Duckworth snags Obama for TV ad

[Freddie Stubbs]

February 24, 2006

BY SCOTT FORNEK Political Reporter

Playing one of her trump cards, congressional hopeful Tammy Duckworth began airing a television commercial featuring U.S. Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday -- marking the freshman Democratic senator's first appearance in a TV ad for another candidate.

"Every so often, you meet someone in public life who's truly extraordinary, someone you know will make a difference," Obama says in the 30-second spot. "A person of conscience and proven courage, Tammy Duckworth's a leader we can count on."

A wounded Iraq War veteran, Duckworth is one of three Democrats hoping to replace retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde in the west suburban 6th Congressional District. The others are Rolling Meadows software engineer Christine Cegelis and Wheaton College professor Lindy Scott.

Duckworth spokesman Billy Weinberg said the commercial will run on CNN, MSNBC and other cable stations.

more: http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-cong24.html

[mopinko]

1. trump is right

trump is what this is all about.

[madrchsod]

2. i saw obama snub zamora even though the crowd

wanted him to at least acknowledge the man standing 6 feet away from him. it`s not about the will of the people,it`s about who they think is good for us. i hope cindy wins

[wndycty]

3. Cindy? Who is Cindy? What race is she running in?

:kick:

[mopinko]

7. i knew what he meant

and so do you.

[mopinko]

4. they helped each other last time

sad, really sad. all the illinois dems have turned their back on christine. helping tammy is one thing. this kind of kindergarten, "i'm tammy's friend now, you were last year, christine" is a real disgrace.

[Gary Kleppe]

5. Too bad Trump isn't running

He'd be Emanuel's dream candidate. Duckworth would get dumped in record time.

[mopinko]

6. yup. the money wing of the party.

everybody likes money. money and power. THE threat to democracy.

[billyf65]

8. Time to get over yourselves.

Help your candidate. Great. Tout her perceived moral and ideological superiority. Take a big ol' sh!+ on her morally inferior opponent. Good for you.

But can we dispense with the victim mentality? It is so tiring.

Flame away.

[mopinko]

9. and who's your daddy?

you get over it. i will keep asking the question, and following the money.
your side is putting an aweful lot of energy into finding creative was to say shut up. guess what. i don't.

[billyf65]

10. Talk all you want - it's a free country.

"and who's your daddy?"

Yeah...I don't get that.

Ain't my side - I don't live in, don't vote in, and don't give money to anyone in the 6th district.

But if you don't think it was this same sort of defensiveness on the part of some of Dean's supporters that led to his demise and dug Kerry (and Dems nationwide) into a hole, you're fooling yourself.

Don't confuse being pragmatic with being a DLCer or being a "Company guy" or whatever. And don't twist my words to say I'm suggesting the only pragmatic thing to do would be to vote for Duckworth. I'm not and it isn't. Each candidate's supporters can wage legitimate arguments about their respective candidate, but the personal sniping and suggesting one candidate is a tool of lobbyists (as I witnessed one anonymous poster on www.archpundit.com do repeatedly - not pointing at you) is not helpful. It isn't helpful for Cegelis. It isn't helpful for the party.

Cegelis has a LOT of redeeming qualities. She has a lot of qualities that would make her an excellent Congresswoman. So does Duckworth. So does Scott (Congressman, in that instance).

Anyhow, I'm no one's boss. The first amendment allows you to say whatever you like. But just like after 2004 - the post-primary goal is to put which ever candidate wins the primary (not just in the 6th, but the 10th too) into office.

Anyhow, that's my $.02.

[LSK]

11. id still like to know why Obama and Durbin are picking sides in this fight

:shrug:

[dogman]

12. They would like to capture this seat for the Dems.

They are impressed more by Duckworth apparently, since they supported Cegelis last time.

[LSK]

13. so why not give the help to Cegelis?

Everyone knew she was running again. For a long time. If the party didnt like how she was spending her money, help her. What do they really have against her? Is she too liberal or progessive?

I really dont like Duckworths stance on Iraq. It sounds too much like Bush's policy. When the Iraqi troops are trained, we can start leaving. What is that about?

Im scared Duckworth will just be another Dino voting with the Republicans half the time. Do we need another 2 years of just barely loosing votes in the House?

I have no doubt in my mind Cegelis will vote how I want her to vote. She is a true progressive.

Go ahead call me bitter Duckworth hater. I just dont like this whole situation.

[dogman]

14. Then it is fitting for you to support her.

Tout Cegelis' stand on the issues, but you do not need to destroy Duckworth in the process. They are both Dems and one of them or Scott is likely to run against Roskam. Obviously, the Dem leaders feel that Duckworth has the best chance. A Dem majority in the House would give us back the leadership. You may not like Duckworth stand on Iraq but it is not like Bush's, it is however where the majority of Americans seem to stand right now.

[wndycty]

15. "Everyone knew she was running again." By your logic Kerry in '08. . .

. . .and there is no need for a primary.

You also said "If the party didnt like how she was spending her money, help her."

The chairman of the party is Howard Dean, take it up with him. The DCCC is independent of the party so if you issue is with them, then take it up with them. Lastly if you think they, either the DNC or DCCC, should help her would it be reasonable for them to expect some input on her candidacy?

[Gary Kleppe]

16. False analogy

What would be analogous would be if a foreign government or other organization tried to dictate who the Democratic nominee for President should be, and started spending huge amounts of money promoting a candidate who had little or no support within the US. If that happened, people here would scream bloody murder, and it would be illegal (even though the US does this to other countries regularly -- but I digress).

Many of us from the district have tried taking this up with the DCCC, with no success in getting them to listen.

