Progress Illinois

On my way east from Joliet to Indiana this afternoon, I swung by the Mokena-based campaign office of Marty Ozinga. The 11th District GOP congressional candiate operates out of an office building tucked behind his own massive concrete plants. I figured I'd hang around the parking lot and talk to some volunteers as they made their way to or from the building.

I waited. And waited. And walked around the building. And stood by the door. But I didn't see one soul. Granted, it's entirely possible that his field staff was already hard at work getting Republicans to the polls. Unfortunately for 11th District conservatives, I kind of doubt it.

GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga had loaned $320,000 of his own money to his 11th District campaign by the end of the third quarter. Campaign finance reports show that, in the month since, he has given an additional $250,000 to the effort, bringing his total personal contribution to $570,000 this election year. This amount flies in the face of Ozinga's statement in September that he wouldn't be "writing big checks for my own campaign. I just don't believe in that."

It also begs the queston: if the Supreme Court had not struck down the Millionaire's Amendment earlier this year, would Democrat Debbie Halvorson now be able to raise some last-minute funds from her maxed-out donors?

First some background.

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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has a new ad out hitting 11th District GOP candidate Marty Ozinga as "out for himself -- not for us."  Watch it:

The DCCC also has a new spot up in the 10th District that uses snippets from local media outlets to whack GOP Rep. Mark Kirk:

Roll Call has conducted the latest poll in the 11th Congressional District, and like the internal survey released on Friday and our own poll published on Monday, this one shows Democrat Debbie Halvorson with support in the 50 percent range and a double-digit lead over her Republican opponent:

Survey USA for Roll Call. 10/20-21. Likely voters. MoE 4%

Debbie Halvorson (D): 50%
Marty Ozinga (R): 37%
Jason Wallace (G): 9%

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Here's the latest ad from 11th District Democratic candidate Debbie Halvorson, which hits Republican Marty Ozinga on his concrete company's history of late taxes, which we wrote about back in July.  Watch it:

Bennett, Petts, & Normington for Progress Illinois. 10/15-16.  Likely voters. MoE 4.9%:

Debbie Halvorson (D): 50%
Martin Ozinga (R): 29%
Undecided: 22%

The 11th Congressional District poll conducted for Progress Illinois by the Washington D.C.-based polling firm Bennett, Petts & Normington found a 21-point lead for Democrat Debbie Halvorson, similar to the 19-point gap in the internal poll she released on Friday (which included Green Party candidate Jason Wallace).  

Republican Marty Ozinga's unfavorables (30%) continue to outweigh his favorables (20%), which certainly spells trouble. Independents made up 42 percent of the polling universe in our poll and they also appear extremely wary of Ozinga, with only 14 percent saying they support him and 41 percent still on the fence. 

While Barack Obama posted an 11-point lead in the district, an identical number of independents remain undecided on the presidential race.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's numbers mirror those in our 10th District poll, with only 10 percent holding a favorable view of him.  Meanwhile, 38 percent of respondents were unaware of the constitutional convention question on the Illinois ballot this year.  Of those aware, 29 percent supported the idea of holding a Con-Con and 44 percent opposed it.

More detail below.

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This afternoon, 11th District Democratic congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson released a new poll showing her beating Republican Marty Ozinga by a hefty margin.  From a campaign statement:

State Senator and Congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson is in a strong position to win the open-seat race to replace retiring Congressman Jerry Weller (R) in Illinois’ 11th Congressional District. Halvorson currently leads her Republican opponent Martin Ozinga by 19 points, 48% to 29%. 

The poll was conducted by the Democratic firm Anzalone-Liszt between October 10 and 13.  The sample size was 400 with a 4.9 percent margin of error. According the memo circulated by the campaign, Barack Obama led John McCain by two points among respondents.

Using a notorious quote we grabbed from a cable access interview back in July, SouthtownStar columnist Kristen McQueary gets in a good dig at Marty Ozinga the day after Dick Cheney had to cancel a fundraiser with the Republican congressional candidate for health reasons:

Had Cheney's heart problems developed during the course of his Will County visit, rest assured he would have been in good hands. Ozinga could have recommended any number of area emergency rooms. After all, as Ozinga said, health care accessibility isn't a serious problem in this country: "You just go to the hospital, and you get taken care of."

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What is it with national news outlets assuming that 11th District GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga is already in office?  First, Politico referred to him as "Rep. Marty Ozinga" back in July.  Then yesterday, a CNN anchor called him "Congressman Marty Ozinga" while reporting the news that Vice President Dick Cheney had cancelled a campaign event because of heart problems.  Watch it:

With the average voter worried about the stability of their jobs, home values, and retirement accounts, it's no wonder rich candidates are trying to downplay their wealth on the campaign trail. But Republican concrete magnate Marty Ozinga seems to be reaching these days as he tries to convince 11th District voters that he's an average guy of average means.

Appearing with Democrat Debbie Halvorson before the Tribune editorial board two weeks ago, Ozinga said, "I still feel like I'm middle class.  I go to work everyday.  I live off my weekly paycheck just like everybody else does."  Watch it:

While Ozinga certainly does collect a paycheck, it's a far cry from the median Illinois household income, which hovered around $54,000 last year.

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