Month: February 2013

State Democrats continue to fund Spring’s campaign

Posted by mhopf – February 25, 2013

Illinois Democratic lawmakers continue to throw big dollars at Quincy Mayor John Spring’s re-election campaign.

According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Spring’s campaign reported $8,000 in contributions last week. He received $3,000 from former Sen. Louis Viverito, D-Burbank, and $2,500 each from state Reps. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, and Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley.

This comes one week after Spring received $15,500 in contributions from other Democratic lawmakers.

Republican mayoral candidate Kyle Moore has reported contributions of $3,500 from Lee Lindsay Curtis and $1,000 from John G. Stevenson Jr. He also reported a $1,000 contribution from Harold Knapheide III, who previously has contributed $2,000 to the campaign.

Moore: City not in better shape since Spring elected

Posted by mhopf – February 22, 2013

Kyle Moore

Republican mayoral candidate Kyle Moore blasted two-term Mayor John Spring’s assertion that the Quincy job market is improving.

“If you look at the facts, in December 2005, our unemployment rate in the city of Quincy was 4.2 percent,” Moore said. “Our number of unemployed was 916 people. In December of 2012, the city of Quincy has a 6.6 percent unemployment rate with over 1,400 people unemployed.”

Moore made the comments after Spring gave his “state of the city” address to the Quincy Exchange Club.

During his speech, Spring touted that Adams County has the second-lowest unemployment in the state after Brown County. Still, he said the city needs to focus on bringing head-of-household jobs to the area.

“When you look at the fact that under his leadership, our average family income has decreased in the city of Quincy by 14 percent,” Moore said. “We’re not even keeping up with the state average. We’re not moving forward; we’re moving backwards.”

Moore admitted part of the rise of unemployment and decline in income stems from the worldwide recession — as it has been nationwide — but he claims Quincy is doing worse than the Illinois state average of 12 percent income decline over the same period.

“The state of Illinois isn’t known for its good economic sense,” he said. Moore said the city needs to work on creating an environment that allows head-of-household job creation, although he has not laid out specifics plans for making that happen.

 

Spring sees influx of campaign cash

Posted by mhopf – February 14, 2013

Quincy Mayor John Spring has seen a $15,500 spike in his campaign contributions this week, according to Illinois State Board of Elections reports.

The contributions included $5,000 from state Sen. John Sullivan’s campaign fund and another $5,000 from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 in Joliet. He also received $1,500 from both state Sen. Steve Landek, D-Bridgeview, and the Democratic Organization of Lyons Township, and $2,500 from state Sen. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago.

Spring’s campaign also reported receiving $1,000 for staff salaries from Sullivan.

Republican candidate Kyle Moore immediately starting building his campaign war chest after he announced last year. In the third quarter of 2012, he pulled in more than $25,000.  For the reporting period for last three months of 2012, Moore reported his campaign brought in $9,979 and spent $3,871. His campaign account had $36,420 on hand at the end of the reporting period.

Spring reported raising $1,525 during the same period, with expenditures of $423. His campaign reported available funds of $19,111. The only contribution that required reporting was $375 from the Bank of Springfield.

Since Jan. 1, Spring has also reported receiving $5,000 from Foresight Energy Services of St. Louis, while Moore received $5,000 from state Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy. Moore also reported a contribution of $1,029 from Citizens for a Better Quincy, a political action committee formed by a majority of Republican aldermen.

Full campaign reports won’t be available until after the April 9 election.

Quincy mayor’s race target of polling

Posted by mhopf – February 13, 2013

Some Quincy residents have been contacted this week by a telephone pollster who seemed to tout Democratic incumbent Mayor John Spring and be not so kind to his Republican challenger, 3rd Ward Alderman Kyle Moore.

Survey questions were:

• Generally speaking, is Quincy on the right track or headed in the wrong direction?

• What is the greatest single problem in Quincy right now?

• Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Mayor John Spring? State Sen. John Sullivan? U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock? Moore?

• How would you rate Spring as mayor?

• Who are you going to vote for?

When person who received the call said the household was undecided, the pollster touted Spring as a fiscal conservative who has helped lower property tax rates in seven of the last eight years and helped get electrical aggregation — and promised lower rates — to Quincy.

The pollster then pointed out that Moore voted against funding for renovations at the Quincy Public Library, and then his company, Moore’s Floors, profited off work it did there after the project was approved by the City Council. The pollster went on to say that Moore opposed the city’s “fix or flatten” program, which tries to clean up derelict buildings, and had voted against a request by the Quincy Fire Department to buy new trucks.

The pollster then asked again who the resident would vote for.

The pollster appeared to be trying to steer the voter in Spring’s direction, at least that’s what the voter thought.

Both candidates have been seen campaigning door to door, both have campaign headquarters up and running and Moore — who, in reality, has been running for the office since September — already has mailed out an eight-page targeted campaign piece and has held two press conferences to tout his plans. With the municipal election just 55 days away, expect the race to continue to heat up.