While the article is primarily focused on Brad Schneider and Ilya Sheyman, it also mentions three other candidates who have announced their intention to run for the seat: Vivek Bavda, Aloys Rutagwibira, and John Tree. As for Schneider and Sheyman, both “have very strong position papers on Israel,” Gash is quoted in the article.

You can read the article here.

10th District Primary Race Featured in Article is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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The United State Senate unanimously passed a measure ensuring that members of Congress are not eligible to get paid during a government shut down. As you may know, Congress has been gridlocked since Republicans took control of the House, and a government shut down, which would mean that federal employees don’t get paid and millions of Americans lose essential benefits, is possible.

But last Friday, instead of passing an identical measure to the Senate that would be on track to become law, Dold stuck with a partisan spending resolution that has no chance of passing and is likely unconstitutional.

Dold had a chance to live by the same rules our troops and veterans live by – if the government shuts down, Members don’t get paid.

The language Dold opposed was identical to S. 388 sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer. The amendment stated that “Members of Congress and the President shall not receive basic pay for any period in which there is more than a 24-hour lapse in appropriations for any Federal agency or department as a result of a failure to enact a regular appropriations bill or continuing resolution.” Ask yourself honestly: Wouldn’t you have wanted your member of Congress to support that language?

Dold ran as an independent, but once again Dold is playing partisan games and treating Members of Congress differently than millions of Americans who would be affected by a government shutdown. Dold once again voted with his party instead of our district.

We need to get this country back on track, and we can start by getting our district back on track. Please join us and help us replace Robert Dold with a member of Congress who will fight for our pocketbooks, not his.

Bob Dold Votes His Pocketbook, Not Ours is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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No one claims that the healthcare reform legislation passed last year is perfect, but consider the alternative. We can’t go back to “business as usual” policies that denied children with pre-existing conditions or young adults looking for work in a challenging economy access to basic care. We can’t take critical prescription drug coverage away from seniors, and we cannot allow for job-creating small business tax credits to suddenly disappear. Yet that’s exactly what Robert Dold—who received $34,850 from the insurance industry–voted for.

For Illinois’s 10th Congressional District, repealing health insurance reform could:

• Allow insurance companies to deny coverage to 114,000 to 290,000 individuals, including 9,000 to 41,000 children, with pre-existing conditions.
• Rescind consumer protections for 466,000 individuals who have health insurance through their employer or the market for private insurance.
• Eliminate health care tax credits for up to 16,000 small businesses and 91,000 families.
• Increase prescription drug costs for 9,500 seniors who hit the Part D drug “donut hole” and deny new preventive care benefits to 97,000 seniors.
• Increase the costs of early retiree coverage for up to 9,700 early retirees.
• Eliminate new health care coverage options for 1,700 uninsured young adults.
• Increase the number of people without health insurance by 12,000 individuals.
• Increase the costs to hospitals of providing uncompensated care by $30 million annually.

Source: The House Energy and Commerce Committee

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, repealing health insurance reform legislation will add $240 billion to the deficit. So much for fiscal conservatism. So much for representing our best interests. So much for Robert Dold.

Dold Confirms Worst Fears With Vote on Health Care is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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Of course, it is interesting that Dold is against the benefits of health insurance reform for hardworking middle class families, but he is on board with taking those same benefits for himself.

[Since the post was written, Dold has announced that he is not going to accept the healthcare plan to which he's entitled as a member of Congress.]

Here according a House Committee on Energy and Finance are some of the sobering numbers that tell the story of the impact of a repeal JUST IN THE 10TH DISTRICT:

* Allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to 114,000 to 290,000 individuals, including 9,000 to 41,000 children, with pre-existing conditions.

* Rescinding consumer protections for 466,000 individuals who have health insurance through their employer or the market for private insurance.

* Eliminating health care tax credits for up to 16,000 small businesses and 91,000 families.

* Increasing prescription drug costs for 9,500 seniors who hit the Part D drug “donut hole” and denying new preventive care benefits to 97,000 seniors.

* Increasing the costs of early retiree coverage for up to 9,700 early retirees.

