Posts Tagged ‘18th District’
Monday, July 28th, 2008
C.J. Summers beat me to the punch by commenting on Monday’s Word on the Street column. Karen McDonald points out that the national Democratic Party has not been as forthcoming with financial support to Colleen Callahan as many would like. This is nothing new, in my opinion. As long as I’ve been cognizant of politics, the national Dems have always written off the 18th District, even in years in which that party had candidate with a pulse.
But C.J. tried to compare and contrast the Word column with posts I have written that dare to suggest that there is strong support for Callahan, and that with some breaks she might actually have a chance.
In sports, you occasionally have games in which one team is the overriding favorite. They still play the games. And sometimes there are upsets.
Here’s another upset: A couple of years ago, a teenager who was ticked off about not being allowed to graduate early decided to run for school board. When they kicked him off the ballot, he ran a write-in campaign for the seat being held by the board president.
Aaron Schock won.
That same kid is now considered the overwhelming favorite to win the 18th District seat in Congress. His opponent is a well-known and respected broadcaster with a ton of name recognition. You can’t write Colleen Callahan out.
Not in this political climate. It’s three months to the election. That’s an eternity in politics.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Colleen Callahan
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
A press release from U.S. Rep Ray LaHood’s office, via the Illinois Channel:
WASHINGTON, DC (April 30)—By a vote of 291-117, the U.S. House last night approved legislation authored by Congressman Ray LaHood (R-Peoria) which would establish the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area in Illinois. LaHood represents the same 11 counties which Abraham Lincoln represented for one term in the U.S. House. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced and guided the legislation in the U.S. Senate, which approved the bill on April 10. The legislation was contained in the Consolidated Natural Resources Act, a comprehensive public lands bill (S. 2739). The bill now heads to the White House for an expected signature from President Bush.
LaHood’s legislation grew out of an idea from the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition, a Springfield-based group which has led efforts to create this Heritage Area. The legislation provides for up to $15 million in federal funds over 15 years to make grants available to assist with preservation and education of the Lincoln story at sites and communities throughout the area. The National Heritage Area encompasses 42 counties across the middle section of Illinois, from the Mississippi River in Western Illinois east to the Indiana border.
You know, $15 million here, $15 million there and pretty soon it ads up to a real money.
My question is this: Where do these “sites and communities” get their funding now? Are we going to be generating new “Lincoln sites”? And what does this have to do with natural resources? When I think of natural resources, I’m thinking of rivers and trees.
I Googled the Looking for Lincoln group and found the site. All it does is promote tours of various sites in four Illinois communities. Shouldn’t the funds for this come from where ever the Hell Congress usually funds local tourism efforts? At least here in Peoria, we tax our own poor people to pay for our futile tourism programs.
Feh. If this was a City of Peoria budget item, we’d be grumbling about how many sidewalks we could use this money on instead. But I can’t really blame LaHood or Durbin since they are giving Illinoisans what they want: A piece of the pork pie.
Tags: 18th District, Lincoln, Ray LaHood, tournism
Posted in Watchdog | Comments Off
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
 Is it really big news that Republican politicians (or those hoping to run for office again in he future) have endorsed GOP wünderkind Aaron Schock? Current 18th District Congressman Ray LaHood attended a press conference to officially endorse Schock, as did LaHood’s predecessor, Bob Michel. Also tossing their support to Schock were John Morris and Jim McConoughey, who ran against Schock in the GOP primary.
At first blush, it seems like such a non-story. That Republicans are endorsing the Republican nominee isn’t exactly a big surprise.
But, maybe this time it is at least a little bit of a surprise. Believe it or not, there was a bit of a doubt that LaHood would come through with an endorsement for Schock.
There were signs from the start that the sitting Congressman was miffed at Schock for not heeding his advice to wait a while before announcing he was he was going to for the the retiring LaHood’s job. It’s a certainty that state party bigwigs were annoyed at him for giving up a State House seat that almost certainly will return to the Democrats, and for doing so a few months after they dumped a lot of cash into getting him re-elected.
Then Schock was called out for perhaps violating federal election rules by, among other things, running his Congressional campaign out of the county GOP headquarters where he was renting space.
Also, LaHood was among those who expressed opposition to Schock’s position (originally defended, and then excused away as some sort of joke) that the United States ought to give nuclear weapons to Taiwan if Communist China didn’t stop arming Iran.
