This afternoon, I attended the second annual Dold fiesta hosted by Jeff and Kelly Brincat of Lake Forest, featuring 10th District Congressman Bob Dold, and special guests Senator Mark Kirk and Congressman Aaron Schock. Although the weather was cool, Republican enthusiasm was hot. The event was focused on family fun, with pony rides, a bounce house, games and all sorts of kid-friendly activities. The adults did OK too, with great food, adult beverages (!) and a wonderful mariachi band (the lead singer is pictured to the right of Dold, in case you were wondering if he was an overdressed security guy or something).
When it came time for the political speeches, host Jeff Brincat introduced Senator Mark Kirk, who lauded Bob Dold and offered a very interesting statistic for those who are concerned that the 'new' 10th District drawn by the Dems spells the end of Bob Dold's political career, which is that, in the "new" 10th District, if you look at the Kirk-Giannoulias results from 2010, Kirk won the "new" 10th by NINE points. That gives Dold a lot of hope that he's going to do very well indeed, even in a district that was drawn by the Dems to give them every advantage.
Congressman Aaron Schock followed Kirk and spoke of his work with Bob Dold, and how impressed he was. Dold then took the stage and discussed the issues of the day, including most importantly jobs, the economy, and the rising national debt. The debt is not just a Democratic problem or a Republican problem, he said, and needs a bipartisan solution that begins with reining in government spending above all else.
Below are a few pix from the event, including Schock and Kirk.
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7 comments:
Thanks for the great re-cap of a truly wonderful Fiesta. The weather didn't dampen the fun or the spirit for the nearly 300 who came to show support for Bob Dold. Lots of new faces today as well. Kelly and Jeff are more than gracious hosts for what is now an annual event in their spacious yard. Those Mariachi guys keep everybody is a fun mood. The kids kept the ponies going for the entire 3 hours. I'm sure you'd agree that we have much to smile about but we also know that there's lots of work ahead in this "new" 10th district. Judging from all the new people who came out today, we're going to rock and roll toward the next election.
We all know you can make statistics tell the story you want your audience to hear. However what you didn't say was in 2010, Lake County saw a high 30% to low 40% voter turn-out. That will skew any stats you want to put out there.
The new 10th is a 62% Dem leaning district and with a Presidential race in 2012 it will be a challenge for Republicans to keep the 10th, not impossible, but a challenge, especially for carpetbaggers.
Dold lives in the 10th as it currently exists--and has existed for the past decade. That the democrats drew him out of his own district blunts any carpetbagger baggage (pun intended). Incumbants of both parties living outside their newly redrawn districts will be a (non)issue across the country.
Carpetbagger claim will hurt Dems because it will simply illicit sympathy from voters that poor Bob Dold will have to uproot his family if he wins & it will simply keep alive the partisan gerrymander issue (corrupt governance issue). By the way, did Democrat Blago get convicted today?
until the democrats find a candidate (which they have not been able to do since gash-seals was a politically self made unrecruited guy) who a)knows what district he is running in b)is not an 18 year old recovering socialist who portrays himself as an obama staffer when he was a college intern on his bio (first line) c)is not a moderate republican who probably last ran for high school student class treasurer, none of this discussion matters. By this time last cycle Democrats had 2 candidates already raising money. They already have 2 for the 8th, both of which can likely raise $4 million.
Until they put up someone serious, none of this matters because none of their people can raise the necessary money or run a campaign to beat the incumbent, gerrymander or not.
I would also caution democrats that your top people are privately admitting in washington that this will be a much harder fight. Barring an economic recovery no one sees coming you are going to run on the worst economic record since the great depression. There is no financial crisis this time, you already nabbed bin laden which didn't prop up your president's numbers, republicans are more fired up to vote this time and you have a democratic tax increase in the state to defend.
Now back to your poetry slams-HAH.
FOKLAES
Prediction: Dold faces a primary - Kirk can't help.
Democrats have yet to announce their "chosen one". Tough race....jobs and the economy will be the only issues that may save the GOP.
Who could run a credible primary against Dold?
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