My chat with the Republican tea party candidate for IL Secretary of State

I have to thank Jim Leach for his facebook page. Thanks to his page I'm now aware that the Republican candidate for Secretary of State is an off-the-wall tea party, talk radio bot well outside the mainstream of Illinois politics. Jim posted a status update last week commending candidate Robert S. Enriquez for engaging voters on Facebook.

I think it's great when candidates personally post on their facebook page so I checked it out and replied with this comment on Jim Leach's page.

Interesting guy. In one post he's angry about the "marginalization of Hispanics" in Illinois politics. In another he calls the cultural traditions of Middle Eastern countries "obtuse and barbaric."
I wonder if he'll ever see the hypocritical contradiction in those two statements.

That's when things got fun. Robert Enriquez responded!

One of the first rules for political candidates engaging in online discussion is that you don't get into a back and forth with random strangers. All you need to do is make your position clear and state your case. Anything beyond two replies to a question almost always goes downhill. Someone should have told Robert.

Instead, he engaged in the trademark behavior of what passes for debate on right-wing talk radio. He misrepresented my argument to avoid responding, changed the subject by attacking his opponent, and descended into a rant of random gripes against Democrats. Wow!

Here's the facebook post by Enriquez about a stoning incident in Iran that I referred to:

THIS IS WHY you don't go around bowing to people in the world. Their social and legal values are just so different (obtuse and barbaric, really) from what we absolutely know to be correct. Bowing to other (legal or not) leaders by a US President just confuses them and sends a seriously flawed signal to friend and foe... alike.

The better thing for a US President to do is look them in the eye, shake their hand and treat them like we treat other Americans, here at home. With respect, equality and decency...compassion even.

I'm sure everyone would agree with him if he had simply condemned stoning. But, in his attempt to attack Obama, he went further than that. He used an instance of stoning to condemn the social and legal values of entire culture as "obtuse and barbaric."

That insults every Iranian and American of Iranian heritage who opposes the practice of stoning and struggles for human rights.

You can read a screen cap of our conversation here. After defending his statement and questioning my right to criticize a candidate for public office, he gave up even trying to justify his words.

What about that Obama guy keeping his Aunt Zeituni ... See Morehere and deporting MORE Hispanics than were deported by W? How is that for "proper"? What about that Revered White guy, hating on the US and Obama never heard ONE Word? To say nothing of dingbat Farrakhan. I don't see you high and mighty and attacking these folks.

What about THIS as a backdrop to an apology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwog6E08CFU?

Now that's a first class talk-radio rant! Just to spare you, the YouTube link is of Barack Obama holding his hands in front of himself during the Star Spangled Banner, which is perfectly normal protocol. It's one of those links sent around in an email forward with a comment about Obama hating America.

Another poster, in a comment that was later removed, stated that Enriquez's statement is racist. Enriquez defended himself further by posting this definition of racism.

1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

Would that include the belief that
1) We shouldn't bow to people in Iran and other unspecified countries because their values are "obtuse and barbaric" compared to ours, and
2) Our social custom of shaking hands is an inherently superior way of showing respect than the customs of other cultures.

Hmm... It just might fit the definition.

If you stroll through his page you'll find other interesting items like a link to an article entitled, "Is Obama really a socialist? Some say so, but where's the evidence?" He even linked to a video of Jan Brewer in support of Arizona's new immigration laws.

I almost didn't post this because Enriquez is such a long-shot candidate. Then I remembered that most newspapers are giving the same level of coverage to this race as they gave to the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor. So I'll do my part to pick up the slack.

Illinois political press apologies: fail

I already wrote a little about the news media's failure to do their job covering the Lt. Governor's race, or any down-ballot race, for that matter. But the press' attempts at apology are just ticking me off even more.

Let's take the "mea culpa" from the Beacon News. First they start of with this spurious claim: "We here in the media -- in spite of all our crusading, editorializing and watchdog reporting -- blew it big time by letting a pretty important race fall through the cracks on Tuesday."

