Laesh, Lauzen and debates in IL-14th

Anything but those TV ads with the family photos. Watching one was enough.

Laesh below using YouTube to make his points, and the St Charles Republican on GOP plans for debates.

“I’m in favor of as many debates as it takes to assure all of our constituents are fully informed on what our positions are on the issues,” Lauzen said. “If we had eight to 10 debates that would be just fine.”

Lauzen said he would like to see a change in the traditional debate structure, where candidates are given a short time period, usually one to three minutes, to respond to questions.

“I’d like to see the format be more flexible,” Lauzen said. “Right now you’re given about three minutes to present your background and agenda, then they give you a minute to answer a complex question.”

The “Oxford format” debate, which is less organized than traditional debate formats, would give candidates a chance to mix things up, Lauzen said.

Yes, Mix it up please, put it all on YouTube for us, and leave the family photo albums at home.

Update: A lot of back-and-forth over at Prairie State Blue on the debate among Democrats. It was held at the County Building but closed to all but Democratic Precinct Captains.

Update: On the GOP side, this on Wiggins in today's Herald,

The leader of Kane County's Republican party has offered to resign from his post after becoming a paid consultant for state Sen. Chris Lauzen's congressional campaign.

But Denny Wiggins told members of the Kane County Republican Central Committee at the group's monthly meeting Thursday he hopes a majority of party leaders agree to let him fulfill the remainder of his term as central committee chairman. The term ends Feb. 5, the day of the primary election.

We'll need a lot of lawyers to sort out all the issues in IL-14. Seems sort of needlessly complicated.

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John Laesch Running In Congressional 14th - Announcing At Firedoglake Saturday

[Cross-posted at WurfWhile.com]

I recently suggested that 2006 Democratic nominee for the 14th Congressional District John Laesch did not seem likely to run in 2008. I based that partly on what I was hearing in early March, but things have gotten more definite since then. In the last couple of days I heard from two independent sources (one of them here) that John Laesch may be throwing his hat in the ring again - so I called John tonight and he confirmed that he will run for congress in the 14th district in 2008 (Laesch's 2008 campaign website is here).

John Laesch told me he will announce his entry into the congressional race Saturday, May 26 on the Firedoglake blog. He also plans to be at the DeKalb Democrats meeting this Thursday, and believes there may be other 14th Congressional candidates there too. Through the end of June, in addition to getting married (congratulations John!) he plans to fundraise. Campaign appearances will follow.

John Laesch will face Geneva attorney Jotham Stein in the Democratic primary and possibly Aurora State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia and Geneva businessman Joe Serra. While this may be the whole field, it's early enough that other Illinois Democrats may join the fray in the fourteenth.

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