* Eliminating new health care coverage options for 1,700 uninsured young adults.

* Increasing the number of people without health insurance by 12,000 individuals.

* Increasing the costs to hospitals of providing uncompensated care by $30 million annually.

Again, this is all just for the 10th Congressional District in Illinois.

This grandstanding vote did nothing constructive to move the debate forward regarding fixing the healthcare system in the United States. If you’re like me, you want to continue to work toward making the system the best that it can be.

Dold Votes to Increase National Debt by $1 Trillion is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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As the Obama administration attempts to implement an ambitious agenda to revive the American economy, restore fiscal sanity, and implement health insurance and financial services reforms, it will need support from both sides of the aisle. The votes cast by newly elected Congressman Bob Dold, Senator Mark Kirk, and long-time Senator Dick Durbin (who long ago proved his commitment to policies that benefit the American public) will help set our nation’s course for years to come.

This is why we’re committed to scrutinizing the statements and actions of our representatives in Congress.

Read more in the Tenth Dems newsletter.

Our Own Truth Squad is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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Today’s New York Times identifies Robert Dold as a Tea Party candidate. Time and time again in recent weeks, Dold’s far right-wing positions have become evident. Earlier this week, he snubbed BJBE, Temple Beth El, Solomon Schechter, and Chicagoland Jewish High School to appear on Sean Hannity’s right-wing program, and just yesterday, we learned that Dold is supported by Fred Malek’s American Action Network.

Robert Dold does his best to pretend he’s a moderate because he knows that while this district might elect a Republican, there’s no way it would elect a Tea Party candidate. So Dold bobs and weaves, hoping to wink and nod his way to office.

Today’s New York Times listed the Tea Party candidates running in each district. Sure enough, Bob Dold made the list.

As the Times explains, “For purposes of the list, Tea Party candidates were those who had entered politics through the movement or who are receiving significant support from local Tea Party groups and who share the ideology of the movement.”

What does the Tea Party stand for? According to today’s New York Times:

While there is no official Tea Party platform, candidates share a determination to repeal the health care legislation passed in March. They vow not only to permanently extend the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush and to eliminate the estate tax, but also to replace the progressive income tax with a flat tax or a national sales tax. Several candidates advocate abolishing the Internal Revenue Service entirely.

Many have called for a balanced budget amendment. They oppose newly passed financial regulation, and oppose cap-and-trade of carbon emissions.

The candidates also promise to carry into office the Tea Party’s strict interpretation of the Constitution. Time and time again, Dold gets caught with right-wing groups. He was endorsed by Phyllis Schlafly’s right-wing Eagle Forum group and now says it was a “mistake.” He’s endorsed by Dan Quayle and Grover Norquist. He’s supported by Americans for Prosperity, Dick Armey’s Freedom Works, and the American Action Network. He’s recommended by the anti-choice Federation for Right to Life. The list goes on and on.

A great article last month by Rich Miller asks “Who really is this guy and where does he live?” After listing several right-wing endorsements and Dold’s attempts to “hide the ball,” including Dold’s attempt to get a lower rating from Conservative Magazine by telling them that he does not want a high rating because “he wishes to be viewed as a moderate,” Miller says this: “Yep. Stuff always just happens to him. For whatever reasons apparently unknown to Bob Dold, the Right just loves him. Poor guy.”

Earlier this week, Dold snubbed BJBE, Chicagoland Jewish High School, Solomon Schechter, and Temple Beth-El to appear on Sean Hannity’s right-wing talk show.

And now we learn that Dold is receiving support from The American Action Network, a right-wing front group headed by Fred Malek (the same Fred Malek who identified and attempted to purge Jews from the Nixon administration and who was involved in a recent pension fund scandal). The group is now running a series of misleading ads attacking Dan Seals.

Dan Seals, on the other hand, does not run away from his endorsements or his supporters. Dan Seals is proud to be endorsed by a broad coalition of organizations including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, JAC-PAC, Friends of Israel PAC, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Alliance for Retired Americans, National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Human Rights Campaign, Associated Firefighters of Illinois, and more.

