From CQ Politics, a report that Aaron Schock is setting up a fund to pump money into other Congressional candidates campaign war chests:
It is hardly unusual for members of Congress to set up leadership PACs. These fundraising vehicles, which collect money from donors and mete it out to other candidates of the same party, once were mainly the province of top party leaders but have proliferated through the ranks in recent years.
But it is still extremely rare for a candidate who has not yet arrived in Congress to establish a leadership PAC — especially someone like Schock, who still is roughly seven months out from the general election that he expects to send him to Washington. Schock faces a viable though longshot challenger in Democratic farm broadcaster Colleen Callahan.
Schock, a 26-year-old state representative from Peoria touted by some Republicans as one of his party’s rising stars, has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to form his leadership PAC, just two months after his victory in the Feb. 5 Republican primary. The committee, which has been dubbed the “GOP Generation Y Fundâ€, will give donations this fall to Republican candidates in close races for the U.S. House, said Steven Shearer, Schock’s campaign manager and the treasurer of the leadership PAC.
[snip]
While Democrats may portray Schock as premature or even arrogantin setting up a leadership PAC ahead of Election Day, his confidence appears solidly based. He won the February Republican primary with 71 percent of the vote against two credible challengers. Democratic nominee Callahan, on the other hand, was tapped to run by officials of her party who found themselves after the primary with an empty ballot slot for the general election — the result of the unexpected decision last December by the Democrats’ expected nominee, former basketball executive Dick Versace, to withdraw from the race for personal reasons.
One way for your candidacy to become inevitible is to convince people that it is. I think this is part of that effort by campaign manager Steven Shearer. We shouldn’t forget that Shear represented disgraced 11th District Congressman Jerry Weller, a man who was in bed — financially and sexually — with members of a brutal central American dictatorship. Shearer is a smart cookie, and has done a great job portraying Schock as inevitible. This makes it hard for donors to justify giving cash to anyone else.
But the idea of this kid (is he 26 or 27 now?) handing out cash to experienced political veterans in exchange for their loyalty strikes me as silly. It depends on how willing some of these veterans are to surrender their manhood in order to be able to outspend their opponents.
It’s not a stretch to consider this guy arrogant. He is. While Schock has had state Republicans running scared (which isn’t hard considering the sorry state of the state GOP), the national party includes some big guns who would just as soon put little Aaron in his place until he gets some seasoning.
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Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Oh, for Petes sake, Billy, will you please go back and edit that. It’s practically illegible – although I think I catch your drift. Aaron Schock just can’t win as far as you are concerned. If it was Ms. Callahan doing the same thing, you’d talk about how generous and gallant she was. Geez.
Then again, Callahan isn’t a pompous know-it-all with career aspirations.
Billy,
Please cite the big guns who are against retaining the seat as a Republican seat or is there any merit to your claim.
Because Colleen is not a big time party operative or activist she does not have career aspirations??? If she is pure as the driven snow let her state she only in for one term and will not stand for reelection if she is sucessful.
Terrible exaggeration. Nobody is holding either of them to “pure as the driven snow” standards. We already know what we’ll get with Schock in office. That alone almost immediately validates the opposition.
Post sim,
My question pretains to Ms Calahan. Does she or does she not posess career aspirations? Yes or or no would be the expected response.
If she is not aspiring to higher office as previous comments might suggest what is she in the race for?
Is she doing the Jeffersonian model of serving a term then return to the farm(literally) and let some other candidate pull the wagon?
If she does have career aspirations what is the problem with that?
I see where you’re coming from. Of course she has career aspirations, but she doesn’t give off the vibe that she’s only in it for her career. Aaron Schock comes off like he’s more concerned about doing what’s good for Aaron Schock.
Giving off certain vibes is not a disqualification for office. It might be some folks perception that uncomfortable vibes are the deciding factor of who shall be the Rep for the 18th Dist, but it pales in comparison to the issues of national security, free trade ageements, and a robust economic system.
Most folks do what is best for themselves, it is natural to protect ones own situation. If we did not then our longevity as human kind would be very limited.
Having an ambitious, hard charging person as our Congressman would be a shame. Those types of people never get anywhere in the Congress.
Raising money for fellow Republicans is bound to earn him enmity from his future colleagues…I’m sorry, I just don’t get that one.
Let’s vote for the meeker of the two candidates by all means.
Nah, Precinct. I wouldn’t vote for him because of his fascist policies.
His vibe is just irritating and, well, I never trust people with too much ambition. It can easily lead to corruption.
Post Sim,
What is too much ambition?
Is there any office holder with no ambition? Where do you draw the line between regular ambition and extreme ambition? What figure in American Politics had no ambition? If they had no ambition then we would not even know about them.
Fascist policies?
Stanley Payne’s classical general theory of fascism.
A. The Fascist Negations
Anti-liberalism
Anti-communism
Anti-conservatism
B. Ideology and Goals
Creation of a new nationalist authoritarian state.
Organization of some new kind of regulated, multi-class, integrated national economic structure.
The goal of empire.
Specific espousal of an idealist, voluntarist creed.
C. Style and Organization
Emphasis on aesthetic structure . . .stressing romantic and mystical aspects.
Attempted mass mobilization with militarization of political relationships and style and the goal of a mass party militia.
Positive evaluation and use of . . .violence.
Extreme stress on the masculine principle.
Exaltation of youth.
Specific tendency toward an authoritarian, charismatic, personal style of command.
Link to above art. http://www.counterpunch.org/shivani1026.html