Yesterday, Ward Room published a press release from the National Republican Congressional Committee. The press released predicted that Republican incumbents would hold on to seats in districts that had been redrawn to favor Democrats. It also bashed Tammy Duckworth, Brad Schneider and Bill Foster, winners of the Democratic primaries in the 8th, 10th and 11th districts. Terms such as “failed politician,” “partisan rubber-stamp” and “Chicago machine” were thrown around.
Now, in the interest of equal time, and of demonstrating that Democrats are just as dirty, negative and indifferent to the truth as Republicans, here’s a press release from Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (formerly chaired by our own Rahm Emanuel.)
The DCCC is supporting five Illinois candidates for its Red to Blue program, part of its “Drive for 25” to reinstall Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as speaker of the House.
“The road to the majority goes through Illinois. These Illinois candidates are going to be aggressively holding Republicans accountable for consistently choosing Millionaires over Medicare, oil companies’ tax breaks over middle class tax cuts, and ideology over solutions,” Israel said.
Illinois redistricting created six Democratic districts that President Obama would have won and are currently represented by Republicans: the 8th (Joe Walsh) 62.4 percent; the 10th (Bob Dold) 63.7 percent; the 11th (Judy Biggert) 62.1 percent; the 13th (Tim Johnson) 55.6 percent; the 17th (Bob Schilling) 60.9 percent. The 12th, an open seat, was also won by both President Obama by 55.7 percent.
Here, according to the Democrats, is why the Republicans representing those districts -- or running to represent those districts -- bite the big one:
Joe Walsh, 8th District: Congressman Joe Walsh is best known for not paying his child support. Sadly, when it comes to his failure in representing Illinois middle class families, Congressman Walsh’s debt issues merely scratch the surface. Walsh has shouted down constituents, mocked veterans’ service to our country, and rooted for a government shutdown that would cost taxpayers’ billions. While Walsh has employed nearly every cable-friendly gimmick, he’s done little to buck the ranks in Washington and voted lockstep for an out of touch agenda that rewards billionaires, Big Oil, and special interests and asks Illinois families to cover failed tax breaks by sacrificing Medicare.
Robert Dold, 10th District: Since Congressman Robert Dold’s Democratic-leaning district only got more competitive for him after redistricting, it comes as no surprise that Dold would try to claim he’s different from the extreme, polarizing Congress that’s catered to the ideological far-right by ending Medicare. In reality, Congressman Dold has been a reliable vote for Washington Republicans, and he’s supported every key tenant of Congressional Republicans extreme, out of touch agenda.
“Where was Congressman Dold when Congressional Republicans voted to end Medicare, but give tax breaks to millionaires and Big Oil or when Congressional Republicans pushed a radical attack on women’s health? Congressman Dold voted right alongside Tea Party Congressional Republicans,” said Haley Morris of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Judy Biggert, 11th District: Congresswoman Judy Biggert has made sure Washington works for her even if it means breaking her promises to Illinois middle class families. When the term limits she supported were up, Congresswoman Biggert elected to stay in Washington longer. Instead of taking on Wall Street for driving our economy to near ruin, Congresswoman Biggert voted to protect Wall Street’s agenda while taking hundreds of thousands from banks for her political campaign. Although she holds financial interests in companies affected by Congressional action, Congresswoman Biggert voted for measures that would benefit her stock portfolio. For more than a decade, Congresswoman Biggert has been a reliable vote for Congressional Republicans’ agenda on key policies like ending Medicare and giving tax breaks to billionaires and Big Oil.
Jason Plummer, 12th District: Illinois voters already rejected millionaire’s son Jason Plummer for not sharing their values of hard work, integrity, and basic fairness. In 2010, when Plummer first refused to release his taxes, he also refused to indicate whether he’d ever paid taxes at all. Now, Plummer is running for Congress, still trying to hide his family’s millions, and has yet to clarify whether he’s ever paid taxes.
Bobby Schilling, 17th District: Congressman Bobby Schilling consistently demands Illinois families make sacrifices like giving up Medicare while voting lockstep for an agenda that protects tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Instead of taking on spending by closing loopholes for corporations that ship jobs overseas, Congressman Schilling caved to Washington special interests and protected tax breaks for Big Oil. Schilling even cut constituent services to boost his re-election election efforts by spending exorbitantly on mass mailers on the taxpayers’ dime.
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