Today Jeff Berkowitz rips off the mystique surrounding the Oberweis campaign by listing the campaign personnel Oberweis has brought on board for his bid to fill retiring Denny Hastert's 14th CD Congressional seat.
From all appearances, Oberweis will be the flavor Hastert picks in the GOP primary.
From Berkowitz: Oberweis is staffing up, with David From and Brad Hahn of Burnham Strategies, signing onto Team Oberweis. From and Hahn are former Hastert staffers, helping to fuel some of the speculation of a future Hastert endorsement of Oberweis. That speculation is fueled, as well, by the fact that Hastert did endorse Oberweis in his first U.S. Senate primary race in 2002 and by the long standing differences that have characterized the Hastert-Lauzen relationship. Those Hastert-Lauzen "differences" Berkowitz mentions are the long and bitter feud between State Senator Chris Lauzen and Hastert's good friend Dallas Ingemunson, the 14th CD's long-time political godfather. The latest evidence of the ongoing feud between Lauzen and Hastert/Ingemunson was in 2006 when a Lauzen-backed candidate embarrassed the Ingemunsons by defeating Ingemunson's son's bid for state's attorney. Lauzen will frame his GOP primary bid to fill Hastert's open seat as a fight against the 14th CD's Republican establishment. He will focus on the fact that he's an experienced legislator and has carried the conservative movement's water for years. Lauzen's a hard worker and has a substantial army of volunteers and fans based in his Senate District.
Lauzen's weakness is his inability to fund himself, his ties to obstinate bomb-throwers, and his impatience with those he perceives as uncooperative.
Oberweis will tout his conservative credentials, his before-it-was-popular stand against illegal immigration, and his good relationship with the former speaker. That relationship, along with staff, will bring gravitas and campaign $$ to Oberweis' and add to his bought-and-paid-for high name ID from three previous bids for statewide office. Plus, Oberweis Dairies are located in the 14th CD.
Oberweis' ground troops do not compare to Lauzen's. With ground troops comes buzz and excitement, something Oberweis may have a hard time buying, unless his media strategy includes clever ads, which we can assume, will be several and which, we know, are very expensive in the Chicago media market. Oberweis evidently thinks the media route is the way to go, because he's tapping into a political consulting firm which includes Jeff Davis and Bill Pascoe and behind the scenes Illinois GOP commentator/media personality, Dan Proft.
From Berkowitz:
Bill Pascoe and Jeff Davis of the Victory Media Group have also signed onto the Oberweis campaign to be a General Consultant to and to be involved in media production services for the campaign. Both Pascoe and Davis worked on the Jack Ryan and Alan Keyes tag team U.S. Senate campaign in 2004, among many others, and both continue, with Dan Proft, as principals in Urqhart Media.)
With Lauzen's backing of Jack Roeser and his Family Taxpayer Network staff of John Biver and Doug Ibendahl pitted against the trademark merciless media strategies of Urqhart Media, it will be nasty.
Chris Lauzen should be prepared and shield his thin skin against any public displays of his short fuse, because he can be sure the Urqhart video guy will be right there, accumulating fodder to be used when the time is right. Their strategy will be an all out, on-the-air media attack. It's just business, Fredo.
Jim Oberweis needs to be prepared for Lauzen's shrewd, tactical ground maneuvering.
This won't be a nice, hand-shaking congressional primary to fill Hastert's seat. It will be fierce. So, let the blood-letting begin, and have plenty of ambulances standing by on February 5 to haul the bodies away.
