UPDATED: GOP Rolls Over, Plays Dead in 5th Cong Dist

UPDATE, SPECIAL NOTE, 11 April 2009: Although America's Independent Party (AIP) is linking to my post below, originally published on March 11, 2009. I want to make it clear that AIP's National Chair, Tom Hoefling, was badly mismanaging Pulido's congressional campaign after her March 3 primary win in the IL 5th Cong District. Hoefling alienated Pulido's supporters and ran a campaign that was not savvy to the workings of the Internet. In short, an already poorly run campaign was made worse by the ineffective, unresponsive "management" under Hoefling. For AIP to cite the post below is a purposefully deceitful act on their part, for they are well aware of my subsequent criticism of Hoefling, AIP and of my public un-endorsement of Pulido. Shame on AIP. Shame on Tom Hoefling. Shame on Alan Keyes. ALSO SEE: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign Special Pulido Bulletin From John Curry Pulido Gets Another Un-Endorsement Open Letter to Rosanna Pulido Q&A About Rosanna Pulido's Campaign ORIGINAL POST, 11 March 2009: Shame on Andy McKenna, Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. Shame on the entire party, which seems hellbent on continuing its dismal record of losing elections. Although the Illinois GOP has won more "games" than the Chicago Cubs have over the past 100 years, at least the Cubs can honestly say they've been trying. The Illinois Republican Party seems content to roll over and play dead. Rosanna Pulido won the Republican special primary election in the Illinois 5th Congressional District on Tuesday, March 3. The election is being held to fill the seat vacated by Rahm Emanuel. You might not know this, however, from looking at the Illinois Republican Party's website (http://www.weareillinois.org/), where there are only two brief mentions of Rosanna Pulido. Pulido will face Democrat candidate Mike Quigley and Green Party candidate Mathew Reichel on April 7. We're not talking about a minor elected office. We're talking about a seat in the US Congress. Although it is unlikely that Pulido can defeat better funded Quigley, the GOP should at least be touting their candidate in the 5th. Barely a mention on their website. The GOP is making a lot of noise in support of a special election to replace Roland Burris, who was appointed by Gov. Blagojevich to fill the congressional seat vacated by Barack Obama. Yet the GOP is all but completely ignoring an ongoing special election in the 5th Congressional District. That's hypocritical and cowardly. It takes no courage to scream for a special election that will most likely not happen. It is cowardly to not support your own candidate in special election that is actually taking place. The Republican National Committee (RNC) is equally guilty of ignoring the 5th Congressional District election. GOP Chairman McKenna has a Facebook page. Did McKenna congratulate Pulido on Facebook? Did he even mention her? Nope. One person did post this to McKenna's Facebook page: I know a lot of people may feel that the 5th District is a lost cause, but they shouldn't. There is a strong GOP candidate here. Rosanna Pulido needs all of our help. I know it's not election season, but that is more reason for people like us to step up and show the Democrats that not only do we exist, but we can be contentious. All around ... Read More voter turnout for the April 7th special election will most likely be low. Democrats expect that and they expect that the "silent" Republicans that reside in the district will not turn out. We CAN mobilize ourselves! We should be doing our part to turn up at the polls. This is something that is bigger than our district and our state. One more seat in Congress is one more step towards preventing the socialization of our country. If you live in the 5th you need to make the effort to mobilize yourself and others like you to vote! This election is not something that is lost for us. It is something we have gained! Why no such words of support for Pulido from McKenna and the Illinois GOP? Why are McKenna and the GOP "leaders" not thinking like the guy who wrote on McKenna's Facebook page? Not a word from either the RNC or Andy McKenna. Nada, zilch. There will be more about this next week. Much more. RELATED: Biased Chicago Media Ignore 5th District Republican Candidate Pulido Wins 5th Congressional GOP Primary Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Special Pulido Bulletin From John Curry

Tells Republicans to vote for "Abraham Lincoln" in 5th Congressional District special election April 7 RELATED UPDATE: "Quigley assured of victory in 5th District—almost" (Chicago Tribune, 03 April 2009) Another un-endorsement of Rosanna Pulido. 32nd Ward Republican Committeeman John Curry alerted me to his April 2nd "special bulletin" regarding Rosanna Pulido. Although Curry has made anti-Pulido statement before, he has not done so in such a public way prior to yesterday's "special bulletin" on his website. Pulido is running as a Republican for in the Illinois 5th Congressional District special election, but the Illinois GOP has done back flips to ignore her. The election is on Tuesday, April 7. Curry encourages Republican voters to protest Pulido by writing in "Abraham Lincoln" on their ballots on April 7: "....I do not endorse Rosanna Pulido or recommend that any Republican vote for her for Congress in the upcoming Special Election. Instead, I encourage all Republican voters who wish to show their support for the true principles of the Republican Party and protest the absence of a worthy candidate on this ballot to cast a write in vote for "Abraham Lincoln" as their candidate. You may ask for assistance from the election judges on how to write in "Abraham Lincoln", and they are required to provide you with that assistance." Pulido has been controversial for a long time, but after she won the primary on March 3 she further ruined her already bad relations with the Illinois GOP by taking on Tom Hoefling as her campaign chair. Hoefling is the National Chairman of America’s Independent Party (AIP), a competing political party that is far to the right of the Republican Party. (See "Encouraging Words from Illinois 5th Congressional District" and "About Rosanna Pulido's Troubled Campaign") More recently, Pulido was exposed for making offensive comments on conservative website Free Republic. I have criticized Mr. Curry previously, but he deserves credit for publicly taking a stand. The IL GOP has not endorsed, and will not endorse Pulido. Nor will the party's state leadership muster up the nerve to do what Mr. Curry has done with his "bulletin." Shame on the IL GOP. Kudos to Mr. Curry, who posted his Pulido bulletin on the 32nd Ward Committeman website. The full text of is reproduced below. (Also see related post "Abe for Congress" at The Abraham Lincoln Observer.) SPECIAL ELECTION FOR UNITED STATES CONGRESSMAN - 5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT SPECIAL ELECTION, TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009 SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM WARD COMMITTEEMAN JOHN CURRY "I DO NOT ENDORSE ROSANNA PULIDO" "I wish to report to Republicans in the 32nd Ward and in the 5th Congressional District that I do not endorse Rosanna Pulido. Since the primary election and more particularly over the last two weeks, I have become aware of extremely disturbing information relating to Ms. Pulido. That information can be summarized as follows: Pulido has an established relationship with another political party, America's Independent Party. Pulido has not dispelled concerns that she is running as a "Trojan Horse" candidate, one who exploits the name of the Republican Party to her personal advantage only to promote a non-Republican or anti-Republican, fringe agenda. Pulido is on record as making groundless and reprehensible remarks, unworthy of a good citizen, disparaging the Cardinal of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, gays, Mexicans, African Americans, and others. Little, if anything, is known about Pulido's personal and professional background. Pulido has refused to respond to reasonable requests from the Republican Party to account for her actions and the actions of her campaign or to cooperate with the Republican Party in any professional or reasonable way. Based on the above, I do not endorse Rosanna Pulido or recommend that any Republican vote for her for Congress in the upcoming Special Election. Instead, I encourage all Republican voters who wish to show their support for the true principles of the Republican Party and protest the absence of a worthy candidate on this ballot to cast a write in vote for "Abraham Lincoln" as their candidate. You may ask for assistance from the election judges on how to write in "Abraham Lincoln", and they are required to provide you with that assistance. I take this action in order to uphold the integrity of the name of the Republican Party." /s/ Hon. John J. Curry, 32nd Ward Republican Committeeman and Vice Chairman at Large of the Cook County Republican Central Committee. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed CommieBama Hats and More