Yes, it's reasonable for the DCCC to have some input. But by the same token, the DCCC should be responsible to the grass roots, as we are the ones who fund them and who vote for their candidates. They should be able to justify what influence they exert, to prove to us that what they're doing is really in the interests of the party and the country and not done for other reasons such as cronyism.

[mopinko]

17. and they should engage in

intellectually honest debate. talk about the issues, and not get their knickers in twist when you criticize the obvious shortcomings of their candidate. and not talk about who is "electable". i think the new verb for this is 'to kucinich'
i don't have a problem with a fair primary fight. but these alley fights among our own are killing us.

[LSK]

18. well I just say the commercial..

Caught the tail end of it while watching CNN (and reading DU). Obama did all the talking. Showed him sitting with Duckworth at the end. Tammy said she approved of this message at the end.

Pretty powerful stuff what favors can buy. Im sure most of the non political people will see Obama and immediately make the connection to Duckworth and thats all that lots of them need.

If Duckworth wins I will definately feel she was assigned to be my candidate. But I will support her after the primary because I will never support a Republican.

[Stout_Drinker]

19. Emmanuel wants the Dems to win

The reasons that the Democratic Leadership supports Duckworth
over Cegalis is that they want to win the district.  A test of
a candidates viability is if they can outdraw the presidential
nominee of their party within the district.  To use a
republican example, look at the career of Christie Todd
Whitman.  In her first statewide race in 1992 she ran against
Bill Bradley, was out spent 8-1, and in a democratic year, she
substantially outdrew the presidential candidate (Bush 41) of
her party.  That helped her to clinch the repub nomination for
governor in 1993.


 Cegalis failed that test in the 6th last time around.  Kerry
received more votes than Cegalis.  In other words Cegalis did
worse than the default democratic vote.  If a candidate that
they view as stronger enters the race a party will support
that candidate.  Thats why Rahm Emmanual / Barack Obama et al
welcomed Duckworth into the campaign.

If Cegalis is the nominee  the party's liberal base will feel
pure but they will ensure it probably remains republican.  If
Duckworth wins the primary, the dems will have a fighting
chance to pick up the seat.  Its really that simple.

[wndycty]

20. Simple logic is not appreciated here. . .unfortunately

Us Duckworth supporters have had quite the fun on the DU dealing with the bashing. Hopefully we can come together after the primary.

[mopinko]

21. she got twice as many votes in the general as

there are registered dems in the district. your "simple" explanation reveals a "simple" understanding of the situation. which is to say, wrong.

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. Do you have a source to back up that statistic?

:shrug:

[wndycty]

23. Why let the facts get in the way of the truth. . .LOL

:kick:

[mopinko]

24. got it straight from the candidates mouth.

one of the advantages of running twice is, you know your district, and how many votes are out there, and how many you need.
hmmm. i don't know off the top of my head where to look that up so that you could check it. then again, i'm sure facts don't matter to your side. i haven't seen anything but opinion from your side yet. your a savvy fella, if it's out there, you can find it.

on march 21, you will have your facts.

[Gary Kleppe]

25. Illinois doesn't register voters by party...

...so there's no way of determining precisely how many voters in the district are Democratic. You could look at how many pulled Democratic ballots in the primary, but that would undercount because you tend to get a bigger turn-out in the general election.

What is meaningful is that Cegelis did better against Hyde than any other challenger ever.. That was after starting late, and with no help from either the state or national party.

And of course, if we're going to look at statistics, let's compare apples and apples:


Votes received against a Republican:
Cegelis: About 110,000
Duckworth: 0. Bugger all. Not a sausage.

[mopinko]

26. and she won the primary last time.

i think the number does come from those pulling a dem ballot in 2 of last 3 cycles.

[Stout_Drinker]

27. The goal is to win.

This comparison isn't perfect since the district doesn't equal DuPage but if you compare Kerry's vote totals in DuPage country with Cegalis' votes in Dupage she is unfavorable. Especially when you consider that the Dupage portion of the 6th is the more favorable for a Democrat compared to the western part of the county which is much more Republican.

For DuPage

Hyde : 106,752 (56.28%)
Cegalis: 82,794 (43.65)

All of DuPage

Bush: 218,902 (54.5)
Kerry 180,097 (44.8)




http://www.miltonrepublicans.org/page_files/2004_results.html

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/IL/P/00/county.000.html#17043


The historic judge of a candidates viability is if they can outdraw the head of the ticket, and that wasn't the case with Cegalis, she underdrew the default democratic vote.

I don't think that someone from the left wing of the democratic party can win the sixth. A centrist Dem will have a fighting chance. One reason Crane was finally defeated was that his opponent was palatable in a relatively conservative district. A Jan Schakowski clone would never have won that district.

[madrchsod]

30. hmmm....

interesting how one can predict the future with a set of facts that are two years old. that is quite a feat...i went thru some figures and i noticed that kerry took whiteside county but the republican state rep from whiteside runs unopposed every time. obama got more votes than kerry in lee and ogle-just look at dupage..there`s alot of ways to look at the past the future is the problem. with so much effort,bad feelings,and tons of money have been thrown at this race just what will happen to the democratic party in the 6th if they lose? who is going to clean up the blood?
just who in the hell is the "left wing" of the party do you mean the unions? blue collar workers? minorities? those who work there asses off for jack shit wages,the down and outers? you mean me? i guess all the rich folks up there in the 6th don`t want anyone getting to uppity...i`ll remember never to spend a cent up there in the 6th...

[Inland]

28. There's no party registration in Illinois.

Well, good luck with the campaign. Looks like there's a little organizing left to do.

[newyawker99]

29. Hi Stout_Drinker!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ken Burch]

31. Of course, given that Obama helped get Duckworth into the race

Why is it any surprise that he would do an add for her?