Chicago Tibune- US Senate Race -Obama, Ryan out front

[Chicago Democrat]

Obama, Ryan out front
With week until Senate primary, Hull staggered by divorce


By Rick Pearson
Tribune political reporter
Published March 9, 2004

With a week to go until Illinois voters cast their primary ballots, a new Tribune/WGN-Ch. 9 poll shows Democrat Barack Obama has surged to front-runner status while Republican Jack Ryan maintains a sizable lead in the nomination battles for the U.S. Senate.

The survey, the last polling by the Tribune prior to the March 16 election, also shows Blair Hull, the Democratic front-runner in a similar poll three weeks ago, has seen support plummet as his campaign was consumed by allegations that he verbally and physically abused an ex-wife during a messy divorce.


(snip)

Even so, the results of the survey conducted by Market Shares Corp. of Mt. Prospect from March 3-6 indicate that support among Democrats and Republicans alike remains extremely fluid amid what is anticipated to be an election with low voter turnout. That places a premium on candidate efforts to crank out their base vote and get supporters to the polls.

The Tribune/WGN-Ch. 9 survey of 602 likely Democratic primary voters showed Obama, a state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood, with the support of 33 percent of primary voters, compared with 19 percent for state Comptroller Dan Hynes and 16 percent for Hull. Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas had 8 percent, former Chicago Board of Education President Gery Chico had 6 percent and health-care executive Joyce Washington and radio talk show host Nancy Skinner each had 1 percent.

Rest at...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0403090232mar09,1,1802789.story?coll=chi-news-hed

[Jim Sagle]

1. That's the Republican Tribune plan - boost the black Dem in the primaries

so they can beat him in November.

[Chicago Democrat]

5. Republican? Tribune....I dont think so.

Look I live here and have been reading all the Chicago papers for three decades. While the Tribune management and owners may be "republican", the paper reads like a Democratic paper; because Chicago is a Democratic town and the Tribune knows how to make money. Maybe 10 or 20 years ago before Murdoch took over the Sun Time, what you said is true. The Tribune has changed and takes quite progressive positions on many many news items.

I get the Sun Times too. That paper is a Murdoch rag and is totally partisan. I check the differences in coverage and the Tribune mostly non-"filtered" news.

I think people here are totally ready for a progressive Democrat who happens to be Black. Chicago has changed. I see immigrants everywhere. The racists are Republicans; its just not a factor here for a candidate who addresses mainstream Democrats. I could be wrong, I think I'm right this time.

[chiburb]

6. Yes, the Trib IS Republican...

On the editorial page. Much like the WSJ, however, the reporting is usually free of slant either way.
Btw, the Sun-Times hasn't been owned by Murdoch in years. The fascist-in-charge is the now scandal-plagued Conrad Black/Hollinger Corp.

[never cry wolf]

11. I agree and disagree

The editorial pages are repug but the stories are pretty much mainstream whore news compared to account I read here from the Boston Globe, NY Times, etc. The editors don't just editorialize, they edit the stories and select what runs where, how big the headlines are, etc. It is a repug paper tho I'll grant not as bad as many, they at least admit there are other sides, even if they don't give equal coverage.

[Chicago Democrat]

21. I don't read their editorials too often.

I was talking more about the stories.

Yes Conrad Black every bit as bad as Murdoch, I stand corrected. In the Sun Times the editorial page extends throughout the entire paper.

[GinaMaria]

20. Uh yeah a republican rag

called the Fibune in my neighborhood.

[Chicago Democrat]

22. Obama can handle Ryan and how do you think Carol Mosely

Braun got elected??

Compared to Obama, Carol Mosely Braun is a turnip, intellectually speaking.

You think being Black is an issue for Illinois Democrats in 2004? I don't. Obama is the strongest candidate since Dick Durbin, black or white, male or female.

Hynes- Im sick of kids getting in just because their father was in politics.

Hull- A sinking ship. A lost cause. Money doesn't make you qualified.

