Russell Lissau of the Daily Herald had a pretty in-depth article on GOP hopeful Patricia Bird, who is running for the Republican nomination to replace outgoing Congressman Mark Kirk, who is running for U.S. Senate. Bird seems to be a bit of an odd duck (ha ha) based on the interview, and it seems that her campaign style might be a little more suited to running for School Board President or something:
Bird insisted anyone has a right to run for public office. She has not hired a campaign manager or staff and said she doesn't need to do any fundraising to win the election - even though past 10th District races have cost candidates millions of dollars.
"I am a firm believer that fundraising does absolutely nothing to improve or market campaigns the way they should be marketed," she said.
She has also annoyed GOP leaders in both Cook and Lake Counties, according to the article.
I attended and live-blogged the RJC debate this past Sunday at which all seven GOP contenders were present, and I would score Bird's performance at about a C-, given that she read her closing statement, and offered little to differentiate herself from the pack, except that she has banking experience.
I have not decided completely if we're doing endorsements for IL-10 on this blog, given that there are several excellent contenders, but I think we can safely give Ms. Bird the official Team America "Not Recommended" stamp right now.
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She isn't worth serious consideration.
Your endorsement is your call, I would wait until january when we've seen the real fights play out and the ads. Things could come to light-blair hulls divorce papers happened at the last moment, mark makes an endorsement, some candidate has a skeleton.
It's also a decision about the direction of the blog.
I'd wait until the tribune makes their endorsement-not to see what they do but to see all the info about the candidates come out.
FOKLAES
One other thing worth noting. The cook political rankings came out today. Our district is apparently the 135th most liberal in america and there are only 2 districts in gop hands to our left, neither of which we will hold at this point in 2011. There are approximately 116 democrats in districts more republican than ours.
This is a testament to Mark's political skill and the failure of andy mckenna to do anyting of value as state party chair to increase our party's chances.
I hope our congressional candidates have some good ideas and money lying around.
FOKLAES
Bird no-showed the Moraine GOP Township Debate last night. Too bad as there was an overflow crowd of 90 in attendance, 74 of whom were not associated with the campaigns or were not committeemen. The overflow crowd sat in the pull out bleachers. She never confirmed that she was coming or not. Appearing was Cadigan, Coulson, Dold, Friedman, Hamann. Green canceled at the last second as he was busy filming campaign commercials and the filming was running late.
I'll send you the details and a few photos later on this morning.
Louis G. Atsaves
Moraine Township GOP Chairman
Wow: After Sanford, Boehner's 'quote' of a (wrong) founding document, and a Tea-Partier's demand to not allow the government to affect Medicare (the GOVERNMENT program), calling Ms. Bird an odd duck leads me to ask, is this in comparison with the aforementioned or the public at large?
The GOP has no shortage of odd ducks and people who continue to vote for them, buy their books, and accept their arguments, even when they change weekly.
Dick Green is running a Rose Garden strategy? Mr. Bigshot Who Knows How to Run a Business couldn't just tell his minions and consultants to have everything wrapped by 6 pm so he could go talk to real voters?
He is wrong to be missing all these forums.
Green seems puzzled and perhaps a little angry that he wasn't the clear choice of his home organization. I think he moved back into the area just after the last big Congressional primary, so he has no memory of the TV commercial war and what happens if you don't have popular support.
donnelly and hochberg emptied northern trust bank with ads that went nowhere. Hochberg was a reasonable guy and somewhat articulate, doesn't seem to be the case with green.
Coulson apparently met with chairman steele and was dumb enough to let chicago machine democrat joe woodward go on record with a quote. It's disgusting to me that she is using democrats to run her campaign but then again, she's been a democrat in springfield for 15 years.
king louis it's good to see you have your army fired up and ready to take down the peoples republic of highland park. I loved gash's quote the other day that mark was a force that would be hard to take down-finally the aging anti-israel angry soccer mommy says something truthful.
FOKLAES
For the record, at least 13 of the listed candidates and officeholders you have already endorsed have publicly endorsed Rep. Beth Coulson for Congress.
Interesting. Is that 'endorsement by association' or something?
Team America reserves the right to make its own explicit endorsements, thank you.
There are 17 TA endorsed candidates. Are ypu saying Coulson got 13 of them to endorse her? I call BS.
