BY DAN CAMPANA
TGIEDT -- Thank God It's Election Day Tuesday.
No more TV shows interrupted by two-minutes of non-stop attack ads.
No more political punditry 24/7.
No more decently funny Saturday Night Live skits.
That's tomorrow. Before then, another whirl around the last-minute fun at Beacon Election Central.
Type O(berweis) Negative: Yawn. Hold me responsible for The Beacon's nifty graphic a couple of weeks ago that used a boxing theme to describe the Foster-Oberweis rematch for Congress. If anything, it's been more like the UFC -- Ultimately Forgettable Campaign.
Nitpicking has replaced fireworks. Hardly any dirt, let alone actual mud, has been thrown.
Oberweis' latest (last?) ad of this seemingly endless run for the 14th repeats his criticism of Foster's support for the $700 billion financial bailout package and associates certain campaign contributors with that backing.
The Foster people said the ad "broke" Oberweis' "promise" to run a positive campaign.
Why Foster -- the Democratic incumbent --cares enough to acknowledge it baffles me. Oberweis' camp quietly took issue with the situation, and called Foster out last month for trumpeting a positive campaign after taking things negative.
Seriously folks, this IS the rhetoric. With no national committees pumping any cash into this race, and Foster out-moneying Oberweis, the sequel has failed to live up to the original.
Got endorsements?: Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay picked one up from Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner last week, he's also voiced a robo-call for madam chairwoman. Also last week, Weisner joined other area mayors in endorsing Foster.
In Republican Tim Schmitz's 49th District, which spreads from Batavia to northern Kane County, his slated Democratic opponent Rachel Shattuck received public backing from Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. Earlier this year, Quinn threw his support behind John Laesch in the 14th District primary.
Clearly, there have been hundreds of other endorsements tossed out, from tons of pols and an alphabet soup of unions, so no offense to those not included here.
Money matters: Check out the Illinois Campaign For Political Reform Web site for its recent series of reports on where campaign cash is going and where it came from. Of note, ICPR points out the Linda Holmes-Terri Ann Wintermute contest for state senate is the second-most expensive race involves the second-highest amount of contributions in Illinois politics this cycle.
Judicial review: Seriously, judicial elections bother me to no end.
Candidates can't run on platforms (they're impartial, remember), just experience. If they don't win, others judges can still appoint them to the bench. And, for some in a black robe, you only have to get 60 percent of votes affirming your work every couple of years to keep your job.
Even better are the bar association candidate reviews that judge those folks on things like integrity, temperament, impartiality and, of course, health. Local lawyers, at least some of them, vote on these recommendations. Roughly 25 percent of attorneys in the Kane County Bar Association actually responded.
Among the highlights of this year's batch for the 16th Judicial Circuit:
* Circuit Judge Timothy Sheldon was rated 100 percent for health. He got the nod for retention.
* Attorney John Noverini, a candidate for the Elgin judicial subcircuit, pulled only an 88.4 for health and 58.8 for impartiality. The bar prefers Patricia Piper-Golden.
* Circuit Judge Michael Colwell got the weakest recommendation at 71.4 percent overall. His temperament registered a hair below 60 percent.
As an acquaintance frequently, sarcastically and often reminds me, there's no politics in the judiciary.
A turnout to shout about: A big round of applause to all who early voted -- whatever your reason.
Early voting hall-of-famers in Kane County (minimum 1,000 registered voters):
* Rutland 9: 58%
* Elgin 59: 57%
* Rutland 4: 56%
Early voting slackers (minimum 500 registered voters):
* Aurora 6: 4%
* Aurora 4: 8%
* Aurora 5: 9%
Shameless plug: You've turned to The Beacon's live blog for election night and other major local news coverage in the past. Make plans to join Managing Editor Mike Cetera, myself and a cast of other Beacon staffers as we bring you wire-to-wire coverage of Election Day.
Head to our Web site and follow the links beginning at 6 a.m. to join the fun!
When is the Beacon going to cover the elections in the DuPage County Part of Aurora? Over 20% of the city's population lives in DuPage County.
Just finished voting, heavy turnout in AUR W5-P6 & W5-P3, there were already close to 20 in line before 6a polling opened, line was out the door into the parking lot and building at 6:30.
Election Judges were all delighted to see such a strong early turnout, several folks in line with me were all positively commenting about seeing a line of voters at the polls so early and continuing to build.
Had to actually wait for a polling station to open for a change. Looks like there will be a significantly larger turnout today. Haven't (yet) driven past the other 4 polling places in my neighborhood, but expecting similar levels of participation in Ward 5.
No problems or issues noted at my polling palce (as usual, very well run by the Election Judges in both precincts.)
Dan,
I am with you on the Saturday Night Live skits, but I don't think the election will bring them to an end. And if Obama wins, SNL needs to find someone to do a more accurate portrayal of him.
Election Day:
It is 7:30 a.m. and I just passed the polling place at Washington Middle School on Aurora's West Side. Things are fairly quiet.
Still I am glad that I took advantage of early voting.
No lines outside Advent Christian, Vaughn Center, Westminster, Jefferson Jr High when I drove past 20 mins ago. Plenty of cars in the parking lots and good foot traffic continuing to trickle in.
Wintermute had volunteers posted at the entrance to the Vaughn Center.
Also saw volunteers (not sure for who) at Advent here on the NW Side of Aurora.
I see at least one candidate still represents the local version of the bitters locally and continues to show why her campaign failed to win support among the larger constituency within the community.
In her LTE published published in today's Beacon News, Joan Solms demonstrates (once again) why her views and platform are more representative of the failed traditions of the 'purges' from the 1950's.
Ms Solms, please give it a rest, flame throwing tactics such as yours are so 'last century'...America and our local communities have grown beyond your personal intolerance and bombastic 'take no prisoners' mentality.
Even Jim Oberweis has 'seen the light' in his most recent campaign, though I remain strongly opposed to the majority of his platform.
Ms Solms, you do a serious disservice to yourself, those you wish to represent and our community by such actions and tactics. Clearly you do not have the backing nor support of the majority of our community.
My wife and I attended the Obama victory rally in Grant Park. It is an experience that I will always remember.
While it is difficult to assess the mood of a crowd of more than 200,000, before the election result were announced, I'd describe it was an odd combination of antsy excitement and prayful hopefulness.
When Senator Obama sealed the 270 electoral votes needed to win, a feeling of unity swept over the crowd. And if it is possible for a crowd of a couple of hundred thousand to possess and exhibit a single and shared emotion, it occurred in Grant Park on Tuesday evening.
Tony Stanford
Freelancer Writer