Can Matt Murphy really win the Lt. Governor race in Illinois by running an anti-woman, frat boy campaign?
How can this man be Lt. Governor when he can't even control his own frat boy staff?
The new Matt Murphy campaign slogan? Toga! Toga! Toga!
The 2010 statewide races in Illinois don’t have as much interest for us as Senate contests nationally. We strongly support Senator Roland Burris and continue to defend him daily against unwarranted attacks (Burris has done more for women and the LGBTQ community in Illinois than any other state politician we can think of, for one thing). Since he is not seeking election in 2010, we have no vested interest in that Senate seat apart from not wanting Alexi Giannoulias, scion of the mob-connected Broadway Bank-ing Giannoulias clan, to win the Democrats’ nomination (we, thus, support David Hoffman in our primaries). If Republican Mark Kirk can overcome the scandals his ex-wife plans to level upon his campaign, Jerri Ryan-style, then Kirk would make a decent Senator for Illinois. We also have no problem with Pat Quinn remaining Governor of our state, despite his refusal to support anti-corruption and anti-wasteful spending measures we want to see enacted in the most corrupt and wasteful state in the Union. People we respect back Quinn, and they wouldn’t do that if Quinn wasn’t a good guy. The Republicans would have to put forward someone truly exceptional to offer a better choice for us. Kirk Dillard would be such a pick, but no one knows who will win the Republican primary.
We do, however, believe Matt Murphy would make a terrible Lt. Governor based on the decisions he’s already made in terms of whom he surrounds himself with.
The Matt Murphy for Lt. Governor campaign is one big frat party.
His key decision-makers are 21-23 year old guys, few of whom are even college graduates; most of which have a propensity for getting drunk at functions around town and embarrassing themselves, and their candidate.
Friends of ours have personally witnessed this, with Murphy staffers so drunk at events they actually pick fights, splash drinks at people, and generally engage in testosterone-fueled pissing contests with anyone not backing Matt Murphy.
It’s disconcerting to believe Republicans in Illinois are so desperate for a candidate that they’d give Murphy’s lack of better judgment their stamp of approval by making him their nominee in February. Last spring, Republicans put forward Rosanna Pulido as their nominee for Rahm Emanuel’s Congressional seat. As Democrats who support Mike Quigley, we were thrilled because Pulido comes across as a crazy person. During the 2008 election, Pulido appeared unbalanced and completely out of it at events we heard her speak at — where she made a point of making nasty racial slurs at John McCain and calling him, absurdly, “Juan McCainguez” for some reason. She is a strange, strange woman.
And Matt Murphy seems to be in the same whack-a-doodle boat.
We’re clearly not the only ones who’ve heard about his campaign staff’s juvenile, unprofessional, frat boy antics. Murphy himself has to know what’s going on, and what the boys he’s entrusted his campaign to are doing while representing him to voters in Chicago. If Murphy knows full well who these guys are, and does nothing to rein them in, then maybe Murphy sees no problem in their behavior.
The other option is that Murphy’s clueless and has no idea what’s going on. In which case, we wonder how effective he’d be as a Lt. Governor and what he does with himself all day. If he can’t see his own staff of 21 year olds carousing around town like drunken sailors on leave, chasing skirts and constantly trying to prove what big boys they are, then we wonder if Murphy’s sitting in a corner of his office in his underroos drawing pictures of his feet with unsharpened crayons. That’s what we bet Rosanna Pulido does all day, as informed and professional as she is. Perhaps she and Murphy attend the same daycare, where current events and the goings-on of their own campaigns are bits of information these two never get…at least not before snack and nap time.
If Murphy and his team are the best the GOP can do in Illinois, we just wonder how women in this state in particular will respond. Why would a woman want to support a man sending out these sorts of messages from a campaign that might just as well be run from Animal House itself?
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“His key decision-makers are 21-23 year old guys, few of whom are even college graduates; most of which have a propensity for getting drunk at functions around town and embarrassing themselves, and their candidate.
Friends of ours have personally witnessed this, with Murphy staffers so drunk at events they actually pick fights, splash drinks at people, and generally engage in testosterone-fueled pissing contests with anyone not backing Matt Murphy.”
Do they also have photos showing them groping female politicians that oppose Murphy? Maybe they saw how well it worked for that other Illinois politician to surround himself with frat boys, who threatened anyone not backing him. It IS a shame he is white, because he loses calling anyone who doesn’t vote for him or disagrees with him RAACIST.
I meant groping cardboard cutouts of female politicians
Good post, hillbuzz.