Pulido Gets Another Un-Endorsement

Nominal "Republican" Rosanna Pulido has been un-endorsed yet again, this time by York Township Trustee Moon Kahn. Pulido is running against Democrat Mike Quigley in the special April 7 election for the Illinois 5th Congressional District seat. Mr. Kahn withdrew his endorsement because of off-color, offensive remarks made by Ms. Pulido anonymously on the Free Republic website. Mr. Kahn's un-endorsement of Pulido was reported in an odd posting on the Progress Illinois website on Wednesday, April 1. Mr. Kahn wrote a letter to Ms. Pulido, in which he explained why he was withdrawing his support for her. In his letter, he cited "the continuous revelations of [a] plethora of your provocative statements, which were completely unknown to me until a few days ago, delineate a disturbing mindset." Progress Illinois notes that they "have a copy of the full letter," which is published on their site - but there is no indication of the date of the letter. The Kahn un-endorsement was not the first for Pulido. Progress Illinois, a Left-leaning website site, describes itself as being "run by a team of reporters/bloggers committed to fair and rigorous journalistic inquiry." Sure, okay. Did Mr. Kahn omit the date? Doubtful. Did PI omit the date? Probably. Does the date matter? Yes, because if PI omitted it, it puts a dent in their claim of "rigorous journalistic inquiry." Surely, inclusion of the date of an important letter would not be a "rigorous" task, but for PI to omit it would be either lazy or sloppy, or both. Assuming, for the sake of discussion, that Mr. Kahn did not date the letter, somebody at PI should have called his office to ask him when he wrote it. Perhaps the rigors of phoning a township trustee were just too much for the committed team of reporters/bloggers at PI. If Progress Illinois really practiced "rigorous journalistic inquiry," they would have discovered with five minutes' worth of Googling that at least two other key un-endorsements had been made, probably before Mr. Kahn's. I say probably because, as already noted, PI did not note the date of the letter. No matter. Regardless of the date, Mr. Kahn was not the only one to pull an endorsement from Ms. Pulido. I publicly un-endorsed the Pulido campaign in a March 23 post on this blog. I wrote, "Since the March 3 primary win, Pulido's campaign has come under the unfortunate 'management' of one Tom Hoefling, an Alan Keyes sycophant and National Chairman of Keyes' America's Independent Party (AIP). All of the above is enough to make me withdraw support for the Pulido campaign, but there are other reasons as well." I daresay that my support for the Pulido campaign, from early February through March 22, had more positive impact on the campaign than did that of Mr. Kahn. That is not meant to diminish Mr. Kahn in any way, it is only to say that he does not have a blog that reaches thousands of Ms. Pulido's base every week. Another public un-endorsement was by fellow blogger Chris Barkulis. He, too, had given heavy support to Ms. Pulido on his blog RightNotWrong.com, and with a pro-Pulido Facebook group that he created. On March 23 Barkulis wrote, "In light of the recent development of what those comments actually were, I cannot in good conscience back Ms. Pulido or her campaign. As much as I would like to see a Republican elected from the 5th during this special election, I don't believe it should be someone marred by questionable activities in online forums." I'm not sure why Progress Illinois' "rigorous journalistic inquiry" failed to turn up two bloggers' un-endorsements, particularly since both of us had numerous posts supporting Pulido. One wonders if Progress Illinois includes basic Google searches their world-class regimen of rigorous journalistic inquiry. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed CommieBama Hats and More

Open Letter to Rosanna Pulido

April 2, 2009 Rosanna, In spite of knowing that I very publicly pulled my support for your campaign, you maintain a link to my blog on your website at http://www.rosannapulido2009.com/ in your "Illinois Blogs" list. Please remove it immediately. For your reference, you have it listed (incorrectly) as "Rogers Park Bench." I asked you on several occassions, prior to my un-endorsement of your campaign, to correct the name of my blog, which is NOT "Rogers Park Bench," but is "Chicago News Bench." You were not considerate enough to show me that courtesy, and now you compound that discourtesy by keeping a link to my blog on your site. That gives the false impression that I still support you, which I do not. (You cannot say that you don't know that I un-endorsed you, as you and I have discussed it several times by phone and email. Remove all links and references to me and to my blog from all of your campaign websites, including any Facebook or MySpace pages maintained by you or by your campaign. (You did that for Mr. Moon Khan, York Township Trustee, Asian American Liaison of DuPage County Republican Party.) I note as well that you still have Right Not Wrong listed on your blogroll, in spite of the fact that blogger Chris Barkulis also pulled his support for you. Sincerely, Tom Mannis Chicago News Bench http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com Chicago News Bench RSS Feed CommieBama Hats and More