Dan Seals is the only candidate in this race who shares the values of our district. He is pro-Israel, he is a  fiscal conservative, and he is a social moderate. Let’s make him our next Congressman.

Take care,
Steve Sheffey

New York Times: Dold Is A Tea Party Candidate is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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During the Presidential race of 1992, the biggest issue facing the country was the economy. And now nearly 20 years later, the economy is something that the GOP still doesn’t get — especially when it comes to creating jobs and providing a safety net for folks who can’t find work and getting this country back on its feet.

Take Dan Seals’ opponent, Robert Dold, who admits that the economy “has been dealt a terrible blow.” Unfortunately, his solution is to return to the kind of policies and programs that led us to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression in the first place. Dold wants to turn this country in the hard-right direction of George W. Bush.

Voting for jobs – Seals

Take the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the stimulus package, for example. Not a single Republican voted for the bill — all 177 (including Mark Kirk) voted nay. Given his stated goals to return to the failed Bush-Cheney economic policies, it is all but certain Dold would have voted “No.” Dold would certainly have voted against the massive public works projects and other efforts that have resulted in thousands of jobs and millions of dollars that help people in the 10^th Congressional District. Without that money, Dold, an estimated 749,142 people nationwide who are now working because of the Recovery bill would be out of work, including 21,693 in Illinois. That doesn’t do much to create jobs.

Helping the unemployed – Seals

Creating jobs is important. But jobs are becoming harder to find for the long-term unemployed, i.e., those out of work for more than six months. That includes hundreds of white-collar workers, even in the 10^th Congressional District. An excellent way to help stimulate the economy in hard times and quickly get funds back into the hands of people who need it is extending unemployment benefits. It’s one of the best ways for people to continue to pay their mortgages, put food on the table and buy the essentials for their kids is to extend unemployment benefits.

What was Mark Kirk’s stand? He was part of the same “no we can’t” crew that is trying to tank every piece of legislation that can sew up the social safety net. Incredibly, 142 Republicans voted against extending unemployment insurance benefits in July. What would have Bob Dold done?

Tax breaks for research and development – Seals

Job training is important, and both Dan Seals and his opponent agree on that point. But what kind of jobs would you want to create? Would they be the kind of jobs that can expand the kind of green technologies that can come from the stimulus package? Tax breaks for small business may be important, but the details of these tax breaks are important. Dan Seals would work to make the Research and Development Tax Credit, which must currently be renewed every two years, permanent. Tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals are what brought our country to the brink.

For information on the voting totals on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, please click this link: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll046.xml

For the job totals created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, please click this link: http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency/RecipientReportedData/Pages/JobSummary.aspx

For Dan Seals’ position on the Research and Development Tax Credit and his plan to help small businesses, please click this link: http://dansealsforcongress.com/revitalizing-small-business

For information on the voting totals on approving unemployment benefits, please click this link:

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/111/house/2/463

Bob Dold Wants to Return to the Failed Bush Economic Policies is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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Bob Dold has certainly hit the airwaves with his ads, and they certainly have me wondering. Describing himself as “the clear conservative choice” in the primary, now he says he is a “fiscal conservative” and “social moderate.”

I can only wonder what sort of “social moderate” has been endorsed by ultra right wing Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum and the anti-choice Illinois Federation for Right to Life PAC. The Eagle Forum’s mission is to promote right-wing conservative values across the nation, and on their website proudly proclaim that they oppose all reproductive choice, federally financed day care, and “all encroachments … that try to impose global taxes, gun registration, energy restrictions, feminist goals, or regulation on our use of oceans.”

Dold is supported by organizations who oppose all environmental regulation, gun control, any restrictions on BP’s drilling more unsafe wells, and would criminalize abortion to the point of sending rape victims and their doctors to jail. This is social extremism, not moderation.

Add to this, Dold’s comments that he would consider privatizing Social Security by giving it to Wall Street to manage (how’s your 401K doing?), added a link on his website to Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan’s radical “Roadmap” plan, which would cut Social Security benefits, and his desire to tell 32 million Americans who have only now been given access to health care, sorry, just kidding.

