-By Megan Fox
A few weeks ago I interviewed Dan Proft, Republican candidate for the IL governorship. I ran out of time on the air and asked him to please answer the rest of my questions over email. He agreed and I will have those for you soon. (I’m still typing them up between cleaning up spit up and red and green Christmas glitter that seems to be all over everything)
I want to share something with you about one of the other candidates in the race, Adam Andrejlakidjferjeski (as I like to call him because I CANNOT spell or say his last name). I gave Adam the opportunity to come on Clash Radio with me the same week Proft was on. I emailed him on Facebook. He directed me to his scheduling person who agreed he would be on with me. To be fair, and to make sure Adam had a chance to come up with a rebuttal for what I said about him that wasn’t flattering, I sent him a copy of the article I wrote about my impressions of the Tea Party debate. This was the one where I said Adam’s pants were too short, I had doubts about his ability to win this race, but I liked his responses and he was in my top three picks. Just hours after forwarding my article to Adam’s campaign, the interview was cancelled.
Despite several assurances that it had nothing to do with the things I wrote, I didn’t buy it. They said Adam was simply too busy to give me 15 minutes during the time slot I asked for and that the scheduler had double booked him. When I said I could pre-record early in the morning or at night after his meetings any day that week, they said he had to spend time with his family. I mentioned that I have two children under 4 and I am in full charge of them all day every day and even I can find 15 minutes to do anything. This made no difference. Then the campaign said they were worried I was going to try to damage his campaign and complained that Adam’s pants have nothing to do with his ability to be the governor and that I was obviously in Proft’s camp and what was the point? Of course, at the time I had not made up my mind at all between Proft, Brady and Adam and the interview I had for him would have helped me do that but they refused to believe me because I made some cutting remarks about his floods. Well sue me, Adam, but your pants are too short. It’s not a fashion statement, it’s a mistake! Do you get dressed in the dark? Are you still growing? I’m not sure what the issue is, but if you willingly and knowingly wear pants that don’t fit, don’t be surprised when people notice. Proft wears these strange shoe-boot things that I can’t quite wrap my head around (is it a shoe? is it a boot? I just don’t know) but I don’t think he’d cancel an interview because I mentioned them.
So, I debated writing about this because I have still been in contact with his campaign as recently as last week trying to get Adam to answer some email questions but it’s been weeks and I STILL have not heard any responses from Adam. His campaign keeps assuring me that he’s going to do it, but I haven’t seen anything yet. And frankly, an email interview is sub-par anyway. How do I even know it’s him answering the questions? And what good is a tough question when he’s had WEEKS to think about the answer?
Say and think what you want about Dan Proft but he answers his email personally, gave me his cell phone number (which I am willing to divulge in exchange for a babysitter so I can go to the freaking grocery store BY MYSELF for once…sorry Dan. Did I mention that all mommies are slightly insane?) He didn’t pass me off to a handler, responded to me immediately, did the interview, answered the tough questions he had no idea were coming at him and still talks to me even though I said some pretty disparaging things about his former profession of political consulting. It’s a good sign he didn’t stomp off, in his shoe-boots, in a huff. Proft is clearly a guy who understands what it takes to be in this game and what he’s going to come up against. Not only does he understand it, he’s prepared for it. Adam appears to be afraid of a friend! How on earth am I supposed to trust that he won’t back down in the gale storm of Mike Madigan’s fire-breathing smear machine? Adam, regardless of what you might think, I am a friend. You and I agree on pretty much everything (except the length of your trousers) but you won’t talk to me. I get it that I’m no Katie Couric (thank God), and I have probably 25 regular readers including my family which make up about half of those people, but that small number of people are still voters who have friends who are voters who have friends who have…well you get my point.
Yes, I’m just a mom so maybe I don’t rate on Adam’s “people I need to impress” list, but I have a feeling that today’s moms are the ones the politicians are going to have to watch out for. We’re pissed. And I don’t mean crabby PMS pissed, I mean about to tear the roof off congress and drag them all out, tar, feather and send them down a rail pissed because they’re messing with the future happiness and liberty of our children. I’ve never been to so many places where everyone in the room is discussing local and national politics. Gone are the days when it isn’t polite to talk religion and politics. Today, no one is discussing anything else. It’s in every Thanksgiving prayer, every water cooler conversation and I even heard Delilah on the Lite FM hinting that she’s down with the sisterhood of pissed off mommies who fear our liberty is being usurped. I mean, this is not a small movement. I am a small voice. But I am one of many who are going to come screaming to the polls in 2010 and I’m just saying, Adam should have been wise enough to know that.
To be clear, I don’t want to hurt Adam’s campaign. I wanted to get to know him and what he’s about but that wasn’t on their priority list of things to do! The way Adam’s campaign handled this situation has hurt them. I had nothing to do with it. And as a result I am left to come up with my own impressions of Adam A. as a gubernatorial candidate in IL:
- Too disorganized to return my messages which isn’t a good sign or
- Too scared to engage me and answer my questions which is a really bad indication of how he would handle the Democrats who have a stranglehold on this state. They’re not going to just give it up. Someone is going to have to wrestle them for it. Or…
- Too self-important to take the time to talk to a “little person” like me directly which makes me cringe, or…
- Way too sensitive about remarks about his pants. How long do you think it would take for the IL Democrats to toss him into a congressional locker during recess?
Whichever one of these is the case, none are good enough for me. I need a candidate who is organized, responsive, available, willing to fight dirty and do some mud slinging AT THE ENEMY, and Adam isn’t it. Although, he has been pretty good at slinging mud at guys on his side. This is something I will never understand about primaries. At the end of the day you’re going to all be friends again so it’s probably best to just focus on yourself and what you bring to the race instead of focusing on the faults of others. I think Adam is too willing to throw a fellow conservative under the bus. I’ve been getting emails from Adam’s supporters chocked full of innuendo and rumors about the other candidates. Is this how we behave now? Like Democrats? With the exception of Schillerstrom I would say that all the candidates are decent men and it seems self-defeating to me to go after them like they’re the devil incarnate and you’re the savior of the world. Any one of them would be better than what we have now.
I know there are a lot of you downstate who think Adam is the right guy for the job, and maybe he could be. But he really needs to butch up if he’s going to make it in this town. And to Adam, I would still like those answers, but much like those short pants, I have a feeling you’re not going to give them up.
(Cross posted at IntolerantFox.blogspot.com)