Q&A About Rosanna Pulido's Campaign

Some excellent analysis of the Rosanna Pulido congressional campaign troubles, by friend Chris Barkulis in his response to some questions he received from a reader of his blog. Pulido is running in the Illinois 5th Congressional District (the seat previously occupied by Rahm Emanuel). The special election is on April 7. You can the Q&A at RightNotWrong. While you're there, also read "GOP and AIP" by Chris. An excerpt: The American Independent Party and Republican Party may have many issues in common, however the AIP is to the GOP like the Socialist Party of the U.S.A is to the Democrat Party. It can be argued how many people from these fringe groups of the AIP and SPUSA have infiltrated the GOP and DNC, respectively, however that doesn't mean the Republican party needs to make nice with people posing as Republican's but really holding allegiance to the AIP. I believe there are people out there identifying and claiming to be Republican's but really associate themselves with and want the AIP ideals to take over the party.... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Lou Grant on the IL 5th Congressional Race

"Lou Grant" makes some observations about how the media has been covering the special election in the Illinois 5th Congressional District. Sez Lou: While it may be true that investigative reporting in blogs will never replace that of newspapers, you may not be able to tell in the race for the Illinois Fifth Congressional seat, to be held early next month. [Recently] a blog, Rosanna Pulido is a Freeper, appeared in multiple Internet outlets.... The reaction among Republicans, at least in the blogosphere, has been deadly. Full Post here.... A related post comes from colleague Chris Barkulis at his blog, RightNotWrong. He was a staunch backer of Pulido, as was I, but he explains why he has withdrawn support, as did I: Some of you may have recently heard about the NBC 5 news report about Rosanna Pulido and her anonymous comments under the name Chicagolady on the Free Republic conservative message site. In light of the recent development of what those comments actually were, I cannot in good conscience back Ms. Pulido or her campaign. Full Post.... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Pulido, Quigley Face Off Tuesday in Boys Town

5th Congressional District Special Election Campaign Update

(They faced off on March 24)

Just confirmed through private channels: Mike Quigley and Rosanna Pulido will face each other on Tuesday night, March 24 in a "meet and greet." The event is sponsored by Gay Chicago Magazine and Sidetrack, the nightclub where the candidates will meet and, you know, greet. (Click image to enlarge) Kudos to Gay Chicago Magazine for pulling this off. Quigley did not confirm until the last minute, keeping the organizers on the edge of their seats until verrrrry recently. Kudos must go out to Mike Quigley for deciding to attend. He was reluctant for weeks to confirm attendance, and it takes nerve to walk into a beautiful nightclub built by private investment, risk, hard work and ingenuity and then tell the crowd and owners that his support of Todd Stroger's sky high taxes - which he supported - are hunky dory. Takes nerve to walk into the place and tell them that he would continue to tax the living hell out them as a Congressman, too. Kudos to Rosanna Pulido for having the enormous courage to walk into a gay nightclub the day after NBC Chicago let it be known that she had been posting comments as "chicagolady" - comments that are offensive to gays, blacks, hispanics and others. Sources tell me that she plans to make a public apology to the audience for her poor judgement and for past offensive remarks. Will Green Party candidate Matt Reichel be there? Dunno yet, but one thing is certain: It will be an interesting night in Boys Town, Chicago. (FYI: I've been to Sidetrack several times. It's a beautiful nightclub, clean, good service. You don't have to be gay to like the place.) Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Freep Gawker Writes to Chicago News Bench

Rosanna Pulido is in trouble for posting offensive comments a popular conservative website, Free Republic, under the pseudonym "chicagolady." She apparently felt comfortable posting anonymously. Her cover was blown, however, by a blog called "Rosanna Pulido is a Freeper." What they exposed were disturbing comments that a person in her position should have known better than to post, even anonymously. In response to my post "About Rosanna Pulido's Troubled Campaign" today, the operator of the blog, who calls himself "Freep Gawker," wrote this email this evening: Hello Mr. Mannis, Just wanted to drop you a line and say thanks for your linkback to the Rosanna Pulido is a Freeper blog, and your kind words. A number of people contributed the research that gathered her posts together for focus on the blog, but I write only representing myself, the individual who put the blog together. You are correct in your assumption that our politics differ; however, I would far rather have a Republican Party in opposition made up of individuals who, like yourself, are able to take measure of the more radical and divisive elements within their party and publically decry them. For this country to work we need political parties that are ethical, rational, and speak out against bigotry and racism when it comes cloaked in idological language, regardless of what wing it originated from. I'd like to note that, while I have poured over countless pages of Free Republic in a manner befitting a rubbernecker at a 10 car pile-up, I have often seen the handful of rational posters on that site attempt to steer the worst of the lot back to less questionable waters. It is to the conservative movement's misfortune that their efforts tend to be ignored or decried as liberal trolling. Nice work on the rest of your post as well, especially the information regarding Ms. Pulido's campaign manager and his ties to Alan Keyes. I look forward to reviewing your future work, and wish you a pleasant evening. Sincerely, Freep Gawker My response to Freep Gawker: Thank you very, very much for your kind email. What a breath of fresh air you are. I suspect that you and I both enjoy a spirited but civil discourse. 99 percent of my liberal commenters are so insanely unfocused and cannot get beyond simple obsenities that your cogent, civil email made me smile. Thanks. Your blog is brilliant; I commend you again. It is so true that the fringe elements in any movement or organization can spoil the argument and steer it away from where it should be, and that's finding a solution to our common problems. I confess that I am guilty of often using ridicule or "focused absurdity" to either make a point or mock an opposing one. However, I like to temper that with tongue in cheek humor, albeit sharp. I'll engage in name calling, but not hateful name calling. Last week I defended Alderman Ricardo Munoz, a Democrat, because he was being attacked unfairly. Fair play is fair play, I say.... Tom Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Encouraging Words from Illinois 5th Congressional District

I just received an email from a (now former?) Pulido supporter in response to the post "About Rosanna Pulido's Troubled Campaign," in which I noted the fatal flaws of her campaign in the special election for the Illinois 5th Congressional District. The e-mail: Thanks for the heads-up. I read your post as well. I agree with you. I hope you don’t mind but may be making a link to it on my site. It’s just so f---ing aggravating. I do partially blame the Republican Party here for not putting an effort into this race from day one, but Pulido and her campaign staff have their fare share. Anyway, thanks again. Thanks to the writer, whose name I have withheld for obvious reasons. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

