Q the Eye/04.20.11

Dear LakeCountyEye,

The votes were counted and he won hands down
So they sent him off to Washin'ton town
With his best dress suit still his buckskins brown
A livin' legend of growin' reknown.
Davy, Davy Crockett, The Canebrake Congressman!

He went off to Congress and served a spell
Fixin' up the Gover'ment and laws as well
Took over Washin'ton so we heared tell
And patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell.
Davy, Davy Crockett, Seein' his duty clear!

Him and his jokes travelled all through the land
And his speeches made him friends to beat the band
His politickin' was their favorite brand
And everyone wanted to shake his hand.
Davy, Davy Crockett, Helpin' his legend grow!

Yee Haw, I'm fixin' to run for the US Congress! Where do I sign?

On a Rocket to the Top

Dear Crockett Pot,

You're running for Congress? Take a number -- and your LakeCountyEye doesn't mean Congressional District number. Now that Melissa Bean has gone the way of the Phil Whooping Crane and has departed from the field, everyone and their lawn gnome thinks they can be the next Congressman.

Joe Walsh's inexplicable victory does prove something: anyone can run and win in the Eighth Congressional District. It does not prove however that anyone-can-win-in-the-eighth is a winning campaign strategy. That would be like saying because a tattoo artist in Trailerpark Illinois can win the Mega-Million, buying lottery tickets is a winning investment strategy.

But speaking of the Mega-Million, that Congressional seat is well within your grasp. All you need to do is follow your LakeCountyEye 7-step sure-fire-path-to-victory winning strategy:

• Raise a fist full of cash.
• Make friends with local power brokers.
• Raise a pocket full of cash.
• Make friends with Springfield power brokers.
• Raise a hat full of cash.
• Make friends with DC power brokers.
• Raise a suitcase full of cash.

Congressman Walsh, who's been in DC only three months now, has already raised some $400,000 for his re-election. How much is in your warchest? Coffer? Piggybank? No doubt, the checks are in the mail. You would still probably be well advised, in the near-term at least, to not be shopping for that condo in the beltway burbs.

Your LakeCountyEye does have one more suggestion. If Donald Trump won't return your fundraising calls, you may want to try the next best thing: Stump like Trump. If Trump demands Pres Obama's birth certificate, then you should demand Obama's birth certificate. It's working for Trump. It worked for Walsh.

Off through the woods we're ridin' along
Makin' up yarns and singin' a song
He's ringy as a b'ar and twice as strong
And knows he's right 'cause he ain't often wrong.
Davy, Davy Crockett, The man who don't know fear!
The Ballad of Davy Crockett

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com

Townhall of Fame

Conventional wisdom, in its wisdom, dictates that while the tednugent histrionics may have landed him on the cover of Time Magazine, Joe Walsh has nonetheless made himself vulnerable in 2012. At least that's the thinking of 50 guys running already against Walsh. That number is sure to grow (perhaps to the theoretical limit) as office seekers on both the left and the right sense an opportunity to pick up a quick and easy W in the Eighth Congressional District. Would-be opponents to Walsh already have their people (or they themselves) oppo-ing the incumbent. As was reported on this blog ...

Paint the Townhall Red

State Rep Jack Franks was spotted at one recent Walsh townhall meeting. With more of these townhalls looming on the horizon, expect to see many more familiar faces in attendance. And now that Joe Walsh has leveraged himself from unlikely representative of an obscure Illinois Congressional District into a bona-fide Palinesque celebrity, there is an additional expectation to spy some buffed-up star-power in attendance as well.

Operatives have not been disappointed -- here are ten more heavy-hitters spotted at one Walsh townhall or another:

Ten Persons of Interest Seen at Joe Walsh Townhalls

Scott Lee Cohen Princess Nudelman Charlie Sheen Don Henley Waldo Muammar Gaddafi Cal Skinner John Beckwith / Jeremy Grey Patrick Fitzgerald Phil Crane

More townhalls loom. Look for your LakeCountyEye you know where.

Flip Flop in the 8th Republican Primary

The Eye's gaze fell upon the an article in today's Herald where 8th District hopeful Republican Long Grove Mayor Maria Rodriquez suddenly discovered the "53" Kool-aid and supports it. Although a few months ago she was "adamantly opposed" to extending Route 53.

Long Grove and Kildeer have been the main obstacles to Route 53, along with former State Senator Bill Peterson who lived steps from the proposed alignment and steps from Maria's mansion as well.

