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Tonight’s debate
Tuesday, Mar 7, 2006 The Illinois Chamber and the NFIB are hosting tonight’s GOP governor’s debate, but if you’re not in Springfield or Champaign you’re out of luck. The debate will be broadcast this afternoon from 5-6pm on WICS-20 (Spfld) and WICD-15 (Champaign). It won’t be on the Internet and is not being made available for rebroadcast to other stations. ABC-7 in Chicago will air another debate tomorrow night at 10:30 pm. Use this as a debate open thread. UPDATE: WHOA! Isn’t it illegal to record a private phone conversation in Illinois without consent? Oby says he has tapes of Kovarik-Topinka calls. Bombshell… and backfire? UPDATE 2: Oberweis may have misspoken. He clearly said recordings or tapes of conversations (plural), but I think they only have one voicemail, which isn’t much. He sure looked sleazy when he said it, though. And he was booed by the audience. UPDATE 3: The AP story is up. Jim Oberweis drew boos and jeers twice during a Republican gubernatorial debate Tuesday when he accused rival Judy Baar Topinka of unethical conduct. Coverage always follows conflict.
- Posted by Rich Miller
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- Establishment Republican - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 4:06 pm:
They can’t compete with American Idol anyway.
- Establishment Republican - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 4:08 pm:
Although, I can picture Judy getting out her accordion and breaking into a little Pat Benatar “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”
What songs would the other candidates do?
That can be the Question of the Day…..
Sorry Mr. Miller for trying to steal your thunder.
- Randall Sherman - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 4:11 pm:
Perhaps someone should remind the station managers that half-assed efforts to serve the public are not acceptable, and then put it in a letter to be place in the station’s PUBLIC FILE (which means the complaint will remain as a scarlet letter against the station come renewal time).
- Papa Legba - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 4:27 pm:
Please Randall…
ABC-7 is just trying to spare us TWO nights of the bickering goofballs. Isn’t one opportunity enough?
Winkin’, Blinkin’, Nod and Yawn live on your TV. The commercials are enough to make one vomit.
- bored now - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 4:31 pm:
what? people won’t be transfixed to their television (or computers) watching the election returns?
- Bubs - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 4:35 pm:
ER- I think country music titles are best (all actual songs):
Topinka: “I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim’s Gettin’ Better.”
Oberweis: “Wouldn’t Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I’m Afraid She’d Winâ€
Gidwitz: “If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I’d Be Out By Nowâ€
Brady: “Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowlingâ€
- Reddbyrd - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 5:04 pm:
Hey the debate has started and the MOPEs ( as is GOP couldn’t fill the little auditorium
- Anon - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 5:10 pm:
Not to be a spoil sport on the music theme, but some of the Pre-election reports are up at the Illinois board of elections.
- Reddbyrd - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 5:32 pm:
ChopperJIm just told the crowd he has tapes of AccordianGal and MartyK on the phone Yikes.
- DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 5:47 pm:
Good maybe they will finally fit Obie with that straight jacket and haul him off to the nut ward.
- DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 5:56 pm:
Anon 5:10 do you have a link for the returns.If so would you please post it.
- Reddbyrd - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 6:16 pm:
Too bad it is just a voice mail..All of IL was hoping for some steamy stuff from the AccordianGal.
How about the post game reaction? Larry Bomke and Mike Houston….Apparently they did not get the memo about spinners boosting their candidate…Maybe they will be for GRod!
Then they rolled out Kent”CindiCanary” Redfield offer more “expert analysis”
ChopperJim did look bad. Booing did not help.
MarciasBrother is starting to look a little puffy
RonnieG should have had a Cubs Hat to make the most of the Trib endorsemsnt.
Hate to pick on the broadcast, but the station was smart not to put this up for wider viewing.
- DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 6:25 pm:
Reddbyrd is there anyone that you don’t like?
- Marta Elena - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 6:28 pm:
I watched the debates. Did you notice that Topinka would not shake Obie’s hand? I don’t blame her though…
I liked Bill Brady - he was comfortable in his responses. I was looking for Gidwitz to shine since the Chicago Tribune endorsed him for Governor. However, he looked uncomfortable in the debate.
