Thursday, April 19, 2007

A moronic statement from Ald. Joe Moore

Back to Chicago's North Side: It appears that Ald. Joe Moore, barring a recount showing otherwise, has won reelection in the 49th Ward by 227 votes out of almost 8,000 cast.

Yesterday afternoon I watched WGN-TV's midday news, and Joe Moore made this comment about Tuesday's' election:

Whenever you fight for the common guy, people are going to fight back. My opponent was very well funded by some very powerful special interests, Republican interests....

Lies. Gordon did receive multiple contributions from the Illinois Restaurant Association, as well as the group Chicago Chefs for Choice. The last one must've had something to do with Moore's anti-foie gras legislation.

The former group is a big player in state politics, but seems to split its political spending money pretty evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Chicago Chefs for Choice? I'll see what I can find out, as I do know two conservative Chicago chefs.

Moore's campaign fund is dominated by contributions from the Service Employees International Union. And earlier this month, Moore received $10,000 from the Chicago Federation of Labor, and the same amount from AFSCME Council 31. That's big money for an aldermanic race

It's Moore's campaign that was dominated by special interests, but necessarily not Republican ones.

I haven't the time to add up Moore's and Gordon's contributions, but a quick look at the reports available at the Illinois State Board of Elections site clearly shows to the casual visitor that Moore easily raised more money than his challenger.

Joe Moore, liar.

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16 comments:

Skeeter 7:52 AM  

This post is laughingly incorrect.
I don't have much use for Moore, but take a look at the contributors to his opponent. It is a big business who's who.

Craig Gernhardt 8:53 AM  

I'm siding with John. Joe is a liar, plain and simple. Joe's been taking money from slimeballs his whole political career. A candidate finally comes along and finds donors and all of a sudden Joe cries foul.

I've met Herro, he's no republican. If he was, who gives a rat's ass anyway. He leveled the playing field a tad and he's a heck of a business man.

I'd take a Herro's donation over Jay Johnson anytime.

Skeeter 9:07 AM  

Donating to the Swift Boaters pretty much makes you a Republican.

Herro put $50,000. That's being "well funded" by "Republican interests."

As I noted above, though, Moore remains a numbskull. Fighting for the common man? The common man does not give a rat's rear about foie gras and about meaningless resolutions about nukes and all of the other idiotic stuff that Moore has done.

What the common man cares about is whether his neighborhood is safe and whether development is reasonable and Moore is a complete failure in that regard.

The 49th should be a beautiful middle class lakefront enclave -- a place where the common man can live near the lake. Instead, it is an area where the common man is afraid to walk around at night because of the roaming thugs.

But the voters have spoken. And what they have said is "Don't move to 49 in the next four years, but it will not get any better there."

Anonymous,  9:13 AM  

Did anyone see the Showtime Penn & Teller show Bullsh*t about Walmart a couple weeks ago? They profiled Joe Moore, which was hilarious! They ripped him apart and showed him to be a hypocritical ass. Gordon should have passed out copies of the show in his ward.

Rich Miller 10:49 AM  

For crying out loud, John, before calling somebody a moron and a liar please take the time to actually do a bit of actual research. Admitting that you "haven't the time to add up Moore's and Gordon's contributions" is unconscionable because it means you don't know whether what you are saying is even true.

Craig Gernhardt 11:11 AM  

Just off hand, I'd say Moore is around $800,000 for this race - Gordon, $120,000.

I'd also say, Gordon got the better investment per dollar, per vote, by far.

Skeeter 12:07 PM  

Craig,

If your numbers are right (I haven't checked), then it looks like nearly half of Moore's money came from the Swift Boater.

That pretty well proves that Ruberry is wrong.

Rich Miller 11:18 PM  

It's really quite easy to do fundraising searches and takes hardly any time. You just go to "search contributions by committee," type in the committee number, type in a date range, make sure you click "local" or "state" and hit search.

Joe Moore raised $306,424.01 between February 28 and April 17.

Gordon raised $112,314.18 during the same period (the day after the 1st election until runoff day).

Of Gordon's money, $60K came from Herro and $17,500 from the James Pritzker political participation fund. Moore raised a ton from unions, particularly SEIU.

Moore is guilty of the usual political overstatement. He's that kind of guy. But since well over half Gordon's money came from two wealthy Republican businessmen (James is the Republican Pritzker) I don't think you can flat-out call Moore a liar.

In the future, please do a little research before posting here.

