Friday, June 27, 2008

Lake County IL Ballot Update: Mark Beaubien Prevails Over Rich Garling; Dan Sugrue Survives Challenge by Kathy Ryg

GOP incumbent Mark Beaubien has succeeded (for now) in knocking his challenger, Island Lake Trustee Rich Garling, off the fall ballot in the 52nd District race. Download the hearing officer's decision here.

In a nutshell, Garling filed his nomination papers but eventually realized they were defective, as the committee that met to nominate him allegedly met more than one month before the papers were filed with the State Board of Elections (the papers must be filed within three days of the meeting). Garling then executed papers to withdraw his candidacy, but the nominating committee then met to re-nominate him before the withdrawal papers were filed with the SBE. The hearing officer ruled that while the right of the candidate to withdraw is not in question, the withdrawl was not effective until the papers were filed with the SBE. Thus, when the nominating committee met for the second time, they tried to fill a vacancy that did not yet exist.

The hearing officer's decision must be confirmed by the State Board of Elections, and no word on whether Garling will appeal, but it looks like he spent a lot of money on his campaign website, so what a shame... not.

Meanwhile, in the 59th District Race, GOP challenger and Green Oaks attorney Dan Sugrue has beaten off a challenge by Dem incumbent Kathy Ryg. The Sugrue decision is here. Ryg's challenger claimed Sugure's nominating papers were defective because Sugrue's home address (where the nominating committee met) was listed on one or more of the papers as "Libertyville", which is not in the 59th District. However, the testimony established that Libertyville and Green Oaks share a zip code, and that the meeting did indeed occur at Sugrue's home in Green Oaks, which is in the 59th District, and therefore such papers were valid.

TA hears that the appeal hearing on State Rep. Sandy Cole v. Terry Hall will be next Tuesday in front of Judge Ray McKoski.

For those of you keeping score at home, the Lake County GOP is also 3-for-4 in its objections to county board ballot challenges. This week, incumbent GOP candidates Suzi Schmidt, Bonnie Thompson Carter and Diana O'Kelly each won the appeals of their successful objections, and thus their would-be Dem opponents will not be on the fall ballot. The only unsuccessful objection was by GOP county board member David Stohlman, whose opponent, Davita Siegel, will appear on the ballot.

MORE VIDEO FROM THE 10th: If you liked the other Dan Seals videos, you'll love this one. Dan and his "Chicago Connections." If the audio doesn't start playing when you click on the video below, click again and watch it directly from YouTube. The music really makes it.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that Barry Manilow? Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Baxter and I loved the video. Let's see more! Maybe he could get a job posing for videos? I don't know how much that would pay but he doesn't need much since he can't afford to live in the 10th but happily and comfortably lives in the 9th with no job.

Baxter's Mom

Anonymous said...

Yep, I think it IS Barry Manilow. Sad to see it wasted on the likes of scum bag felon Creamer et al. But it sure says a lot about the 'friends' Mr.Seals has on his team. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it. But TA, I think you've said it before: the folks in this district will see this for what it is. Let's send Dan, the catwoman, Jan, her husband and all those city slickers back to where they belong.

Anonymous said...

Now we find out that Seals only gets half of the Micelle Obama event -- Halverson gets the other half. Its a bad day to be Dan.

Anonymous said...

So now we know why this hasn't been THE event on the Seal's calendar! It's NOT about old Dan. It's simply about Rahm asking one of his very well-healed buddies to host for other Dems. Big Deal. I think it's more than a bad day for Dan. Don't you just love it!

Anonymous said...

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/06/michelle-obama.html This is from the online Tribune on the Monday funder for Halvorsen and Dan. Check it out.

Anonymous said...

link doesn't work. Would be great to have an infiltrator, perhaps a kirk democrat at the event.

Good grassroots work on the lake county stuff.

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute -- after bragging a week that HE had Michele Obama event, its is now just a congressional cattle call?

Team America said...

Try this link to the Tribune Clout Street Blog for the latest article on the Obama fundraiser that all of a sudden isn't really about Seals.

Also, still waiting for Roll Call to release that article on Carpetbagger Seals to the public. You may just have to buy a subscription if you really want it.

Anonymous said...

Here's the Roll Call story

The Out-of-Towners
June 24, 2008
By Jessica Brady
Roll Call Staff


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most political candidates boast about their hometown roots in order to woo support and appeal to undecided voters.
But every election cycle, there are at least a few Congressional candidates who don’t live in the districts they want to represent. For them, the challenge is proving to voters that they do have close ties to the district — while at the same time fending off attacks from opponents who try to label them carpetbaggers.

Can these political “outsiders” succeed?

“I think it depends on how attached they are to local communities more than geographical boundaries,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) said. “The bigger issue is what connection the individual has overall.”

Jason Chaffetz, who is facing Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) today in a Republican primary, lives two miles outside the 3rd district. While Cannon has regularly hit his opponent on the residency issue, Chaffetz, a former chief of staff to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R), notes that his Utah County home was in the 3rd district until 2001, when Congressional lines were redrawn.

