Riverside Info » About Riverside

Question about Caucus tactics

(153 posts)
1 2 3 ... 16

  1. nancy
    Member

    So I find out that Jennifer White, the head of the Caucus, is planning to do a newspaper ad listing "as many names as possible of people endorsing the RP slate." This even though the Caucus chose the slate.

    She added she "would like your ok to list your individual names(it won't show that you are a member of the Caucus or any other organization)"

    Why is the head of the Caucus saying that the as "won't show that you are a member of the Caucus or any other party?" What is going on here?

    Why is the head of the Caucus going to place an ad that deliberately distances the Caucus from the candidates that the Caucus chose?

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 12:55 #

  2. spatny
    Member

    Let them spend their money - their ideas are getting more and more convoluted.

    I had to laugh at the GOP Forum when one of their candidates, when asked when and how she decided to run, answered that a friend called her while she was at Disneyland. This campaign is turning into a cartoon - methinks there is some panic amongst the troops when you start putting those blue signs in front of unoccupied buildings and the people that speak out for them use (mostly) aliases. Folks - this is what happens in a democracy - people are supposed to speak out, argue, support their candidates and vote for who they believe will do the better job. I know it hasn't happened here for a long time - if ever - but it's really OK. You know - the world is changing. We can change too - it's OK. But I guess, maybe, to paraphrase Paddy Bauler: "Riverside ain't ready for reform yet." I think it is. Yes, I'm sure it is, and it's coming soon.

    I also saw that our local erstwhile Republican leader and former State Treasurer plumped for her to be endorsed even after i heard JBT comment that the candidate "was not very bright." But she is a woman - right? Well, we can't all be or we wouldn't be here...

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 13:14 #

  3. TS
    Member

    I am aligned with neither group presenting candidates for election, I still don't know who I'll be voting for. I am disappointed with the tone of the campaign. For a small town where many of us know candidates in both groups, I am disappointed with how mean the campaigns are. The video on the RCA website regarding the Caucus' fundraiser was, I felt, misleading. Posting the voting records of the opponents without posting their own voting records I feel is disingenuous. Both groups need to stick to the issues important to Riverside and stop the mudslinging, leave that to the professional politicians.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 15:02 #

  4. Fred
    Member

    All sparring aside, are the Caucus supported candidates (RVP) GOP candidates? I thought that both sets of candidates were mixed in their Republican/Democratic composition. On another note, misogyny is just not funny regardless of circumstances. If someone has earned a JD and chooses to use that degree defending the victims of domestic violence, I would say that person has pretty much earned a little common respect.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 15:03 #

  5. spatny
    Member

    Fred - perhaps you weren't there. If you read carefully you would see that I didn't say it - I said I heard someone else say it - a well-known female political figure, no less, who is still backing that candidate presumably because she is a female. So I think that is worth noting. And she (JBT) also made a point of chiding the RCA at the end of the meeting for not having a female candidate. Since that event was not televised, and that particular candidate has said at the previous Forums that she was different from all the other candidates because she was a woman and had a child - or children - etc., I think it was relevant to mention. It was the candidate herself that raised the gender issue - at all three forums.

    Since perhaps you weren't there, you might have missed the answers to the question that was aked - "When did you decide to run?" The RCA candidates gave the exact date time and location of the moment they decided, and some person of that other gender tried to make something of it. The other candidates gave their answers - and the JD said she got a call at Disneyland from a friend asking her to do it. I don't know if that is relevant, or means the Caucus has a nationwide scope or reached to the far corners of our land for their candidates, or is a "big tent" party or if it mens anything at all - but they are the ones that made such a big deal of how they select candidates. I know JBT once had a hand in bringing her party Alan Keyes from the East Coast after which they tried to pretend that he was an Illinois resident with an apartment in Cal City.

    I think there are Dems and Repubs on both tickets.

    As for earning a JD - well that is simply wonderful. And I believe she is a public prosecutor, not a defense attorney, but perhaps you construe that as the defense of the injured party - which is fairly convoluted way to phrase it. Have it as you will.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 16:09 #

  6. JohnM
    Member

    She's an assistant Cook County State's Attorney, working in the sex crimes and domestic violence division, as you (Don) well know. I don't find Fred's statement the slightest bit convoluted. Many prosecutors consider themselves to be defenders of the victims of crimes, particularly those who work in that particular area.

    I guess it's nice that you're not referring to her as "the lady lawyer" anymore, though. Stay classy.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 16:34 #

  7. Fred
    Member

    Don, not all the people who convict felons are bad and most of the people convicted and imprisoned are, in fact, bad people.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 16:52 #

  8. idic5
    Member

    OK, break it up, break it up. Litigating against people who abuse women is about as golden as ...anything is. [I am not sure one can extract 'misogyny' from spatny's posts - so let's not even go there; that is a troll word and will lead to wildly off topic debate]. Further, the candidate being discussed now has been a leader of important local organizations in Riverside. She is obviously a good person - that is beyond debate.

    The question is whether she, along with others in the Riverside Party with its attendant philosophy on how to run Riverside, is best for Riverside now. This is the philosophy of the incumbent caucus backed administration. If you're happy with the status quo, and the way things have been running, vote RP. Else, vote RCA for a good change.

    Apparently all those people who host RP signs and who might sign an advertisement think that the current status quo, the current approach of solving our budget woes via revenue orientation, even at the risk of losing Riverside's charm and relative affordability - in the form of such plans as the TIF and the TAX increase - over rigorous examination of spending, is the way to go, regardless of the wisdom of the policies of the current admin.

    Maybe those hosting the signs and signing their names on an advertisement solicited by the head of the Caucus, are thisclose with, or at least enjoy bar-b-q's with, this group called "The Caucus". It might explain how they can go with the status quo.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucus

    A February 1763 entry in the diary... is one of the earliest appearances of Caucus, already with its modern connotations of a "smoke-filled room" where candidates for public election are pre-selected in private

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 18:37 #

  9. spatny
    Member

    I took "defending the victims of domestic violence" to mean that Fred was saying she was a defense attorney. I don't remember her using the term "domestic violence"- but she may have - I remember she has said repeatedly "I prosecute sex crimes - and deal with the worst of the worst" or words to that effect. I don't know if that experience is particularly helpful with the duties of a Trustee but I guess it may have some relevance. I only wrote in this thread because at every debate I have seen/heard references made to gender by this candidate, and at the last one I also saw/heard Ms. JBT admonish the RCA side with something like - "And I want to ask you why you don't have a female candidate..." Then I heard her make the other comment I noted to someone she was talking to. I think that is a strange way to choose who you endorse - you think what you want.

    Anyway, I was not aiming at this candidate - I was aiming at the strange process of the way the Caucus notified her and that she herself said she made her decision to run. She said it, not me. Since the thread is about "Caucus tactics" I was giving another example. Perhaps if you had been there you would understand that.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 19:51 #

  10. TS
    Member

    Please explain what is strange about the way she was asked, I'm very curious. So she received a call while on vacation, is that odd? I don't think so. I don't think calling someone while on vacation is "Caucus tactics". Again, I am not a member of the Caucus, not a member of the RCA. As Groucho would say, "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member". I'm a Riverside resident looking for the best candidates regardless of what group they are aligned with. Innuendo and casting aspersions doesn't do well for your cause.

    Posted Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 20:35 #

RSS feed for this topic

1 2 3 ... 16

Reply »

You must log in to post.