Yes, at least 13 out of the 17. Go to Coulson's website. Almost every successful GOP officeholder in the District has endorsed Coulson_ they know she is a good Republican, will help the whole ticket the most, and that the NRCC and Micheal Steele want her to win (but they can't endorse), and Julie Hamos most wants Coulson to lose! So there!
Anon 1:55 I would agree with you. Beth has a track record and high name recognition. I know that Foklaes will come charging back in a blistering tirade, but face it: Beth is the best hope we have of holding this seat on our side of the aisle. Nobody is perfect, but Beth is battle tested and has the support of more people than I think you realize. Every time I pass another Hamos sign on Green Bay Road I want to scream. Face it: the crew is out there pounding the pavement for Hamos and not for Seals. Either one gives me head pain.
Hard to imagine pro-lifers like Mark Curran and Dan Sugrue endorsing Coulson.
The judges like Mary Schostok,Ann Jorgenson and Wallace Dunn can't endorse.
So we are down to 12.
Are you sure you Coulson folks don't mean 13 SEIU endorsements?
personnel is policy. coulson hired a MACHINE CHICAGO DEMOCRAT to run her campaign. who came in 5th place.
her team also includes
seiu-job killing union
afscme-beuracrat big government union.
teachers unions-who destroy public education.
blago-her bff
tom cross-mr.democrat doormat
radogno-ineffective and frankly outgunned.
FOKLAES
Ahhh, the hate every-other- Republican-officeholder-but-Kirk rant by Foklaes. HoHum.
Coulson can beat Hamos. End of story. Hamos beats every other Rep. candidate if he wins the primary.
And Bird beats Hamos because she has the most money for Media ads and mailers. Snark.
I have to jump in here. Did you go to the forum? No one but Friedman can beat Hamos--he is the only guy that has the story/experience/charisma (and, hello you live in the 10th he is Jewish like Hamos) to hold this seat. True he needs money but the guy should easily be a money magnet. Dold and Coulson are stiffs.
I agreed with FOKLAES.
Joe Woodward is a disgusting dem. He has worked for Machine Democrats in the city. Beth is the same.
Real classy. Anonymous name-calling on staff.
How is the view from the cheap seats?
FOKLAES I could live with your vast conspiracy theories if you stood for something--but the same things you attack coulson for seem to apply to your knight in shining armor--Cong kirk. A little consistency would be welcomed.
woodward is a democrat thug. Mark found hundreds of young republican bucks to do his bidding, and on and on. coulson clearly can't do the same. Glad to see someone else joining me in questioning this disastorous call. Coulson used to employ mark's brother. He should be brought back.
Mark endorsed bush in 2000 in the primary early, and raised several hundred thousand dollars for him in 2004. He's a republican. coulson endorsed democrat blago over moderate republican topinka.
Arie Friedman has no chance.
FOKLAES
It's getting to the point where we might need to start a draft team america movement to restore some vim and vigor to the party. This coulson thing today. Not great, brady is already showing he's a spineless mckenna clown and I've given up on springfield.
If mrs. team puts the kabosh on this, king louis might have to rise to take the reins of the state party.
FOKLAES
Arie Friedman has no chance? What world do you live in? How much work do you think is will take for his campaign to convince people to vote for the navy pilot/doctor? I'm not the same commenter as above, but I have the same question. Did you see the debate? You couldn't possibly have and still write "Arie Friedman has no chance." Smart, handsome, passionate, extremely experienced (in things that count), and Jewish. If you think that last doesn't count, wait till Hamos gets literally 99% of the Jewish vote because even the RJC members won't be able to bring themselves to vote for Dold or Coulson over a daughter of Holocaust survivors.
I saw Friedman at the debate for the first time. Spoke with him in person. Went home and looked at his webpage (awsome) and sent in a contribution. His campaign is going to sweep this thing in the next 10 weeks. And I used to support Dold.
I agree with the last comment about Friedman but disagree about RJC members. I'm a jewish member of RJC (lots of nonjewish members) and I would vote for any of the Rs over Hamos and so would the resy of us. Were not the problem. However, the jews who split their votes for Kirk will never vote for Dold over Hamos. Remember Obama in the african-american comunity? Lots of repub african americans voted for him simply based on a sense of kinship. Same will happen in this district. Jews are a critical voting block in this district and (just being pragmatic) Dold from Kenilworth loses them. Fair or unfair, Jews remember being restricted from living there - and Dold will pay a high price as a result.
Arie on the other hand has pretty good Jewish credentials - Solomon Schechter, Beth El Synagogue in Highland Park (wealthy, by the way). He might not win any new Jewish votes over, but I don't think he will lose any either.