- B Hicks - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 6:39 pm:
Oberweis delivered the best; I give him a B.
Judy C
Gidwitz D
Brady D-
Poor little Judy. She sure didn’t waist any time leaving the place.
- B Hicks - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 6:41 pm:
Also, when Judy campaigns in Chicago, do you think that she complains about the Governor spending too much time there. She sure spouts it out here.
- Just a Good Ol Boy - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 6:48 pm:
I got a better reaction song for Judy to obie:
(and this is a real song on the radio)
“I’d like to help you out, but my give-a-damn is busted”
- Anon - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 7:09 pm:
Judy made another debate wow. How does Springfield rate us other poor downstater’s aren’t worthy.
- Long Time Reader; First Time Poster - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 7:25 pm:
I love how Oberweis always says “I’m not a politician.”
He should instead say, “I’m not a WINNING politician.”
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 7:27 pm:
Good point Long Time. Not sure I’ve written that, but I have pointed it out in speeches.
By the way, isn’t it time to change your screen name? lol
- DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 7:39 pm:
AMEN to whoever said that this is weakening the party but I don’t think Obie cares.
- In the Land of Silos and Cows - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 7:50 pm:
“Jim Oberweis: The ‘Can you hear me now?’ candidate”
- State worker AFSCME - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 7:58 pm:
I wish Oberwise would grow up. His tatics are getting old fast. He has lost all credibility with his lastest stunt against JBT. As much as I love his ice cream I might just go chunky monkey from now on.
- Marta Elena - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 8:31 pm:
I’m so glad the audience booed at obie’s comments. At this point, I think he’s going for the shock value.
Oberweis chocolate milk - is so thick that it tastes like a chocolate milkshake.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 8:52 pm:
Thank you Ron Gidwitz, for reminding me that you’re a Republican, and oppose Equal Pay for Equal Work for women.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 9:19 pm:
Wow have things changed in the last 4 years. Before the party of smaller government (whose Sangamon County chapter has spent the last four years griping about layoffs and the need to hire more state workers) would have had that place packed with their mopes. And I don’t want hear about the time of day it was held or that state GOP workers are afraid to show their faces. If the hot bed of party hacks (Sangamon County GOP) can’t get a bigger group to show up, it may not matter who wins the GOP primary.
- Bo - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 9:31 pm:
You know, not only are the Repubs in a seemingly state of confusion with lack of solidarity, but the Dems have no better an organization…they have to somehow sit/stand there and say they endorse a Governor who has caused many, many headaches.
Is it just me or are political parties no longer about the party, but rather the individual (or certain few individuals) of that party?
- Roy Slade - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 9:34 pm:
No, really, anon 9:19- it is because it was at a bad time of day and we really are *laying low*. No doubt about it. We are keeping our heads low, and our mouths shut, because we really do fear these band of idiots. There is no telling how low they would stoop to make our lives miserable. Wow- don’t you read the newspapers?
- Chicago Jason - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 11:17 pm:
*munches on popcorn, smiling*
- The Boos are Echoing Across Illinois - Tuesday, Mar 7, 06 @ 11:23 pm:
Don’t you get it yet, Jim?
Don’t you get it yet, Jack?
Don’t you get it yet, Joe?
Don’t you get it yet, PL?
Don’t you get it yet, DI?
Don’t you get it yet, CS?
The politics of hate are not only losing, they are being booed and jeered by Republicans. That reaction is coming from the very “grassroots” you falsely claim to represent.
What a POSITIVE watershed for the Illinois GOP.
- Central IL Stater - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 12:42 am:
To answer some questions, the debate was open only to Chamber of Commerce Members of which I am not a part, or I would have tried to attend. Oberweiss was booed because he was dredging crap up and not dealing with the issues that truly face IL voters. And the man should have been escorted from the stage and the state, lol.
Downstate 7:39 p.m., the person who said this remark was State Senator and Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Brady - the only candidate so far to stay above the mud slinging.
