Joel Pollak's new tv ad

Another example of Joel's positive campaign.

Really, Congresswoman?

Tea Party Glenn Beck Sean Hannity Neo-Con right-wing blog right-wing ideologues 32-year-old.

And that's just a single fund-raising letter.

Congresswoman Schakowsky, you've represented the Ninth District of Illinois for six terms. You were the president of your freshman Democratic class in 1999. You should be proud to run on your record. And the best you can do is guilt by association?

Really, Congresswoman? Isn't such mudslinging beneath a Member of Congress of your stature?

Were you making a salient point in noting your opponent's orthodox Judaism? Or was this a sleazy attempt to stir anger and antipathy among your base of liberal Jews?

Joel Pollak made several corrections to the falsehoods and misstatements in your letter. To add one more: Joel has not characterized your support for the president and a two-state solution as anti-Israel. He has characterized your friendship with Helen Thomas and your alliance with J Street as anti-Israel. Feel free to defend these connections. In fact, you responded to questions about J Street with a "wait and see" reply. One doesn't join an organization--or speak at its Chicago kickoff event--and then determine what its Israel policy turns out to be. That would be irresponsible.

It appears, Congresswoman, that you are taking your reelection campaign marching orders from the House leadership and the DCCC, which warned against running on the records of Congress or the White House. Good move. If you were forced to defend your record, voters might notice:

--how you vote for earmarks to help other districts but cannot bring any federal government money to your own.
--how Obamacare is going to cannibalize Medicare, endangering your base of senior voters.
--how your husband Robert Creamer went to prison for felony check-kiting. What did you know and when did you know it, Congresswoman? You owe your constituents an explanation.
--how you repeatedly lie (state in error?) regarding job creation statistics relating to the federal stimulus package while your district continues to lose thousands more jobs--faster than Illinois as a whole.

And organizing hecklers at your opponent's campaign events, Congresswoman? Really? Isn't that beneath you?

Oh, well. Back to the name-calling.

By the way, talk show host Glenn Beck uses two "n's" in his first name. You might want to make a note of it for your next fund-raising letter. And "Neo-Con" is a code word for "Zionist."

Can Jan hang on?

Joel Pollack took down Rep. Barney Frank. Can he hold his own with another liberal House stalwart? After just two different Members of Congress represented the Ninth District in the House over the last 62 years,* the District could certainly use "A Fresh Start."

The polls report the president's approval ratings have fallen sharply. More seriously, a majority of Americans no longer trust the president to make major policy decisions. That's not the type of person Americans typically vote to re-elect.

Concerns about skyrocketing debt, the possibility of higher taxes and a Big Government takeover of health care and so much more would naturally lead to a year with big Republican gains in Congress.

How does this voter unrest translate to the Ninth District of Illinois?

Rep. Jan Schakowsky's most loyal voters, who already voted for her six times, love Big Government. They love higher taxes. They love entitlement spending. They love taxpayer-funded abortions. They love gun bans. They love unions. They love federal spending on the arts, as if the arts were at all the federal government's business. Some of them love sticking it to Israel.

So the Republican Party's alternate message may not resonate with many Ninth District voters. These voters' active dislike of conservatives may be so strong that they will vote to re-elect the Congresswoman just to annoy Republicans. Furthermore, Rep. Schakowsky does a masterful job of portraying herself as the underdog (a six-term incumbent loaded with campaign cash? Some underdog!) fighting the good fight against those bad Republicans and their "far right-wing agenda." This goes on even as her husband goes to prison for a check-kiting scheme. Putting fear into the minds of voters may will result in a surfeit of fund-raising cash and a seventh term in office.

In 1996, a great year for Democrats with a big re-election win for President Bill Clinton, Joe Walsh ran against 87-year-old Ninth District Rep. Sidney R. Yates. This was Yates' first serious opposition in 14 years. He was so concerned about losing his precious seat he flew to his home District to campaign and ended up winning re-election by eight points.

With almost no money and a loosely organized campaign force of volunteers, Walsh had Yates thinking about retirement. (Walsh is now running against Rep. Melissa Bean in Illinois' Eighth District. Yates retired in 1999 and died in 2000.) Could Joel Pollack close that eight-point gap? Stay tuned.

*Sidney R. Yates 1949-1999. Another member served 1961-63. Jan Schakowsky 1999-present.

Chillax, AIPAC!

The race for the U.S. House in Illinois' 9th District between six-term Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Joel Pollack is heating up. Many pro-Israel voters in the District are planning to vote for Pollack, disappointed in what they perceive as the Congresswoman not being pro-Israel enough.

According to a friend, AIPAC has weighed in. AIPAC, the strong-pro-Israel lobby in Washington, has put the word out to its supporters in the District: Don't vote out a Member with a 100 percent AIPAC voting record. AIPAC uses a plus/minus grading system to evaluate members of Congress as to how each Member votes for a bill relating to Israel. According to AIPAC, Schakowsky's voting record is perfect.

News flash to AIPAC: national elections are really none of your business. AIPAC is a lobby, not a PAC (political action committee). It can evaluate, but not endorse, criticize or financially support, Members of Congress. The voters of the Ninth District in Illinois elect a Representative for a host of reasons. For many of Rep. Schakowsky's most loyal supporters, her pro-Israel record is a pretty low priority.

So AIPAC, please: work on lobbying Members of Congress, and we'll work on electing them.

How much longer, Jan?

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill.) turns 66 on May 26.

When the people of the Ninth District of Illinois first elected her in 1998, she was 54.

When the people of the Ninth District first elected Sidney R. Yates in 1948, he was only 39. By the time he left office, he was 89. Even after that, according to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.), Yates regretted leaving office. "I never should have left," Durbin said Yates told him, despite Yates' health problems preventing him from performing basic duties of his office. Like showing up for House votes.

I'm very concerned that Jan* considers her House seat a lifetime appointment and will run for re-election until she is well into her 80's, like her predecessor Sid Yates did. It's not supposed to be that way. Entrenched incumbents block entire generations of qualified candidates from stepping in and making their own contributions to their communities. Take Sen. Dick Durbin, please: by 2014, we will have had one occupant of his Senate seat for 18 years. As the Congresswoman is able to amass a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest, she can look at elections as minor distractions from her long-term reign.

This needs to stop. Even Jan's hardcore liberal supporters must realize entrenched incumbents get lazy, as Yates did. Electing a member of Generation X would further reduce the average age of House members (still too high) and show the country that in the Ninth District, to quote a former president, "The torch has been passed to a new generation."


*"Mrs. Schakowsky" is somewhat incorrect as Schakowsky is her first husband's name, not her husband's name. Her husband is convicted felon Robert Creamer.