About Rosanna Pulido's Troubled Campaign

Fasten your seat belts, this is gonna be a bumpy ride. The Illinois Republican Party (IL GOP), long known as an ineffectual, castrated organization, has not been supporting the conservative Republican candidate in the special election to fill the vacant congressional seat of the 5th District (formerly held by Rahm Emanuel). Some, including myself, have accused the IL GOP of betraying its own and of not caring about an open congressional seat. I maintain those concerns, but there are new concerns that have caused me - as of late this morning - to completely withdraw my support for the Pulido campaign. First, a brief history. On March 3, the primary elections (Republican, Democrat, Green) were held. Stroger-Democrat Mike Quigley won the Democrat primary; Pulido won the Republican primary; Mathew Reichel won the Green primary. As noted above, the IL GOP gave virtually zero support to Pulido's campaign. Today comes news that Rosanna Pulido has long been writing disturbing posts on Free Republic, a popular sight among conservatives for posting news links, updates, comments and chat. I myself am a "freeper," a person who posts now and then to Free Republic (FR). Let me defend FR briefly by saying that, like any large website that gets hundreds or thousands of comments, some items are posted that could be considered offensive. They are not representative of the vast majority of "freepers," any more than offensive remarks on a site such as chicagotribune.com, for example, are representative of either that newspaper or of their average reader. Pulido was posting under the pseudonym "chicagolady." She apparently felt comfortable posting anonymously. Her cover was blown, however, by a blog called "Rosanna Pulido is a Freeper." Many of the posts highlighted there are borderline racist. Although I agree on the basics of many of Pulido's positions, such as enforement of our existing immigration laws, I and most other conservatives have made great and sincere effort to make it clear that we oppose illegal immigration for a number of health, legal, criminal and national security reasons, with race not being a factor for us. We don't give a damn whether those illegals are from Mexico, Sweden, Nicaragua or England. Pulido's comments, however, give those of us who don't factor race or a particular nationality into the immigration argument an undeserved bad reputation. Although the author/s of "Rosanna Pulido is a Freeper" and I probably disagree on most things political, I applaud them for their moxy, and for exposing a side of Rosanna Pulido that I had not been aware of before today. What the blogger/s did is true citizen journalism. Other things, however, have come to the fore since late last week. Since the March 3 primary win, Pulido's campaign has come under the unfortunate "management" of one Tom Hoefling, an Alan Keyes sycophant and National Chairman of Keyes' America's Independent Party (AIP). All of the above is enough to make me withdraw support for the Pulido campaign, but there are other reasons as well. A laundry list of problems includes: 1) Bad campaign management; 2) Misuse and underuse the Internet and new media (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.); 3) The same for good use of e-mail lists; 4) Reliance on pre-Internet campaign techniques; 5) No oversite of campaign management and too much reliance on that management; 6) Pushing aside and ignoring volunteers who are more knowledgable about the above; 7) Poor communications, too little coordination and guidance of volunteers; 8) Amateurish graphics on the campaign websites; 9) No support from the Illinois Republican Party (IL GOP); 10) More, too many to list here. Going down the list we go. 1) Bad campaign management; 2) Misuse and underuse the Internet and new media 3) The same for good use of e-mail lists; 4) Reliance on pre-Internet campaign techniques: Tom Hoefling was brought to "manage" the Pulido campaign shortly after the March 3 primary. With little fanfare, Hoeflingimmediately set about alienating talented volunteers. He allegedly ordered at least one volunteer to stop sending out emails that promoted the Pulido campaign. Before Hoefling, the Pulido campaign had one website, which is still today not kept up to date. (For example, the March 24 "candidates forum" at Sidetrack is not on the "Events" calendar.) The "content feed" on that website is a dead link and the "comments feed" shows zero comments (better to delete it than show that nobody has commented). Suddenly, a few days ago, a new website appeared, with no announcement. Although there is a clearly visible "donate" button on the original site, the new one seems primarily dedicated to that purpose. This is confusing and unnecessary. I advised them weeks ago to add PayPal to their donations options, and was given the bizarre "explanation" that PayPay is not practical for political donations. (Tell that to PayPal.) Oddly, to sign up for e-mail updates, the link takes you to yet a third website, where the "Main Campaign Site" and "Campaign News" links take you back to... you guessed it... the original website. Twitter presence has been consistently bad. At http://twitter.com/Pulido4Congress, there have only been 35 updates as of 4:39 p.m., March 23. Although the Twitter page existed weeks ago, the first entry was not made until March 17. That's inexusable in this day and age, and shows a 1990 attitude toward the Internet. Meanwhile, there is talk that campaign management is hot on the idea of a campaign "newspaper," a dead-tree production that would be an expensive, one-shot and ineffective method of "getting the word out" that might have been clever in 1960 but just doesn't cut it in the age of new media. It is all the more puzzling that the Pulido campaign has such a primitive approach