Posts Tagged ‘Ray LaHood’
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Aaron Schock is getting some criticism from the Democrats for passing our money from a program he voted against:
In a stunning act of hypocrisy, Congressman Aaron Schock held a press conference with members of the East Peoria Police Department to “award” a $410,000 federal COPS Technology Grant that he voted against on the House floor. During the event, Congressman Schock claimed “here in East Peoria, the police department, they make great investments in their people, and it only makes sense to continue to invest in the technology and tools they have in order to keep the citizens of East Peoria safe and police officers safe in the line of duty.”
“Opposing much needed law enforcement funding is bad enough, but it is simply outrageous for Congressman Schock to then hypocritically take credit for securing the very money he voted against,” said Gabby Adler, the Midwestern Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Aaron Schock not only misled the people of East Peoria, he lied to the faces of the men and women of the East Peoria Police Department who put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect the community.”
The expenditure for East Peoria was inserted into the bill by Schock’s predecessor, Ray LaHood.
Tags: Aaron Schock, Ray LaHood
Posted in Local, Statehouse & Capitol | 18 Comments »
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Good news, folks. Peoria County is in fine fiscal shape. Otherwise, would the county have $5,000 to throw in the toilet like this every month?
The County Board voted to hire a federal lobbyist to represent their interests and bring more dollars back to the area.
The county hired the Ferguson Group LLC of Washington, D.C., by a 12-6 vote Thursday for the remainder of the year for $5,000 a month.
And here we thought that with Aaron Schock in Congress and getting all this wonderful attention for his abs, the 18th District would reap all sorts of benefits from his popularity. Not to mention that fact that his predecessor is a member of President Obama’s cabinet.
Nope. All that matters is making sure you have a fixer on the payroll.
By the way: How is this lobbyist firm going to be able to prove that it is responsible for even one single dollar of federal spending tossed out way? Answer: They can’t. Who is to say that an increase in Fed revenue wouldn’t have come anyway because of the stimulus package and the influence of Schock and LaHood?
Tags: Aaron Schock, lobbyists, Peoria County Board, Ray LaHood
Posted in Local | 5 Comments »
Friday, May 16th, 2008
UPDATE: Before taking this too seriously, consider the source:
From a press release:
(CHICAGO)(May 16, 2008) Illinois Republican reformer Andy Martin will hold a Chicago news conference Friday, May 16th to announce he has filed a lawsuit to stop corruption at the Illinois Republican Party’s 2008 state convention. ‘The behavior of most Republican Party leaders is disgraceful,’ Martin will state. ‘They are conducting an election for National Committeeman and National Committeewoman, and refusing to release the names of the voters for this office, who are the delegates. Why are delegate lists and members-of-committee lists being held in secret? In a word, LaHood and his coconspirators are trying to fix the convention to elect him.
A copy of the lawsuit is a part of this posting (below).
‘How can anyone justify an ‘election’ in which the names of the ‘voters’ are being concealed or a convention in which the names of members of convention committees are secret? If this is not a blatant attempt to rig the vote and elect Combine Candidate Ray LaHood I don’t know what it is.
We have to face the reality that the Republican Party is being mismanaged into the ground.’
Martin is the reform Republican candidate for National Committeeman.
Martin will be seeking an emergency court hearing.
‘At some point, Republicans are going to get sick of Combine control of their party. Ray LaHood was one of the cabal of leaders that forced U. S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald out of office-and paved the way for the election of Barack Obama. No wonder LaHood was salivating when Obama visited the U. S. House earlier this week; LaHood’s dirty tricks and backstabbing helped elect Obama by removing the incumbent Republican. If Obama is elected president, we will have LaHood and his hoods to thank.
‘Peter Fitzgerald was pilloried because he fought corruption. What does that tell you? The evidence to support these claims is in testimony in the Tony Rezko trial, where ‘Republican leaders’ were mired neck deep in corruption. The Combine is real and the Rezko trial testimony blew the lid off the Republican Party’s past and present ‘leadership.’
‘Most Illinois Republicans are honest, hardworking, law-abiding citizens. How did we end up with a party state committee and party leadership and party employees who are sickos and crooks? How? Who wins? We know who loses: Main Street, mainstream Republicans.
‘I am doing my best to fight corruption and to return control of the Republican Party to the people,’ Martin says.