[Chicago Democrat]

2. From Chicago - Why I like Obama!

Obama, Obama, Obama.... No relation to Osama.

Why I really like him.

1) He was the late Sen. Paul Simon's Chief of Staff!!! Wow. Simon was my hero.

2) He is BLACK (see #3)

3) He is brilliant on his feet; confident and with a brain second to none! Im not kidding! Obama could be what Jesse Jackson never could be. A real Afro-American candidate that can appeal to a wide range of voters because he is just better than the rest of the candidates!!
Progressives take note! Obama is goin places!


Oh Happy,happy, happy happy , happy happy, happy happy happy DAY!!!!

Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama

[DonP]

25. Agree, specifically with #3 point

One of the brightest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

Very good on his feet, intelligent and well (and softly) spoken. He makes better points with a whisper and a well though out word or two than anyone else can with a megaphone.

I watched him totally disarm some protestors in Springfield a few weeks ago. He did not wind up agreeing with them after hearing them out but I truly believe they walked away respecting him at the end of the day.

Maybe I should write now and volunteer to work in his White House press office in a few years?

[MarianJack]

3. Just a question from Maine

Wasn't a woman named Nancy Skinner running? If so, what happened to her? (I know, that's 2 questions)

On Edit, sorry I did what I rarely do. I posted before I read the whole thing! I can just :spank: myself!

[DonP]

24. She still is running, at least as of last week

IMNSHO

Main claim to fame was a self described "local leftie" talk show with Ski Anderson on WLS Sunday's and guest appearances on talking head shows on MSNBC, CNN and Fox.

Trained as a lawyer IIRC but not with any real party backing for the run.

Positioned herself as kind of a grass roots candidate but she seems to have failed in generating any real groundswell in a state with a lot of good quality, high visibility Dems' running for the office.

[stevebreeze]

27. Nancy polled about 1% in this poll

She is a decent candidate but got in late. AND there was already a pretty good progressive in the race, Barack.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Please help us keep current, Chicago Democrat.

We out-of-staters are just starting to hear Obama's name. He sounds exceptional, and maybe a breath of fresh air.

[chiburb]

7. From the Trib's endorsement:

The Democrats have a few good people seeking the nomination for the U.S. Senate. They have one outstanding candidate: State Sen. Barack Obama, who is endorsed today by the Tribune.

Obama, 42, is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He gained experience as a civil rights lawyer and community activist on housing and other matters before he was elected to the state Senate from a South Side district in 1996. He is now a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

As pedigrees go, there is not a finer one among the Democratic candidates.

Obama, however, rises above this field as one of the strongest Democratic candidates Illinois has seen in some time. He richly deserves his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Registration is free:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0402290312feb29,1,5936141.story?coll=chi-elections-utl

[Judi Lynn]

8. Wow! The Tribune really seems impressed.

They describe the differences in some areas they have with him, but it sounds like they really stand behind him.

This guy looks far YOUNGER than I expected when I looked him up in google:


Endorsed by the Sierra Club, too. Very decent!

[chiburb]

9. Chicago Sun-Times endorsement:

Our endorsement goes to Obama, who seems best poised to overtake Hull. Obama's background and experience can trump Hull's money. Obama has a compelling personal story. He is a man who has struggled to understand the landscape in two worlds -- one white, one black. Born to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, reared in Hawaii and Indonesia, Obama could be the man for this time and for this place.

If nominated and elected, Obama would be the first African American male in the Senate since 1978, when Edward W. Brooke, a Republican from Massachusetts, left after two terms, and only the third African American ever elected to that office in modern times. The other being Illinois' Carol Moseley Braun, who served one term until defeated by the current incumbent, retiring Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.

We are endorsing Obama -- not as a gratuitous nod to his race -- but as a salute to his proven track record in the state Senate, where he is known as a hardworking and thoughtful legislator. We think his background can overcome Hull's wealth factor.

