The rumor that Dennis Hastert will soon retire is alive and well in Illinois' 14th District and tonight I wanted to bring you a brief update on the first Democratic debate that was covered by, the Daily Herald. Lisa Smith wrote:
But it was Laesch who won the crowd; the Newark carpenter's remarks garnered more applause than that of the other two 14th District candidates combined.
A former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who served in the Middle East, Laesch repeatedly lashed out at President Bush and the Iraq war. Starting a war with Iran, Laesch said, would cause "World War III."
"If you think Iraq is a mess, Iran would be a complete and utter nightmare," Laesch said.
Laesch pushed Stein and Bill Foster, a scientist and businessman from Mill Creek, to say whether they'd immediately cut funding for the troops in Iraq and whether they'd authorize going to war with Iran. Laesch pledged, if elected, to cut funding for the Iraq war and to vote against going to war with Iran.
In response, neither Foster nor Stein would commit to vote "no" on going to war with Iran, saying they would need to study the issue further.
More below the fold...
The debate was for Kane County precinct committee people and was closed to the public.
Because some of our opponents objected to the use of video cameras in the debate hall, we held a rally outside of the Kane County Government building prior to the debate. You can watch the rally speech here.
Early on, I noticed that one of my opponents' campaign managers was taping the debate so I pulled out my digital audio recorder and did the same.
You can find all of the audio files from the debate at my YouTube Channel.
Here is the John Laesch opening statement.
As most of you know, I am a grassroots, progressive Democrat who take strong stances on all of the issues. Our campaign has been endorsed by DAPAC, numerous organized labor groups, author Barbara Eherenreich and most of the active Democratic Precinct Committeemen in Illinois' 14th District. I ran against Dennis Hastert in 2006 and I have both significant name recognition and a solid grassroots organizational structure throughout the district.
Here is the Jotham Stein opening statement.
Jotham Stein is a corporate Lawyer who recently moved his practice from California to Geneva, IL. We don't see eye-to-eye on economic issues and I am still unsure where he is on key labor issues like global trade. When I talked about getting out of NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO, he made an uncomfortable facial expression. He is a family man and seems to be good on environmental issues.
Here is the Bill Foster opening statement.
You can see that he is trying as hard as he can to get away from the Blue Dog label that he has linked himself to since he started thinking about politics. Yep - already flip-flopping around and running from his own label. For those of you who missed it, here is the original statement in the Daily Herald.
Foster said he'd be a Blue Dog Democrat, a coalition of moderate and conservative mostly Southern lawmakers. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington is one of them.
"There's not much they're pushing for I don't agree with," Foster said.
Here are all three on Iraq.
Here are all three on Iran.
Here are all three on private military contractors.
Here are all three on healthcare.
Here are all three on campaign finance reform.
Here are all three on transportation.
We put the annoying "My name is John Laesch and I approve of this message" at the end of every piece because we did pay for the production of the audio files - we have no intention of using these as television commercials and to be honest, I don't approve of some of the messages of my opponents; especially that they are unwilling to vote against war in Iran.
The next debate will be on Nov. 6th at Altgeld Hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. Show up at 7:00 p.m. or earlier if you want to ask questions. This debate is open to the public, media and bloggers.
Keep fighting for what is right!
Respectfully,
John Laesch
Progressive Democrat for Congress
www.john08.com