Tags: Ray LaHood
Posted in Local | 8 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
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
The Pantagraph has the scoop:
The Nature Conservancy in Illinois was named the Organization of the Year at the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame Banquet held last month.
The Conservancy was honored for extraordinary contributions to natural resource preservation in 2007 when the Conservancy celebrated 50 years of work in Illinois.
The Conservancy has protected more than “80,000 acres across the state and remained a guiding force behind a gathering wave of conservation initiatives reaching across Illinois and beyond,” the Illinois Conservation Foundation said.
This month, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who chairs the Illinois River Coordinating Council, gave retiring U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, a Peoria Republican, an Environmental Hero Award.
“Throughout his long and prestigious career in public service, Congressman Ray LaHood has worked tirelessly to protect the Illinois River,” Quinn said.
Maybe. But the League of Conservation Voters never have LaHood a higher rating than 36 percent approval during the previous five sessions.
I checked with the Sierra Club, and couldn’t immediately find their ratings fo Congress members. No doubt some commenter will find the link for me. They do have a list of the Congressional candidates they endorse, and the only Illinoisan on the list is Bill Foster, the recently elected Democrat in the 14th District. There are only two Republicans on the list.
Not that I particularly respect the Sierra Club’s point of view anyway. That’s the group that was behind the unscientific, fear-based campaign to deprive Peoria County of an expanded hazardous waste landfill. And it’s not like even Democratic Party voters care for their POV either, considering their favored candidate Allen Mayer lost to Jehan Gordon in the primary.
Tags: illinois river, league of conservation voters, Pat Quinn, Ray LaHood, Sierra Club
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | Comments Off
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
Aaron Schock told the Peoria Journal Star editorial board that he was joking when he said he wanted to sell nuclear weapons to Tawain in an effort to force China to stop helping Iran. As this article correctly pointed out that after the crap hit the fan, Schock and his campaign manager Steve Schear adamantly defended this plan, with Schearer calling the scheme well-researched and betted by experts. A week later, Schock backed down. Now, more than a month later, Schock is still getting hit hard on this issue at debates and in the media. So he goes and tells the JSEB that he was kidding.
Let’s just call it for what it is. Schock lied to the JSEB. It was not a joke. It was not off the cuff. He was telling potential voters what his foreign policy position would be, and he was hoping it would get him votes. Instead it bit him in the ass by making him look reckless and inexperienced. And it ieeps biting him in the ass and now he wants to pretend it didn’t happen.
Next thing, he’ll be passing around pictures of his wife, ummmm Morgan Fairchild.
Current Congressman Ray LaHood was rumored by be thisclose to endorsing Jim McConoughey several months ago. He declined to do so, at least in part because he didn’t want to create any static for his son, Darin, who is going to be running against Democrat Kevin Lyons for U.S. State’s attorney. But LaHood held out the possibility he might make a primary endorsement, once he sees how they run their campaigns.
Well, we’ve all had a look.
It’s time for Ray LaHood to do what’s best for the people of the far-flung 18th District and provide some guidance and direction.
Tags: Aaron Schock, nuclear proliferation, Ray LaHood, Taiwan
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 9 Comments »
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Via Central Illinois Proud:
WMBD TV will provide exclusive live coverage of a congressional debate co-sponsored by WMBD 31 News and the Peoria Young Republicans.
The debate among the three confirmed Republican candidates in Illinois’ 18th Congressional District will take place Thursday, January 10th, from 7:00-8:00 pm in Dingledine Hall on the Bradley University campus. WMBD TV will televise the debate in its entirety without commercial interruption, and our own Amy Paul will moderate.
My advice to the candidates is this: Be sure you arrange for black people who support you to be in the audience. When Jim Ardis and Dave Ransburg debated on WEEK back in 2005, the Journal Star counted the number of black people in the crowd and noted whose campaign buttons they were wearing.
Tags: Aaron Schock, Jim McConoughey, John Morris, Ray LaHood
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | Comments Off
Friday, December 14th, 2007
Bernie Schoenburg has another great piece on the 18th District campaign.
It seems that Congressman Ray LaHood has sent a letter to the campaigns of Aaron Schock, Jim McConoughey and John Morris asking them to get his permission first before they use LaHood’s name or image in any campaign literature or advertisement.
