Campaign Offices Emptying

Noticed that Tammy Duckworth's campaign office on West Walnut had emptied out as of late afternoon today. Sheila Simon's office next door still had lots of material stacked around though, although the signs had come down from the windows.

Never did see any offices for any of the other candidates in Carbondale, though I would bet the local Green operations were located in someone's house.

Wanna Meet A Candidate?

Luckily, watching little tv means I don't get to see much of the inanity that passes for political commercials these days and ergo have not heard much about the candidates running, though from the amount of paper mail I get, it appears that Bill Kilquist thinks Terri Bryant is a tax avoiding politician.

If you want to actually talk to the candidates, including the Green Party, the Chamber of Commerce will host several meet and greets over the next month:

The Carbondale and Murphysboro Chambers of Commerce will hold a series of receptions to give Jackson County business leaders an opportunity to meet and hear from candidates for legislative offices before the Nov. 4 general election.

                Terri Bryant and Bill Kilquist, both candidates for the 115^th Illinois legislative district seat currently held by Mike Bost, U.S. House of Representatives 12^th district incumbent William Enyart as well as challengers Mike Bost and Paula Bradshaw will all be the guests of the chambers at upcoming Meet-and-Greet events. At each reception, candidates will have an opportunity to make introductory remarks prior to a time of informal visiting with attendees. The events, which will be held at the Downtown Design Center in the Old Passenger Depot at 121 S. Illinois Ave., will be free.

                “These are very important races for Southern Illinois businesses,” Murphysboro Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bruce Wallace said. “We, as Chambers, are thrilled to provide our members with opportunities to share their concerns with candidates and learn about each of them before casting their ballots.”

                Scheduled Meet-and-Greets:

                Paula Bradshaw, Green Party candidate for Congress, 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 2

                Congressman Bill Enyart, Democratic incumbent, 2 p.m., Monday, Oct. 6

                Mike Bost, Republican candidate for Congress, 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 8

                Bill Kilquist, Democratic candidate for the Illinois House, 4 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 21

                Terri Bryant, Republican candidate for the Illinois House, 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23

                Additionally, each candidate will be guests on upcoming editions of the “Talk of the Town” radio program, heard at 10 a.m., Monday mornings on WDBX-FM 91.1. The radio program is a joint venture of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce and the City of Carbondale.

Brent Ritzel Questionnaire

Finally got around to looking at Brent Ritzel's responses to the Shawnee Green Party's questionnaire. Ritzel goes in to much detail in his responses, discussing at length what he sees as the three most pressing issues facing the city: quality of life, economic development and a sustainable community, and increasing the economic well being for all residents. However, there's scant detail on how he would achieve these.

In response to how to solve Carbondale's revenue shortfalls, he proposes placing a tax on plastic and paper shopping bags and utilizing the Comprehensive Plan to increase efficiencies and reduce wast in city operations. His other responses alll relect those in the first question as he desires increasing the quality of life for residents as well as making the community more sustainable. His plan for accomplishing this derived extensively from further implementation of the Carbondale Comprehensive Plan.

Early Voting

In case you realllllly want to vote in the Carbondale primary election, an email sent out by candidate Jane Adams says that early voting has already started. The Shawnee Green Party has posted links to websites of candidates for both mayor and council and will post responses to the the Green Party's questionnaire sent to all candidates starting Jan. 15.

Whitney for Governor?

Rich Whitney has again thrown his hat into the ring as the Green Party's candidate for governor of the great state of Illinois. Given the results of the 2006 election, Whitney's comment below is (unintentionally) ironic:

On the matter of the state's current budget woes, Whitney took aim at lawmakers faulting them for looking to "borrow their way out of it."

"This is more of the same," he said. "And what's the definition of insanity? Repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

The same could be said of running as a third party candidate in Illinois.

Guantanamo Forum

There's a panel on closing Guantanamo at the Civic Center this Wednesday night. Wonder if they'll have anyone advocating keeping Guantanamo open? Given that the sponsors are the ACLU, Green Party and Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois, I rather doubt it.