Trading jabs on the radio
All four of the Democratic candidates in the 14th Congressional District squared off in two meetings Thursday, first at the taping of a Chicago radio show and later at a debate sponsored by a local newspaper and TV station.
At the radio taping, John Laesch said he'd vote against authorizing any additional funds for the war, saying Congress should use the "power of the purse" to stop the war. Jotham Stein and Joe Serra then jumped all over Laesch, saying that move would do nothing but endanger U.S. troops. Stein also called Laesch's foreign policy views "extreme."
Given a chance to respond, Laesch started out by saying this: "This is what you get -- it's called the 'attack the leader' syndrome."
Unfortunately the radio show, which airs Sunday, can't convey Bill Foster's reaction to that comment -- a stifled laugh and eye roll shared with a member of his campaign team. The radio also won't depict how vigorously Foster shook his head when Laesch claimed he has the most name recognition in the district; apparently Foster's polling data shows otherwise.
When I asked the candidates whom they support in the presidential race, Laesch named Barack Obama, Serra chose Hillary Clinton, Stein refused to say and Foster said he has a "soft spot" for Obama but added that his campaign is officially neutral.
Listen to the entire 30-minute program on "At Issue" with host Craig Dellimore at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday on WBBM-780 AM.
Foster and Paul Simon:
Foster's campaign is continuing its mail blitz. Late last week, Foster sent out a four-page mailer calling himself a "Paul Simon Democrat" who's going to restore common sense to Washington. The mailer featured a photo of the beloved bow tie-wearing Illinois senator, who died in 2003.
I asked Simon's daughter, Sheila Simon, if she'd seen the ad. She hadn't. But the former member of the Carbondale City Council certainly didn't take offense.
"Certainly lots of Democrats around that state have annual Paul Simon dinners," she said. "Anyone who wants to pursue Dad's line of thinking and associate with him that way, we're always happy to say yes … It would give him a big kick."
Moving money around:
Not too many surprises surfaced when the congressional candidates' campaign finance reports came out this week, with Republican Jim Oberweis leading the pack, followed close behind by Foster. But there was one interesting tidbit in GOP candidate Chris Lauzen's paperwork. Lauzen won the fundraising battle in the third quarter, raising $536,505 and thereby beating Oberweis at his own game. Much of that money consisted of a $324,750 loan from Lauzen himself that he took out Sept. 27 -- just three days before the reporting period ended. Curiously, he repaid that loan Oct. 1, which begs the question: Why did he need the loan? To maintain the appearance of being able to keep up with a man he accuses of buying the election with "big money and big insider establishment clout?" I called Lauzen's staff to ask but wasn't able to reach him Friday night.