Politics: Now, about them issues…
A couple of interesting items in the news today, and given Billy’s interest in being fair and balanced *cough*, I figured he would find these relevant. MSNBC reported today on the massive expenses being incurred by small communities across the country as both Republican and Democrat candidates make appearances at rallies and fundraisers.
Obama’s neighbors are learning firsthand the hassles that come with close encounters with presidential campaigns. And they are not alone. Across the country, when the candidates come to town, local taxpayers often pay dearly for the privilege of a quick glimpse or a handshake, not only in irritation but in cash.
The article cited some specifics. The following nugget was particularly interesting, as the circumstances were quite similar to a certain fundraiser held right here in Peoria when President Bush made an appearance for a little private fundraising for one of our own, State Representative Aaron Schock.
If other cities are any indication, it’s quite a chunk of money. When Obama visited Middletown, N.J., last month for a private fundraising dinner at the home of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, police estimated their overtime costs at $14,000.
Schock campaign Steven Shearer told me that after a review of campaign finance records, it appears that Barrack Obama has not paid one cent to any local government for expenses, fundraiser, rally or otherwise, private or public.
On the other hand, when the Schock campaign questioned the $38K bill sent to them by the city of Peoria (at the insistence of Ms. Callahan), the reaction of the media and the Callahan campaign would have made one think they discovered Schock eating babies.
Aaron, in good faith and with minimal resistance, paid the bill, even though he clearly didn’t have to and rarely is it ever done.
Reimbursement not required
Some cities have managed to work out reimbursement arrangements with the candidates’ parties. But such arrangements are ad hoc, and they are not the norm, because there are no laws or regulations saying the parties — or the federal government, when the FBI and the Secret Service are involved — have any obligation to pony up.
Which brings us to Notary-gate – which involved Callahan making as big a stink as she could to anyone who would listen and/or report (ah-hem) that Aaron 8 years ago at the age of 18 notarized a doc for his Dad that had an authentic signature but the wrong date. Although the document had been deemed irrelevant, it was more dead babies as far as Colleen was concerned, and Callahan smeared him to such a degree that she had otherwise intelligent people actually believing he forged and created false documents.
So today, WEEK reported that Assistant State’s Attorney Seth Uphoff reviewed the allegations (again at the insistence of Ms. Callahan who needs to be careful what she wishes for) and found no information to show official misconduct by a notary public and further, that Schock’s actions were neither willful nor negligent. Now if this isn’t headline news in the PJStar tomorrow I will start reading the Times Observer again and that’s a promise.
So at this point one can’t help but wonder what kind of rabbit Callahan plans to pull out of her hat next? Hey, here’s a good one. How about the one where she actually discusses the issues?
October 20th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
You’re taking a little bit of editorial license there. The city didn’t send Schock a bill until after Schock volunteered to reimburse the city. And the city was looking into it at the insistence of council member Gary Sandberg, not candidate Colleen Callahan.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:03 am
CJ – It’s a blog its not the Tribune. And the sequence of events is in my opinion irrelevant. Everyone knows what happened here.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:24 am
Public event (e. g., where anyone could go) vs. closed, private fundraiser. Those two are very different things.
Had President Bush wanted to address the public while he was there, that is a different matter.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:31 am
“CJ – It’s a blog its not the Tribune. And the sequence of events is in my opinion irrelevant. Everyone knows what happened here.”
translation: “Don’t let the facts get in the way of my opinion”
October 21st, 2008 at 7:06 am
Ollie, so you think Obama addressed the public at Bon Jovi’s house?
Peoria Guy, the “facts” are on Aarons’s side.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:10 am
Callahan has a campaign song (sign on to her web site and hear it). Now she also has an official campaign dance–the limbo–see how low she can go.
She ain’t gonna be talking about energy, environment, economy, education, or experience. Just keep slidin down down down the gutter til she hits rock bottom. Wait and see, you ain’t gonna hear one positive thing from the woman about herself or the issues.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:26 am
At “ah-hem) that Aaron 8 years ago at the age of 18″ apparently absolves him of any responsibility in the performance of his public duty to prevent fraud. But Obama was waht eight years old when William Ayres was a member of the Weather Underground? IOKIYOR It’s ok if you’re a Republican.
I sure hope that you deal with more ethical people than Schock in your real estate tranactions, title searches, etc. Business requires ethics, and what Schock did was no different than assigning AAA ratings to junk bond MBS’s.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:01 am
Bon Jovi lives in Illinois?… The Jersey Shore is along Lake Michigan? Wow… new Republican geography. What does Bon Jovi have to do with it? NOTHING. Jersey law isn’t Illinois law. I bet New Jersey really doesn’t want our Governor either. They are welcome to take him tho.
Geography, legal code… bah details details details…lol
October 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Ya Mahkno, consistent standards are just details details details. Liberal’s stringent rules only apply to Schock. Obama is exempt because he is the ONE.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:37 am
Well if Obama ever comes to Peoria for a private fundraiser then yes Obama should cover the bills. Shouldn’t be too hard when he is pulling in a $150 mil a month.
