Posted by Dave on 03/04/08 at 11:02:42 am
Categories: Political Ravings, Chicago/Illinois

Oberweis ice cream. Oberweis milk. You may have heard of it. You may buy it. You may really like it. The company is owned by Jim Oberweis. I can't buy Oberweis ice cream anymore. And this is why:

Oberweis is also a very conservative wannabe politician in Illinois. And he is running in a special election this weekend against Bill Foster.

This is Oberweis's fourth attempt at elected office, having run in two U.S. Senate races in Illinois and also running for Governor in 2006. Now, that in itself does not make him a good or bad person. It just means that he isn't as well liked as he thinks he is.

But what really bothers me about this man is that he has run on blatantly racist fear mongering tactics. Here is one of them:

Oberweis's 2004 campaign was notable for a television commercial where he flew in a helicopter over Chicago's Soldier Field, and claimed enough illegal immigrants came into America in a week (10,000 a day) to fill that facility. The stadium seats 61,500 people.

Of course, the ad was not only racist, but factually inaccurate. Which has become a clear pattern of Oberweis's campaigns: a pattern that shows a candidate willing to lie about anything and everything in order to defeat an opponent. Fortunately for us, none of his lies have worked yet.

What should really convince people is that even the conservative Chicago Tribune has issues with Oberweis. They don't just have reservations, they have actually endorsed Bill Foster rather than Oberweis:

But we watched Oberweis in his races for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, and for governor in 2006. We've watched this race for Congress. His campaign style has consistently been nasty, smug, condescending ... and dishonest.
...
[Foster] surely will be more willing than Oberweis is to listen to people with whom he disagrees. So we'll trust Foster when he says he would emphasize transparency, responsibility and bipartisanship in government. He is endorsed.

This is a conservative district; it is a district in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and was previously represented by the very conservative Dennis Hastert. And this is somewhat personal, as I have family that live in the district (and will almost assuredly be voting for the nasty, smug, condescending, and dishonest Oberweis).

It is quite clear to any of my frequent readers that I am political progressive. And so it should not come as a surprise that I would want Bill Foster to defeat Oberweis. But this goes beyond just progressive/conservative differences. This goes to the tone of campaigns. A tone that is so bad that even the Chicago Tribune, which admits that it is much closer to Oberweis in policy, would endorse Foster.

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