However, the up-and-coming bloggers at LakeCountyEye uncovered yet another stealth candidate on the Dem side, a Highland Park Attorney named Elliot Richardson.Richardson's website can be found here, and it appears he launched his campaign back in March. However, I never heard of this guy, and was unable to find any mainstream media coverage of his candidacy. Maybe this plug will help the poor guy. Daily Herald, you guys listening? It'll be something to write about until Kirk's announcement, maybe.
You can also see Richardson's LinkedIn page. I have to say, at least he has some community involvement to his credit and apparently actually resides in the 10th District. Thus, he's already got a couple legs up on Seals as far as TA is concerned, and Bond as well, for that matter (at least on the residency issue). Neither Seals nor Richardson has ever been elected to anything, though, so they are even on that score.
It's a bit troubling (or perhaps simply sad) that this guy has announced for Congress and no one knows about it, so we can't count him as a serious contender, yet. After all, anyone can form a committee and put up a website. It remains to be seen if he can get his signatures to get on the primary ballot, and considering the rest of the already-announced field, we have to place Richardson as the 4th in a four-horse race right now.
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27 comments:
Well TA I did check out one Elliot Richardson who has under 10K cash on hand after raising under 15K in the quarter, mostly from family. I'm not suggesting that he's not a serious guy at all, just noting the facts. He lives in Highland Park as you've stated, seems to be a young guy with a young family. Let's see what evolves over this next quarter. It does take a lot of money to play in politics today so Elliot and his friends will have to pick up the pace if they want to join the others in this spirited 2010 campaign.
This elliot richardson cat worked for a pro-life born again christian congressman.
"Hall was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 to succeed Rep. Charles W. Whalen, Jr., a moderate Republican. In the 1980s, Hall became a born-again Christian and changed his position on abortion from pro-choice to pro-life. Hall served in Congress for 24 years, longer than any previous U.S. representative representing Dayton's district."
Good luck on getting LBGT and Ellen to sign on to THAT. If joe lieberman, a pro-choice liberal jew who worked on civil rights issues in the 60's was too far right that Dan wouldn't include his work for him on his stump speeches, I can just imagine how well the comrade jan fans out there are going to love this fella-"and when I worked on the Hill I wrote a memo for my boss supporting a bill that would take away your daughters right to have an abortion". That said, Bond and Garrett have Springfield toxic nuclear waste ALL over them and maybe too radioactive.
Just an FYI, blago did say he was going to name every single name in the book of bad deeds he's publishing. One wonders how good THAT will play on munchkin bond and social security eligble garrett.
Anon 12:08- yeah, but the question is, if you are a dem candidate, do you really want LBG and the 10th Dem cabal on your side, considering their track record? From what I can see, they make a lot of noise, but have very little to show for it.
Maybe it's better to be on the outside of that group.
"Bond and Garrett have Springfield toxic nuclear waste ALL over them and maybe too radioactive."
I have seen arm-chair idiots who comment on politics as a hobby drop this point a lot lately. If they knew ANYTHING about what goes on in Springfield, they would know that both Bond and Garrett hated, Hated, HATED Blago and did everything they could to stop him every chance they got. Bond never once voted for a single budget proposed by Blago - not one time. Nada. Nunc. None. Zero. He bucked his leader Emil Jones every time he was told to "go along to get along". Garrett, being a supporter of Madigan, was the same way. Bond and Garrett got the last laugh on the Gov and Jones, and that is exactly WHY they are in a position to move up.
This has been a source of high humor for me and I am sure it will continue to be so. Some idiot here last week claimed he "confirmed" that Senator Bond's home IP address was making anon posting about how great he is on this blog. Trouble is, Bond was on the senate floor in Springfield when the posts in questions went up, maybe his 6 year old was posting? Someone else posted some nonsense about the Bond and Gash tag team. I am not even going to tell you what is wrong with that comment. Remember, people who know don't talk and people who talk don't know.