It’s also a reality that Schock — while talking like a moderate back home in Peoria — talked like a conservative when talking to conservatives, and took a sharp turn to the right in the primary. LaHood, while popular throughout the large, mostly rural 18th District, is nevertheless a moderate who sometimes faces scorn from some of the conservatives Schock has been sucking up to recently.
For these reasons, many observers (including this blog) spent the months preceding the primary election waiting for the shoe to drop and for LaHood to endorse someone other that Schock, probably McConoughey.
But LaHood finally stated that he probably wouldn’t make an endorsement, but would keep an eye on the campaigns and how they were being run. I took that statement as a warning to the Schock campaign to keep it clean. Schock gets good press for running clean campaigns, but that’s only because Schock’s people operate their whisper campaigns under the radar.
I kept hearing during the primary that the senior LaHood feared some sort of retaliation against son Darin LaHood, who is running for Peoria County State’s Attorney against Democratic incumbent Kevin Lyons.
But the primary is over, so it’s a cinch that LaHood would endorse Schock and be done with it, right? Wrong. Schock’s opponent in the Democratic Party is Colleen Callahan, a woman who is well-known throughout the 18th District due to her work as a agriculture reporter. As is well-known now, Callahan once helped organize a fund-raiser for LaHood, who Callahan has praised for his support for Illinois agriculture.
I can only assume that LaHood would be inclined to think favorably about someone who went out of her way to cross party lines to help him raise campaign cash.
One Peoria blogger, Elaine Hopkins, recently said that LaHood was signaling during a recent meeting of the ACLU in Peoria that he might actually toss some electoral love Callahan’s direction:
Another notable comment by Rep. LaHood was his referral to the Democratic nominee to replace him in the House as: “a very good and knowledgeable candidate here, in Colleen Callahan”. That statement alone might not have been given a second-thought except that he never acknowledged, or even uttered the name of Ms. Callahan’s GOP opponent. To several of us attending, it sounded almost like a subtle endorsement of Callahan. Interesting…
That was not to be, however.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Colleen Callahan, Ray LaHood
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 3 Comments »
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
I just received the following email:
AARON SCHOCK FOR CONGRESS
18th District Republicans are unified
(PEORIA) Former 18th District Congressman and House Republican Leader Bob Michel will be in Peoria and Springfield on Friday and Saturday campaigning for Representative Aaron Schock with Congressman Ray LaHood.
Mr. Michel and Congressman LaHood will join Schock at a news conference on Friday at Schock Headquarters along with Republican Primary contenders Jim McConoughey and John Morris, who are also expected to voice their support of Schock.
News Conference:
10:30 a.m. Friday, April 25, 2008
Schock for Congress Headquarters
Townhall Building at Junction City
5901 N. Prospect Road, Peoria
This isn’t particularly surprising. Republicans will endorse Republicans. It would have been big news if either of his primary opponents OR LaHood not endorsed him. After all, Colleen Callahan did do some fundraising for LaHood back before she decided to run as a Democrat. I can’t imagine that LaHood will have anything bad to say about her, despite his endorsement of Schock. I might show up and ask a few questions, just for giggles.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Colleen Callahan, Ray LaHood
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | Comments Off
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Many moons ago, I created a post called “Peoria Pundit’s list of almost-always true observations.” I add observations as I go through life and, well, observe them. My second original observation was this:
2. Rich people don’t pay taxes. Working-class people pay taxes. Rich people pass along the costs through lower wages, poorer service and higher prices and rent.
So I’m afraid I am going to have to concur with C.J. Summers on this one: 18th District Congressional candidate Colleen Callahan’s plan to cut the federal gasoline tax in half, and replace it with hikes in taxes on oil company profits would probably be a zero-sum gain for most Americans. It might even mean a net loss to taxpayers:
Callahan estimated the gas-tax cut would amount to about $12.5 billion per year, while she would increase the tax on oil companies by about $15 billion — $12.5 billion to fund road construction and maintenance, and $2.5 billion for alternative-fuel research and development.
Which means that direct taxes would be cut by $12.5 billion, but the oil companies would pass along a $15 billion tax to consumers.
The real cure for rising fuel prices will be achieved by new technology. We’ll either come up with a form of ethanol that’s so cheap to create it won’t need government subsidies OR take farm land out of the business of producing food for a hungry world, or we’ll wise up and rekindle out nuclear power industry and we can start using all-electric vehicles.
But Americans are impatient. There’s a magic price out there that’s just high enough to create just enough political pressure to make Congress take the sorts of anti-competitive actions that really will hurt American consumers.