While all three candidates for the GOP nomination got the letter, it is Schock who has raised the ire of the retiring Rep. LaHood:
In his letter to Schock, which he said mirrored letters to the other two Republican candidates, LaHood said: “In order that we do not send misleading signals to Republican voters, I am asking that you and your campaign seek permission from me personally before using my name, my picture or quotes from me in any written campaign materials or any material that will promote your candidacy on radio or television. This will enable me to make sure that no one in the race to replace me in Congress uses me to their advantage, or to the disadvantage of other candidates.
“If you need clarification on this request, please feel free to contact me personally. Otherwise, I assume you will comply with my request.”
LaHood said “there’s been at least seven references” to his name in Schock’s materials, and within the last week, he asked his district chief of staff, Tim Butler, who has also worked on LaHood’s campaigns, to call Schock’s campaign manager, Steven Shearer.
“He hasn’t called back,” LaHood said.
Did you get that last part? Schock’s campaign manager is too busy to call back the guy who’s so popular in his district, that an endorsement for someone else could effectively end Schock’s candidacy.
Schock is hardly a virgin when it comes to appropriating the names and images of people who do not endorse, and who have in fact endorsed others. During Schock’s 2006 race against challenger Bill Spears, Schock’s office mailed informational material with the names of Peoria City Council member Barbara Van Auken (who supported Spears) and Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard (who legally couldn’t cannot endorse any candidate).
And then there’s this:
“To make a statement that you’re going to arm one country with nuclear weapons to attack China I think shows a fairly high level of not doing your homework, and … immaturity and not using good political sense.â€
Ouch.
LaHood also told Schoenburg that he thinks Morris’ idea to close the borders and deport every illegal alien is a “silly solution” because it would be impossible to deport 12 million people back to Mexico. Morris later clarified his remarks to say he would expect this to happen overnight.
Interestingly, the paragraphs about Morris and immigration did not appear in the version that was printed in the Peoria Journal Star, nor did they appear on the PJS Website, where space limitations are not an issue. Also, the JS headline read “LaHood won’t weigh in,” while virtually the same column was headlined “LaHood raps Schock’s use of his name.”*
Months ago, a rumor was flying that LaHood was planning to endorse McConoughey. He supposedly decided against it because he didn’t to alienate Schock’s supporters against son Darin LaHood’s campaign for Peoria County State’s Attorney. He had also previously said that wouldn’t endorse anyone until after he had a chance to see how all three ran their campaigns.
Well, he’s had a chance to see. And now he’s calling one of them immature and another silly. I have to think that this effectively serves as an unofficial endorsement for McConoughey.
Tags: Aaron Schock, endorsement, Jim McConoughey, John Morris, Ray LaHood
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 21 Comments »
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
Apparently, Congressional candidates Aaron Schock, Jim McConoughey and John Morris pretty much agree on everything. Well, except for that one little thing about how one of them advocated a policy that would have caused a war with China over Taiwan. But not that anyone at the GOP forum was so uncouth actually mention that.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Jim McConoughey, John Morris, Ray LaHood
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
From The Swamp, information about who is supporting who in Illinois:
Sen. John McCain has added a congressman and a former senator to his Illinois leadership team in his run for president, his campaign announced today.
McCain’s latest Land of Lincoln supporters are freshman Rep. Peter Roskam and former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. They join Reps. Ray LaHood, John Shimkus and Mark Kirk, along with several state legislators.
Illinois’ congressional Republicans are split several ways in the wide-open GOP primary. Reps. Jerry Weller and Judy Biggert are backing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Former Speaker Dennis Hastert has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Rep. Don Manzullo is backing former Sen. Fred Thompson. The lone uncommitted in the GOP delegation is Rep. Tim Johnson.
Tags: John McCain, President, Ray LaHood
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | Comments Off
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
During Blogger Bash, C.J. mentioned his get-together with Darin LaHood. Ceej has the post up now.
* C.J. hates being called “Ceej.”
Tags: Blogger Bash, Darin LaHood, Ray LaHood
Posted in Citizen Journalism, Statehouse & Capitol | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Today’s links are via the Journal Star:
- Congressman Ray has surrendered the green to Aaron Schock. That means all three of the GOPers who are seeking the party nomination to replace LaHood have now received a $2,000 donation from LaHood’s own campaign fund. For those who didn’t know (I think it was one of the worst-kept secrets in this campaign so far) there were rumors swirling that LaHood was going to endorse one of the three: Schock, Jim McConoughey or John Morris. And the rumor was that it was NOT going to be Schock. Didn’t happen though. And now the generally accepted wisdom is that he won’t endorse anyone in the primary.