to use - or misuse, if you will - of the Internet when you consider that campaign manager Tom Hoefling seems to have picked up on Twitter. His Twitter page, http://twitter.com/TomHoefling, first went up on January 21, 2009 with this: Hey Savvy. Don't mind me as I wander around in here trying to figure out how this thing works. :-)11:14 PM Jan 21st from web Since then, Hoefling has posted only 48 times (as of 4:56 p.m., March 23). His frequency of posting is low, however, and seems just as concerned with his hero Alan Keyes as he is with Rosanna Pulido. The word "Pulido" appearing in only four posts (or "tweets"). The word "Keyes," as in Alan Keyes, appears in 14 posts. Although he has links to a number of Pulido-related stories, he does not seem to understand that anybody searching Twitter or the Internet for "Rosanna Pulido" will not find those tweets/posts, because search engines cannot see what is not there. Trouble at Facebook, too, where the befuddled campaign again seems lost and disoriented. Search Facebook for "pulido" and you find four (4) separate accounts or pages. Again, confusion is the order of things. On one page, we find a ridiculous photo of Pulido dressed as Lady Liberty. On another, we find only two postings and badly done graphics. On another we see the Rosanna Pulido Facebook group, with only 17 posts and only one upcoming event posted (for March 28). The fourth page is "Rosanna Pulido Townhall Meetings." Only four posts there, and only one upcoming event listed. As with Twitter and the Web, it makes no sense to have multiple pages on Facebook. It's confusing to people seeking her out and it makes for unnecessary work to keep the pages up to date. Again, no web/Internet savvy. No organization. Confusion. Tom Hoefling is the National Chairman of America’s Independent Party (AIP). As such, he is automatically at odds with the Republican Party. Why Pulido chose an Alan Keyes sycophant from outside the Republican circle is a mystery. You may remember Keyes in his disastrous run for US Senator against Barack Obama in 2004. Then his weird campaign last year for president. Yes, I know, I've tried to forget him, too. Not Tom Hoefling, though, who apparently feels that Keyes ran a brilliant campaign and seems equally determined to repeat those results for Pulido. Today, Hoefling is the happy National Chair of the AIP, the political party created by Keyes himself. 5) No oversite of campaign management, too much reliance on that management; 6) Pushing aside, ignoring knowledgable volunteers ; 7) Poor communications, too little coordination and guidance of volunteers; 8) Amateurish graphics on the campaign websites: Rosanna Pulido seems content to take orders from her campaign management. This is unfortunate, since it should be the other way around. They should give her sage advice, although they seem to have none to give. She should take advice given, digest it, then issue orders. That's what a leader does. She is not leading, she is being led, and led by political fringe dwellers stuck in the 1950's at that. Any savvy politician, general or charity head knows the golden rule for treating volunteers: You make them feel wanted, you treat them generously, you make them feel they are contributing. Hoefling and company have crushed creative, viable, modern ideas in favor of antiquated ones, and alienated volunteers in the process. A number of Pulido volunteers have been left scratching their heads, wondering why the primitives are running the show, why emailing has been suppressed, why Twitter is not being utilized, why there are multiple websites, why an Alan Keyes adherent is running a "Republican" candidate, and so on. The coordination of the volunteers is haphazard. Email blasts are virtually nonexistent. Communication with volunteers should be through a vibrant chat sites on Facebook, Twitter and their main campaign website. As noted above, volunteers seeking information might miss it because it is spread out among multiple pages. 9) No support from the Illinois Republican Party (IL GOP); Without support from the GOP, any slim chance Pulido might have had of winning the general election on April 7 is greatly diminished, even after winning the primary on March 3. Worse, however, is the fact that so many in the IL GOP are working against her. Pulido, it must be said, is a courageous woman with strong convictions, whether you agree with her stand on the issues or not. Courage and conviction seems to be something that the Illinois Republican Party shys away from. After all, one naturally tends to fear the unknown. 10) More, too many to list here. Enough for today. More later. I've found Rosanna Pulido to be a pleasant woman in my two encounters with her, first at the February Chicago Tea Party and then on the March 3rd election night. However, she tends to be unresponsive to suggestions, indecisive, completely ignorant of the new media that she should have become familiar with years ago, and apparently under the thumb of Alan Keyes' American's Independent Party. Tie all that together with the disturbing revelations about her bizarre posts on Free Republic and the publicity it is getting, and it doesn't matter that Mike Quigley is just another pay-to-play, Stroger-endorsing Democrat Machine suckup. If Pulido had a competent campaign team, she might have a razor thin chance of countering the mountain of bad publicity they will be getting over the next two weeks. That's not so, however. PS - Please pardon any spelling errors; I was in a hurry to get this up in time for your early evening reading enjoyment. RELATED: Terse Letter to Rosanna Pulido from 32nd Ward Alderman Rosanna Pulido, Underdog Under the Bus UPDATED: Stopping Quigley in IL 5th Cong District??? GOP Rolls Over, Plays Dead in 5th Cong Dist Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