Unfortunately, feel good-measures like this are inevitable. I was thinking about this today as rode the bus and looked at the gas prices. I recall that the price of a gallon used to hover around 69 cents. I saw prices of about $3.49 today — and a rumor was going around that stations were expected to pass along a 20-cent-per-gallon increase sometime tonight.
Tags: 18th District, Colleen Callahan, gas prices, gas tax
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Via the State Journal-Register:
Admittedly running against “great odds,†Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer is entering the race to replace U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria.
Schafer, 59, of Peoria and a political novice, hopes to offer a different choice at the ballot box in November and advance the beliefs of the Green Party, which was established in 2006 in Illinois. Primary party principles are environmentalism, social justice and peace.
[snip]
Schafer is vice president of education at Lakeview Museum, where he has worked since 1976, and teaches an astronomy course at Bradley University.
Please … do not annoy me with speculation about whether Schafer would take votes away from Callahan or Schock. The votes belong to the voters, and elections are not the private property of the GOP or the Dems.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Colleen Callahan, Green Party
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 5 Comments »
Friday, March 14th, 2008
I looked over Colleen Callahan’s official web site, and I have to say that, so far, it lacks real content. Except for providing readers with some contact information and a way to donate, there’s not a lot there.
In other words, Aaron Schock’s site has Colleen’s beat all to Hell. Sorry. Maybe that will change. But not all is lost. Schock’s campaign is so itent on making a case that his huge campaign warchest makes him invulnerable to challengers, the site links to a Springfield State Journal-Register article about how Callahan has to play catch-up in the cash-raising biz.
The problem (for Schock) is that this article didn’t just talk about cash. The article humanized Callahan by introducing people to members of her family. I imagine not many people knew that her daughter, Brittney Burns, is a top-notch lawyer with tons of experience fighting crime and working with the legislature. Sounds to me like she’s be a huge asset to her mom if she gets elected to Congress.
The message seems to be that Schock is the front runner ’cause he has a ton of cash, while Callahan has her smart and politically talented family on her side.
Were I operating her site, I’d be sure to link to the same article.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Brittney Burns, Colleen Callahan, Congress
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | Comments Off
Friday, March 7th, 2008
 The GOP won’t be able to pretend that Aaron Schock doesn’t have an opponent in the November general election. The party chairman of the counties within the 18th Congressional district met Thursday and selected broadcaster Colleen Callahan as the party’ nominee.
Her biggest challenge, as I see it, is fund raising. She got off to a late start, while Schock has been squirreling away cash for months.
I disagree with reporter Karen McDonald’s unattributed assertion that Callahan is burdened by Schock’s greater name recognition. Sorry. But she’s been a household name for longer than Schock’s been alive, due to her reports on television on radio. Aaron, until recently, was little known outside Peoria. She’s probably been to county fairs and 4-H events in each of the 20 counties in the district.
I’m not going to make a prediction in this race, other than to say she’s going to be a much tougher opponent than John Morris and Jim McConoughey were in the primary. Her family has been linked to the Democratic Party at the state and national level. I think she’s going to be able to raise some cash, albeit not as much as Schock. The 18th District has skewed Republican for decades. Well, demographics change. And if the Democratic Party is headed by native son Barack Obama, look for a massive turnout in Illinois to help Callahan.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Colleen Callahan
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 8 Comments »
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
The Chicago Tribune blog Clout Street says the national Democratic Party are targeting three Congressional districts now held by the GOP. The 18th District is not one of those listed.
That’s surprising. The district seems ripe for turnover. The incumbent is retiring, and the presumptive nominee (pending approval by the county chairs) would seem to be a strong candidate because of her name recognition, proven communication skills, ties to the Democratic Party AND the GOP, as well as the ability to speak knowledgeably about agriculture in a mostly rural district.
If the national Democrats are going to take a pass and not throw some resources into this district, it wouldn’t be the first time. Lack of national support probably doomed G. Douglas Stephens’ attempt to unseat Rep. Bob Michel back in the early 1980s. I can understand the party not wanting to target the minority leader, but Aaron Schock? The guy who got national publicity for wanting to sell nukes to Taiwan?
Hat tip: Rich Miller.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Bob Michel
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 13 Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
A GOP friend with experience helping run a Congressional campaign doubts very much that the Aaron Schock 18th District campaign — or any Congressional candidate — benefited from any of the financial irregularities being investigated at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Last week, the Schock campaign (as well as other candidates) fired its campaign treasurer Christopher J. Ward after news reports identified him as the central figure in an investigation into irregularities at the NRCC.