By the way, Arie has attracted a number of very interesting people to his campaign in a just a few weeks.I met him and his CM at the RJC event - they seem to have a pretty good plan. His CM is his brother? Brother-in-Law? I think he is a professor of marketing.
My advice is for us to start thinking tactically. The Dems do. In the general, who would you prefer to be our standard bearer? Friedman just got into this and look how much he's done. I think websites are a clear indicator of the quality of internal organization - check his out. And seriously, in a general election of natl scale, Friedman will get money.
OK-
FOKLAES--show everyone here on the blog where Coulson endorsed Blago in 2006. And if you cannot, then please stop with that illogical rant.
I also recall Coulson endorsing Kirk in nearly every election and carrying him in her district.
At the Moraine Township GOP Debate all the candidates answered the same questions. We were honored to have in the audience a die hard Democrat who was furiously scribbling all questions and answers down. I didn't bother to check to see if she was from someone's campaign but she is involved in the 10th Congressional Democrats Organization.
As our debate was open to all voters with no admission fee or membership dues involved, I had no problem with any Democrats attending other than wishing her a little tendinitis. :-)
I believe this campaign will be ultimately won in the trenches with word of mouth buzz being extremely important. Two candidates in particular at the Moraine GOP Debate will be benefiting from such word of mouth. Those in attendance were nearly unanimous over who those two are, namely Dold and Friedman. They liked Coulson and Cadigan a lot, but then moved on to those "two new guys." Maybe Cadigan should drop the Porter references so he could be a "new guy" too. Coulson is a proven commodity which is a strong plus for her, but also a negative for those looking for a "new" face. The candidate branded as the "Democrat" was the 5th one present.
My understanding the same post debate buzz occurred at the RJC forum last Sunday.
I know other debates and forums are scheduled in the near future which should give those two in particular some serious momentum. As someone who has a strong interest in politics and is heavily involved, this phenomenon is interesting to me right about now. Will it be enough to carry them to victory in the primary and general? In this fluid and angry political environment, anything can happen.
I left Green out of this as he didn't appear (see my comment posted earlier) so any post debate buzz didn't involve him.
And FOKLAES, don't try to run me for anything. Some elements within the Lake County GOP are trying to unseat me from my current position, which pays nothing and is about as thankless a position as one could have within the party. TA freed up some of his "spare" time not too long ago so push him! :-)
Can a candidate (or two) come out of the blue and win the whole thing, not only in the primary, but in the general?
That should be the question of the 10th right about now.
Louis G. Atsaves
Moraine Township GOP Chairman
King Louis,
Thanks for the great report. It's dissapointing to see that some would have you axed when you've been a major force and leader on the north shore. If this is a chelsea stanley undertaking or aaron lawlor error we might have to call in grownups.
The tendinitis comment was amazing. When they get it, they can seek help with their rationed health care.
Ari Gold has more of a shot at getting elected to congress here than arie friedman. I don't care how many bar mitzvahs he's been to on sheridan road.
Not one coulson supporter has ever told me why she's such a fan of blago, hired a dem operative to run her campaign, or does the bidding of the extreme left wing causes on everything from abortion, to labor to the size of government.
FOKLAES
Easy,
Start by explaining why she put out a piece of literature with blago on it in 2004 along with that scumbag lisa madigan.
Coulson might want to start by explaining why her website if you watch the video after has links to when I kiss your mouth and kissing you-kisses and moments.
Her national security statement reads like it was written by a 12 year old.
eef.
FOKLAES
Foklaes, respectfully you are in dreamland if u think Dold could win the general election. His entire campaign is "I am a guy with money from Kenilworth"--guess what, he's not running for village president. We need a candidate who stands for something to win in this purple district.
Fokales,
Let me get this straight, you don't think Friedman has any chance of winning? Any? Aside from some hard to interpret comment about Bar Mizvahs, why don't you give us an analysis. From my standpoint, a good looking guy who is a strong military vet AND a doctor would stand a chance in any district.
FOKLBS--
You said Coulson endorsed Blago in 2006.
i asked you to prove it.
I'm still waiting....
Maybe from now on your posts should have a BS-O-Meter just so we know what minute percent of your rants are accurate.
Fan of King Louis Astaves the Ellen Slayer has many leather bound books and not enough time to read blog entries and do rapid response to coulson staffers.
