New Poll: Mark Kirk Maintains Wide Lead Over Dan Seals Despite Obama-Mania

As reported yesterday by the non-partisan National Journal, a brand-new internal poll done by McLaughlin & Assoc. shows Mark Kirk still holds a wide lead over Dan Seals (53%-32%, +/- 6%), despite the recent hype over Obama presumptively securing the Dem presidential nomination, and the conventional wisdom that the Barack Obama tide will lift all Dem boats, no matter how unseaworthy. In fact, compared to the last Kirk poll, despite months of campaigning and trying to ride Obama's coattails as much as possible, Kirk and Seals each gained the same 3 percentage points.

Seals better have a better strategy than simply reminding voters at every opportunity that he thinks he looks like Obama. Voters in the 10th District are way too smart, as a group (and love to split their tickets to prove it), to simply go like lemmings over the cliff for Seals, even if Obama wins the district handily.

The Dems wasted no time trying to spin their way out of this, and claim that Kirk's 53 percent simply must be his ceiling, while Seals' abysmal name recognition (30 points lower than Kirk's) simply means Seals has plenty of room to grow.

Update on Obama's stutter-stop explanation of his VP team: As we noted yesterday, the video of Obama bumbling his way through his explanation of why Jim Johnson's reported receipt of preferential loans from Countrywide Financial Corp. was no big deal (among other gems, the 'they're not really working for me' is a classic) is really making a hit, at least in the Blogosphere.

But it's not the just the Internet political junkies who have noticed, as it turns out, because it was only a short while before the Obama bus ran right over Johnson, barely slowing down. For those of you keeping score, this is the first corpse hit by the bus in the general election, but the body count runs way higher (as Michelle Malkin puts it, it's getting awfully crowded under the bus) if you've been keeping up with this, including Reverends Wright and Pfeleger, as well as grandma.

IL GOP Blasts Dan Seals For Kicking Iraq Vet Off November Ballot in IL-10

State GOP Chairman Andy McKenna blasts Dem candidate Dan Seals and his minions for booting poor Green candidate Dave Kalbfleisch off the ballot. The vets will not forget.

No link yet, but the IL GOP Press Release is below. But, before you read that, you might want to recall what a local Dem would-be state rep. candidate, Terry Hall, had to say about the unfairness of being kicked off the ballot because she screwed up her paperwork (be sure to catch TA's comment, posted to the letter a few weeks ago). Apparently, the Dems can dish it out, but can't take it.

Dan Seals Throws Iraq War
Veteran off November Ballot

Kirk breaks ground on Navy/VA Hospital, votes for new GI education benefit ILGOP: "Voters should know this is how Dan Seals treats our veterans."

CHICAGO – Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna released the following statement on Dan Seals' treatment of Iraq war veterans:

"Yesterday, Dan Seals and his campaign succeeded in kicking Iraq war veteran David Kalbfleisch off the November ballot. David Kalbfleisch fought to defend Dan Seals' freedom and all he asked in return was a chance to participate in our democratic process. Unfortunately, Dan Seals cares more about himself than Iraq war veterans. Voters should know this is how Dan Seals treats our veterans."

In March, Northfield Township Democratic Committeeman Michael Kreloff filed an objection to Kalbfleisch's nomination with the Illinois State Board of Election. Kreloff is a member of Seals' inner circle and helped recruit Seals to run for Congress. McKenna noted the stark contrast on veterans issues emerging in the Tenth District race for Congress.

"An 18-year Navy combat veteran, Congressman Mark Kirk voted for the largest funding increase for veterans in history, supported the first expansion of the GI education bill since World War II and secured funding for a brand new Navy/VA hospital. All Dan Seals can say is that he kicked a veteran off the ballot. The contrast between these two men could not be more clear."

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AND, JUST FOR FUN.... SEE OBAMA WITHOUT A TELEPROMPTER - Check out Barack Obama when he's not reading from a script. Where's the soaring rhetoric now, buddy? h/t ReverseSpin

Green Guy Off the Ballot in IL-10 (+ Afternoon Updates)

Well, not much detail in this Daily Herald article, but it appears that the Green Party candidate for the 10th Congressional District in Illinois, Dave What's-his-name, got thrown off the ballot with a couple of his compadres by the State Board of Elections. We noted previously that the challenge was filed by a Democratic activist and attorney, so you Greenies can blame the Dems, who seem to believe in free and open elections for everyone, except when they feel threatened by some competition. No word yet as to whether the Greenies will appeal, so this may leave Mark Kirk and Dan Seals going head-to-head.

SEALS RUNS ON THE ANTI-SPRINGFIELD TICKET: Well, isn't this the pot calling the kettle black? Dan Seals, darling of the Democratic party, thinks we need "adults" in Springfield. Brilliant deduction. Here's a newsflash--the leading 'kids' are all members of the party you belong to and support.