To Anon 142, sorry buster that kool-aid is just not going to fly off the shelves up here. These cats-munchkin bond and garrett-still awaiting a nickname, have been down in springfield messing up our state and doing nothing to stop it. With one party rule, the mess is all theirs, and we look forward to john mcclaughlin if they run against Mark or some other political expert putting up some really nasty ads to make them pay for their behavior. You sound like a cocky democrat staffer and as they say, government is always the last to know.
TA, I think we learned from the Jay experiement that LGBT is really the only force in that mess. That said, mass hatred of Springfield based munchkin bond/garrettand distrust of the local democrat cabal could give richardson an opening to say, hey I'm not corrupt and haven't raised your taxes.
Anon 151
WTF? john mcclaughlin? Like from the Mahavishnu Orchestra? What the heck are you talking about?
mcclaughlin is kirks chief political advisor.
http://www.mclaughlinonline.com/5
Hey guys-
I know my calls for civility are generally ignored, but I'm gonna take another swing at it anyways. Referring to Lauren Beth Gash as "LGBT" is really pretty hateful. None of the people represented by that abbreviation qualify as an insult, and to pretend that they do is really low. I know politics ain't beanbag, but I can't really hear that without saying something. TA, this is your house. Back me up?
Tikki- you know I always try to enforce decorum around here. But I will admit, the mis-reference to LBG blew past me and I guess I figured it was a typo or something. I honestly don't know what the initials are supposed to refer to, but then it took me a long time to figure out what a "MILF" is, too.
Whoever is making the reference to LBG, please take it elsewhere. I don't really know what it is supposed to mean, and I think now I don't want to know. We're bigger than that around here.
Okay, I just went and Googled LGBT (which is what I had to do to figure out what a MILF was too, some time ago). First, I am pretty sure it doesn't apply, but more importantly, we try not to engage in ad hominum attacks around here, unless they are mine and they are reallu clever, like calling Michael Bond a munchkin. So, please no more of that reference.
Thanks.
The key points are as follows:
Mark Kirk stated 'Vote for the candidate, not the Party' when he was running for office not 6 months ago. However, thus far this year, he has done what he advised against - Partisan window-dressing in the form of weekly press conferences and toeing the party line despite the needs of those in his District, his State, and his Country. He already has reached out to offer 'help' for those concerned about the 'swine flu.' This after voting against the legislation that his Party stripped of funding for such an essential program.
Further, unfortunately, yet again, some in the GOP are appearing short-sighted, having called funding for pandemic/epidemic outbreaks wasteful pork-barrel spending (which is ironic given the nickname of the current flu).
One would THINK that since September of 2001 (something Bush used to run for office based on i.e. Democrats = imminent attack), people would not be so quick to call funding for homeland security, disaster response, and health crises prevention, treatment, and response wasteful.
This Party before country, theory before citizenry behavior is shameful. Maybe the Grand Old Party of George Ryan, Mark Kirk, and Alan Keyes should be the no longer in existence party...They are of no help to our nation.
What else does the brain-trust of Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and Mr. Steele believe to be wasteful spending: head start, air traffic control infrastructure (personnel and technology), and a modicum of regulation? How about cutting funding for the FCC upon which Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Hannity make their living (one wonders what a pill popping criminal would pursue as a profession given his track record).
To me, we are a nation of laws. Without laws, (also known as regulations, mandates, etc.) one has chaos. Thanks to Mr. McCain, Mr. Gingrich and the policies they continue to advocate for, we are more a nation of chaotic speculation and greed than we are of respect, compromise, and consistency and stability. I call it RELATIVE morality (i.e. we are at war so nothing that the Geneva convention or most faiths prohibit applies; this is not evidence of Party of superior morals!).
Finally, the next time the GOP has a press conference touting a tangible alternative to policies the majority of Americans agree with AND NEED, it may help to have actual figures, statements of where the revenue will come from, etc. and not just a glossy, expensive and environmentally insensitive prop.
Ah, where to begin? First, it was our Dear Leader who promised a new era of bi-partisanship, which he has quickly left in the dust, and vows to continue to do whatever he wants, regardless of what the minority thinks, to push through his sweeping leftist social agenda.