Steve Shearer told the press that he not only never met Ward (he was hired on his reputation alone), Ward never touched the money that had been donated to Schock.
I found that odd, and speculated that Schearer was trying to establish plausible deniability should the scandal reach the Schock campaign.
I just got off the phone with a GOP friend. This person was deeply involved at a high level in different GOP Congressional campaign during a previous election cycle . This campaign also hired Ward. While Ward was on record as their campaign treasurer, Ward never met high ranking campaign officials, nor did he have any access to the funds. Ward was sent copies of checks and invoices and bills, then used them to compile financial reports that were electronically fired with the Federal Election Commission. Ward charged them $2,000 quarterly.
Why hire Ward, a former NRCC staffer who worked as a vendor out of NRCC offices? My source says that most people just do not realize how “painful” the FEC financial reporting process is. He doubts there is anyone in Peoria who could do it.
Because of Ward’s lack of access to that campaign’s funds, my source is not worried that they lost any money, or that money was funneled into that campaign. The source says it’s foolish to even try, because not only is the FEC ruthless in demanding documentation, the FEC reports are poured over by the local and national media looking for discrepancies.
My two cents: Several days ago, I thought this story had legs and would turn into an investigation into the candidates whose campaigns hired ward. After this conversation, Shearer’s statements seem much more plausible to me.
Nevertheless, I must remind myself of something that is true of people who break the rules: They think they can get away with it. I wouldn’t want to tangle with the FEC. But hubris is a common trait among those who dabble in politics.
I don’t think this will go far beyond Ward. But you never know.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Christopher Ward, FEC, Steve Shearer
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
A friend of the Republican persuasion sent me the following:
Statement From NRCC Chairman Tom Cole
“As part of our ongoing efforts to institute and strengthen financial controls at the National Republican Congressional Committee, we learned earlier this week of irregularities in our financial audit process. Since these irregularities may include fraud, we have notified appropriate law enforcement authorities. We are aggressively and thoroughly investigating the matter and, while we determine the details, have terminated our relationship with a former employee who had been engaged as an outside vendor.â€
This former employee/outside vendor is believed to be Christopher Ward, who was fired as campaign treasurer of Aaron Schock’s campaign for Congress from Illinois’ 18th District.
By GOP friend says this indicates, to him, that the financial shenanigans I speculated about earlier were probably not geared toward helping congressional candidates raise cash, but were probably designed to enrich others.
He held out the possibility that the statement may just be spin, and that Ward really was trying to raise more money for Congressional candidates.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Christopher Ward, Steve Shearer
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
I’m trying to not be incredulous here. I suppose it’s possible. It just seems damn reckless to me. But Aaron Schock’s campaign manager Steve Shearer tells the State Journal-Register’s Bernie Schoenburg that he’s never met the man they hired as campaign treasurer. This is the same guy who is considered a central figure into a federal investigation into the finances into the National Republican Congressional Committee:
Steve Shearer, campaign manager for Schock, said the campaign replaced Christopher J. Ward as soon as officials heard of the questions. A Schock staffer, Rachel Honegger, was named the new treasurer, Shearer said.
Shearer said he has never met Ward, but Ward was a long-time comptroller of the NRCC, which helps GOP candidates for the U.S. House nationwide. Ward’s association with that group, and the fact that he has been associated with perhaps more than 100 House and Senate campaigns nationwide, indicated he had impeccable credentials, Shearer said.
It’s a good breaking news story, and by the time most people read this post, a full version might be up at the SJ-R Website.
The gist of the story is that the Ward fellow never touched Schock’s campaign money, just made sure the campaign was in compliance with federal laws. Or so Shearer says now.
Here are my observations:
- The purpose of the NRCC is to make sure Republicans get elected to Congress, and once they get there, stay there. Making sure they have huge campaign war chests is one way they do that.
- If there were any financial shenanigans, they were shenanigans designed put money into he hands of Congressional candidates.
- Aaron Schock is a Congressional candidate.
- The “central figure” in this alleged attempt to illegally put money into the hands of Congressional candidates was, until recently, employed by Aaron Schock’s campaign.
- Schock outspent and outraised his two primary opponents in the 18th District race, one of whom is a millionaire and one of whom is a professional fundraiser.
You do the math.
And I’ll make this observation, too. Shearer is a master of finding the line between what is legal and what is not. He comes very close, and according to come, he crosses it on occasion, then feigns innocence when called on it. This was true of Shearer back when he was running Schock’s state house campaign as it is the Congressional campaign. Look at his early attempt to illegally operate out of Peoria County Republican Party offices during the early weeks of the campaign.
