon is challenging incumbent alderman Joe Moore in the April 17 run-off election. The return address on the postcards was that of a local blogger Toni Duncan, who operates the 24/7 North of Howard Watchers blog site. She wrote an open letter to Joe Moore on her blog:

“Your desire to win at any cost has made you a loser. Aligning yourself with political thugs who carelessly and purposefully target any one person is a serious connection. Mail fraud is a crime and so is identity theft. The recipients of this fraudulent postcard are victims too. For years the race card has been played; for years the poor have been bullied into subservience and pitted against those more fortunate to create the strife that has enabled you to maintain the status quo in this area.”

Moore's campaign appears to be running on the adrenaline of desperation. They are breathing heavily, doing a group-hyperventilation until their heads are spinning and they act irrationally. People in such a frenzy are dangerous.

Backed by huge special interest groups and Howard Dean's Democratic National Committee (DNC), Moore has been sending out hundreds of pounds of literature every week, each one of which costs over $10,000 to produce and mail.

One of Moore's tactics is to accuse Don Gordon of being a Republican, simply because one of his donors gave him $60,000 and happens to donate to a number of causes. The donor, David Herro, does donate primarily to conservative causes, but not exclusively. However, Herro is only one of number of Gordon donors, the majority of whom are not Republicans.

Moore himself has taken large donations from Republican Jana Kohl.

Gordon has received less than $300,000 in donations to his campaign. Moore spends about $12,000 on just one full-color flier that his campaign mails out every week, sometimes several in a single week. Do the math. Who has bigger money behind him?

The latest one that RPB has seen arrived in residents' mailboxes yesterday. It is a four-page flier, 8.5 x 11 inches, full-color on glossy paper, folded once. It features the headline "Notice to Renters," and is a full-on attempt to spread fear.

The sub-headline says, “Don’t Let Them Force You Out of Our Community.” Underneath that is a photograph of a young black couple, sadly packing their belongings into boxes. The implication here, of course, is that they have been forced to move out.

This is clearly an effort by Moore’s propagandists to scare people. The flier continues, “Don Gordon is backed by big business Republicans who want to eliminate affordable housing.”

“Eliminate affordable housing?” Don Gordon is NOT a Republican. The notion that Don Gordon wants to force people to pack up and get out is absurd. It is a lie. Many renters, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, understand this.

Before Jim Ginderske lost the election on February 27 and then went over to the Dark Side of Moore, Moore’s people were telling voters that Ginderske was a Republican who just wanted to drive the black people out of the neighborhood. That was a lie. I disagree with Jim, but I do not believe he wants to push out black people. So here we are, days away from the run-off, and Moore’s Gang are telling people that Gordon is a Republican who just wants to get rid of the black people. Absurd. Disgusting. Dishonest.

Aggregating all of the lies told by Moore supporters, and by Moore himself, would take weeks. The fraudulent postcards (4/13/07). The supporter posing as a police officer on the phone today (4/14/07). The bribery of bingo players. The coercion of shopkeepers to put Moore signs in their windows, something that was a pain in the butt for the Ginderske Boys, and the legion of other twisted things committed in the name of Moore. The race is tight, very tight.

Moore is backed into a corner. Like any cornered beast, Moore is lashing out with teeth, spit and claws. The collective brain of the Moore Camp is not functioning rationally. It is running on the adrenaline of desperation. That makes for a very dangerous animal.