And, please, before you go putting blame on Mark Kirk for swine flu (it took EBG a matter of mere hours to do that), let's first acknowledge that the swine flu didn't come about because the CDC lacks funds, and then let's recall that the bill you are talking about was the STIMULUS package, and the GOP rightly objected to parts of the bill that, however worthy in their own right, were not part of saving banks or creating jobs, and were being tacked onto a bill that was touted as absolutely necessary to save the economy from completely tanking. The GOP position was that a 'skinny' stimulus was the answer and tacking on all sorts of programs to be paid with money that is borrowed from our kids and grandkids should not have been done in the name of saving the economy.
Nuf sed.
Watching Democrats blame Senator Kirk, sorry a bit premature- though he would look great on meet the press talking about his work on the senate foreign relations committee come spring 2011, Congressman Kirk for the ills of the nation and state is worthy of second city not the good people of the 5th biggest state in the nation.
The awfulness of the last 6 years can not be understated and promises of change have fallen flat. Just today at capitol fax we learn of new revelations that interim Governor Quinn has hired friends and cronies to run springfield. Some reformer he not.
Tikkun, your party has earned a phd in dirty politics to come on here and allege that is awful.
Blame Mark Kirk? No need to. Michelle Bachmann is already blaming (incorrectly) the Carter administration for swine flu.
Check out Politico.com: http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/
Amazing.
The point is that, within that stimulus package, there were provisions that could have broadened the scope of health care jobs beyond its profit centers to just plain old important and the GOP just couldn't see that as a valuable investment. Add to the chopped provisions direct funding of cancer care at Clarke County Cancer Center in Las Vegas where oncology patients have to now go to a different state for treatment and you get the point. The chopped health care provisions were the proverbial stitch in time.
Thanks Mark.
I'm glad that Rep. Kirk opposed the stimulus law, since most of it is unconstitutional. The Constitution doesn't mention healthcare, so that section violates the 10th Amendment.
Phil Collins
Hmmm....Elliot Richardson looks like a newly registered voter. How long he has actually lived in the 10th CD? Or better yet has he just gotten around to registering to vote now that he wants to run for office?
To "You Betcha":
Didn't the stimulus package pass? Doesn't that mean that everything is now OK? All our problems are solved? More people are now working, the economy has righted itself and is growing by leaps and bounds? That the daily reports of layoffs are erroneous?
Or did all those Democrats who voted for the stimulus package EXCLUDE that funding to that Cancer Center when they passed the bill?
Louis G. Atsaves
Mark's competition for Senate thus far is
1. A mobster millionaire who's immature incompetence cost parents struggling in a recession their children's college nest eggs.
2. A sitting senator who's a national joke.
3. An heir to a yesteryear political dynasty who's greatest accomplishment is his last name and not sullying it with a dui like his cousins.
4. A congresswoman who's husband is sitting in jail and who was an active supporter of the current former governor who's going to jail.
No wonder they are after Mark.
FOKLAES
It is hard to increase Bi-Partisanship when other than 'Nay,' nothing new is provided by those on the Right side of the aisle. (The first things that W. and the GOP-led Congress focused on in early 2001 was over-turning Roe, a marriage amendment, and unnecessary tax cuts. Go figure that healthcare, national preparedness, and solid, sound budgets were not accomplished.)
The Bush tax cuts did not help the economy. If they did, then it could be said that the current, historically dismal situation would have been worse (those who benefited from the W. tax cuts bought bigger boats or invested in risky investment instruments ...a lot of help that did!).
The explosive spending was elevated to a new level by W. Tax cuts while fighting two wars (the cost of which never made it on ANY annual budget proposal by the White House). A Medicare Reform Act that BANNED volume discounts (not terribly populist or sensible), and an NCLB act that encouraged the use of private (untested, unproven) tutoring organizations and that utilized tests that lacked norms or standardization of any kind (test reliability and validity?)
Where were the fiscal conservatives for the last 8 years?
They were forming the relative morality club that was also determining how torture, harsh treatment, and other such crimes could be rationalized by the mantra of 'we're at war.'
