As the November election pulls closer, Dennis Hastert has ratcheted up his campaign in Illinois' 14th District and for the first time I encountered an "anti-Pelosi" message while campaigning.
In addition to slowly rolling by the Laesch campaign office (located on a dead-end street), Dennis Hastert has rolled out his, "a vote for John Laesch is a vote for Nancy Pelosi's Liberal agenda" garbage.
The Republicans don't have anything positive to run on and they don't have anything negative about John Laesch so they are running against Nancy Pelosi.
Read on for more on Paw Paw...
We all know that Denny has become increasingly worried about his own race in addition to losing his seat as Speaker.
Several days ago I was working through my fundraising list (dialing for dollars) and I stepped outside after grabbing a quick lunch. I was chatting with the fundraiser, David, when Denny's red pick-up, tailed by a black SUV rolled past the office. As they sped off I hopped into my Jeep to confirm my suspicions that Denny was stalking our office. Sure enough he hopped out of his red truck several blocks away to buy a hot dog at the Yorkville Park.
Yesterday, a front-page story ran in the Dixon and Sterling new papers about our race. In the interview, I had confidently declared that I would "win Lee County." Lee County is perhaps the most beautiful part of my district with rolling farmland and beautiful architecture. It is a blast from the past and I keep going back to Dixon, Amboy and many of the other small farm communities in Lee.
Today, as I pulled into Paw Paw, IL., I was greeted for the first time with "Hastert for Congress signs" along the highway and parade route. The Lee County Republicans were out in full force and trying to make a statement.
People were friendly, but some seemed a little bit apprehensive. Several times during the parade people would say,
"I'd vote for you, but I don't want Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker; she's too liberal."
It didn't take me long to say,
"So you would rather vote for a crook? Besides, I would prefer to have John Conyers be our Speaker instead of Rep. Pelosi."
What this means is pretty simple:
1) Dennis Hastert has nothing positive to run on. After all, what is he going to say? "The Republicans have screwed up the country, but we'd like to stay in power anyway."
2) Even after showing up to videotape me at several of our events they still don't have anything negative to run against me. We know that they have dug through every old letter to the editor that I have ever written and spliced words in to turn my statements negative, but they still don't have anything solid against the Missionary Kid.
Hastert was in the parade, but I did not have time to catch up and hand him my letter asking for a debate.
I should end on a positive note about my trip to Paw Paw. I did have the positive experience of meeting hundreds of people who were ready for change. A few even volunteered to put yard signs up and go door-to-door.
To date, many of my small town appearances lead to 100% wins for John Laesch. Today, I think it is fair to say that the negative campaigning closed some minds.
Before closing out the day, I drove by Denny's 190+ acre SUV farm in Plano, IL and tried to ask for a debate. Of course the driver of the black SUV decided that my letter would be safer with him so I never got near the gate. No surprises here!
The other positive for JDL 2006 is that we are making Mr. Hastert campaign here in Illinois and that is one less day for him to raise funds for other Republicans.
Keep fighting for Democracy and have a great Labor Day!
Respectfully,
John Laesch