‘he is gay, after all’ .. I’ve been wondering when that would come up. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Sure wouldn’t play well with some values voters.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:55 am
Thanks for the shout-out, Diane. As unfortunate it is that Aaron Schock notarized a document a full year from the actual date to help out his father financially, you shouldn’t really sweat it. Until the districts are redrawn, he’s a shoe-in.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:26 am
Y’know, Aaron Schock would actually have to show up to a gathering for them to be able to discuss the issues. *cough*
October 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
I’m by no means a Schock fan (far from it) or a Callahan fan (far from it), but I think the frenzy surrounding her call for his campaign to pay the bill was ridiculous.
In one of the PJS articles (I can’t find it at the moment) prior to Bush’s visit, John Sharp reported that the taxpayers would not be responsible for any costs of the visit EXCEPT those related to security. So, flowers, food, transportation, etc. were all to be paid by the Schock campaign, but police, fire, etc. were all the responsibility of the city and its taxpayers.
Do I think it’s fair that taxpayers were to pay for a private event? Absolutely not. Do I think that Schock should have footed the bill? No because that was never on the table.
I have to say that he did kind of earn a few (just by a small margin) points in my book for ponying up the $38k.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:46 am
“She ain’t gonna be talking about energy, environment, economy, education, or experience. Just keep slidin down down down the gutter til she hits rock bottom. Wait and see, you ain’t gonna hear one positive thing from the woman about herself or the issues.”
Well, to be fair, Callahan’s website outlines her energy strategy in somewhat detailed fashion. You have to dig for it, but it’s there. Most of her other statements on the issues are pretty perfunctory, but she covers most of the standard bases.
Schock’s site, meanwhile, is remarkably shallow regarding the issues. (Am I missing a link on his site or something, or is it just that nonexistant?)
I think the most disappointing thing is that Callahan presents herself as a professional communicator, but her campaign has simply not done a good job of delivering her message to the people.
My experiences with Colleen have all shown her to be a positive, smart, thoughtful person. In my opinion, her campaign hasn’t allowed these qualities to shine through AT ALL.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Schock appears to have already cleaned out his Main St. office.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:54 am
Bon Jovi? What was the city’s expense there?
Re: the 18′th election. Yeah, I am afraid that is a lost cause. Callahan has about as much chance of winning as McCain does.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Ollie — Don’t forget that Obama took the 18th District in the US Senate race. Of course that was against Alan Keys but it does prove that Republicans will vote for a Democrat.
Do we really want to give up and not fight against a Congress candidate who changes his story every day (for nukes than just joking), won’t pay his fair share for his private fundraiser until pressured, then offers lame and contradictory excuses for illegally backdating documents so his dad could avoid taxes.
As for the mayor endorsements, he likely got to those people way in advance, before Callahan entered the race. As a state rep. he holds great financial power over them, or did so before he quit representing people in the 92nd so he would have time to run for office. Now he’s not calling his constituents back and apparently closed his office.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Elaine,
Did Alan Keyes best Obama in ANY district or county? Obama has bragged about this in the past.
As an example
Peoria County 2004 (Does not include the city)
http://www.peoriacounty.org/elect_results/041102/countywideresults-1.htm
The Obama/Keyes/et al percebntages match almost identically with the the 18th District LaHood/Waterworth race. One race went Democrat, one went Republican. Doesn’t prove much. No one ever took Keyes seriously. If Jack Ryan had stayed in the race, I bet the Peoria County Senate vote would have looked significantly different.*
Now, Fear This – if Obama gets elected, guess who gets to appoint his replacement?
*Interesting to note that there were 127 less votes cast for Senate that 18th District, as well as 718 votes for OTHER candidates. So almost 3% of Peoria County voters chose neither of the main party candidates in the Senate race.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Diane,
The age excuse? Really? Aaron Schock has been running for public office since he became an adult. He chose to take on the responsibilities of a notary, and he used his position to unethically and illegally backdate documents so that his parents could evade taxes … in a shelter that turned out to be illegal, at that.
And let’s clarify … the letter from the State’s Attorney’s office does NOT exonerate Aaron Schock as you imply. It describes the two possible misdemeanor charges and goes on to say “no information is presented in this matter to show whether any of these descriptions occurred.” Then it says the statute of limitations is long past, so they aren’t going to bother looking for such information. That’s not an exoneration.
Really, your rabid defense of obvious wrongdoing in this matter is pathologic. You say it’s a political witch hunt. You say he was 18. You exaggerate and claim exoneration when none was given. You never address the underlying facts in the matter … facts given in sworn statement by Schock’s father and conceded as fact by the Golden Boy himself.
Would it harm you to admit that he screwed up? Would it harm Aaron Schock to apologize for what was a blatantly unethical and illegal act of nepotism? Is he such a weak candidate that even a slight crack in that Golden Boy image is going to send him down the tubes? PI’s right … all Aaron Schock has to do is keep smiling and ride the gerrymander to Washington. What would it hurt him to apologize?
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Anon: Keyes did win a few counties in Eastern Illinois; look it up in CNN’s 2004 maps where they show you state by state election results.
Oh what the heck, I’ll do it here.
Elaine: I already voted for Callahan and I gave her some money (not much; I am not exactly rich; there is a reason I am Democrat!
)
But I am enough of a realist to know that this is a long shot and the best we can really hope for is to force the RNCC to have to sweat a little, thereby diverting resources from places where they are behind but would have had a chance.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:45 am
From the point of view of a non-American, I just hope Obama’s foreign policy is a little more Doveish and a little less Hawkish.