Republican U.S. Senate candidate Peter Fitzgerald on Monday enjoyed the support of members of a voter base many moderate Republicans feared he might alienate–white, suburban women.
During a gathering in his hometown of Inverness, Fitzgerald told nearly 50 female friends, relatives and former grade-school teachers that he has stronger pro-family credentials than the incumbent Democrat, Carol Moseley-Braun. He charged her 6 years of personal and political missteps have unwittingly aided his campaign by alienating some of her former supporters.
Moseley-Braun, meanwhile, spoke to 270 students at Owen Marsh Elementary School in Springfield where she sought to make the case that the federal budget deal, providing 100,000 new teachers for public school classrooms, was a good thing.
“Why did you take the people’s money and use it for taxes?” a student queried, possibly picking up on a television campaign ad in which Fitzgerald accused Moseley-Braun of diverting Social Security trust funds to other programs.
“You’re talking about a campaign ad,” the senator said. “It wasn’t true.”
Also Monday, Moseley-Braun’s campaign introduced a second TV ad featuring former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.). After a narrator says a Fitzgerald ad is lying about the IRS investigating her, Simon comes on the screen and says, “Her opposition can’t beat her on the issues. So what they’ve given us is serious distortions and personal attacks.”
Punch out: Aides to Republican gubernatorial candidate George Ryan were fuming Monday over what they called a racially charged radio ad that suggests prejudice fueled the legislative vote last year to eliminate straight-party voting.
The Democratic Party ad, which began airing over the weekend, says: “George Ryan and his cohorts have denied us our right to the straight-ticket vote, thinking we’re either too lazy to take the time, too dumb to find the punch numbers or too stupid to recognize our candidates’ names on the ballot.”
Ryan spokesman John Torre said it was “outrageous” that Democrats who have “taken African-American votes for granted for far too long” were making such a claim.
SOS: Democratic secretary of state candidate Jesse White was endorsed Monday by the Chicago and Illinois chapters of the National Organization for Women, which criticized Republican candidate Al Salvi as being “out of the mainstream” on women’s and children’s issues.
Salvi said he has been responsive to family issues and was the chief sponsor of legislation to revoke the driver’s licenses of parents who don’t pay child support.
Santos saga: Chicago City Treasurer Miriam Santos, the Democrat seeking to unseat GOP Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, was forced to file a new version of her required campaign disclos
ure reports to include sections dealing with donations from political action committees. Those donations were missing from the report filed with the state Oct. 19.
Santos’ campaign has been scrutinized since federal authorities last month subpoenaed documents in her treasurer’s office and campaign headquarters, while investigating allegations of fundraising irregularities.
PAC man: Campaign disclosure reports filed by the state Democratic Party show the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has donated another $300,000, bringing to $1.8 million the group’s contributions to Moseley-Braun.
On the GOP side, reports for George Ryan show he took in a $200,000 contribution from the political fund of his running mate, state Rep. Corinne Wood.
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