1. - B Hicks - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 6:39 am:

   And the prospect of Judy being Governor fills the good people of Illinois with confidence.

   She is going to have a hard time raising 8 + million, money is going to be a huge problem for her.

   Hell, Rod will raise at least 3- million at his upcoming field museum fundraiser.




2. - Give me a break - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 6:49 am:

   If anything, Judy does represent the little people because she doesn’t have the money. What would be heart warming is if the little people gave her the $8 million. What does that say about who supports the right candidate —
   THOSE THAT VOTE. Pacs don’t vote, people do.

   Little people unite….




3. - Roy Slade - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 8:07 am:

   B- she will have no problems raising enough money to run and win this election. The only real question is whether her opponent will be under arrest by November.




4. - ron - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 8:21 am:

   latest rasmusssen poll blows the theory about blago running away with the race. topinka is ahead.




5. - Nervous Republican - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 8:27 am:

   We all know Rod is campaigning, but where is Judy?

   Sadly, she is in hiding and it’s making a lot of people very nervous. Who is running the campaign, word ont the street is Barnich is gone…please, someone get us some news before it’s too late.




6. - bored now - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 8:42 am:

   nr: first thing i thought of when i saw rod’d current tv ads was clinton’s 1996 strategy of forcing dole/gop to spend it all before the fall. the advantage that clinton gained in april was insurmountable.

   i think $10 million is low — she’ll have to have something with which to respond to the obvious attack ads…




7. - Shelbyville - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 9:02 am:

   Topinka needs to run one TV spot - of her and a moving van backed up to the mansion. It won’t cost $10 million.




8. - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 9:03 am:

   I sent Judy the tiny amount I could afford and recommend every Republican to send $25 to the cause. That would be a good start. Hopefully, the national GOP will help out. But Judy is in trouble if she doesn’t get the cash she needs. She already has some grassroots support to carry her, but it will be lost without the big dollars because Rod has the money and will spend, spend, spend. Come on people, you really want 4 more years of this?




9. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 9:04 am:

   $100 million wouldn’t be enough to elect the George Ryan clone Topinka. Get real.

   It won’t even be close.




10. - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 9:29 am:

    So you say Judy has no chance? Go Here… http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/March%202006/Illinois%20Governor%20March.htm




11. - DOWNSTATE - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 9:30 am:

    JBT doesn’t have to do a whole lot right now every day Blunder Boy makes another blunder or lie that makes headlines.




12. - SenorAnon - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 9:58 am:

    “I think his commercials are good,” Edgar said, “but the problem is that he’s talking. A lot of folks just don’t have a lot of confidence in him.”

    Then why does she need $8 million?

    And who said Blagojevich would “run away with it?” Once again, twisting words to prove your point. Everyone with any credbility has said this would be close.

    But I hope Shelbyville is Topinka’s media consultant. Polls be damned! It’s all about the mansion!




13. - LittleEgypt - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:21 am:

    When I saw a Blago campaign ad on TV (before the election), I muted the sound or changed the station. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT ANYTHING.

    What I find incredible is that he is campaigning so hard so early. He’s spending money like there is no tomorrow to get his programs passed by the legislature. And folks, these ads are twofold: 1)to persuade or arm twist the legislators into voting for his insurance program or pre-school program or whatever else the state CANNOT afford and 2) to TRY to show the Illinois voters what a great Governor he is/can be IF the legislature would only go along with him and pass these “great” programs. I’m sick and tired of hearing the ad that says “Illinois will be the first state in the nation to provide free pre-school to all children.” So the legislature does not pass this into law because we cannot afford it - then what? Does Blago think he can then come out with an ad claiming to be a great Governor with a dead beat legislature that will not go along with any of his programs? I don’t get it. And with Blago conducting a campaign like this, why should Judy show her face. If I were her, I’d sit back and let him spend his cash, unless Blago is finding some scheming way to bill the State for these ads. That would not surprise me either. You’ve got to hand it to Blago, he’s governing and campaigning like no other person I can remember. He tries to give the appearance of being on the offensive rather than the defensive. It’s not good policy to count your chickens before they hatch and that’s what Blago and his “kids” are doing. We just need to remember how deceitful and conniving he really is.




