November 4th, 2009
Dan Hynes, who is running for governor against Gov. Pat Quinn in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary, is running a TV ad that features a statement Quinn made at an April 23 meeting of the RRS Editorial Board. (Hynes is the Illinois comptroller.)
In the snipped of the meeting Hynes’ ad uses, we are talking about Quinn’s proposed 50 percent income tax increase, when board member Bob Trojan, a Rockford manufacturer, notes that the governor’s plan would raise taxes on an individual making more than $14,000.
Quinn interrupts Trojan and says, “But isn’t that part of what we have to do to get our state back on its feet?”
Hynes’ ad goes on to castigate Quinn for proposing to raise taxes on middle class folks. Hynes, the ad concludes, will “ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.” See the ad by CLICKING HERE.
When we saw the ad, we wondered if Quinn’s quote had been taken out of context. I reviewed the video of our editorial board meeting, as did Editorial Page Editor Wally Haas. We both concluded that the quote was not taken out of context. Indeed, as questioner Trojan pressed on, Quinn defended his plan. Watch the editorial board meeting here.
November 4th, 2009
Before anyone starts crowing about Democrat Bill Owens’ win in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, he did win with 49 percent, a large minority, but still a minority.
This was more a grudge match between moderate and conservative Republicans for the soul of the party; Owens was the beneficiary by default.
This district, closer to Montreal, Quebec than to New York City, has been reliably Republican since there were Republicans, which was just before the Civil War. (1861-65)
When the Republican congressman John McHugh resigned to become secretary of the Army, party leaders in the district selected Dede Scozzafava, a state legislator, to be the Republican candidate in the special election to fill the remainder of McHugh’s term.
But Scozzafava was too liberal for many national Republican chiefs and opinion leaders to stomach. From Sarah Palin to Tim Pawlenty to Dick Armey, the rightist pundits and poo-bahs weighed in with support for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Over the weekend, Scozzafava dropped out and threw her support to Democrat Owens.
Hoffman, who does not live in the 23rd district, came close to winning but couldn’t do the job because Scozzafava, whose name remained on the ballot, took about 6 percent of the vote. Other Scozzafava fans certainly followed her lead and voted for Owens to punish the GOP for essentially kicking her out of the party.
This fight isn’t over, just taking a break. In 2010 I think Hoffman will be back, with full GOP backing, trying to defeat Owens, who will no doubt have strong funding from the Democratic Party. Certainly this will be a race to watch. Conservative Republicans are boasting that they banished a liberal from their ranks in NY23, and promise to run primary candidates against other GOP’ers who don’t pass the conservative test.
Someone who is skeptical of this purge of moderates and liberals is Newt Gingrich, who supported Scozzafava because she was the pick of the local GOP in NY23.
Gingrich knows something about winning: He led the House Republicans to a 52-seat pick up in 1994 and returned the party to majority status after 40 years in the wilderness. He knows that to win nationally, the Republican Party has to be attractive to enough voters to attain 50 percent plus one in most elections. If every candidate is required to run the Rush Limbaugh-Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin gauntlet, the GOP will become a mighty small party in the future.
That’s a shame, because the country really needs a robust, market-based alternative to the Democrats’ programs. If the Democrats do not have to fear losing control of Congress because Republicans have become too extreme, the donkey party will do whatever it wants, which means enacting a plethora of job-crushing new taxes, regulation and other nanny-state laws that stifle creativity and curtail liberty.