Now after seeing the results of the countywide referendum on the 53 bypass where 95% of all precincts in the county voted yes (except for the ones in Long Grove and oddly one in Shields township along the lakefront), Maria realizes that she needs to change her tune. I am sure her polling told her the same thing as well.

It also amuses us that the change of position (i.e. Flip Flop) comes a few days before Christmas on a Friday, the classic news dump hoping you, the newspapers and opponents did not notice.

The Eye realizes that politics trumps principle these days and we applaud Maria for finally seeing the route 53 light. However one can only guess how the "I was against it before I was for it" attitude will play out with the voters.

Q the Eye/12.04.09

Dear LakeCountyEye,

How does someone get on the ballot in the Eighth Congressional District, where we need a real Democrat? I personally went out and collected my minimum 890 petition signatures. Or was it 876? OK, let's say eight and change. But now a rubberstamp panel of election judges ruled I can't be on the ballot because of some legal technicality. Isn't that unconstitutional? Don't the voters deserve a choice?

Far-Flung Off the Ballot

Dear Fahrvergnügen,

Your LakeCountyEye shares in your outrage towards that ruling. Everyone should be entitled to their 15 minutes of fame whether they deserve any or not.

About your lament that the Eighth District voters deserve a choice: the latest numbers indicate there are 7 or 8 or 9 -- let's say an even dozen -- Republicans hoping to challenge Melissa Bean from the right. (No mean feat.) Also Bill & Randi Scheurer have been running from the left as a tag-team against Bean. It's Bill's turn at the plate, who is running as a Green this time. Now, in a typical Congressional race expect to see (1) an incumbent running against (2) no one else. Your LakeCountyEye thinks the voters in the Eighth already have more choices than they can deal with.

Of course, petition challenges seem to be the norm for the Eighth District. In 2007 there were two Democrats running against Bean -- Randi Scheurer and some other forgotten chumbolone candidate. The chumbolone filed only about 95% of the minimum required petition signatures -- sort of like he was asking to be tossed off the ballot. Still, one didn't need to be a Karl Rove to have advised Scheurer to just ignore the petition shortfall. Scheurer had no reasonable chance of beating Bean. In fact, no one expected Bean to even campaign or show up at the sponsored debates. But with at least some breathing chumbolone to debate against, Scheurer would have gotten her opportunity to take the podium, air her issues, talk to the press, etc.

Long story short, however, Scheurer not only had the opponent thrown off the ballot, she filed the challenge personally.

SCHEURER V FARNICK
Illinois State Board of Elections

(Ordinarily campaigns get some willing accomplice to do this sort of dirty work.)

Zion man files objection to Bean challenger
NewsSun

With no one to debate with, Scheurer predictably was not invited to be a debate participant. And on top of that she had a potential Democratic ally pee-ohed at her. Your LakeCountyEye is still scratching the LakeCountyEye noggin over that play.

Anyways, fast forward to 2009 and the chumbolone is back with 100% of the required signatures. (Give or take a handful.) Randi Scheurer is sitting this election out. And it's up to Bean this time to dispatch a willing accomplice to get her competitor thrown off the ballot.

And quicker than you can say deja vu, it's like he was asking to be tossed off the ballot all over again: "The only thing I can think of (is) I lost a sheet."

Bean challenger removed from ballot
Pioneer Press

... while playing to the press like he was sucker punched. All over again: "I always felt whoever wanted to run should be able to run."

So how does someone get on the ballot in the Eighth District? Just run as a Green next time, Grasshopper. As a Green, you'll only need to get five signatures to qualify, ten max. (Do fifteen to be safe.) And who knows, next time it may be you filing the papers in 2011 to get Randi Scheurer knocked off the ballot.

If you are an elected official, or a previously elected official, or just a private citizen under indictment, send your political questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com

Representative Sample

The results are in from the latest LakeCountyEye poll. The blue-ribbon scientific poll, taken here last week ...

This Way to the Congress

indicates that readers are either down-for-the-count with H1N1 or in a Halloween induced sugar-shock-coma. (Which, come to think of it, pretty much amounts to the same thing.) Zero percent of zero respondents correctly answered any of the poll questions. The take-home being, 10th District candidates might as well be in the witness protection program, because no one could identify any of them. Tsk!

Looking forward, your LakeCountyEye is to be found buried under an avalanche of requests from 8th and 10th District Congressional candidates who were not properly mentioned in previous posts. So with the filing period for the 2010 primary now over, among those scrutinizing the nominating petitions with their electron microscopes is your LakeCountyEye. Your LakeCountyEye has IDed an avalanche of candidates vying for their chance to represent the 8th and 10th districts in Washington.