UPDATED: Stopping Quigley in IL 5th Cong District???

UPDATED: This morning I posted a letter from Don Castella (below), Treasurer of the Committee to Elect Rosanna Pulido. Well, what a difference half a day makes. Seems there's a shitstorm of negative press about to pile down all over the Pulido Campaign. Guess what? Yours truly will pile on, too. Meanwhile, as I load up a bushel of nastiness to throw down on Pulido's campaign manager, Tom Hoefler, enjoy these links: GOP Not Fully Embracing Their Candidate for Congress Chicago (NBC 5) and rosannapulidoisafreeper.wordpress.com/ This letter is now laughable: You Can Help Shock President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Reid on April 7! An Illinois Special Election Will Stun Washington. Dear Friend: In just two weeks you can send a powerful message to Congress, the Senate, President Obama — and even the coddling liberal media. You can express your outrage over President Obama’s plan to increase taxes by more than $1 trillion in the middle of an economic crisis! You can send a powerful message to Obama, Emanuel, and the Democrats who control the House and Senate that you OPPOSE their new, wild federal spending programs — and the trillions of dollars of federal debt that they are placing on you and your families for generations to come. Here’s how you can send this powerful message — one that will shock Washington. On April 7 — just two weeks from now — there is a Special Congressional Election in the 5th District of Illinois. Early voting has already begun. This district includes Chicago’s North Side and the area just northwest of Chicago. Voter registration shows that the district leans Democrat so we must fight for every vote. This seat was recently vacated by Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel who resigned to be appointed to the Obama White House. With your support, Rosanna Pulido can actually win this district! There is huge dissatisfaction with the Democrats and Obama — even voters in liberal Chicago are getting fed up. The Republican voters have picked Rosanna Pulido as their candidate. She won the March 4th Primary Election. Rosanna is a solid conservative on both fiscal and social issues. She has an outstanding record on immigration and Second Amendment issues. Rosanna is a Christian who doesn’t just talk about conservative issues, she lives them. As the Illinois Minuteman leader, Rosanna waged lonely battles against Chicago/Cook County’s dangerous liberal policies — policies that have turned the state into an economic basket case and made Cook County America’s largest Sanctuary County. Her opponent voted for that awful Cook County legislation that costs Illinois Billions and endangers Illinois citizens’ lives. Rosanna has fought some big battles. It was Rosanna who led the fight against the Democrat’s insane plan to issue Illinois state driver’s licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. She has fought for you — now please help her fight this battle. Imagine allowing potential terrorists to easily get driver’s licenses… or rewarding illegal immigrant families with in-state college tuition. If Rosanna wins, I believe the Democrats in Congress, including many “Blue Dog Democrats,” will be shocked and scared. We want you to urgently help elect Rosanna Pulido — Go Here Now: https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B If conservative Rosanna can win the Illinois congressional seat recently held by powerful Democrat Rahm Emanuel, this will strike a massive blow to the claim that swing voters are really backing Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid. Emanuel and the Democrats in Washington are complacent and think they have this seat sewn up. The Democrats picked a liberal County Board Commissioner named Mike Quigley as their candidate. Quigley claims he is a reformer, but his record contradicts that claim. Quigley, a backer of controversial Cook County Board Chairman Todd Stroger in 2006, is already acting like he won the seat and raising big bucks in Washington. But many voters in this district are appalled. Quigley is a liberal who fully supports the radical Democrat spending and social agendas. By stopping Quigley and the Democrats in the IL 5th congressional district, we can help stop more phony “stimulus” programs, stop higher taxes, stop Eric Holder’s plan to ban our guns, stop card check for unions, and stop Obama’s plan to legalize 12 million illegal aliens. We can win this one and stop Obama’s radical plans that threaten our nation and our economy. Early polls show Rosanna right on the heels of Quigley, with Quigley holding a narrow lead. The polls also show that if all Republicans and conservative-leaning Democrats and independents come out to vote in this Special Election, Rosanna will win. Illinois Blagojevich Democrats called the election for April 7th in the hopes that Republicans could not get organized in time to compete with the well-oiled Chicago political machinery of the unions and the notorious left-wing community group ACORN in turning out votes for Quigley. Help us stop these liberal groups — Go Here Now: https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B Many Chicago Democrat groups are directly affiliated with ACORN, the left-wing community organization widely charged with voter- registration fraud in last year’s presidential election. ACORN is notorious for phony voter registrations, multiple voting, and other voter fraud tactics. ACORN and the allied groups are funded by the exact same left-wing unions, like SEIU and they intend to deliver for Mike Quigley. Many Open Borders groups are also supporting Rosanna’s opponent because of her outstanding record on immigration issues. Republicans are bracing for many dollars to be spent on behalf of Quigley as ultra-liberal special interest groups like the Moveon.org PAC, Pelosi’s Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and SEIU, all pour money into this Illinois district. But I have little doubt we can still win this election. That’s where you come in. We are mounting a major effort to alert Republicans, conservatives, and independents nationwide that this vital Special Election is on April 7th. It is urgent for them to vote in order to send President Obama a message and send shock waves across the country. It is also urgent that you contribute to Rosanna’s campaign so we can overcome Chicago’s liberal media bias with hard-hitting Radio/TV ads. Again — the polls show Republican Rosanna Pulido can win if every Republican and Independent votes! This will have repercussions well beyond the borders of Illinois. Send a shockwave to Washington — support our efforts — Go Here Now. https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B The Committee to Elect Rosanna Pulido wants to prepare hard-hitting radio and television ads to make sure voters know this crucial April 7th contest is between conservative Rosanna Pulido and liberal Democrat Mike Quigley. We urgently need your help to puts these hard-hitting commercials on the air. We can’t out-spend the liberals. With Barack Obama in the White House they have unlimited funds to pour into the 5th District. But we can reveal the truth. And truth has much more power than the spin and distortions the Democrats are offering. With your help we hope to launch a sophisticated grassroots get-out-the-vote effort to reach every Republican household and identify those conservative Democrats and independents who agree with us, and make certain they turn out and vote for Rosanna Pulido. Make no mistake about it, the union bosses, ACORN, the anti-gun lobby, the radical abortion groups, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic national establishment will each be pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars — into their efforts to elect liberal Quigley. Some have speculated that the liberals and unions would spend as much as $1 million to win this contest in order to avoid embarrassing Rahm Emanuel and President Obama with a stunning defeat. That’s why you and I must act TODAY — Go Here Now. https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B With just weeks before this showdown Special Election, we must move immediately to make sure that the Republican and Independents in this district know how high the stakes are. They must know the difference between proven conservative Rosanna Pulido, with a record as a solid conservative leader, and liberal Democrat Mike Quigley who tries to sound conservative but who is beholden to Nancy Pelosi, the AFL-CIO, and the liberal special-interest groups. Please consider making a contribution to Committee to Elect Rosanna Pulido so that we can begin a well-organized effort to get every Republican and Republican-leaning independent out to vote to win this seat. Let’s demonstrate to the liberal media that the Republican Party and the ideals of Ronald Reagan — fiscal conservatism, patriotism, and common sense — are not dead! Believe me when I tell you that Rosanna Pulido’s election is the first step in taking back Republican control of the Congress in 2010 and ousting Obama from the White House in 2012. The hour is late. We must move immediately to launch our effort to turn back the tide and take the first small step towards winning back the Congress in 2010 and the White House in 2012 before Obama and his liberal cohorts destroy this country. Please contribute to this urgent cause — Go Here Now. https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B The Committee to Elect Rosanna Pulido needs your help to win. Rosanna Pulido, a solid conservative leader, needs your help and America needs your help. Please let me hear from you today — Go Here Now. https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B Thank you for your support. Sincerely, Don Castella Treasurer Committee to Elect Rosanna Pulido P.S. At a time when liberal talking heads like Chris Matthews Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are saying the Republican Party is dead, we have a unique opportunity to prove they are wrong and wipe the smile off their smug liberal faces! I hope to hear from you today. Please donate to us today — Go Here Now. https://www.fundraisingbynet.net/fbn/contributeFederal.asp?guidRegistration=595F5B The Committee to Elect Rosanna Pulido. 15945 W Pope Blvd Lincolnshire, IL 60069-9677 Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Rosanna Pulido Update

UPDATED: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Rosanna Pulido on Twitter

UPDATED: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign Rosanna Pulido, conservative Republican running against StrogerDemocrat Mike Quigley in the Illinois 5th Congressional District, has a Twitter page. For those of you who may not know, the special election to replace Rahm Emanuel in that congressional seat will be on April 7. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Quigley Chickens Out, Cancels Pulido Debate