The one guy who Shearer hired as campaign treasurer just happens to be the central figure in s financial scandal at the NRCC. And when news hits the paper, Shearer says he never met the guy, and he never touched the money anyway.
I’m just not buying it.
Remember, Nixon never met the Watergate plumbers. He wouldn’t know who they were had they met him on the street.
And don’t waste your time sending me emails defending Steve Shearer’s honor. This is a man who had no problems working for Jerry Weller, the 11th District Republican who is figuratively and literally in bed with Central American genocidal dictators. Being involved in some financial slight of hand would be a step up on the morality scale.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Christopher Ward, Jerry Weller, NRCC, Steve Shearer
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 5 Comments »
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
UPDATE: After 10 minutes of a message telling me that”no web audio servers are available,” I gave up. I wish BlogTalkRadio the best. I didn’t even know if I was on the air or not. Apparently, they will need it.
NOTE: I’m going on the air in 40 minutes.
I’ve been a little under the weather, so I don’t know how long my voice will hold out. I’m HOPING that I get some callers today (show starts at 4 p.m. and can be heard here) to take some of the pressure off. The listener call-in number is (347) 326-9459.
What’s on the agenda? I want to talk about the elections, specifically Jehan Gordon’s victory over Allen Mayer, Aaron Schock’s victory over John Morris and Jim McConoughey, and the whole presidential drama.
Locally, I want to get into what’s upcoming with the Peoria City Council, including taking odds on whether or not the city will pass it’s own smoking ban ordinance AND the odds of passage of any increase in the HRA tax rate. And I want to touch on security at Peoria City Hall, and what, if anything, the city should do in light of what happened in Kirkwood, MO.
Links:
Tags: 18th District, 92nd District, Peoria City Council, radio, Statehouse & Capitol
Posted in Watchdog | 1 Comment »
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
 The Daily Journal from Kankakee has an excellent profile of Colleen Callahan, who’s put in the ring for the Democratic nomination to run against Aaron Schock for 18th District representative. Turns out her family has a long history of high-level, albeit behind-the-scenes involvement in Democratic Party politics. It turns out that Judge Richard Grawey — who also was considering being considered — has again dropped out, the DJ reports. It’s just as well, because everything indicated to me that Grawey really didn’t want the job. Meanwhile, Callahan’s homespun family story will be an appealing narrative. And it’s a narrative that will be told by proven communicator. It’s going to be a fun race to watch.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Colleen Callahan
Posted in Overset | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
 Colleen Callahan Burns — whose voice is a staple on local television and radio through her agriculture commentary and reporting — confirmed to me this morning that the Democratic Party is considering her as their candidate for the 18th District seat in Congress.
“I was asked to consider it by people in the district,” she said. “I have consulted with members of my family and decided it was the right thing to do.”
She owns Colleen Callahan Communications, but is better known as a agriculture reporter and commentator on local radio and televisions. Her Website says that for 24 years, she hosted an award-winning daily feature segment on WMBD-TV (Peoria, IL) and WCIA-TV (Champaign, IL).
Agriculture, the economy and Iraq would be the main issues of her campaign if she is in fact chosen by the party chairs of the 20-county 18th District. She declined to go into specifics, saying that at the moment, she’s simply expressed an interest in being the candidate. She referred all questions regarding the time-table on their decision to the chairs. (NOTE: THe decision cannot be made until after the Feb. 5 primary, but must be made before April 7).
I would have to think she would be a formidable opponent. Her communication skills are top notch, and her knowledge of agricultural issues would play very well indeed in the district. Name recognition never hurt anyone running for office either.
UPDATE: Of course, WMBD AM has a story on her throwing her name in the ring.
Two people I’ve discussed Callahan-Burns’ candidacy with think it’s a wonderful idea. They know nothing of her politics (both are life-long Democrats). The gist of it is that they trust her. Why not? She’s only been coming into their homes every day for 25 years, giving them news and information. It’s more than the fact that she’s a familiar face and voice.\
 UPDATE 2: The Pantagraph says she was on vacation in Hawaii when the news broke. A true newsie, she recognized the need to stay in the good graces of the press. So she returned several phone calls. From Hawaii. I wouldn’t call my own mother back if I was on vacation in Hawaii.
Tags: 18th District, Colleen Callahan Burns
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 24 Comments »
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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