Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Friday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

Here’s something new I’m doing: The Week In Juvenile Justice.
Feel free to send me ideas, tips, suggestions.
Speed Freak
“U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis, who cites his successful push to raise Illinois’ speed limit as the top accomplishment of his first year as a state lawmaker, has been ticketed for speeding 11 times since 1988, according to public records,” the Tribune reports.
Too good!


“Two of the speeding tickets – both for driving at least 20 miles over the limit in a 40 mph zone – were issued in 2012, the year he won a seat in the Illinois Senate.
“Also in 2012, he was cited for running a red light in North Aurora and for disobeying a stop sign in Aurora. But the stop sign citation was amended to a violation involving his auto’s ‘signal lamps and signal devices.’
“Oberweis, 67, a Republican from Sugar Grove, was cited for speeding 10 times in Illinois and once in Florida, where he owns property, the Tribune found.
“Additionally, he was ticketed – but not convicted – in 2006 in Aurora for failing to yield while turning left after a car accident, court records show.”
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Question: Was this story prompted by a routine public records check in the course of vetting a candidate, or was it handed to the Trib by the Doug Truax campaign as a result of opposition research?
No harm in saying!
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In fact, harm in not saying. For example, if Truax now starts citing the Trib story in attacks against Oberweis, it would be nice to close the circle and know that he dug it up in the first place so he doesn’t go around saying, “Hey, don’t take it from me, take it from them!” like Dick Cheney did after feeding bullshit about WMDs to Judith Miller at the New York Times.
(After all, in six previous Oberweis runs for office, this has apparently never come up.)
Also: Campaigns can just start posting opposition research on their own websites – unless they don’t want to get their hands dirty. Either way, it’s not up to the media to protect them or form a shady sourcing relationship.
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“The Tribune submitted written questions to Oberweis and his campaign director, Tom Mannix, and received an initial response from Mannix: ‘Him getting the speeding tickets has nothing to do with him getting legislation to pass a speed limit.'”
Not fond of submitting written questions. Would rather see Oberweis refusing to discuss the issue. “Are you telling us, Mr. Oberweis, that when you crafted the new speed limit legislation your own experiences never came to mind? Doesn’t that prove you really are from another planet?”
For starters.
Instead, we await Mannix’s polished, strategic, fake written response.
Why not just write the questions you would have asked into the article instead of submitting them to the campaign?
Again, why would anyone in this town ever submit to an interview again? The press says you don’t have to!
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“Mannix said any connection between Oberweis’ driving record and his legislation was ‘tenuous at best.'”
Really, it’s hilarious at best.
But did he ask the candidate before making that assertion, or just toss off some bullshit for the papers to retype?
“He said he would address other Tribune questions soon.”
Right. As soon as the campaign’s strategy team decides how best to craft answers that have nothing to do with the truth nor can be cross-examined by a reporter.
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Given Oberweis’s record of hostility to immigrants, I feel like there’s a Speedy Gonzales joke to be had here, but I can’t seem to find it. Unless I just did.
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Meanwhile, the Trib reports separately that “Truax’s lack of experience makes him a decided long shot.”
As opposed to Oberweis’s decided one year of experience?
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The Beachwood Bookmaking Bureau puts the race at 50-50.
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Tweeting The ABC7 GOP Debate
Kirk Dillard won, Bruce Rauner lost, few care..
Related: Now that it’s too late – and after devoting gobs of copy to Rauner – the Trib has finally gotten around to profiling Bill Brady.
Beachwood Photo Booth: Window Dressing
Wash and wear.
Soldier Field Is A Hockey Rink
Here’s how they did it.
The Week In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Richie Ramone, Metal Church, False Hope Fades, Sting, Paul Simon, Kip Moore, Lady Antebellum.
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BeachBook
* Who Was Maria Saucedo?
* More Transparency From Rahm & CPS.
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TweetWood


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Branded content.

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Posted on February 28, 2014