Look, we've been at war before and have not resorted to torture. When a handful of Americans did, they were tried and sentenced. (Something about the rule of law.)
I've always been taught, don't just complain, come up with something better. A blank budget proposal and weekly press conferences by Mr. Kirk (who has a minimal number of successful pieces of legislation that benefits a wide swath of the citizenry; when the legislation is fairly successful, he fails to get continued funding - I do my homework!) does not constitute something better.
Resorting to unsuccessful methods like a preference for tax cuts to those who need them the least is not something innovative and effective.
Demanding deregulation and foreign ownership of domestic companies like our friend Mr. McCain did with companies like Airborne is not new and helpful either.
Does Mark Kirk think his District is so affluent that extended unemployment insurance is a luxury? That longer eligibility for COBRA is fluff? (What's that? COBRA's too expensive, ya say? And why don't we need healthcare reform? You cannot have it both ways.)
That there are no (federal) interstates that could use sprucing up?
Contrary to CNN and Fox News, numerous Americans were employed by, benefited from, and entered the middle class because of government spending, at a time when a lack of regulation and a belief in the ability/willingness of corporate America to police itself failed miserably.
Even Republicans won't renounce their entitlements, which not only include Medicare and Social Security though also their life-long Congressional health care and pension benefits. Also, former members of Congress can double the amount they can charge for speaking engagements.
Hence, it is not spending the GOP has a problem with. If it is a missile, that's fine. If its a clinic in Iraq, that's good policy.
If its abstinence only education in Eastern Europe, that's great.
If its lowering costs and doing the right thing by covering more Americans with health insurance, that's wrong (a prominent study shows that those without insurance who become eligible for Medicare face increasingly costlier care when compared to those who have adequate health insurance. Go and read for a CHANGE.) If its ensuring that school buildings do not fall apart on our childrens' heads, that's far-fetched. If its ensuring that police departments have sufficient personnel and equipment (an ever-increasing need, thanks in part to the expiration of the assault weapons ban and the difficult economy), its just not possible to find these funds ?!
Remember John McCain's pledge to compromise and help our current President solve our nation's problems? Remember his slogan? Country (not party - just ask Mr. Kirk - he had a similar slogan) first.
Louis that sounds like the losing tactic of a junior high school debate team. No, it's not all better, but you seem not to recall that 6 short months before the stimulus package was proposed, John McLame said the economy was fundamentally sound and Kirk sang right along in the chorus behind him. In typically Republicrank fashion, you're a day late and an idea or two short.
Before we anoint Capt. Kirk on his state-wide sojourn, perhaps he ought to be worried about beating a Republican opponent. Could his silence be do to very low numbers in head-to-head polling vs. Tom Cross? Tim Johnson? I just don't see Kirk winning over Jasper , Jo Davies, or Jackson Counties, let alone Champaign. Versus Cross, Kirk comes off as a bit of a wimp.
More talk from Democrats to scare away Republicans. To Democrats any candidate that isn't connected to time served in the corrections system is a crazy nut, because you can't be cool if you haven't done time.
There isn't enough of a conservative presence in the state to stop Mark, much less win a general or they would have succeeded in 02,04,06,08 or the Hastert race or anything else since the Peter Fitzgerald knocked off the democrat senate embarrassment of the 90's (they average 1 a decade), carol moseley braun.
Attended a meeting last night with a guest speaker from Washington, D.C. who specializes in Social Security, Economic, Pension and Investing issues. She has been at it since the LBJ years.
She reminded everyone that since the Reagan tax cuts in the 1980's, our nation went through a historic nearly 25 year run of prosperity unmatched in our nation's history. Came up with the facts and figures to back up this statement. Poverty amongst senior citizens declined from 23% of the population to 10.4% of the population during that same period of time, one of many examples she gave us. Inflation basically vanished during that time frame.
She got into the mortgage/foreclosure disaster and traced it back to the Clinton Administration and their policies of handing out mortgages and loans to those who in earlier years would have never qualified for one. And not so shockingly, foreclosures starting increasing well before the economic collapse and greatly exacerbated it. The collapse of the housing industry remains the single greatest reason for our economic downturn.