In fact, Chaffetz does not shy away from the controversy, maintaining that voters are more concerned with pocketbook issues such as the housing crisis and the economy.

“I’m fine with him harping on it. Cannon crying about my address doesn’t win any votes,” he said.

Democrat Dan Seals, a DCCC darling in a rematch with four-term Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), was taunted in his first campaign in 2006 for living outside the suburban 10th district, and the charge has come up again this cycle. Seals counters that Kirk, an Iraq War supporter, is out of touch with the moderate district, which voted 53 percent for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in the 2004 presidential election.

Seals, who lives in Wilmette, less than two blocks outside the 10th district, pledged to move into the North Shore district if he wins in November. He grew up in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Kirk is a product of the North Shore and frequently points out that he attended New Trier High School, located in the heart of the district.

In a closely watched race in which both candidates are expected to spend millions of dollars, the matter of a few blocks could cost Seals, who lost 53 percent to 47 percent in 2006, precious votes. “It may be just a little bit [of distance], but not when you don’t even have ties to the district,” an Illinois GOP aide said.

In Chicago’s south suburbs, Republican Martin Ozinga is waging an uphill campaign to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Weller (R). While he lives in a neighboring district represented by Rep. Judy Biggert (R), Ozinga maintains he is more closely tied to the 11th, where he runs a family-owned concrete business with 1,200 employees.

“I’m a local person. We’ve been involved in the community for years,” Ozinga said.

While Ozinga charges that the Democratic nominee, state Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, is too liberal for the Republican-leaning district, Halvorson has refrained from making her opponent’s residency an issue, focusing instead on her decade of experience in the state Senate.

“I’ll leave that up to [Halvorson], who has been part of that community for years,” Van Hollen said of the strategy on Ozinga’s residency.

Federal law requires that House Members be at least 25 years old, a United States citizen for at least seven years and a resident of the state — but not the district — in which they are elected.

Operatives in both parties acknowledge that all things being equal, candidates who hail from the district are preferable to ones who don’t. Candidate recruiting, however, can be a grueling and fruitless process, and finding a party loyalist with the right pedigree and fundraising abilities can be enough to overcome anxiety over a candidate’s address.

In the case of Ozinga, he “is probably well enough connected in the district because of his business,” a Republican aide said.

Seals and Ozinga hope to overcome exactly what a fellow Illinoisan, Rep. Melissa Bean (D), did in 2004. The political neophyte ran an uphill campaign to oust a long-serving incumbent in a district where she did not live.

Republicans regularly advertised that Bean lived in Kirk’s district, and by extension could not even vote for herself in the election, but the Democrat overcame the claims by charging that the incumbent, Rep. Phil Crane (R), spent more time inside the Beltway than out in the district.

“Ultimately it all comes down to a candidate’s ability to connect with the voters,” said Ken Spain, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “You have to make a case that speaks to the interests and concerns of the electorate, and a strong candidate — regardless of geography — will likely find a way to do so.”

California state Sen. Tom McClintock (R) might be this cycle’s most glaring example of a candidate running for Congress outside his home district. A long-serving state lawmaker, McClintock represents a Southern California district nearly 350 miles from the suburban Sacramento 4th Congressional district seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle (R).

McClintock was raised in the state Senate district he currently represents and invoked his hometown roots during every re-election bid. Because California state lawmakers work full time, McClintock has a residence in the 4th district, where his family lives. And as a past candidate for state controller, lieutenant governor and governor, McClintock’s name has appeared on the ballot statewide seven times, which he says will serve him well appealing to voters in the 4th district.

Like his fellow out-of-district candidates, McClintock has focused on building a grass-roots network and key endorsements to validate him in the Northern California district.

“People care far more about where a candidate stands than where a candidate lives,” he said.

Anonymous said...

are you really sure you want to go down this personal attack route? do you really think that this will benefit mark kirk, given all of the talk about his personal life?

if you do, go ahead, but know that there is a lot out there about mark kirk that i'm sure dems will not be afraid to use.

i'd be careful about throwing stones if i were you....

Anonymous said...

Not having a home in the district you want to represent is personal?

Dan should have moved into the district long ago.

The response he gave to Footlik at the Tribune was lame ("To live in the 10th, I would have to me a millionaire...")

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:55 is correct. Where a person lives is not a personal attack. Nobody in this district, or any district where decent folks reside, will tolerate a smear campaign on personal attacks, especially when they are totally and fully unfounded. Let's just stop it right there.

Anonymous said...

making up lies about seals' employment is certainly a personal attack. just as highlighting mark kirk's bizarre personal life would be.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:43, Seal's employment, or lack thereof, is public record. It's all documented and proven on record. That's totally different than trying to imply something sinister about Mr. Kirk. You are trying to start something that doesn't exist and never did. Be careful with viciousness in trying to support your guy.