These include Republicans and Democrats and Greens -- oh my! -- and are tabulated here for your reference. Well, just the Republican candidates. Your LakeCountyEye is still waiting to hear from those boring Democrats & Greens regarding their shout-out in the blog.

Anyways, your LakeCountyEye downloaded a cool new widget, and here's your chance to test your political acumen. All the 8th & 10th district GOP candidates are listed below. It's your job to match names and faces and parties and districts. There are 2,097,152 different combinations but only one is correct. Be the first one to correctly guess all 13 candidates! Winners will have their contact information forwarded to the fundraising committee of the candidate of their choice. Hurry before the your candidate is tossed off the ballot!

Contest not open to LakeCountyEye employees or family members.

This Way to the Congress

Your LakeCountyEye trained the microscope at the Eighth Congressional District this week ...

The Eighth is Enough

There is a crowded primary in the offing, at least on the Republican side. The reader, ie you, was challenged to identify the candidates. Could you match-up some mug shots with some names? The results are in and not surprisingly you did quite well when it came to IDing Maria Rodriguez. However you seemed to have nary the clue when it came to identifying the other candidates Joe Walsh, Greg Jacobs or John Dawson. The results were not much better than random chance. This may be an indication of Rodriguez's superior name recognition. Or it may be an indication that Rodriguez was the only female in the survey. In any event, the raw numbers have been forwarded to Price-Waterhouse for additional analysis.

Candidate A	Candidate B	Candidate C	Candidate D

You were correct if you sent in these answers:

• Candidate A / Maria Rodriguez (R)
• Candidate B / Joe Walsh (R)
• Candidate C / Greg Jacobs (R)
• Candidate D / John Dawson (R)

Winning entrants, watch your inbox this week. A LakeCountyEye Nigerian representative will be e-mailing you detailed instructions on how to claim your prize.

The Eighth isn't the only Congressional District in Lake County. On the east coast, the Tenth Congressional District also will have a crowded Republican primary. To those east coasters who have felt slighted by your LakeCountyEye, here is your chance to shine. Your challenge is to test your skills against those in the Eighth District. There are no less than four candidates who want to succeed Mark Kirk. They are, in no particular order ...

• Elizabeth Coulson (R)
• Bob Dold (R)
• Dick Green (R)
• Bill Cadigan (R)

Do you have what it takes? Match the 10th District candidate with the photo.
Candidate A	Candidate B	Candidate C	Candidate D
Do not delay, correct answers to be posted soon.

The Eighth is Enough

It was reported here a while back that Joe Walsh is testing the waters.

A Fresh Face in the 8th Congressional District

Your LakeCountyEye has received e-mail confirmation that Walsh is no longer testing the waters, and will be a candidate for 8th Congressional District Congressman ...

"I am running because I've had enough!" said Mr. Walsh. "Like people all over the 8th Congressional District, I am ticked off at how much money our government is spending and how quickly government is growing."

Walsh's website can be visited at ...

http://walshforcongress.com/

His new campaign theme may be: Had Enough?

Coincidentally, the petition filing period for the Feb primary begins next Monday, Oct 26, and ends Nov 2. A Republican needs 654 signatures to be an 8th District candidate. Campaign staff will no doubt be looking closely at their opponent's petitions while asking the same question: "Had enough?"

Finally, your LakeCountyEye reckons there are now no less than four Republican candidates who want Melissa Bean's job. In no particular order, they are ...

• Maria Rodriguez (R)
• Joe Walsh (R)
• Greg Jacobs (R)
• John Dawson (R)

Test your political skills! Match the 8th District candidate with the photo.
Candidate A	Candidate B	Candidate C	Candidate D
Correct answers to be posted next week.

A Fresh Face in the 8th Congressional District

Your LakeCountyEye received a nice note from the Joe Walsh for Congress Campaign Manager. According to the e-mail ...

Joe Walsh has been looking at the race for months and after a lot of careful consideration is announcing the establishment of an exploratory committee.

Your LakeCountyEye welcomes Mr Walsh and if he decides to run for Congress in the 8th District, wishes him the best of luck.

Walsh has a website that can be visited at ... http://www.joewalshforcongress.com/ Joe's campaign theme may be: Testing the Waters

Your LakeCountyEye has spotted no less than six swimmers currently in the shallows known as the Illinois 8th Congressional District. Nominating petitions are due no later than Nov 2.

A final postscript, Joe Walsh isn't the only Joe Walsh on the political scene. Eagle guitarist, Joe Walsh, ran for US President in 1980. Walsh did not win.