Little Mike Quigley is a study of contradictions. On the one hand, he's so confident that he will win the April 7 special election in Illinois' 5th Congressional District that he was all over Washington DC yesterday acting as though he'd already won. On the other hand, the League of Women Voters said that Quigley declined their invitation to debate Rosanna Pulido, the conservative Republican challenger in the 5th District. Is Mike Quigley afraid of women, or does he just not like them? Democrat Quigley is currently a Cook County Board Commissioner and has been a loyal supporter of the hugely unpopular board president, Todd Stroger. Perhaps without Todd in the room, Quigley would not have been comfortable going toe to toe in a debate with Pulido in front of all of those ladies. In a press release today from Pulido's campaign, Quigley's priorities were questioned. "I find it amazing that he's doing a victory lap in Washington before the voters have even expressed their will," Pulido said. "He's meeting with K Street lobbyists and their checkbooks and I'm spending my time listening to the voters of the Fifth District. Turning down the League of Women Voters debate doesn't just show disrespect for the women in this district. It shows he doesn't much care what anyone here at home thinks." Pulido is accusing Mike Quigley of "chasing Washington cash" while "dissing women voters at home." Pulido's campaign manager Tom Hoefling has issued an open debate challenge to Mike Quigley's campaign. Hoefling says that the planned April 3 meeting of the two candidates at the City Club "isn't nearly enough." He added, "If Mr. Quigley has time for the folks in DC, certainly he can find a couple of spare hours for the people he wants to represent. The voters deserve to have to have a full airing of the candidates' views before they make this very important decision on April 7." Chicago News Bench can also report that Rosanna Pulido agreed a week ago to debate Mike Quigley in front of a group of mostly gay voters on Tuesday, March 24 at 7:00 p.m. at Sidetrack Video Bar, 3349 N. Halsted Street, Chicago. There, the 5th Congressional District candidates will participate in a “meet and greet” co-sponsored by Gay Chicago Magazine and Sidetrack. If conservative Republican Pulido is happy to meet and greet a group of largely gay voters, why is Democrat Quigley so reluctant to debate Pulido in the company of the League of Women Voters? RELATED: Claypool Blasts Quigley for Supporting Stroger Budget Emanuel Replacement Race: Quigley, Feigenholtz Jab Over Stroger Ties Feigenholtz attack ad links Quigley to Stroger Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Is Pulido's Campaign Secret? No, But Illinois Review Thinks So

UPDATED, 23 March: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign Is Rosanna Pulido's campaign "secret?" Illinois Review thinks so. I love Illinois Review, but I must say that I personally know that they are quite mistaken. Pulido is the conservative Republican running against Stroger Democrat Mike Quigley in the April 7 special election for the Illinois 5th Congressional District. Editor Fran Eaton, whom I admire and consider a friend, wrote a confusing piece for IR on Sunday, March 15 in which she wrote the following. Sure beats us as to what point Rosanna Pulido's supporters are trying to make by keeping their efforts to win Rahm Emanuel's congressional seat a secret from like-minded and widely read conservative sources such as Illinois Review, but being open and giving interviews to national political sources such as RedState.org. What's up with that? First, it must be pointed out that RedState.org is not some insignificant website. Neither is Illinois Review, but the hard cold fact is that RedState is much bigger. Bigger, that is, in terms of reach, of links to the sites, of traffic in general. You can check this for yourself by comparing the websites marketleap.com and at Alexa.com, where you'll find that Redstate.com has a traffic rank of, 42,655, whereas Illinoisreview.typepad.com has a traffic rank of 425,669. (The lower the number the better for traffic ranking.) Fran Eaton's post continued: From RedState we learn that Tom Roeser hosted an exclusive secret meeting on winning back the seat April 7. We'll stand by and report from afar....as Pulido and Roeser obviously want it...Good luck with that, folks! Chicago News Bench was at Tom Roeser's meeting on Saturday, March 14. It was not "secret," as Fran Eaton charges, nor was it "exclusive." "Ordinary people" were in among the approximately 40 guests. To call it "exclusive" gives the wrong impression that only VIPs were. Hell, I was there, so how "exclusive" could it have been?!? Pulido did not control the invitations. It was Tom Roeser's party, so to speak. The entire purpose of the meeting was to discuss strategy for raising the public awareness of the Pulido campaign. The fact that Pulido's campaign made RedState aware of their meeting is due to several things: There was no attempt to keep the meeting "secret" or not even RedState would have been made aware of it, albeit after the fact; friend Warner Todd Huston, who wrote the piece for RedState, was at the meeting himself, so it's no mystery that RedState had the story before Illinois Review did; Fran Eaton either missed her invitation to attend the meeting or was not invited - in either case, you'd have to ask Tom Roeser about it, whose party is was and who controlled the invitations. Complaining about imagined conspiratorial motives by the Pulido campaign is pointless. Fran Eaton continued, "Secondhand, we'll report what RedState wrote..." whereupon she quoted from RedState's post. Wouldn't it have been more efficient to simply phone the Pulido campaign and request an interview? I think so. I would hate to see this turn into a website pissing war for territory by conservative websites. I don't think it will, since the much bigger RedState.com probably doesn't much care whether smaller competitors like Illinois Review tosses barbs at them without concern for any collateral damage it may do to the Pulido campaign. However, doing so would not serve the mutually held goal of putting a conservative into the seat of the Illinois 5th Congressional District. It would only harm a campaign that Illinois Review says it cares about. RELATED: Illinois Republicans Can’t Stop Eating Their Own (RedState) Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Special Election To Replace Rahm Emanuel

The seat left vacant by Rahm Emanuel has NOT been filled yet. Sure, Todd Stroger's boy Mike Quigley won the Democrat primary earlier this month, but the final special election to fill the empty 5th Congressional District in Illinois is yet to happen on April 7th. Conservative Rosanna Pulido is the Republican who will face off against Quigley. She needs your support. Get out there and spread the word. Volunteer to pass out literature, lawn signs, hold a meeting of neighbors for her. The campaign needs financial support, too, and you can easily contribute by clicking on the button shown here or by going to the Rosanna Pulido 2009 website. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Photo du Jour, March 6, 2009

UPDATED: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign Rosanna Pulido answers questions from reporters on the night of Tuesday, March 3, 2009, moments after she won the Republican primary for the Illinois 5th Congressional District seat. She spoke at Biagio's, a banquet hall at 4256 N. Central in Chicago. Pulido now faces Matt Reichel (Green Party) and Mike Quigley (Stroger Democrat) in the general election on April 7. This is a special election to replace Democrat Rahm Emanuel, who abandoned his constituents to move to Washington D.C. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Fox Interview, Rosanna Pulido

UPDATED: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign Watch it over at Illinois Review. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Biased Chicago Media Ignore 5th District Republican Candidate