I suppose that means you won't accept any support from those 'kids' down at the state capitol (all Democrats) that have screwed up this state so badly, including locals Terry Link, Michael Bond, Kathy Ryg, Karen May, and the big boys, Michael Madigan, Emil Jones and the soon-to-be-indicted (hopefully) Rod Blagojevich, and all the others. Hey, wasn't Barack Obama one of those kids not too long ago?

Meet Dan Seals' New Out-of-District, Earmark-Loving Friend - Florida Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz

Rep. Schultz: "I could kill somebody and still win reelection"


Dan Seals recently asked for the help of Rep. Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) at a Winnetka fundraiser last Sunday. Like many other of Dan Seals' friends (convicted felons Dan Rostenkowski who taught Dan's class, and Robert Creamer who trained his campaign workers), Wasserman-Schultz is well known for having a few ethical screws loose.

In the recently published major book, Pennsylvania Avenue Profiles in Backroom Power (Harwood/Sieb, Random House, 2008), she was quoted as saying, "I could kill somebody and still win reelection."

Wasserman-Schultz "makes no apology about the role money plays in the process calling allegations of corruption on Pennsylvania Avenue 'overrated'. " Wasserman-Schultz amazingly continued, "campaign donations simply become one device among many that help Members decide how to spend their time."

Wasserman-Schultz loves earmarks of taxpayer money, especially for political supporters. She sent a February memo to other Democrats on how to request earmark spending in what one group called a "Pork Valentine." Wasserman-Schultz told the authors "the thing that bothers me is when the media says there is something wrong about pursuing appropriations for supporters. I have pursued appropriations for contributors but I put my name next to them."

Well Dan, that clears that up. TA readers note our Congressman, Mark Kirk, is backing an earmark moratorium and reforms, while not supporting any such requests.

Danno, we just thank our lucky stars that your patron, Florida Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz, is only (for now) the Chairwoman of an Appropriations subcommittee in charge of $1.5 billion of our money. (Although, she may not be all bad, as Kos thinks that DWS is not partisan enough...)

Way to charge down that road to change Washington, Dan!

PS- TA hears that DWS was really, really late to the Winnetka event... apparently leading some event attendees to wonder for a while if Seals' disastrous gas stunt meant DWS was having second thoughts about showing?

ROTTEN TOMATOES OR SOUR GRAPES? Just for kicks, I dropped by Ellen's Blog to see if she had put up a post blaming the recent national outbreak of salmonella poisoning of tomatoes on Mark Kirk yet. So far, nothing on her blog, but I figure it's only a matter of time since it seems like he's been blamed for everything from lead paint in toys and tainted pet food, to high gas prices and the stripping of the ozone layer. If western California disappeared in an earthquake tomorrow, he'd get the blame for that, too. Hey, isn't Pelosi from California???

Keith Gray and Dan Sugrue Kick Off "Fix Illinois" Campaign With Fundraiser at Opa!

State Senator Terry Link (D-Waukegan) of the 30th Senate District is probably way too busy gushing over Barack Obama's win in the Dem presidential primary to notice, but he might want to take some time to look in his rearview mirror. If he does, he'll see Waukegan businessman Keith Gray coming up behind him fast as the GOP challenger.

Gray (left), who is also a District 72 school board member (vice-president, actually), has momentum coming off his successful defense of Link's challenge to Gray's nomination papers. He and his counterpart in the 59th State Legislative District, Dan Sugrue (lower right), are kicking off their "Fix Illinois" campaign with a joint fundraiser at Opa! in Vernon Hills, this Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:00. The keynote speaker will be former State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Steve Rauschenberger. Download more information here.

Keith also had a letter to the editor published in today's Daily Herald. Gray notes that a number of prominent Democrats like Terry Link were suspiciously silent this week amid the Tony Rezko conviction and the growing sense in Springfield and the state that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will very quickly turn his attention to indicting Governor Rod Blagojevich.

I think that, despite Barack Obama's current popularity, even if he carries that into the fall election, Democrats such as Link, who is under his own cloud of suspicion over his petition scandal, will face a challenge by the GOP as being too tied to the Governor, and frankly, being a do-nothing state legislature marked by political infighting more than any accomplishments.

So far, Gray and Sugure have been getting a very positive response from the people they have talked to who are plain sick and tired of the state legislature doing little-to-nothing to fix our roads, pass a capital plan, and improve education. If you're sick of it too, come out to Opa! on Tuesday and support Keith and Dan, enjoy some great Greek food, and kick off the campaign to Fix Illinois!

Dan Seals Finally Comes Clean On Dirty Money Taken at Northwestern University (UPDATED)

Tony Rezko has certainly has problems (hmm, pay millions in fines and spend 300 years in prison, or talk to the feds… not a lot of options…) but 10th Congressional District Candidate Dan Seals isn’t having such a hot week, either.