1. Coulson was endorsed by blago in 2004.
2. Not one of her people on here has answered a single charge about where her head has been the last 12 years while the GOP fell into the abyss. A 60 year old physical therapist with no record of party leadership is not the future of the party. Sorry.
3. Not one of her peeps has answered as to why the party has hired a democrat to run her campaign, one that lost in a democrat primary last year.
4. Not one of her peeps has explained her backing from the unions who stand for everything we are against.
5. She's from the hastert/brady (new addition for his weak showing this week)/mckenna/tom cross part of the party that is spineless, visionless and has lead us into the abyss. These people care nothing about conservative principles or our party. It's about them. NOT.
It's about team, and baxters mom, and king louis, and mrs, team, and conservative veteran, mrs. eric elk and giving these fine folks a message and party they can take to their neighbors every year and say this is what we stand for, this is who stands for us, and this is why the next time we have this conversation in 2 years you're going to be able to say to me, you got it right brother, I like elephants in office.
Coulson has not demonstrated that the last 13 years, we're not better off than we were before her and she's had ample time to prove us wrong.
Dold and cadigan have both had shots as well to lead insurgencies against schoenberg, and hamos, and coulson (primarying her), and every other scumbag D. None of them has moved the meter.
Friedman we'll take seriously when he shows us he's not on some lee goodman ride.
FOKLAES
FOKLAES is the only one on this thing that makes sense.
I am a tea party activist. I live in the district. Arie has a good shot at this race. A veteran, a doc and good speaker.
Coulson is a shill and hired a machine democrat to run her race. He ran a dem in the 5th congressional district who came in dead last. They will come in dead last in this race.
The Berwyn GOP committeeman told me that his daddy ran for mayor of Berwyn in 04 as a Dem. Corruption at its finest.
What about SEIU/ACORN have you all forgot. This is crazy. Dold, Green, Carigan, friedman choose one please. These are true conservatives.
FOKLAES,
That "Lee Goodman" comment shows you for your true colors.
Time to get over your resentment that they allow the "Lee Goodmans" and other Bar-Mitvah goers to live Kenilworth.
FOKLAES,
That "Lee Goodman" comment shows you for your true colors.
Time to get over your resentment that they allow the "Lee Goodmans" and other Bar-Mitvah goers to live Kenilworth.
Don't forget the crack about friedman being another Ari Gold. Probably just coincidence. The republican party tent gets smaller every day.
Are Irish candidates allowe or is there going to be a snide comment about Cadigan being just like a couple of obscure failed Irish candidates from years past?
For those that have just joined the conversation that baxters mom, team, king louis astaves the ellen slayer and I have been having since we used to rip apart catwoman's blog before she banned us, it has nothing to do with jews, we've defended caryn garber in the past and I am slightly to the right of ariel sharon when it comes to my zionism. I am a card carrying member of AIPAC. I eat lox 2 meals a day, and macaroons in the off season. I'm also the only person-even the state party who has called out julie hamos for her berkowitz interview where she shows that she would be hamas and iran's best friend in congress.
Friedman is a nobody. Of course everyone in your living room says your resume is great and you look good on paper. Then you have to go out and do things like win endorsements, woo party leaders like team america and king louis, raise money to show you are viable and put out ideas. These are the fundamentals.
Unbelieveable, I just raised my ronald reagan mug full of cold old style in toast to you good comrade. Glad to see more about joe woodward is coming to light.
The only Irish politicians I dislike are the ones with the d's after their names (coincidentally I also dislike every other politician with a d after his/her name and the r's who behave like they have d's after their names).
FOKLAES
Probably time to let this thread drop. Friedman definitely needs to raise some money but he looks pretty good otherwise. Dold's got money and some endorsements - but this might not be an election for endorsements. Coulson is literally the only R with name recognition outside these insider circles. I could go on with the rest. I just hope this all settles out in Feb with us nominating someone who can develop some momentum in the general. It would truly be depressing to have any of the Dems take Mark's seat.
If you want a lesson in how we Illinois repubs shoot ourselves in the foot year after year, all you have to do is read through this comments thread...
Amen, Anon 6:48. My greatest fear is that with all the rancor against all the candidates who are out there we are going to give either of the Democrats an open door to take this seat from our side. I agree with your statements about Coulson having the highest name recognition and having survived some tough challenges in past cycles. That does count for something, especially out here. The 10th congressional district has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. I wish that some who post on this site would truly understand that proven fact. This is clearly a Democrat leaning district much more so than when Kirk was elected. That's not to say that we have to choose someone based solely on that fact, but one thing is certain: we will lose this seat and it will be gone forever if we continue to 'eat our own' without regard for the consequences.