Bill also delivered the best line of the night:
“Brady was asked for his answer to the rising cost of health care for businesses.
‘My answer is to retire Rod Blagojevich,’ he said.” (From the AP.)
That was the highlight of the evening. The sensationalism of course topped the news down here and some weird newscaster saying that all the candiates are slinging mud.
However, Bill Brady isn’t from what I saw tonight. And from what I’ve seen he hasn’t.
He seems to be the only “adult” in this primary. And when JBT wouldn’t shake the other candidate’s hand, she did shake Bill Brady’s after the debate - so I give her some props for that.
However, the downstate media’s putting all the candidates in one bag when it’s not ture.
So just to give you some facts. Question. Tomorrow’s debate, is it a Chicago one or somwhere else since they won’t play this all over the state from what I hear.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 12:44 am:
It’s in Chicago. Not sure if they plan to run it on the web.
- Central IL Stater - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 12:58 am:
thanks rich. I’m going to bed. this is a great blog. Thanks,
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 1:15 am:
Goodnight.
- the wonderboy - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 1:38 am:
B-Hicks-
Perhaps we would actually pay attention to your opinion if you weren’t so obviously favoring The Milkman. Seriously, I think anyone who watched the debate saw your boy get booed and look uncomfortable the whole night, and yet you say he delivered and give him the highest marks. Nothing like ignoring the facts…
- Patriotic Jones - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 3:39 am:
And once the primaries are over, and you pull the knife of betrayal out your back from the republicans and democrats, I advise you to check out the Constitution Party Candidate, Randall C. Stufflebeam. With his 22-year history in the Marine Corps, it looks like he is the only one who can truly bring about the desparately needed changes to save Illinois from the destructive course it is headed. You heard it said many time by the republican candidates themselves, it’s time for an “outsider” to come in and fix things, well, there’s no one more outside the “Culture of Corruption” than Mr. Stufflebeam. You can find out more about him at http://www.RunRandyRun.com.
- the wonderboy - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 10:44 am:
As a veteran myself, I’m going to be the first one to step up and say that military service doesn’t necessarily prepare you to be governor. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the guy and I know that military service is honorable and prepares those who serve to go on to great things…but I wouldn’t say he is ready to be the state’s top executive. Let’s be honest…from his bio it appears that he was enlisted and doesn’t have a college degree…that means that Randy likely wasn’t even the top ranking enlisted guy in his command. No disrespect, but if he doesn’t even have the experience of command leadership, I don’t think he should assume to be capable of the office of governor. I hope he stays involved because his service is honorable, but he needs to work his way up to have the needed knowledge and experience.
- Central IL Stater - Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 11:56 am:
wonderboy, exactly.
Patriotic: Right now Stufflebeam doesn’t have the legislative experience that I would be comfortable with. If he does get elected, he would have to fight with the General Assembly on both sides of the asile to get stuff passed. It would be a lose-lose situation for Illinois.
Right now, the best republican candidate is Brady from what I’m seeing.
Maybe Stufflebeam can run for state representative and make some coalitions and then he can run for higher office. Just a thought.
I listened to him before, he wasn’t bad.
- Patriotic Jones - Sunday, Mar 12, 06 @ 6:21 am:
P.S.
I was a Vet myself. I suspect that like me, you also served under those with “command leadership” who couldn’t lead their way out of a wet paper sack. I had the opportunity to serve with many a Marine - Sergeants who I would follow becuase of their leadership over and above those with degrees and appointed as commissioned officers.
And living in a state with the WORST veteran’s support in the Nation, I can’t imagine not r
rallying behind this Marine and getting him elected so he can start taking care of his own band of brothers. Who else would have the heart of a veteran?
There’s something to be said for getting an enlisted man elected. He is of the working class, knows what it’s like to be in the trenches, instead of always electing the aristocrat who knows nothing of the hard working American.
Don’t you think it’s time to do something different. Look what doing the same thing over and over has gotten Illinois.
Trackback MoveOnAndShutUp.org - Saturday, Sep 2, 06 @ 12:57 pm:
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