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Special Election IL05 Tue Feb 17 2009
Uh, That's a Dis. And Other IL05 Updates.
Damn. Rep. John Fritchey's new ad, "In These Trying Times," tries to pin fellow front runners County Commissioner Mike Quigley and State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz as typical politicians more concerned with "childish things" than issues. (Fritchey attributes the quote to President Obama, which is probably less creepy than attributing it to I Corinthians 11:13, which is where Obama copped it from.)
In the ad, two kids representing Mike Quigley (who does have boyish good looks) and Sara Feigenholtz argue about who did what to whom first.
A few thoughts: First, that's a dis. Second, the ad succeeds (at least in my opinion) in both taking the high ground while also delivering a pretty good body blow. Lastly, the girl who plays Sara Feigenholtz (Sara Fauxgenholtz?) is adorable.
Feigenholtz won SEIU's crucial endorsement but swung and missed with both major paper editorial boards -- Mike Quigley wrapped those up, including a particularly strong endorsement from the Sun-Times (that failed to mention Rep. Fritchey at all). I have no idea who will win this race, but I do know there are going to be some awkward cocktail party conversations east of Western Avenue and north of Fullerton for the next few years.
Josh at Progress Illinois points out that Fritchey used language from a Sun-Times endorsement in his State Rep. race in 2006 in a mailer, and suggests this is a bit disingenuous. I have to disagree; politicians use quotes about themselves from papers. That was a particularly positive quote from a major paper -- what was he supposed to do, put an asterisk next to the citation? I see his point, but politicians have to be able to use positive press from the past.
In other news, Tom Geoghegan, who wrote some of my favorite books of all time, appears on Public Affairs, makin' all kinds of sense.
Also, there's a rumor going around that early voting has begun. By "rumor going around" I mean "fourteen hundred emails from the campaigns."
Jkalven / February 17, 2009 5:07 PM
I just thought Fritchey should have put the year (2006) next to the blurb. As you can see, he does just that with the same excerpt on his campaign website:
http://www.fritchey.com/awards.html
Not a huge deal, but it caught my eye.