-By Tom Mannis, Chicago News Bench
(Editor’s note: This is some very interesting stuff. I am a Dodge supporter, but I am also as interested in having all the pertinent news reported. So, here is my friend Tom Mannis’ post From Chicago News Bench from the Kelly campaign perspective. To be sure Mr. Mannis writes in an impassioned style, so be aware of that, and he has endorsed William Kelly.)
January 25, 2010 – I will have much more about this in the coming days, but for now I just want to get the word out. William J. Kelly, Republican candidate for Comptroller, released what may be his most important press release to date, because it gives proof to Kelly’s claim that his opponent, Jim Dodge, has been operating a campaign of lies and smears. The release, reproduced below, is titled “D-2 ELECTION DISCLOSURES REVEAL TRUTH ABOUT TOPINKA-DODGE SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST KELLY.”
Jim Dodge’s campaign has been using the worst of Saul Alinsky-style tactics against conservative William J. Kelly.
Today’s Kelly press release proves the connection between Jim Dodge, publisher Jack Roeser, Paul Mitchell campaign manager and blogger Lynn Thomas (Cao’s Blog, on Twitter as caoilfhionn1), and professional political dirty trickster Joe Novak.
“Low Blow Joe”
And who is Joe Novak? In short, he’s a political hit man with the nickname of “Low Blow Joe.” Novak received a $7500 from Citizens for Jim Dodge. Why, you may ask, would self-proclaimed nice guy Jim Dodge employ the services of an amoral dirty trickster like Novak? In 2007, the New York Times wrote that Novak is “a consultant whose colorful history in Illinois politics earned him the nickname Low Blow Joe. A Chicago Sun-Times columnist once wrote that if dirty tricks were an art form, ‘Novak would be Renoir’.”
Perhaps Dodge just likes fine art, but not the paintings of Renoir. Rather, Dodge seems to enjoy the fine art of political character assassination.
What the Kelly press release does NOT say, from the DemocraticUndground.com (cached):
Novak, as of August, 2006, worked for: “Indianapolis insurance mogul J. Patrick Rooney (photo), a right-wing ideologue who has poured millions into GOP causes, especially the so-called Health Savings Accounts, which theoretically would help Americans obtain affordable insurance, but in reality would benefit the healthy and wealthy at the expense of the sick and poor.” Also, “Rooney is no friend of the Illinois Hospital Association, which has made bipartisan campaign donations to the tune of $615,000, including money to both Blagojevich and his Republican opponent Judy Baar Topinka.” (Oh, did you notice the Topinka connection in there? And do you recall my post, “Jim Dodge’s Political Donations Show He’s a Fake Republican,” which showed how Dodge makes the same kind of bipartisan donations?)
To be sure, Novak is a mercenary. Regardless of his personal political philosophy, he works both end of the political spectrum. In fact, Novak is a Democrat, but the game for him is all about the money. While he may be considered a hero to some conservatives for his ObamaTruth.org, it must be remembered that Novak is just as willing to throw mud at Republicans and conservatives.
More from that New York Times article:
Although he has been a consultant for many politicians over the years, including Walter F. Mondale, the 1984 Democratic presidential nominee, and Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, Mr. Novak said in an interview that lately he had been working almost exclusively for Mr. Rooney. His projects, he said, involve exposing inequities in health care that result in poor people’s being denied medical treatment or gouged by insurers and hospitals, topics of interest to Mr. Rooney, who champions medical savings accounts as an alternative to conventional health insurance.
Jim Dodge loves to call himself “a real Republican,” but how many “real Republicans” employ political dirty tricksters like Joe Novak to destroy the character of their primary election opponents? How many “real Republicans” use consultants like Novak who’ve proven themselves so useful to major Democrats, such as Mondale and Daley?
Like I said, we’ll have more about this in the days to come. As of this writing, there are only 7 days until the February 2 primary election. They promise to be very interesting.
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