Amid continued criticism of his ill-advised gas give-away, Seals finally came clean on what was in the ‘mystery’ envelope that convicted felon and former congressman Dan Rostenkowski slipped to Seals in full view of Seals’ night class held two weeks ago at Northwestern University. For the full background, see here. There was much speculation that the envelope contained a generous campaign contribution from Rosty, which is the most common sense conclusion when someone hands you an envelope (that’s the Chicago Way, after all) and tells you it will help you in your campaign. The IL GOP called Seals on it, and challenged him to fess up to what was in the envelope. Unsurprisingly, no answer from the Seals camp was forthcoming.

In the long days of silence that followed, the story was largely ignored by the MSM, but it was picked up by a few other bloggers and even inspired a stinging video that continues to get a load of hits on YouTube.

Eventually, Seals must have figured out that the GOP was not likely to let go of this little bit of scandal. It still took almost two weeks for Seals to decide what to do, however.

Seals’ explanation is as follows: Yes, the envelope contained money (TA’s note: shocker, turns out the IL GOP was right). No, the check didn’t come from Dan Rostenkowski… but it did come from his wife (TA’s note: that’s right, his wife). But, says Seals, it’s a non-issue because he gave the check back (TA’s note: sure, after you were exposed), and you can check my FEC filings if you don’t believe me (TA’s note: now, why would we ever doubt you, Dan?).

Here are the salient issues and questions raised by the Seals disclosure:

Point 1: Seals essentially admits that taking money in front of his night class at NU was wrong, otherwise, why return the money? Note, however, that there was no admission of wrongdoing, an apology to his students, or to Northwestern.

Point 2: Seals emphasizes that he returned the check and no money from Rostenkowski will show up on his FEC filings. Again, he appears to admit that taking the money was wrong, but why? Is it because Rostenkowski is a convicted felon? If he’s good enough to come lecture at your class, why isn’t his money good enough to take?

Point 3: The funniest part of this is that the check was from Mrs. Rostenkowsi (I’m assuming that’s the name she goes under). Whose asinine idea was this? Do you think that Dan Rostenkowski is used to politicians being reluctant to accept money under his name, so he thinks that by running it through his wife, that somehow sanitizes the connection? It’s a little hard to even think that it could, considering these days of easy access to campaign finance information (what, we would have noticed a check from Dan R., but not his wife???) Maybe this wouldn’t be so funny if it wasn’t Dan R., not his wife, who presented the check personally to Seals (and in class). Are we really supposed to believe that Dan R.'s wife is a big “Dan Fan” and wanted to donate to Seals, but it just happened to be convenient that her husband was stopping by the class, so she asked her husband to personally deliver the check to Seals? Gimme a break. I don’t know where the Rostenkowskis live, but I bet it’s not the 10th District (just like Seals). And if we are to believe this tall tale, why is Seals giving the check back? If you believe his story, doesn't it seem like he should have just explained this two weeks ago, kept the money, and let the story die? Something doesn't add up.

I could go on, but y’all get the idea. Does anyone really think that Seals would have come clean and returned that check without the scrutiny he received on this? If he wanted to admit he was wrong, why not refuse the check in class, rather than wait two weeks. And if he’s admitting it was wrong, shouldn’t he make an explanation and full apology to the NU administration and get their absolution before going to the press?

As this space has said for months, we simply can’t believe that NU continues to let itself be associated with this clown.

You, the 10th District voters will decide if we send this joker to Congress. Let’s make the right choice, everyone.

GAS FOR VOTES UPDATE: Yesterday, Dan Seals found it necessary to write in to the Daily Herald with a non-apology apology. When you have to write to the press and explain your own stunt, that's a sign of a real disaster. But, if you read the letter, you will notice a distinct absence of any apology to the people who waited in line for discounted gas and were turned away, or an apology to those who wanted nothing to do with Seals or his free gas but were caught up in the huge traffic jam, or an apology for damaging the environment by creating a sea of idling cars.

And today, 11th Congressional GOP candidate Marty Ozinga shows Dan how it's done at the pump. Ozinga wanted to discuss the impact of gas prices with 11th District constituents, so he showed up to a local gas station and offered to pump their gas so he could chat while customers were filling up. Note that Ozinga didn't try to BUY gas for voters, nor did he try to blame any one congressman or anyone for high gas prices. He's apparently smart enough to know (or honest enough to admit) that high gas prices are the result of a lot of different factors, the most important of which is probably the law of good old supply and demand. Seals apparently slept through that course in undergrad, as well as any ethics classes that might have been offered.

Finally BackyardConservative has a great cartoon from the Lakeland Journals (scroll down the page) on the gas stunt, plus commentary on the NU-Rosty donation scandal.