And then she followed with examples of tax increases during recessions and how those increases perpetuated the rececessions and actually caused inflation.
Then she explained how the Obama tax increase system (I'm only raising taxes on the wealthiest of Americans!) really works (take away all your deductions including charitable deductions-reinstate the estate tax-tax those over $250,000 in combined income-allow the alternative minimum tax to continue which will increase taxes on those earning $105,000 or less all the way down to $30,000-which she called the "donut hole" where the tax increases will actually increase the most revenue for government will come from). I'm still waiting for the adoring main stream media to report this! And yes, all the experts expect the stimulus packages and tax policies of Obama to bring back inflation. Anyone remember 18% interest for home mortgages?
So tax cuts don't work? Things were just awful economically until Obama was elected? What Kool-Aid are some of you drinking?
The High School debate stuff is Democrats claiming that things were just awful and always were awful during a historic period of time to the contrary.
But Democrats never concern themselves with facts or ethics. Democrats are too busy proving they in fact, cannot govern. Right Springfield Democrats? Right Todd Stroger? Right Mayor Daley? Right Barack Obama? Nancy Pelosi? Hello?
Just claim that everything NOW is hunky dory and pretend that government works while you raise taxes to cover what supposedly is "working." And claim that what worked for over 25 years was really a failure and return to what failed in the past.
Fasten your seat belts folks. Kirk seems to understand this stuff. Some of the pretenders to his seat will have no idea about this stuff. Scary!
Louis G. Atsaves
Oh, I forgot.
Those spiraling deficits? A nearly 10% unemployment rate has forced a decline in government tax revenues which approaches nearly 22% (when you factor other taxes like sales taxes that are no longer being paid - when you don't have income, you can't spend).
Increasing taxes on corporations (a fond Democrat ideal) keeps tax revenues down when corporations lay off instead of hire.
Another annoying fact Democrats hate to talk about.
Louis G. Atsaves
to Anon 7:55,
When the Avian Flu virus came about, Bush ordered millions of doses of Tamiflu, etc.
This administration inherited those millions of doses of which they released roughly 11 million. Barack will never admit he "inherited" anything positive.
As to the economic downturn, Barack "inherited" karma. That's right Karma. As an attorney working on behalf of ACORN while they protested at Citicorp who did not want to provide the no doc, low interest mortgages to folks that could not afford them. That is why we are in this terrible mess. Barack, Rahm "Ballerina Boy" Emmanuel's stint at Fannie Mae, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's involvement in this scandal and refusal to protect the American taxpayers from the unnecessary burden we are now faced with.
You can spin all you want - but facts are facts. And eventually the media will have to start printing the facts or face their own demise.
To Anon 9:35
You are totally wrong. The low interest, assisted loan program has a higher successful service rate, i.e. paid on time, than the national average. Those loans were NOT the cause or even a contributing factor in the housing crisis. Look instead to the much higher income individuals who engaged in speculation, banking on a continued rise in housing prices to off-set large balloon payments and interest-only mortgages as the major consumer-based contribution to the crisis. Zip-up, partner. Your knee-jerk finger-pointing is both wrong and bordering on racsim.
Another tidbit I picked up last night. Why hasn't the Obama administration released the Social Security Administration projections and report that was due around 4-1-09? Still playing with the numbers? How awful have they now become?
Have fewer tax paying wage earners also exacerbated the Social Security funding mess? Is the transparent President hiding something? Remember, employers contribute 1/2 of the amount taken out of every paycheck to Social Security.
If federal tax revenues have plunged as much as 22%, have Social Security revenues plunged twice as fast?
Questions. Questions.
Louis G. Atsaves
Hey Anon 9:45,
Try the race card somewhere else - giving no doc, low interest mortgages to folks that cannot afford them is reckless, and being against that policy is not racist.
Are YOU suggesting that only certain types of people would apply for no doc, low interest rate mortgages? If so, then YOU are the racist. This policy was color blind and stupid and is costing responsible individuals a lot of money.
But people like you do not support personal responsibility, so how could you ever understand...
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