Watchdog reporting? I haven't seen the consolidated big-box press do much watchdog reporting since at least 9/10/01. We know they weren't on the job leading up to the Iraq War or for the first 7 1/2 years of the Bush administration. They also could have investigated and told us more about Blagojevich much sooner than they did instead of waiting for his arrest. Most of the investigative journalism I see is from blogs, non-profit news outlets, and the alternative press.

I did see plenty of coverage about who was leading in the polls for Governor and US Senate. Attention editors: Doing three days of stories on a poll you commissioned isn't real news. It's lazy crap.

The Beacon gets better.

Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker with a GED who was arrested for allegedly beating up his prostitute girlfriend a few years ago, is now sitting in the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket.

And his opponent on the Republican side? A kid from downstate who is named Jason because, of course, he's under the age of 30.

Ummm...so being under 30 is a dis-qualifier comparable to having a history of arrests and very questionable business dealings? WTF?! I passed 30 but I'm still close enough to say, "GO F- YOURSELF!" I bet their publishers can't figure out why most young people get their news online instead of reading mutilated trees.

Plummer and Cohen spent huge sums to buy their victories, and the corporate media was more than happy to take their money. It's the result of a deteriorating press and a political system dominated by the need for expensive advertising. That's an excellent topic to write about without getting condescending over somebody's age.





But at least that attempt at an apology is better than the finger-pointing from Springfield's State Journal-Register. They took no responsibility for barely covering any of the candidates other than Art Turner. Their editorial blames the political system with a call to action: "Fix process for choosing lieutenant governor."

I have an idea for fixing the process. Why doesn't Gatehouse hire more than two political reporters at the SJR? Maybe they would have gotten around to covering the Lt. Governor's race and some serious issues in the 18th Congressional district Democratic primary that were swept under the rug. I like breaking a story on my blog but I'd rather see newspapers do their job.

This is a media scandal as much as a political upset because it isn't about just the Lt. Governor's race. It's a wake-up call that the political press is failing us due to budget cut after budget cut in the consolidated corporate media. Making a profit is more important than informing the public.

We officially reached the point when reading blogs and the alternative press is the only way for the average person to make an informed decision on election day.

I may write about Mark Brown's lame excuses later.

Lt. Gov: paid media, old media, and social media

I spotted the CapitolFax link to this post from the Tribune blog...

Cohen, a little-known candidate who financed much of the campaign with his own fortune, will have to answer questions during the general election race as more is learned about him. He was charged with a 2005 misdemeanor domestic battery charge.

That's just one of several questions he'll have to answer in the general election because no one in the press asked questions during the primary! The meager press coverage gave us little more than two or three sentences on each candidate. Nearly every article followed the same format of bemoaning that the office has no duties, without mentioning the Illinois River Coordinating Council, Rural Affairs Council and other ways it has been used.

I seriously doubt that Democratic primary voters would have supported Scott Lee Cohen if the press had done their job of informing the public. News companies probably didn't mind Cohen's massive media buys as a substitute to articles. They'll be happy to run controversial stories now that it's too late for Democrats to choose anyone else.

I can't blame individual reporters when news outlets devote more resources to sports and crime stories than political coverage. It's not about media bias or lousy reporters. It's a business decision and a bad one. The corporate press is doing a good job of making themselves obsolete by forcing voters to search blogs for meaningful political coverage.

On another note, I'm surprised that Thomas Castillo did as well as he did with 13% of the vote. I thought he'd get around 5%. I've never seen a statewide race use social media as aggressively as Castillo. It was obvious that he invested significant personal time and effort, way beyond setting up a website and email list. It reminded me of Mike Quigley's online campaign.

Castillo finished ahead of Terry Link who was endorsed by Illinois AFL-CIO, many newspapers, a number of State Senators, and others. That's a wake-up call to anyone who doesn't realize that a campaign's online strategy needs to be as well planned and executed as media buys, press strategy, field organizing and so on. Getting your college-age nephew to set up a neglected facebook page doesn't cut it anymore.