14. - Reddbyrd - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:22 am:

    Here is part of a very funny story. UofI get $4 million to set up an ethics center — but they don’t want to look at their own ethics ( politics, athletics, etc. Meanwhile Blinky Jim and Kent Canary wonder around talking about the AccordianGal’s campaign on the taxpayer’s tab
    From the Daily Herald:
    U of I uses award to create ethics center
    Associated Press
    Posted Friday, March 31, 2006

    CHAMPAIGN — The University of Illinois plans to use $4 million from a judgment in an accounting fraud case to develop a program that integrates courses on ethics and professional responsibility throughout its curriculum, the school announced Thursday.

    The Center for Professional Responsibilities in Business and Society will be established in the College of Business at the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus this summer. Its goal is to establish courses that go beyond the current business school ethics courses to reach more students regardless of their field of study, said Avijit Ghosh, dean of the business school.

    The school received a $4 million grant that was part of a larger judgment entered against five former executives of Waste Management Inc. by U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen in Chicago last year. The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2002 accused the five executives of inflating earnings by $1.7 billion.

    Scandals such as those at Waste Management, Enron and Arthur Andersen LLP over the past few years have highlighted a need for more education in ethics and professional responsibility, said Sharon L. Allen, chairman of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and the Deloitte Foundation, which also will contribute $4 million over the next eight years to the university’s effort.

    “This gives the university and Deloitte, through our sponsorship, a chance to really increase the impact and perhaps accelerate knowledge and understanding, and help provide students, through their coursework, a better reality check of how they can make good decisions,” Allen said.

    Ethics courses are common at business schools throughout the country, but many are structured so that students see them “as a hurdle to cross or another course they need to take,” Ghosh said.

    “We believe strongly that it has to be integrated in different curriculums, different courses, both business courses and nonbusiness courses,” he said. “It has to be a sense of attitude about thinking about this. This is not something that stands somewhere alone as sort of a test you have to overcome.”

    The center will develop several courses and programs that focus on professional responsibility, which differs somewhat from ethics, Ghosh said.




15. - Ballparking the Budget - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:43 am:

    While it’s close now, $15 Million plus and the imcumbent’s free-media assets will require a significant amount of resources from the challenger.

    Four years ago, Blagojevich won because of who he wasn’t more than who he was. And now the polls, for more than a year, have shown that a majority aren’t satisfied with his performance. Topinka will have to spend heavily throughout the next 7 months to solidify that dissatisfaction if she has a chance.

    It’s going to be closer than it should be in a solidly Democratic state, but short of a significant indictment of someone near to him, I still expect the Governor to pull it out.




16. - bored now - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:48 am:

    Polls be damned! It’s all about the mansion!

    do the voters in the collar counties care about that?




17. - the Patriot - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:48 am:

    Mixed feelings on this. Judy put told us she was assured by Washington she would have the financial support to run. People bought into the insinuation she had Cash from the RNC on the way. Is this not true?

    On the other hand, if she is quite Blago is going to destroy himself. Budget battle is looming, he won’t get his capitol improvement bill, and his adds boasting of an improved economy and balanced budget are easily proven lies. Just go to Alaska Judy and come back to vote by then Rod will be in indicted or worse, taken out by his own party. Madigan has had enough and isn’t going to let Blago ruin the dominance of the state for the party. He is better off giving up the mansion for four years then deal with the backlash of Blago for 20 and flip both houses and the mansion.

    Judy doesn’t have to run an add moving to the mansion, just one that says, “look I found Springfield, and I didn’t even have to have a pilot.”




18. - Team Sleep - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:49 am:

    Blago raised close to $25 million last election and it took Jim Ryan $13 million (or so) to lose by 7 percentage points. Judy will need at least $15 million to compete because Rod is too popular in Chicago and she can’t afford to not run commercials in Chicago. Even Lisa Magigan raised close to $15 million in 2002!




19. - B Hicks - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 10:56 am:

    Edwin was holding on to the indictment preserver, too. You see where it got him.

    Plus, the G had better worry about convicting ole’ polka George before they take a shot at Rod. If they can’t bag that corrupt bastard, they had better move on.




