In the 11th District, the best candidate is Chris Balkema. He’s the only conservative, in the race, who has held an elected office. I got petition signatures for him.
I don’t know whom I support, in the 8th District, but it’s not liberal. Before the last election, all of those voters had a republican congressman, Joe Walsh, Bob Dold, Peter Roskam, or Randy Hultgren. In 2012, the majority of those voters had a republican state senator, including Matt Murphy, Kirk Dillard, or Carole Pankau. The main reason that Duckworth won is that voters believed her lies, when she said that Walsh didn’t pay his child support.
Phil, I am unfamiliar with Balkema’s and Senger’s record, but had read that Senger had been criticized by liberals for her anti-abortion bills. What are the issues on which Balkema is conservative and Senger liberal?
As for the IL-08, as redrawn in 2011, it was carried by Obama by 61.5%-37.1% in 2008 and by 57.4%-40.9% in 2012. In 2012, Obama’s victory margin in the IL-8 was actually higher than it was in the IL-10! If those voters aren’t liberal, then why the heck were like 60% of them voting for Obama?
And as for the reasons why Walsh los in 2012t, yeah, not paying child support may have been one of them—maybe Republicans in IL-08 shouldn’t have been scouring the unemployment lines or the bankruptcy filings for their nominee. While Duckworth is a scumbag, Walsh has no one to blame for his downfall but his own irresponsibility and dishonesty. He never warned the GOP about his irresponsibility, and then compounded it by lending his campaign money that he could have used to make his child-support payments:
“Before getting elected, he had told Laura Walsh that because he was out of work or between jobs, he could not make child support payments. So she was surprised to read in his congressional campaign disclosures that he was earning enough money to loan his campaign $35,000.
“Joe personally loaned his campaign $35,000, which, given that he failed to make any child support payments to Laura because he ‘had no money’ is surprising,” Laura Walsh’s attorneys wrote in a motion filed in December seeking $117,437 in back child support and interest. “Joe has paid himself back at least $14,200 for the loans he gave himself.”
Walsh’s attorneys responded in court filings: “Respondent admits that funds were loaned to his campaign fund. . . . Respondent admits that the campaign fund has repaid certain loans.””
http://www.suntimes.com/6720892-417/tea-party-rep.-joe-walsh-sued-for-100000-in-child-support