UPDATED: About Rosanna Pulido's Trouble Campaign If ever you doubted whether most of the "mainstream media" has a Liberal slant, ask yourself why Mike Quigley got virtually all the headlines after Tuesday's primary election in Illinois' 5th Congressional District. That's the seat known as "Rahm Emanuel's seat," even though Rahm happily abandoned it - and his constituents - for a cushier job in the White House. The local Chicago media have slanted the story as if Tuesday's election was the election, not just the primary, as though Quigley has already become the new Congressman in the 5th. Let's be clear: Quigley did not win the primary, he won a primary. In reality, there were three on Tuesday. There was one for Democrat voters, one for Republican voters, and one for Green Party voters. Quigley won the primary that he participated in. The other two primary races have received far less attention than the Democrat primary has. Oh, by the way, the other candidates still in the race for that seat are Rosanna Pulido, Republican, and Matt Reichel, Green. He has not. Quigley must still face two other candidates, a Republican and a Green. All three candidates - and they are still candidates - must still go through the April 7 general election before any of them become the next representative in Congress. That includes Quigley, but hte local press is treating the primary election as a virtual coronation of Quigley. "Oh, by the way," some of the big Chicago media seem to say, "there were a couple of other candidates who won their primaries, too, but they don't really matter." I had a phone conversation yesterday with well-known local Democrat (yes, a number of them actually talk to me). We'll call said Democrat "Jack." I told Jack how disgusting the local media's treatment of the 5th District primary is, what with the virtual dismissal of the Republican and the Green. "But," said Jack, "they don't matter." Honestly, that's what Jack said. "Quigley's gonna win. What's it matter if the press covers the other candidates or not?" I consider "Jack" to be a dear personal friend, actually, so I will be careful with how I call Jack a typical, party-centric hack who doesn't give a rat's ass about informing the voters so long as it furthers the Democrat candidate. To hell with objective reporting, so what if that attitude is contrary to the Fairness Doctrine that Jack and other Democrats would love to revive. As long as the local media is in the hip pocket of the Dems, that's just dandy. Why even acknowledge the Republican and the Green in the race? That's not what democracy is about, and it sure as hell isn't the "objective journalism" that the Tribune and the Sun-Times pretend to practice. The post you're reading right now, on this blog, is obviously an opinion piece. A conservative radio talk show makes no pretense of being objective while presenting what is obviously opinion. However, when the likes of the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times present coverage of a local election, they should do more than pretend that said coverage is complete or even fair. Here's a challenge: Do an advanced Google news search for "Pulido." Set the search to find items from March 4 to March 6, with "Pulido" as part of the headline. As of 12:03 p.m. on March 6, the search produced only one (1) result ("Quigley wins Democratic nod; Pulido leads GOP," March 4, Burlington Hawk Eye). Do the same search for "Quigley," and the results numbered "about 400." No media bias? Don't make me laugh. Even Lynn Sweet, who usually pretends to be objective, ran a post with the headline "Mike Quigley wins!" The post, published at 10:49 p.m. on Tuesday, contained no text, just two big photos of Quigley. Sweet digitally drooled, unable to contain herself. She probably had to be peeled off her chair. Any similar treatment for the Republican or the Green? Are you kidding? Shame on you, Lynn, where's the "Rosanna Pulido wins!" or the "Matt Reichel wins!" headline? Will Quigley win? Probably, but there is no guarantee. The Democrats have a much bigger campaign machine on their side. Todd Stroger will probably have troops out campaigning again for Quigley, and why not? Quigley and his army of patronage stooges campaigned hard for Todd Stroger. Just ask Sara Feigenholtz, a Democrat who lost in Tuesday's primary. The announcer in one of her campaign ads said this: “Mike Quigley? He talks a good game, but he endorsed Todd Stroger. Even sending his county staff to help Stroger’s campaign. And Quigley voted for Stroger’s budget, cutting nurses and hospital workers to keep Stroger friends on the payroll." (See the video here.) Will Quigley win? Probably, as noted above. If the mainstream media in the metro Chicago area continues its blatantly biased "coverage" of the election, many voters will assume incorrectly that Quigley has already won the seat. It is deception, whether by design or by knee-jerk behavior, by the press. Democrats like my friend "Jack" are perfectly content to perpetuate the deception. It is up to non-Democrat voters in the 5th Congressional District - whether Republican, Green or Martian - to spread the word that the election is not over yet. RELATED: Rosanna Pulido 2009 (IL) 5th District (Republican) Matt Reichel for Congress (IL) 5th District (Green) Illinois, District 5 Census Data from The Washington Post Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Pulido Wins 5th Congressional GOP Primary

Rosanna Pulido won the Republican special primary in the Illinois 5th Congressional District on Tuesday night. Pulido won with her primary race with 969 votes. Democrat Mike Quigley took 11,800 votes in his primary race. The Green Party candidate, Mathew Reichel, took that primary with 164 votes. The total voter turnout in the district's primary was only 17 percent of eligible voters. (Source for vote totals: WREX Rockford) The three will face off in the April 7 general special election to complete the term of Democrat Rahm Emanuel, who abandoned his congressional constituents for a better job at the White House. Immediately after winning his party's nomination, Quigley launched into a dogmatic chant of meaningless drivel designed to keep Democrat voters in a state of hypnosis. Currently a commissioner on the scandal-ridden, high-taxing Cook County Board, Quigley made this bizarre statement: “After all the recent embarrassments, this was first chance that the voters had to voice their desire for change and they spoke loud and clear,” Quigley told the Chicago Tribune.“They came through for me, and now I have to come through for them.” Now that's a pant-load. Is that the same Mike Quigley that Democrat Sara Feigenholtz trashed in her failed bid to win today's primary? Why, yes, it is! It's the same Mike Quigley who has consistently been a part of the problem that he falsely claims to have battled. It's the same Mike Quigley who has fought real change in the corrupt Cook County government and worked to preserve the status quo of the Stroger Empire. Change? Right, sure. According to SEIU-backed Feigenholtz, Quigley is a water boy for Cook County President Todd Stroger. In a televised Feigenholtz campaign ad, a male announcer says this about Mike Quigley: “Mike Quigley? He talks a good game, but he endorsed Todd Stroger. Even sending his county staff to help Stroger’s campaign. And Quigley voted for Stroger’s budget, cutting nurses and hospital workers to keep Stroger friends on the payroll." (See the Feigenholtz video and more about Quigley and Stroger here.) The next month will be fascinating. We will see a Green Party candidate pretend that he matters. We will see a Stroger-Machine Democrat pretend that he's all about change. We will see a woman of substance who is not afraid to tell the truth and speak her honest convictions drop all pretenses and come out swining. By the time April 7 rolls around, the Democrat will be known as Squiggley Quigley. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...