The Republican patronage candidate for Governor: Kirk Dillard

The Sangamon County Republican Party isn't an ideological organization as much as it's a team effort to get government jobs and contracts. They live and die by the jobs they control through the county, park district, convention center and so on. There's nothing they want more than to get their hands back into that state government honeypot.

Since no other issue is more important to them, I interpret an endorsement by the Sangamon County Republicans as a sign of which candidate is most likely to doll out jobs and contracts to the party faithful. So who's the unanimous choice of Sangamon Republican leaders? Kirk Dillard!

It's no surprise. Dillard was Jim Edgar's chief of staff. Edgar openly defended the patronage system as a GOOD thing and they were very helpful to Springfield Republicans. As chief of staff, Dillard must have been involved in handing out the spoils of victory.

If you're a Republican whose real problem with Blagojevich is that he wasn't steering enough jobs and contracts to your team, then now you know who to vote for.

Lt. Governor candidates on Illinois Rivers

Most people don't realize that the Lt. Governor also chairs the Illinois River Coordinating Council. The News Tribune did one of the few substantive articles I've seen on the race by focusing on this issue. It's interesting to see which candidates emphasize rivers as an economic resource for shipping without as much to say about the other ways rivers have value.



My pick in the race, Mike Boland, lives along the Mississippi and wants to expand the work of the council to protect other state waterways.

“I’m familiar with the Illinois River where my opponents are not.” Boland said he would focus as well on the Wabash, Rock and Mississippi Rivers, “to make sure those rivers stay viable, that they are increasingly being used for drinking water, transportation and recreation.”

I realize it's difficult for papers to cover an office with few job responsibilities and a long list of candidates in both parties. So good job on the News Tribune for focusing on an important but overlooked aspect of the office! The conversation needs to be expanded.

The downstate environmental leader

It's hard to find strong environmental advocates in the Illinois legislature who aren't from Chicago or the suburbs. That's one reason why it's encouraging to see that downstate Representative Mike Boland is one of the state's boldest environmental champions.

One of the top priorities for Illinois environmental groups in '08 and '09 was the Clean Car Act. The oil and auto industry made a full effort to defeat the bill and they succeeded. It was never brought to a vote on the House floor and the Senate buried it in committee. Boland was one of only two downstate legislators who signed on to co-sponsor the bill when most representatives were backing down under pressure from corporate lobbyists.

He has a record of passing his own environmental bills, such as the Green Buildings Act last year. It ensures that state government leads by example by requiring that construction projects financed with state money must now be LEED certified. Pat Quinn praised the law in his State of the State address.

Boland introduced laws requiring the use of LED or florescent Energy Star lighting in state government buildings, and the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrids.

He has co-sponsored numerous other environmental laws, including the Energy Efficient Buildings Act, which also passed last year. Boland introduced several bills to help promote the electric car industry in Illinois, including the Neighborhood Electric Vehicles Act which would allow them to access more urban roads.

Boland spoke about clean energy and creating green jobs at the environmental film fest in Springfield last year. He still keeps the event flier on his legislative office door. I rarely meet an elected official with his passion and conviction for resolving climate change and other environmental issues. Naturally, I'm excited that he's running for Lieutenant Governor.





Downstate legislators are under intense pressure from anti-environment groups like the coal industry and industrial agribusiness firms. It takes political courage to be an outspoken supporter for the environment in a district like Boland's. Even gutsier, is calling out his opponent for having a coal company with aging, dirty plants as a top campaign contributor.

It's the same courage he has shown on other issues, like his efforts for achieving universal health care by pushing for the Bernardin amendment (with State Senator Barack Obama), or his long record of advocating for meaningful reform as Chair of the House Campaign Reform Committee.

The Lieutenant Governor's office is best suited for someone who will be an energetic advocate for the public interest. A downstate, progressive reformer like Mike Boland is exactly who we need on the Democratic ticket.