Craig Gernhardt 9:33 AM  

Rich, Are we to toss out the nearly $500,000 Moore had prior Feb.27th election?

This is part of Moore's camapign warchest too.

What about the dozens of SEIU'ers that flooded the neighborhood canvassing the last three weeks. We still don't know who flipped the tab for the ground labor.

For someone who wants the facts reported, maybe you should've had someone on the ground reporting the full contest before you pull up a few D-2's and A-1's and claim Moore's not lying.

Moore is a blantant liar and until you prove me wrong, I'll stand by my statement.

Oh, and seeing you love the money trial, go through Moore's D-2's and A-1's. I'm sure you'll find donors to his list that give to both parties too.

Hugh 10:30 AM  

Rich, I agree with your critique taht posting on campaign contributions without actually looking is bogus.

> well over half Gordon's money

That you can make statements like "well over half" is only possible because Gordon raised such pathetic amounts compared to the megabucks Moore took in from unions, corporate sponsors, developers, and other special interests. Moore took in such outrageous amounts from anybody and everybody that it's harder to make broad statements like "more than half." You can say "raised a ton of money from unions" sure, but it's hard to say anything about "most."

Even before the Feb primary, Moore was painting himself as the champion of the little guy, living wage, unions, etc. and his opponents as the candidates of big business.

After the primary, Moore told his faithful, I am the victim, I am targeted for my beliefs, just wait, the Chamber money, the Walmart money, will start pouring in. It didn't happen.

A few weeks before the election, frustrated, the best Moore had on Gordon was Herro, so Moore ran with that.

> It's really quite easy to do fundraising searches and takes hardly any time.

Yes, it is. Come on Rich, you know better, it's the degrees of separation game, gimme a minute, you can find someone who gave to a PAC who gave to anybody.

Skeeter 11:54 AM  

Why is this even open to debate?

The statement in question:

"My opponent was very well funded by some very powerful special interests, Republican interests."

More than half of Moore's money came from Republicans (and anybody who contributes to the swift boaters is by definition a Republican).

Go ahead. Dislike Moore. Call him a cheap liberal hack. He is.

But be honest about him. You all are supposed to be Republicans -- the party of God and Morality. Rip Moore in an honest and moral way.

His statement about being on the side of the working man is nothing more than the usual puffery (and pales compared to statements like Bush's "I want to be a uniter rather than a divider" and Cheney's allegations of connections between Saddam and Bin Laden) and the other part of the statement is simple fact.

If I lived in 49 I probably would have voted for Gordon (since Moore is in fact a cheap liberal hack who has shown no evidence of taking his own ward seriously), but with Gordon having backers like those posting here, I would have held my nose while voting. The comments here actually make Moore look dignified in comparison, and I didn't think that possible.

Marathon Pundit 9:21 PM  

Rich, thanks for adding up the figures, I owe you that.

However, I am right--or make that both of us are--Moore clobbered Gordon in fundraising.

For crying out loud, John, before calling somebody a moron and a liar please take the time to actually do a bit of actual research. Admitting that you "haven't the time to add up Moore's and Gordon's contributions" is unconscionable because it means you don't know whether what you are saying is even true.

I reviewed the ISBE reports before I made my post, and simply put, I have a full time job and I can't spend two or three hours to play with my calculator. Plus the reports are updated almost daily--by the time I posted figures, they'd be inaccurate--which you know.

But looking at Gordon's ISBE statements and Moore's as I did last Thursday, it's like looking at two players poker chips at a Vegas table. I don't have to count every chip to know who has the most money.

And Skeeter, you are beyond hope.

Thanks to all of your support to those who've expressed it.

Moore's in some trouble now, surely he'll work to get the suit dismissed, but as the details come out regarding April 17, well, it won't be be who is called a liar and a moron.

Skeeter 8:34 AM  

Let me get this right Rube:

You are wrong [more than half of Gordon's money came from the Swift Boater] and lazy [you couldn't add up the numbers but posted anyway], but I am beyond hope?

Pathetic, Rube.

You Republicans spend a lot of time talking about honesty and morality, but your posts show that it is nothing but talk. Your post was dishonest [or lazy -- it remains unclear], and if you had any dignity you would stand up and apologize. I am not exactly holding my breath waiting for you to show any dignity though.

Skeeter 9:05 AM  

By the way --

The entry really was blogging at its worst.

The writer made a strong allegations ("moronic" and "lies"), turned out to be wrong on at least one point, and then admitted that he did no research on the other.

Why is this guy allowed to post here?

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