TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalAmid talk of a potential blue wave, Democrats already have begun to turn the tide in GOP suburbs
In 1995, the suburbs were the center of Illinois’ Republican universe, the bucolic backyards the home of the leaders of the state legislature as they strove to drive an agenda as a political force to be reckoned with for future generations.
Now, nearly a quarter-century later, it is the Democrats who have advanced in collar counties that were once the Republican firewall to Chicago’s massive Democratic vote — a confluence of changing demographics, uncertain GOP messaging and a partisan mapmaking process.
While Democrats talk of a “blue wave” sweeping nationally as Election Day approaches on Tuesday, it’s clear that they’ve already begun to turn the tide by encroaching into the traditional GOP-leaning suburbs. The votes cast there will be key in determining Illinois’ immediate future, with potential long-term political consequences for both political parties as ballots are cast for governor, the state’s congressional delegation and deciding the makeup of the General Assembly.
And among those suburban areas, there is no place more central to Illinois’ fate than DuPage County, where there has been an evolution politically, ideologically and demographically.
Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-illinois-midterm-elections-suburbs-20181101-story.html
Obama in Gary: 'We need leaders who will actually stand up for what is right'
Former President Barack Obama Sunday said voters cannot fall for scare tactics ahead of Tuesday’s mid-term elections.
Obama told a crowd of more than 6,000 at Gary’s Genesis Center that the scare tactics often work, and that voters can sometimes be compared to Charlie Brown when Lucy holds the football for him, only to pull it away as he tries to kick it.
“He always fell for it,” Obama said. “Don’t be Charlie Brown with the football.
“While they’re trying to distract you with all of this stuff, they’re robbing you blind,” Obama said.
Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-gary-obama-donnelly-rally-st-1105-story.html
Obama tells rally in Chicago: 'The character of our nation is on the ballot'
Ten years to the day of being elected president, former President Barack Obama came home Sunday to turn out voters for the Illinois Democratic ticket, mixing the message of hope that propelled him to the White House with an urgent call to repel President Donald Trump’s divisiveness, though Obama did not use his name.
Sunday marked the last of a series of rallies Obama was headlining for Democrats, with the former president pumping up Indiana Democrats in Gary before hitting the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion, 525 S. Racine Ave.
A very hoarse Obama said, “Hope is still out there. We just have to stand up and speak for it. And in two days, Illinois, in two days, you get to vote in what might be the most important election of my lifetime, maybe more important than 2008.”
“…America is at a crossroads right now. There is a contest of ideas that is going on, about who we are and what kind of country we are going to be.
Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/barack-obama-common-j-b-pritzker-uic-illinois-democrats-republican-bruce-rauner-midterm-election/
Rauner blasts unfavorable polls as 'baloney' on road for GOP candidates
With just two days to go, embattled Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner told his supporters not to count him out of the race, vowing that polls that show him down by double digits are “baloney.”
And miles away from the Chicago machine — in Grundy, DuPage, Kane and Macon counties — the governor continued to rail against his political nemesis, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.
The governor and first lady Diana Rauner spent the rainy Sunday on a campaign bus, traveling to cafes and bars in Decatur, Gibson City, Morris and St. Charles. Rauner, too, led a rally for Republicans in one Cook County stop in Orland Park.
At Honest Abe’s Tap & Grill in Morris, the governor spoke of an uphill battle back to a second term, while warning a victory by Democrat J.B. Pritzker will turn the state into a “nightmare.”
Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/bruce-rauner-blasts-unfavorable-polls-baloney-road-gop-candidates-election/
Will Democrats Casten, Underwood beat Republicans Roskam, Hultgren?
Democratic political rookies Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood may beat their opponents, GOP Reps. Peter Roskam and Randy Hultgren on Tuesday, but only if that blue wave, spawned by President Donald Trump’s election and sustained by his scorched rhetoric, materializes in the Chicago suburbs.
Roskam first won the 6th Congressional District in 2006; voters in the 14th district sent Hultgren to Congress in 2010. The districts take in west and northwest suburban and exurban turf, from city-like blocks to bucolic rural pockets.
If Underwood is elected, she will be the first woman and first African American to represent the 14th, the majority-white district where she grew up.
The elections in the 6th and 14th are “both up in the air,” McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks, a Democrat, said in an interview in Woodstock. McHenry includes parts of both districts.
Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/casten-underwood-roskam-hultgren-republicans-democrats-2018-midterm-election-blue-wave-congress/
Illinois' big-money politics has some worried
Just a handful of millionaires and billionaires -- including the candidates themselves -- have overwhelmingly financed Illinois’ record-setting campaign for governor this year, and that has some worried about the long-term implications for the state.
“We are very worried about what kind of democracy we are developing here,” said Alisa Kaplan, policy director of Reform for Illinois (formerly Illinois Campaign for Political Reform), a nonpartisan research organization. “We’re worried that if only wealthy candidates can win, or if it’s perceived that only wealthy candidates can win, we’re going to be missing out on a lot of talented, experienced candidates who might have done a better job.”
Spending on Illinois’ governor races has skyrocketed over the last three election cycles.
Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield and a close follower of campaign finance trends in the state, noted that in Gov. Bruce Rauner’s Illinois record-setting race for governor in 2014, just under $110 million was spent. That included more than $66 million for Rauner, $32 million for then-incumbent Pat Quinn, and more than $11 million in independent expenditures opposing Rauner.
Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20181103/illinois-big-money-politics-has-some-worried
Rauner, Pritzker differ on some criminal justice
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner made criminal justice reform and driving down the number of people the state imprisons a centerpiece of his first term. Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker says more must be done to stop gun violence.
Both major-party candidates for governor have made rehabilitation, sentencing reform, mental health, and more jobs and job skills key pieces of their criminal justice platforms. But they differ when it comes to legalizing marijuana, gun control and the death penalty.
Among his first acts as governor in 2015, Rauner formed a bipartisan commission assigned to come up with ways to reduce Illinois’ prison population by 25 percent by the year 2025.
That commission came up with 27 recommendations to reduce an Illinois prison population that has exploded over the past four decades and doubled since 1987. It recommended a combination of sentencing reform and improved rehabilitative services to send fewer people to prison and reduce recidivism rates that stand at nearly 40 percent. Among the recommendations were to use county jails instead of state prisons for short stays and probation more often for nonviolent offenses, and to reduce mandatory minimum prison terms.
Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20181104/rauner-pritzker-differ-on-some-criminal-justice
Trump and Ellen, debate quips and tent camps: defining moments in Ted Cruz-Beto O'Rourke contest
Every campaign has its defining moments.
In the nail-biter between Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Beto O’Rourke, it’s too soon to know which of the debate quips, attack ads and viral videos made the difference.
There were many ingredients in this epic battle between a tea party darling who was runner-up for the presidential nomination and a charismatic and unabashedly liberal congressman who managed to put a scare into Republicans in a state they’ve controlled for a quarter century, smashing the record for money raised by any Senate candidate ever, anywhere.
“I’m just amazed that this race is as close as it is,” said Randy Chambers, 59, a Cruz supporter who owns a business in Granbury.
Hardly any voters beyond the western tip of Texas had heard of O’Rourke.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2018-elections/2018/11/04/trump-ellen-debate-quips-tent-campsdefining-moments-ted-cruz-beto-orourke-contest
Troop deployment creates tension on South Texas border
BROWNSVILLE — As the first active-duty military troops sent to the U.S. border with Mexico installed coils of razor wire on a bridge and a riverbank Friday, a sense of unease spread across Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.
President Donald Trump’s portrayal of a border under siege by drug smugglers and other criminals is at odds with what many residents in towns along the 1,954-mile divide with Mexico see in their daily routines, with U.S. border towns consistently ranking among the safest in the country.
Some Valley residents question the need for a large military presence and fear it will tarnish the area’s image. And some are afraid of violence if the caravan of Central American migrants that the troops have been sent to confront reaches the U.S. border.
While the southern tip of Texas is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, border agents make many arrests far from public view, on uninhabited banks of the Rio Grande and on nearby dirt paths and roads lined by thick brush.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20181103/troop-deployment-creates-tension-on-south-texas-border
Preckwinkle's Democrats fund blue wave to swamp County Board Republicans
Democrats are bankrolling a blue wave they hope will wash three Republicans out of the Cook County Board.
Despite the flood of money — nearly $313,000 in a combination of donations from the county and state Democratic parties — incumbent Commissioner Gregg Goslin doesn’t expect to lose in Tuesday’s election.
The Glenview Republican is confident in his polling — and in his constituents.
“I believe I represent the values of my district on every level,” Goslin said. “They want a good, responsible government, a limit on taxation, and a responsible public official. I’ve been all those things and then some.”
Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/preckwinkle-dems-fund-blue-wave-cook-county-board-republicans/amp/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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