Picking an attack winner in the 6th

I consider myself an independent voter, and one who actually pays attention to political campaigns. You can tell a lot about a candidate by how they campaign. Living in the 6th Congressional District has been fairly eventful in the past couple of elections.

Anyone who was not in a coma in 2006 remembers the barrage of negative ads in Peter Roskam's race against Tammy Duckworth, and the accompanying media coverage, which ranged from Fox News to Al-Jazeera.

The 6th District is much quieter this time around; however the negative campaigning has not disappeared. I've received about six mail pieces from Jill Morgenthaler's campaign, all saying the same thing: Roskam is too extreme.

Roskam, on the other hand, has attacked Morgenthaler for her work as Gov. Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff. Roskam has also linked Morgenthaler to the felon Tony Rezko. Morgenthaler's attacks seem to be a rerun from Duckworth's campaign, and they weren't effective then.

However, I was taken back by Morgenthaler's ties to Blagojevich and Rezko in Roskam's recent commercial. Roskam's ad pointed out the fact that Morgenthaler assisted Rezko in obtaining a $50 million contract in Iraq.

It seems like we have a re-tread attack versus some very timely corruption charges. I think Roskam wins.

Billy Eisner

Glen Ellyn