- Get convicted of killing a guy. Appeal the sentence. Get convicted again. Get a longer sentence. Question: Can a guy appeal his decision to appeal? Seriously, the article presents some interesting legal issues. No doubt there will be another appeal.
- Mayor Ardis is calling up the heavy artillery in the fight against crime. It’s not a city-wide camera system, but rumor has it this guy sees everything.
- Did anyone else get the idea from this article that Sen. Dale Risinger just isn’t listening to what the City of Peoria is trying to tell him? Instead of him telling the city council what the priorities are, perhaps he ought to let the city council (who voters elected to run the city, not him) set those priorities.
- I found the some of the stuff at the bottom of the article on the city’s meeting with state legislators more interesting the possibility of state funding for the anti-crime initiative. The quality of life in Peoria will be greatly enhances by fixes to the traffic light system AND by any help the state can provide to force property owners to keep their buildings up to code.
- The Associated Press did a survey and discovered, to the shock of just about everyone, that state government is massive, resists change and no one knows exactly where all the money goes.
Tags: Aaron Schock, Dale Risinger, Journal Star, Peoria City Council, Ray LaHood
Posted in Overset | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
The bash was a huge success and a fun time was had by all.
Rich Miller of Capitol Fax never showed (too busy rounding up news and gossip out of Springfield, no doubt). None of the students from Jonathan Ahl’s class showed up. There quite a few first-time bashers, from including the folks responsible for Tails from the River City, The Atheists Down the Street, Secret Server, Ramble On and Problems are for Solving.
I’ll for get someone mad at me if I tried to mention everyone who was there. I neglected to set out s sign-in sheet OR even to pass out that “Hello! My name is … ” stickers
Suffice it to say the usual folks showed up. If you were there, and didn’t get a mention, I apologize. Please leave your name and a link in the comments section, thank you.
We did have two special guests.
Matt Bisbee, who’s working on Jim McConoughey’s campaign stopped buy to chat with me and the other bloggers. He’s a nice guy, we chatted about public radio and the effect blogging is having on politics. Apparently, Peoria Pundit is a frequent topic on the public radio show he’s involved with over there.
Not long after one Matt left, another stopped by: Matt Jones, a frequent commenter. We chatted about news, politics and the law. Matt’s a staunch GOPer and a supporter of Aaron Schock. We chatted a bit about the complexities of campaign finance regulations, a topic that he touched on his one and only post on Peoria Pundit.
Matt, a former prosecutor, made a case for his former boss, Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons. He says Lyons’ biggest strength is also his biggest weakness, namely his unwillingness to consider public reaction when he decides who to prosecute and for what charges to file.
Do I have any scoops as a result of these chats? Not really, other than there’s probably going to be a meeting soon among all three campaigns for the GOP nomination for Ray LaHood’s 18th District Congressional seat. The topic will be the behind the scenes complaints about Federal Election Commission rules violations. Apparently, everyone is finding fault with everyone else.
Oh, yeah. One other bit of news: The female bloggers are making noise about having their own Blogger Bash. Fine. let them have their little hen party. We manly-man male bloggers will hold out OWN bash, where we’ll tell dirty jokes, ogle women and belch loudly and unashamed.
And if you see Eyebrows, insist she tell you what happened at the gynecologist.
UPDATE: I forgot another newbie, Scott Fletcher, formerly of Podcheck Review. He’s got another blog now, but I do NOT have the URL. Send it to me ASAP. He described it as a blog about podcasting, software writing and what happens when your child poops in the bathtub. Sounds like a must-read to me.
UPDATE 2: Jen feels slighted.
UPDATE 3: Scott F.’s site is here.
UPDATE 4: Oh, great! Now Ms. PH feels snubbed. Can I help it if I am so fascinating?
UPDATE 5: SOMEONE was glad to be there.
Tags: 18th District, Aaron Schock, Blogger Bash, bloggers, blogging, Jim McConoughey, Matt Bisbee, Matt Jones, Ray LaHood
Posted in Citizen Journalism | 25 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