It's become democrat because our leaders or at least the self-annointed have failed to step up. They haven't put in the work, and haven't come up with anything other than running away from the party, Mark included.
we need to eat the awful leaders like coulson. It's not a left right thing it's a right wrong thing.
Look at the people coulson has with her. Tom Cross, the protege of denny hastert, who basically destroyed the gop in d.c. and illinois, whose name is on the clout list, who has no ideas, no leadership capacity, looks like a used car salesman. We have to earn it from people and we won't get there with folks like THAT, who do everything the democrats do.
FOKLAES
Enough venting, but there was a serious question here that was evaded. To whit, Kirk with less Jewish vote (ie Dold v. hamos) would not have won.
Dold's candidacy was doomed when he said in front of the West Deerfield committeeman that as to whether he was pro-choice or pro-life, he was right down the middle.
Now he has Schlafly protege Penny Puller helping him. Nothing could be weorse for a candidate in this district.
Coulson clearly lied about her meeting with Steele. Berkowitz blog has more
http://jeffberkowitz.blogspot.com/2009/11/il-state-gop-chairman-brady-meeting.html
Jeff Berkowitz, who clearly ought to know better, repeatedly misspells Cadigan's name in his postings on his blog.
And FOKLAES, Chelsea and Aaron are innocent.
What I've noticed is the 5 candidates who appeared at the Moraine Township Debate conducted themselves with dignity and showed respect to their opponents. Maybe some of comments around here from some of their supporters should be toned down to reflect how their candidates are behaving.
Louis G. Atsaves
King Louis Astaves the Ellen Slayer,
we should name and shame these heathens that wish to out you.
did any of the other candidates meet with steele, or was this just the only one who got a blago endorsement?
FOKLAES
I bet the Tribune and Pioneer Press editorial board know how to spell Cadigan's name.
FOKLBS--
My point is simple, and I will reiterate it one more time and then we can move on.
You make things up.
I'm not a coulson staffer. I don't think she's the best pick--but I also am tired of people on blogs completely making things up.
I am humored by your opinion, but stating she endorsed Blago is just an outright falsity.
Feel free to ping her on hiring a dem or seiu contributions or taking an endorsement from cross (although if I remember right he and Edgar were the ones introducing him at his announcement while the congressional delegation was still choosing between kirk and mckenna).
But there is just no need to completely make up BS and tout it as fact.
If you are going to attack a candidate--be able to prove it. I know you are not used to be called for verification--but get used to it.
I'm finding that it isn't very hard to convince people who like Coulson, not to vote for her. She has quite the record.
Anyone else tried this?
The only erroneous things FOKLAES has said here are the fact that my former collegue would run for this seat. They begged off for family reasons-both have young children and in this economy can't leave their jobs with graduate school loans to pay off and mortgages.
Cross endorsing mark does not make him cool just as the christian right getting behind mccain or bush doesn't make them cool in my book.
He has no record to show and I'm not a fan of far western suburban leaders after hastert.
10 years ago I would have been a coulson fan, probably. I liked corinne wood a lot and Kathy Parker (who I'll admit is behind coulson) was another great leader. We have a serious woman issue in this party beyond the michelle bachmans and we need to show people we aren't just southern old white dudes. But her record is not worth supporting.
FOKLAES
FOKLAES, this thread got me wondering. I went hunting on the internets for evidence of the Coulson-Blago endorsement, and couldn't find one. I'm not calling you a liar, I pretty much trust that it happened. You have the link? This is easy to resolve- cut and paste a single link, and this conversation is over.
It should be on a mailer coming into your home soon if dold or green has a brain, one of the two of them-cadigan has no money, will have to push himself as the actual republican alternative to her, and then you'll see it. Capitolfaxblog.com check october/november 2004, 06 archives.
FOKLAES
I'm going to watch this 10th contest with great amusement.
Coulson-probably facing the peter principal
Green- one trick pony on the economy. At least he built something!
Dold- throws out Reagan lines like candy. Empty suit. Probably great at VIP Advance.
Cadigan- best on paper, no traction
Friedman-no clue. and getting late in game, already.
I think the heavyweights skipped this 10th election for a reason. Yikes. Amateur hour.
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