Why I Oughta...

Early this morning, the folks at ProPublica Illinois released a widget that documents the fundraising and spending of the gubernatorial candidates in Illinois .  Well...it shows most of the candidates - the ones who are *in* the race with a shot at winning their respective primary.  I'm embedding their widget below.  ( Also...one cute thing to mention here:  the url of the story is at: their domain/nerds/story.  Nice touch, right?? ) Loading... There's obviously some interesting things going on here in the race ( like JB Pritzker's burn rate ?!?) that smarter and more tuned in political people can provide context on, but the reason I'm posting this is that it reminds me of the old days. The old days?  Yeah...like back in the mid-aughts when there were plenty of local bloggers - and specifically local political bloggers - that had their own little homesteads on the Web .  That's when I fell in love with the Web and met so many people ...

Seriously ?

Do you live in Spring Valley?  I'm guessing not, but if you do, you can get on the Walt Marini for Mayor train.  I've volunteered some of my time last weekend to Walt's campaign.  He's got a real chance in the race and he's just started to roll out some of his yard signs. Want to get involved in the Walt Marini for Mayor race?   Sign up here .

It's that time of year when our mailboxes at home are flooded with political mail. For junkies like myself, this is a fun time. I already know who I am voting for in most races, but I find it interesting to check out some of the mail ideas. This year, the Will County State's Attorney Race is turning out to be the hottest race around. Both sides have already sent 'hit' pieces against each other. Everyone says that negative ads are bad and that they shouldn't be used, but bottom line is that they work. The US Senate race is going to be fun too, in the mailboxes. My house is full of Hard R's, so we just get the R stuff. It would be nice to see both sides of the mail. I guess, like I said before, only junkies like this stuff....

The State is shut down today, but that doesn't mean business doesn't get transacted.  I am in the campaign office--they have a full staff in today. I guess with all the hot primaries we are going to have, you need to take advantage of every day.  Yesterday, if you watched the news, Rod was on talking about budget stuff. He likes to work on Sundays....I think that is so he is the story and there isn't anyone to compete with him. Anyway, today were working on jobs and how to create them. Then tonight it is off to Michael McAullife's event in Chicago. Mike is a strong campaigner. Those guys up there take care of each other. They don't like fights and they especially don't like fights that are public. I am pretty confident that Mike will win and be back down in Springfield in January. Did you catch Prez. Bush on the NASCAR race? It looks like the campaign is in full swing. I wonder what he and Laura did for Valentines day? Something nice, I am sure....