-By Warner Todd Huston
On Tuesday, the William Kelly for Comptroller campaign issued a press release demanding that State GOP leaders denounce the candidacy of his rival for Comptroller, Jim Dodge. Kelly was exercised over the “smear tactics” that he claimed that the Dodge campaign was employing to best Kelly at the polls. All of this hullabaloo caused the Dodge campaign to wonder, with no little amusement, what Kelly was “crying about”?
After the ruckus that was raised by another quixotic candidate, that one being Senate candidate Andy Martin, who launched radio commercials outing one of his rivals as a homosexual, the State GOP denounced the outrageous behavior in the ads. This party sponsored denouncement prompted Kelly to call for a similar denouncement of his own rival in his race for comptroller.
Kelly’s press release said that with the aid of well known Chicago conservative activist Jack Roeser the Dodge campaign was engaged in a “smear campaign,” and cited the passing around of some video clips of Kelly’s late TV sports show as an example.
Dodge and Roeser’s latest dirty smear includes clips from William Kelly’s Emmy award-winning TV show that had a successful three year run on FOX’s WFLD-TV. The Dodge campaign has edited clips from the TV show together and has been peddling them and portraying them to Republican primary voters as “Playboy videos.”
Kelly said that this is the sort of “smear campaign that can no longer be tolerated in Illinois” and called on the state party to denounce the Dodge campaign.
I was contacted by the Dodge campaign after the release of Kelly’s demands of the state party and they expressed their confusion by the whole incident. Dodge campaign operative Dean Casper said he just couldn’t explain what Kelly was “crying about”?
I am confused as to what Kelly is crying about? When the story on the videos first broke, Kelly told you he was proud of them and that everyone does what he videotaped himself doing and if anyone does not, they are “pansies” if memory serves.
Casper is referring to my interview with Kelly where the TV personality proudly took credit for his show clips (see story here).
Casper asked me a series of questions that he’d like the Kelly campaign to answer.
- Is Kelly now denying he was at a Playboy party, dancing with a Playboy centerfold?
- Is Kelly denying he was on stage drunk?
- Is Kelly denying he professed his hero to be Hugh Hefner?
- Is Kelly denying he put these videos himself on his YouTube channel?
- In fact, at this time they are still there! www.youtube.com/upscaletv
I also had a call from candidate Jim Dodge who said that he’s more focussed on what he feels is his real opponent, Judy Baar Topinka. Mr Dodge feels that Kelly’s candidacy should be dismissed as mere publicity seeking on Kelly’s part and not a credible campaign.
Casper also feels that Kelly’s antics are reflecting badly on conservatives in general and are only helping the Topinka campaign gain steam while Kelly attacks Dodge. “The only one laughing at the conservative movement harder because of Bill Kelly is Judy Baar Topinka,” Casper told me.
I have put in a question to GOP Chairman Pat Brady for a statement and will update if one is forthcoming.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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