The Road to Obama's Nomination Littered With Corpses He's Thrown Under the Bus (REZKO UPDATE)

REZKO UPDATE (06/04/08 4:00 p.m.): As everyone is now reporting, Tony Rezko was found guilty on many, but not all, of the counts brought against him for mail fraud, money laudering, and others. Much more on this in the days to come, as you might expect. I hope Obama enjoyed his one day of over-the-top effusive and fauning press coverage, because the headlines in Chicago are going to be a lot different tomorrow morning....


Well, it's official--at least, it's official that the Barackstar now contends he's the presumptive Dem nominee. Hillary is trying to salvage what political capital she can out of this, as she has even stooped so low as to float the hint that she'd take the veep job. Well, I am pretty sure Obama's master plan is to enlist Hillary and her supporters (especially the big money donors), but do it in such a way that he doesn't have to share the White House with Bill and Hill.

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to really dive into tonight. Rather, since it's pretty clear Obama will be at the top of the Dem ticket, the IL GOP must contend with Barack-O-Mania, or risk getting wiped off the face of the fall races. But, there is hope, grasshoppers.

It's no coincidence that on the same day Obama clinches the Dem nomination, yet another one of his spiritual (and make no mistake, also his POLITICAL) mentors, Father Michael Pfleger, has been placed on a leave of absence by Cardinal George. Obama's ties to Pfleger can be minimized by the campaign, but can't be entirely hidden. (UPDATED): The Wednesday Wall Street Journal notes this:

A 2004 Chicago Sun-Times interview with Mr. Obama mentioned three men as his religious guides. One was Rev. Wright. Another was Father Michael Pfleger, the Louis Farrakhan ally whose recent remarks caused Mr. Obama to resign from Trinity, but for whose Chicago church Mr. Obama channeled at least $225,000 in grants as a state senator. Until recently, the priest was connected to the campaign, which flew him to Iowa to host an interfaith forum. Father Pfleger's testimony for the candidate has since been scrubbed from Mr. Obama's campaign Web site. A third mentor was Illinois state Senator James Meeks, another Chicago pastor who has generated controversy for mixing pulpit and politics.

Father Mike's supporters at St. Sabina, of course, think he's done nothing wrong. But, Obama, being a bright guy, has certainly learned a few lessons in this campaign, and one was not to waste any time throwing his former mentor under the bus. The St. Sabina parishioners are sure mad at Cardinal George for giving Father Mike the (at least temporary) heave-ho. Why aren't they mad at Obama for tossing Father Mike away like a used shake-and-bake bag?

But, how many more supporters can Obama toss under the campaign bus before the rest of America takes note that he's disavowed just about every significant associate he's had in the last 20 years? Does this not cast grave doubt on his judgment, at the very least? Will the general public finally start to get the picture that the long line of uber-radical figures that have all made headlines and subsequently been publicly rejected by Obama (some later rather than sooner) are a reflection of who Obama is and what he believes, rather than some kind of 'surprise' that these folks could have harbored these views for all these years, and poor, gullible Barack never knew?

And, better may be yet to come. There's still a little matter of a guy named REZKO, who's guilty verdict should be out any day. And his ties to another mope named BLAGO may well come back to eviscerate any claim Obama tries to lay to an ethical reformer of government, if the sitting governor of his home state is forced to face charges, or even the strong implication that he's going down.

And, I what I want to know is, will Hillary take the veep nomination (at least for now, before the Dem convention) hoping Obama will continue to slide and prove himself unelectable? I have difficulty believing she'd really settle for VP as the pinnacle of her career.

The news about the nomination lock-up, although long-anticipated, is still too fresh to make any valid prognostications about how this is all going to shape up. But, it is heartening that McCain is not waiting around for Obama to bring the fight to him. In fact, Obama really needed to wrap this up so that he could stop fighting a two-front war and concentrate on McCain. So, let's wait and see how this all develops before we GOPers do anything rash...

10TH DISTRICT UPDATE: Meanwhile, in 10th District news, Congressman Mark Kirk keeps doing his thing... Yesterday, Kirk addressed the members of AIPAC at its conference in Washington. According to TA's sources, Kirk spoke before at least 600 people over two breakout panels. The room was packed each time, and people sat on floors and leaned on walls to get a chance to hear him. He got at least six standing ovations, and the buzz around the entire conference is that Mark Kirk is the undisputed leader on U.S.-Israel defense issues.

Kirk has also been in the news lately for a new initiative to extend COBRA coverage beyond the current 18 month period that is allowed under the current law.

Finally, in a bit of a humorous twist, the Seals gas stunt is not one that will be quickly forgotten, at least in Lincolnshire. This week, Linconshire's mayor, Brett Blomberg, came out and endorsed Kirk over Seals.

UPDATED: Michelle Malkin has a good look at Obama's excuses on the bus victims now that the Rezko verdict has come out.