Bob Dold is completely wrong for the 10th District and decidedly wrong for America. I’ll be voting for Dan Seals.

>Dr. Laurence Dana Schiller, Deerfield

Dold No “Social Moderate” is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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A few days ago, Bob Dold was named one of the new Young Guns by the NRCC – just a little more party spotlight. In order to get this title , Dold had to meet certain fundraising and media relations criteria.
Fundraising especially was no problem for Dold. As the self-proclaimed Tenth District candidate for small business, Dold has definitely been making friends with business interests. However, his new friends are mostly corporate backers. Local moguls, such as John Canning, Patrick Ryan, Andrew McKenna Sr., and William Osborn, all donated to Dold in the primary. So did Alan Lacy, the CEO of Sears. So, a handful of leaders of corporate America trying to buy off election: not the best display of democracy. However, things could be worse. We could have a candidate who claims to support small businesses, while actually running his campaign in a way which commits him to corporate interests for twenty-four months of his hypothetical two –year term. Wait, that sounds familiar. However, these moguls do live in-district, so the voices of more than five district 10 residents would be heard in Congress, were Dold elected.

Aiming to keep Kirk’s open seat Republican, Dold has also been fumbling with the adjective independent, which he likes to put in front of his party affiliation as often as possible. I always though ‘independent’ meant thinking outside of party lines, in order to adjust to the desires of constituents and stay away from overly-radical party demagogues. However, to Dold, it looks like Independent has taken a whole new meaning: supporting irrational radicalism. According to Dold, the “Tea Party has] a great voice out there”, because it is “talking about liberty and the Constitution. ” Further he claims that he appreciates the Tea Party’s work, because, like them he also ‘likes liberty and the Constitution’.

If anything stands against independent thinking, it’s the repetitive, senseless chants of angry mobs filled with a lot of emotion but no constructive solutions. .Even Dold admits that “the Tea Party is just angry.” I thought the 10th district was too educated and rational to be associated with racism, intolerance, and blind hatred. I though voters in the northern suburbs would like politicians to go a little deeper then ‘liberty is good, I like liberty.’ I thought our district was smart enough to differentiate between small business and corporate interests. However, Dold does not seem to agree. In November, we will prove him wrong.

Bob Dold, man of the people (not the people in our district) is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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However, after reading about Dold’s plans to use his small business experience to rebuild the economy, it became clear logic was not at all part of his campaign.

Dold’ resume includes two short stints in Washington at less than prestigious jobs, as well a few years at a struggling multi-million dollar communications company. Yet despite jumping between government and corporate jobs for most of his career, Dold’s campaign ads show him as an ‘innovative’ entrepreneur.

Leaving behind a career at a struggling corporation to return home to his parents’ company was not very innovative. Neither is Dold’s economic policy. Recycling any key phrases he could remember from FOX News, Dold threw them all together in a policy that makes no sense.

Dold’s proposal to rebuild the economy has two main prongs: give tax cuts to small businesses, and reduce the federal debt. The only problem with this plan is that it cannot work. With tax cuts, less revenue coming in would mean the government the deficit increases. To account for this, Dold would evidently prefer to cut spending along with cutting taxes. Add this to Dold’s commitment to fiscal austerity and reducing the federal debt overall, and the result is a giant reduction of government spending. If these strategies sound vaguely familiar, it’s because Herbert Hoover used them during his presidency – and we all know how that ended.

As any college student learns in introductory economics, the last thing to do in a recession is to slash government spending. Today, unemployment is very high. The government is not only a major employer, but a major consumer of the services and products of firms in the US.  The double cuts in government spending Dold is advocating would lead to many more jobs being lost (not only in the public but also in the private sector), and would further depress the entire economy.  (If you do not believe me, read what Paul Krugman has to say in his New York Times editorials). Even with tax cuts, businesses will be discouraged from expanding if the economy continues  collapsing and they are losing customers directly or indirectly due to lower government spending.

Dold’s plans for economic recovery, just like his resume, sound good for about 30 seconds.  Until you realize both are pretty much worthless.

Originally posted by Monica

Tenth race for Congress: The contradiction of Bob Dold is a post from Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats

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