Category: Mayoral Election

Moore first to hit the airwaves

Posted by mhopf – March 11, 2013

Republican mayoral candidate Kyle Moore is the first candidate to hit TV before the April 9 election. In his campaign ad called “We Deserve Moore,” Moore slams two-term Mayor John Spring, a Democrat, on hydropower and touts his record to increase efficiencies and accountability at the city level. Moore also declares his top priority is to bring more jobs to Quincy.

His campaign also received a big financial boost Monday.

According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, he received $5,000 from the 18th District Republican Central Committee and $10,000 from the Adams County Republican Central Committee. Moore’s campaign also sent a letter to the State Board of Elections correcting an error. In a Jan. 15 report, Moore’s campaign said it received $5,000 from state Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, when it actually received the contribution from Jim Tracy.

Large contributions continue for Spring

Posted by mhopf – March 5, 2013

Just one month remains until the city elections, and money continues to roll in for Quincy Mayor John Spring, who is seeking a third term.

On Tuesday, his campaign reported a $6,000 donation from Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville. Last week, his campaign reported a $3,000 donation from the Construction and General Laborer’s District Council of Chicago Political Action Committee and a $1,000 in-kind contribution from Sullivan for staff salaries.

Third Ward Alderman Kyle Moore, the Republican candidate, reported $1,000 from the 18th District Republican Central Committee last week.

These aren’t all the contributions that candidates have received. Contributions of $1,000 or more must be reported year round, while other donations are disclosed quarterly. It will be interesting to see how much both candidates total for the election, which won’t be available until first quarter disclosure reports are due after the election.

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.

Democrats will be listed first on April 9 ballot

Posted by mhopf – January 23, 2013

Democrats will be listed first on the April 9 ballot after a drawing Wednesday morning at City Hall. Two pingpong balls — one with a D and one with an R — were placed in a paint can that City Clerk’s Office uses for United Way raffles.

The ball was drawn by City Hall employee Tess Bratton. Witnessing the drawing were Jim Perry, chairman of the Adams County Republican Central Committee, and Ray Thomas of the Adams County Democrats.

Republicans were drawn for the top spot in the 2011 and 2009 elections. The last time Democrats were atop the ballot was in 2007.

Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois

Moore has more cash on hand than Spring

Posted by mhopf – January 16, 2013

Quincy Republican mayoral candidate Kyle Moore maintains a cash advantage over Mayor John Spring, a Democrat who is trying to win a third term.

For the reporting period for last three months of 2012, Moore reported that his campaign brought in $9,979 and spent $3,871. His campaign account had $36,420 on hand at the time. Notable contributions include $2,000 each from Harold Knapheide III and Harold Knapheide IV.

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 the $375 from the Bank of Springfield.

This is the last report on campaign contributions until the April 9 election, except for larger contributions. Since Jan. 1, Spring has reported receiving $5,000 from Foresight Energy Services of St. Louis, while Moore received $5,000 from State Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy.

I’m Back — Just in Time for the Elections

Posted by ehusar – April 6, 2009

After being sidelined for the past month recovering from spinal surgery, I’m finally back to work full-time.

Thanks to everybody for the notes, calls and good wishes. Now it’s back to business.

• • •

I’m returning to action just in time for Tuesday’s elections. Have I missed anything fun?

bellis-spring-1a Actually, the mayoral race between incumbent Democrat John Spring and Republican challenger Dave Bellis was pretty tame during the past month. Hardly a tremor could be felt on the political Richter scale. But things have picked up steam in the past week.

As everyone knows by now, Bellis caused rumblings when he called a press conference last week to raise some red flags about the city’s hydroelectric proposal — one of the big projects for the future being pushed by Spring. Spring, for his part, rubbed some people the wrong way with his political ads taking credit for jobs to be created by the hydropower project, which is still in the exploratory stage.

Bellis also generated some ink when he sent out a mailer that attempted to link Spring to our disgraced former governor, Rod Blagojevich, who was indicted last week. The flyer made reference to “dirty” political contributions made to both Spring and Blagojevich from “corrupt Chicago businessmen.”

Then Bellis stirred the pot even more during Thursday’s League of Women Voters debate when he charged Spring with accepting “unethical” campaign contributions from Chicago sources.

“Some of them are convicts,” he said. “It’s just not right. It’s not ethical.”

This drew a stern response from a clearly offended Spring, who challenged Bellis to document his allegations.

“Every penny that I’ve taken is ethical,” Spring told the crowd.

But perhaps the biggest flap emerged this weekend when Bellis sent out another mailer that attempted to paint Spring in a bad light by suggesting he’s part of a wide-ranging political “family” with relations who have jobs in city or county government.

The flyer listed 16 relatives of former Alderman Terry Grussenmeyer, current Alderman Richard Reis and Spring. It said: “Mayor John Springs’ (sic) friends, friends’ children, friends’ childrens’ husbands and wives are together costing us More than One Million Dollars a Year!”

The mailer arrived at many Quincy homes over the weekend, and it didn’t leave Spring much time to respond. However, Spring quickly sent out a press release denouncing the “negative campaign tactics.” He said the mailer “shows the desperation” of Bellis’ campaign.

The press release said the mailer “strongly suggests that Mayor Spring has been responsible for hiring many of his family members and friends to city and other government jobs.” Spring added: “There is not a single person mentioned in this entire mailer who was hired by my administration.”

Spring was particularly peeved that the mailer made reference to his wife, Karen, who has worked for the Adams County Health Department for the past 15 years.

“My wife Karen has been an accomplished and professional registered nurse for over 40 years and was hired on her own merit by the Adams County Health Department long before I became mayor and long before I ever became active in politics,” Spring said.

“When I saw today that Mr. Bellis had included a specific reference to my wife in his negative campaign mail piece, I was upset and disappointed that Mr. Bellis and his campaign had stooped to this new low in attacking my own wife. What kind of man attacks his election opponent’s family? Is that who we want leading our city?”

When contacted by telephone today, Bellis said the mailer was simply designed to show voters that “a lot of money is being spent on family” in local government.

“I don’t really have much to say about it. It’s just to let people know where their tax dollars are going,” he said. “I’ll just let it speak for itself.”