20. - SenorAnon - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 11:07 am:

    “Polls be damned! It’s all about the mansion!

    do the voters in the collar counties care about that?”

    I was being facetious. That was my point.




21. - Cassandra - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 11:53 am:

    I thought that JBT had some committments from the national GOP as well as local. After all, if Big Jim and his law firm can dole out $20 million to defend an ex-governor who has seriously damaged the Illinois GOP no matter what the trial’s outcome, couldn’t he loosen up some millions for JBT. Oh, I forgot, he likes Blagojevich. I guess Big Jim is for whoever is likely to get indicted next and request Winston and Strawn representation–presumably, paid representation this time, though.

    If JBT didn’t have solid committments, I can’t imagine why she is running except as an end of career vanity project.

    I agree that asking for small contributions could help too. But her fund raising staff seems rather lethargic in that area. I gave her a modest contribution in the primary. You’d think there would have been a letter in my mailbox after she won asking for money for the big race. Zip. Nobody has called or e-mailed either, and her campaign has all that info from my first contribution. So, I haven’t sent any more money. I’m waiting to see if she requests any more. And if she gives the impression that she can get all she needs from the big donors, well, maybe she doesn’t need it.




22. - VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 12:18 pm:

    Blagojevich spent every hour as governor raising campaign funds; about $2400 a hour. What has Topinka been doing? Her job? Geez, it’s like she cares - its embarrassing!

    She might look like Miss Kitty at the Longbranch Saloon, but its obvious that Blagojevich been servicing the customers upstairs. He wasn’t selling cookies to those prospectors to get $20,000,000 in less than four years!




23. - Not So Fast - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 12:44 pm:

    JBT has been doing her job? I wonder how many hours she has spent on Treasurer business over the last four months. Sounds like ghost payrolling. It’s a do-nothing job anyway; both JBT and Hynes admitted years ago that the offices should be combined. Of course, they must mean AFTER they leave office.




24. - Bubs - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 2:04 pm:

    I thought JBT was coming out of the primary down by 6 or 7 points to Hot Rod. There is now substantial eveidence that she is at least even up. The Rasmussen result, combined with a surprising 30% showing by Eisendrath, portends that Rod’s TV money will have less of an impact than anticipated.

    A second factor not to be overlooked is the chilling effect the federal probes are finally having on the Chicago Machine. Vacation days were NOT routinely granted to public employees in Chicago for the March primary, a first. If that holds true for the general in November, it could depress Rod’s plurality coming out of Chicago, which would be bad news for him.




25. - Walking Wounded - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 3:01 pm:

    Not so fast-I’d like to see a comparison of JBT’s time working on the job as opposed to GRod’s. Also, how many hours during the work day does he spend on the State dime doing political work? (Answer: all of it)




26. - Mike's Used Sport's Section - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 3:10 pm:

    Edgar’s quote should be JBT’s message! Once you pound on the fact that he can’t be trusted then everything he says is beside the point, every press conference, every new program, every idea he declares is moot when people don’t trust him or believe what he says. But they better get rolling because the golden glover is already warmed up and in the ring.




27. - Team Sleep - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 3:15 pm:

    Yes, but what about all of the times Rod is seen running at 10 a.m. on a weekday? Or what about when he’s traveling to other states to do fundraisers? What I would be more interested in would be to see how much time his staffers spend doing campaign work.




28. - VanillaMan - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 4:45 pm:

    You got one candidate who’s raised $20,000,000 in four years, (besting George Ryan four times over), and then you have Topinka after 12 years with not even enough to run a campaign? If Topinka played politics the same why Blagojevich has, she should have about $60,000,000 - or at least, $20,000,000 like that hard-working governor of ours.

    The money simply points out an obvious coincidence. Once candidate is obviously being wildly overcompensated for some kind of benefit to the givers. It takes no imagination to see that the inexperienced officeholder with only one term in office, should be able to explain why so many people give him so much money. Especially when he has himself made it clear that his kind of cash isn’t ethical by his own standards, but he, ’sigh’, gotta play that game in order to reform it.

    The governor’s stash is embarrassing!




29. - B Hicks - Friday, Mar 31, 06 @ 5:01 pm:

    I bet Judy wishes she had some of that embarrassing stash!

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