As a senator, Obama vows to support equalizing school funding. His jobs creation proposal that would require replacing existing tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas with tax incentives for firms that create good-paying jobs in the U.S. resonates with both families and corporations. Ideas like that make him the best choice as the Democrats' standard-bearer in November.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/endorse/cst-edt-edits27.html

[never cry wolf]

14. Press Release: Obama Picks up Endorsements from the Daily Herald, St. Loui

Press Release: Obama Picks up Endorsements from the Daily Herald, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Champaign News-Gazette, and the Peoria Journal Star

He even plays in Peoria!!

http://www.obamaforillinois.com/artman/publish/

[Judi Lynn]

15. Good endorsement!

His mom's from Kansas. That'll have a lot of Kansas Democrats interested in his career, too!

Two big papers behind him in Illinois. He could do a lot worse, for sure.

[mantis49]

23. For what it's worth,

he also got the endorsement of the Peoria Journal Star (another conservative newpaper.) They were also very impressed with him.

Not many downstaters read the Trib.

[Rich Hunt]

17. for starters

http://www.obamaforillinois.com/

I will go through the roof if he wins the nomination!

He is -so- qualified, and progressive to boot.

[slappypan]

10. I hope Obama can win

He has some good new commercials featuring Sen. Paul Simon's daughter Jeanne. I hope he can win, because I really, really dislike Ryan.

[chiburb]

12. Don't worry...

He COULD win on his own, but he'll have Kerry's coattails to ride too!

[kysrsoze]

13. Jack Ryan is an Ass!

I saw his "funny" commercials and was disgusted by them. It turns out this guy is worth over $100M. And you know that "inner city" school he taught at? It's a private college prep school. He only worked part time and donated to the board to get on staff (couldn't teach at Chicago Public Schools b/c he isn't teacher-qualified).

What's he teaching those poor black kids in his commercials anyway? How to make it in the stock market? New tax shelter strategies?

What a prick.

[Rich Hunt]

18. ryan

When he announced his candidacy, he said that 'Reagan was too liberal'. I swear he said this - it was on the front page of the paper.

He's creepy.

also, he is yet another conservative hypocrite:

Chicago Daily Herald, October 17,

Eric Krol, Daily Herald Political Writer

U.S. Senate hopeful Jack Ryan is running as a conservative, family-values candidate in his effort to win the Republican nomination.

But in 1997, a company started by his then-wife, actress Jeri Ryan, with money from Jack Ryan, had an interest in a movie featuring rape, nudity, implied three-way sex and a woman killing a pet pig with an ax. "Men Cry Bullets," an unrated independent film, also features the character of an adult man toting a baby bottle, dressed in nothing but a diaper.

A spokeswoman for Jack Ryan said the candidate had nothing to do with the film and doesn't condone anything in it.

"This is a man that goes to church two or three times a week," Ryan spokeswoman Lissa Druss Christman said.

"He never saw a script. He didn't know the content," Christman said.

The movie's closing credits thank a "J.R.," shortly followed by thanks to Doug Ryan, who is Jack Ryan's brother and campaign treasurer. The Ryans' August 1999 divorce settlement lists the company, RAJ Productions, as joint property. Jeri Ryan was awarded RAJ and any interest in "Men Cry Bullets" in that settlement.

[slappypan]

19. those commercials are crap

"Wacky" commercials about government waste, but he can't name even one specific program he wants to cut. Typical Republican lies. How stupid do people have to be to fall for that year after year? The guy has no qualifications and just lacks dignity on some basic level (much like Bush I suppose).

[Divernan]

16. An excellent candidate like Obama can help carry Illinois for Kerry.

His credentials and background are terrific. Isn't it interesting that here is a black man with the Ivy credentials to have gone the Uncle Tom/Colin Powell route and sold out , but he hasn't.

[stevebreeze]

26. Go Barack!

He has not just talked the progressive talk, he has goten things done in IL. NO easy task with Madigan running the house.

What a great thing it would be to have Barack and Dick Durbin represent IL.

:kick: