Quick Hits Supplemental – Feb 4, 2020

Quick Hits Supplemental – Feb 4, 2020

Despite having way too much shit to do, let’s see if we can knock out a couple of quick stories today because they just keep comin’!

 

Can’t we do better than this?

As one of my favorite Republican friends remarked upon hearing the news, “Oh holy [expletive deleted] no!”

Lauf Meme

That news was, the only question Catalina Lauf had to answer first at Friday’s 14th Congressional District candidate forum in Batavia was, “What are your thoughts on the ERA?”

Without skipping a beat, she, in turn, asked, “What’s that?”

Since I’m suddenly rendered speechless, I’m gonna pause for a bit and let the fact that a candidate who’s asking us to send her to Washington D. C. has no idea of what the Equal Rights Amendment is sink in…

Had I attended the event, given my predilection for always being the helpful sort, I would’ve chimed in with, “It’s the number of earned runs Jon Lester gave up each game last year.”

The only thing missing from Lauf’s non-response was the ensuing high-pitched giggle. And I thought Donald Trump’s recent geographical gaffe was beyond the pale.

Fascinated by this epic lapse, I did a little more research on Ms. Lauf and, trust me, it doesn’t get any better. She’s “super pro cop” which is really bitchin’, she’s anti-AOC (Alexandra Ocasio Cortez), she hates socialism but can’t tell you what it is, and she told Mancow Muller, who could barely stop salivating over her boobs, she wants to date “intelligent men” because clearly, opposites attract.

To be fair, Lauf said she doesn’t “hate” AOC, because she doesn’t “hate” anyone, it’s just that she doesn’t agree with how “she’s so completely far away from where we are as a country.” Though when pressed, she couldn’t provide any specific details on anything, including her own campaign platform.

If Ms. Lauf ever does encounter the Congresswoman from New York, I would advise her to avoid offering a significant piece of her mind because there might not be enough left for her to adequately function going forward.

What’s the ERA? NEXT!

 

Apparently not!

Because just when you think Ms. Lauf is ten bottles short of a twelve-pack, 14th District Candidate Sue Rezin and her team somehow surmised that sending out a campaign newspaper was a good idea. Yes! A newspaper! For you young people, a newspaper is something you don’t see on peoples’ driveways anymore. Oh lord! Do I really have to provide you m***********s with electoral enlightenment one more time?

The entire point of a campaign mailer is to solicit the targeted voter such that they see the candidate’s name – and perhaps the office – in the scant 13 seconds it takes them to get from the mailbox to the recycling bin.

That’s it! No one is going to read a newspaper and I guarantee you less than one percent of the lucky recipients did anything other than immediately toss this obviously expensive missive in the trash.

Image result for sue rezin illinois"

And just when you think it couldn’t possibly get any worse, it does! Those who dared to open the artificial tabloid, did so only to discover a prominently featured photo of her main primary opponent, Jim Oberweis. The ostensible point was to case him as being unelectable, but how many voters simply saw the picture without bothering to read the attached 12-point text?

I can almost understand a 26-year-old novice candidate failing to understand what the ERA is, but I cannot forgive a 2.5 term Illinois State Senator, who really oughtta know better, for sending out one of the worst campaign pieces I’ve ever had to extract from my mailbox.

Who the hell is advising this candidate? A newspaper campaign mailer in 2020? NEXT!

 

The only conclusion

Have I said that incumbent Lauren Underwood will walk away with the 14th despite whomever manages to make it out of that massive morass known as the Republican primary field?

And as regular reader John Lopez regularly Tweets, I’m taking five-figure bets from anyone who lives in one of the many conservative alternate realities!

7 thoughts on “Quick Hits Supplemental – Feb 4, 2020

  1. Not as bad as Gary Johnson’s “What’s Aleppo?” gaffe, but cringeworthy nonetheless. Give the kid a break. Since the late 1970’s only Nevada (2017) and Virginia (just recently) have voted to approve the ERA, so it’s not exactly a subject with a high level of currency. It would have been more straightforward to ask her opinion of the Equal Rights Amendment. If that stumped her, then it’s totally fair game to buzz her off the stage.

  2. I was at the Batavia debate last week, and the ERA question definitely exposed a “generation gap” between the two Millennials running, Catalina Lauf (age 26) and Jerry Evans (age 36). While most of us lived through the ERA ratification in the 1970s and early 80s, that TLA was well known, but Millennials it is not 2nd nature.

    The remaining five candidates, four are Baby Boomers: Jim Oberweis 73, James Marter 57, Sue Rezin 56 and Ted Gradel 55.

    Anthony Catella is the only Gen X, and he turns 50 early next month.

    That said, both Lauf and Evans are running for a seat in the U.S. Congress, and given the recent news of ERA ratification in the 38th state last month, Virginia, there was no excuse but lack of debate prep for both Lauf’s reaction, and she did answer “no”, or Evans’ non-answer of “let me research it…and get back to you.” while defending in his 8-year old business, no one is discriminated on gender.

    As for the Rezin newspaper mailing, I’m holding Jeff Ward to review Oberweis’ TWO newspaper mailings which I attached and sent via Twitter. The first mailer, sent in October, was 12 pages long and didn’t mention President Trump once. The 2nd mailer hit the streets weekend before last, and he named Trump twice, compared to 20 times for Rezin’s mailer which hit the streets at the same time.

    While I respect Mr. Ward’s expertise in elections, Rezin’s record at winning elections (5-0, including 4 tier-one races), and Rezin & her people have done something Ward has never done — beat Mike Madigan’s organization head-on (2010). She won 3 times over John Cullerton’s cadre of state senate Democrats, including a sister of Congressman Mike Quigley. Her seat, and the House seat she flipped, have stayed Republican.

    This race, confirmed by candidates’ actions as a result of internal polling and year-end fundraising numbers released last Friday (Oberweis released his year-end report on the 15th), it’s currently a two-person race between Oberweis and Rezin. Gradel has the funds, over 1/2 million cash on hand, to compete with the 2 frontrunners and his first mailer hit the streets, and maybe Mr. Ward will write about it, too.

    Oberweis had over $1 million on hand at the end of last year. Rezin had a little over $320K in the bank. The other four candidates are all under $32K.

    Finally, soon as Mr. Ward gives odds, I’ll see if someone wants to take him up on that wager of Oberweis winning the nomination. As previously stated, it won’t be me as I do not gamble. But someone else might (hint, look up maxed-out donors of Oberweis’ opponents and you may find a taker or two or 10), provided Ward sets the odds appropriately (and provided Ward can cover the odds…no lay-offs).

    1. Mr. Lopez,

      That comment was longer than my column. But not to fear:

      1. If you don’t know the history of our state, don’t run! Considering the ERA’s very recent ratification in Virginia, if you don’t have the kind of team that successfully anticipates debate questions, then just don’t run. Were she my client, I would NEVER have allowed that to happen.

      2. While I won’t do a column on specific newspapers mailers going forward, I will do one on why they don’t even begin to work. There’s no need to compare BS to BS.

      3. In no way did Rezin “beat” the Madigan Machine. The 38th, which with I am intimately familiar as a result of my time in the Kane County Clerk’s office (long story), is as Republican as it gets and no Democrat has a shot there in the foreseeable future. I don’t know any of the Republicans who ran against her, but considering what I’ve seen so far, I would crush her in a primary as I’ve never lost one.

      4. As I somewhat stated today, I agree that it’s basically Rezin and Oberweis, but I’m not giving odds in that race or the General because I don’t need to. There are more than enough conservative true believers to make a straight up bet. And trust me! I can cover any bet.

      Keep on reading!

      Jeff

      1. Jeff,

        #1: Someone else in different blog commented that was it the TLA that stumped Lauf, and had the question been asked “Equal Rights Amendment” would the reaction been the same? Valid question.

        #2: Forget the newspaper article, what do you think of the Oberweis late January poll Daily Herald reported tonight? Frankly, Lauf ahead of Gradel was a surprise, but as expected Oberweis and Rezin clear two in front.

        #3: Rezin didn’t flip the 38th district senate seat. The 38th senate seat was flipped from Dem to Republican in 2004 by Rezin’s state senate predecessor. Rezin flipped the 75th House seat, against Madigan 10+ year incumbent Coreen Gordon in 2010, who held that seat since the mid 1990s. Think the events I refer to are a little ahead of your time in clerk’s office.

        #4: Only a fool would take a straight-up bet. You’ll need to give odds if you want to increase the action.

        The Thursday night congressional debate in McHenry County was cancelled. Next, and possibly last live debate, is Monday in Bolingbrook.

        Keep on writing!

        JL

  3. Heck I thought ERA was a laundry detergent. If I was Underwood I would have all my workers out working hard for Oberweise. That guy, even though RNC considers him a “young gun” is a walking disaster. He has lost just about every election he could run for. I think he lost a run for a precinct committee man, a job no one wants. His own wife will not vote for him (yeah that was petty but true) I am a Republican but Underwood has turned out well. Low profile and doing her job, although not her nursing job. I could not help myself

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