Vote for Eb!

I have carefully avoided writing about politics here; there are a million blogs with that stuff, and I think there's more to life than politics. That being said...

Meaghan's father Eb (Moran) was an alderman here in Evanston for 18 years, winning 5 elections along the way before retiring last year. He had the reputation of being detail-oriented and independent, not especially concerned if he was the only one voting for or against a certain proposal -- he did what he thought was right. That included being in favor of the downtown "tower" project, a mini-skyscraper that a very vocal group of residents opposed with yard signs, letters to the editor, online petitions, rallies, etc. Ah, Evanston.

He decided to run for State Representative late last year, and is now in a 5-person race for the Democratic nomination. The February 2nd primary is effectively the final election, as the Republican party here is practically non-existent, and the November election will be just a formality.

Meaghan's helping with the campaign, and it's been fun to see some of the retail politics at work: nominating petitions, yard signs, t-shirts, meet-and-greets, and the debates. These get pretty detailed treatment from the two local weekly papers, the Evanston Review and the Evanston Roundtable.

The debate coverage is what got me interested in the race, especially in reading how clueless many of the candidates seemed on Illinois' economic woes. Eb was the only one who emphasized the importance of controlling the growth in state government spending, recognizing that just taxing "the rich" more wasn't going to work any better in Illinois than it's working in California. (And it didn't hurt that he's the only pro-life candidate in the race, although that's sure to cost him Democratic primary votes.)

So I agreed to put my formidable rhetorical skills (!) to work for the campaign, and wrote a letter to the editors of the two local papers in support of Eb.

Interestingly the candidate with the most visibility and funding, young Patrick Keenan-Devlin, was in a campaign finance kerfuffle over the weekend. It came to light that more than half of his impressive $117,000 raised from July through December came from a single source: the public employees union AFSCME or its members. They might not be predisposed to state spending restraint, to put it gently.

The letter came together pretty quickly, like these posts usually do, as I tried to balance being forceful and persuasive, being interesting, and being civil. Some of the harder-hitting lines I had to leave out, knowing they could keep a letter from being published:

• "But don't blame [young opponent] for this relationship; that's like blaming the hammer for its relationship to the carpenter. It's just a tool."
• "[Young opponent] seems to look uncomfortable in all his campaign pictures. I suppose you would, too, if you had a union arm up your keister, making your mouth move and your arms flap together."

The finished product is given below -- I had to edit it down to under 250 words, as what I submitted originally was a little longer. I'm hoping it'll run in one or both papers this Thursday. And for those of you here in the 18th district, Democrat or Republican, get out and vote for Eb next Tuesday!

Pat

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Dear Editor:

The 18th District state representative race has been interesting, especially given Illinois' economic state:

-Over the last 10 years the state government's spending has increased significantly faster than revenue

-Illinois is ranked 48th in job creation nationwide over that period, and in fact has fewer jobs than 10 years ago

-The state is ranked 46th in the nation in favorable litigation climate for business

-Our economic outlook overall is ranked 44th

That's not a pretty picture, but it's a clear one. Yet most of the candidates have stressed the need to raise taxes, and one of the kids in the race was recently quoted on his intention to advance "progressive spending priorities". Swell. I'm guessing that doesn't mean reducing the rate of state government spending increases, or improving the business climate to encourage private sector job growth.

One candidate has pledged not to raise taxes, but instead to rein in spending in Springfield: Eb Moran. He's the only candidate to have held elective office and been responsible for balancing spending desires against revenue constraints. He's not carrying the baggage of endorsements from groups that have a stake in continuing the George Ryan – Rod Blagojevich - Michael Madigan approach to state government. Saying "No" takes practice, and is even harder if you've promised a lot of "Yeses" to a lot of special interest groups already.

I encourage you to vote for Eb Moran on February 2nd, and send a voice of fiscal reason to Springfield.

Patrick Harrigan

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