Posted on 06/07/2003 10:10:53 AM PDT by 7 x 77
CHICAGO -- Today, the Illinois Leader announced that six different U.S. Senate candidates will be joining them at their first anniversary celebration this Sunday, June 8th from 2 to 5 PM, at downtown Chicago's Galleria Marchetti, located on the west side of I-94, on Halsted and Erie.
The U.S. Senate candidates who have confirmed their appearance thus far are State Senator Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin), businessman Jack Ryan, former State Senator, now RTA Chairman Tom McCracken, businessman Andy McKenna, Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, and businessman John Cox. Each candidate will be allowed three minutes to address the attendees, starting at 2:30 PM.
In addition to U.S. Senate candidate, elected officials are indicating their plans to be in attendance, and media personalities such as the Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington and WYLL AM 1160's Kevin McCullough, as well as the program's emcee, WLS AM 890's Deborah Rowe, will join the celebration.
The benefit is to celebrate the first anniversary of the Illinois Leader, and provide a platform for the establishment of an Illinois Leader political action committee which will be used to promote candidates, organizations and causes with a conservative political agenda.
The event's featured speaker will be Joseph Farah, the founder and CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, who will talk about the growing impact of the alternative media on the American public. Six year old WorldNetDaily covers national and international issues, and has set an example for other local internet news sources such as the Illinois Leader.
Illinois Leader has grown from a small staff of four people in its earliest stages--company owners Dan Proft and Brian Timpone, along with Managing Editor Fran Eaton and Operations Manager Jill Stanek -- to now over seven columnists, six reporters, a cartoonist and numerous guest opinion contributors, all in one short year.
The Leader's audience and impact is growing to now over 13,000 unique visitors weekly, with one of its biggest surges in audience happening earlier this year, when internet news source guru Matt Drudge picked up an Illinois Leader story about actor Ed Asner's visit to Southern Illinois University, and linked it for his Drudge Report readers. Visitors come and go often during the week, racking up an average of over 350,000 hits a week, with the average visitor staying over a respectable 13 minutes -- considered "sticky" by internet industry standards.
The Leader received national attention several times in its first year, specifically with a story on homestate beauty queen Miss Illinois, who became Miss America, Erika Harold. Erika's plight in establishing her freedom to speak out on sexual abstinence became a story of importance to readers nationally, and Illinois Leader's story revealing the inside political struggle drew the attention of national news sources such as the Washington Times.
As the Leader's prominence increases as the "new kid on the block" in the competitive news market of Illinois, Leader Media's president Dan Proft is pleased with his company's progress.
"We look forward to another year of pulling together the conservative movement in Illinois by educating and encouraging traditional family values people, constitutional rights activists and small business owners to engage in the process of determining public policy," Proft said today. "It will take us all to make this state a better place, and we hope to be an Illinois leader in the process."
Reservations are still being accepted, and last minute walk-ins are welcome, as well. For more details, and to sign up, go to Leader's Birthday Bash. Sponsorships and small group rates are available while time lasts -- contact sgough@illinoisleader.com or call the Illinois Leader suburban office at 708.687.4264.
Because one of them is probably going to be the Republican Senate candidate, and he's going to have a good chance to win the open seat.
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