Where in IL-19 is Dan Stover?

From those in the know, Dan Stover (D-Centralia) is all over and constantly in Madison County. He was in Metropolis was for Sen. Barak Obama's tour. One or two local candidates managed a quick photograph with the junior senator. Also, Dan is very busy building a phenomenal field organization in the largest county in IL-19. It is like nothing constituents have seen since Rep. John Shimkus (R-Collinsville) was a freshman congressman.

The Grand Old Party's (GOP) incumbent is more vulnerable than he or either Party realizes. There are ten factors to evaluate his level of vulnerability:

1. Q: Has he lost touch with IL-19 voters?
A: YES -- He is completely out of touch with voters based on his record. He fights for special interests, the privileged princes of perks and pork. He only wants more of the same bureaucratic indifference towards the people instead of understanding the values of working, aspiring people in their daily lives. With no ideas of his own, he remains a puppet of his Texas handlers. The GOP mantra of Growth, Opportunity, and Peace (GOP) has become Decline, Impossibility, and Conflict (DIC) on his watch. Bottom line: The GOP Majority now equals DIC. Not a good thing for the people.
NOTE: Decline also means failure to most people. Google has a more accurate definition.

2. Q: Does he have an offensive personality?
A: YES -- Any commissioned officer (albeit an inactive weekend warrior) pretending to be an adult that can throw prize-winning, spoiled-brat temper tantrums has an offensive personality (and he is very well-known for those tantrums, too!).

3. Q: Does he suffer or might he soon suffer from scandal?
A: YES -- As soon as IL-19 voters acknowledge the REAL integrity of the John Shimkus character and recognize him for the corrupt person he truly is (including a loyal Tom DeLay soldier).

4. Q: Are his accomplishments meager?
A: YES -- He is the ONLY Lifetime Zero in Illinois. As the walking symbol of the state's highest unemployment rates, corporate greed, an absent military defense, and insignificance, the favorite motto for voters is now SHUMP DIMKUS (only 2 words say a lot!).

5. Q: Does he have poor relations with the media or does he project poorly through the media?
A: NO -- He fakes it too well, and the editors make excuses for his lack of integrity.

6. Q: Does overall party registration or IL-19 voter turn out work against him?
A: YES -- Even people who voted for him in the past and grew up with him want him out of office. Dan's supporters have his bumper stickers even on campus at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Their vehicles sport two stickers in the back window!

7. Q: Is his ideology out of sync with most IL-19 voters?
A: YES -- He is now the archetypal government insider, elitist, career politician, big spender in Congress for self-interests only. The only ideology he ackowledges is that of his corporate constituents which proves Factor No. 1.

8. Q: Will he have a problem raising enough money?
A: N/A (He is an incumbent. Taxpayers foot the bill for his re-elect fundraising, and his staff have always campaigned while on the job. Former Gov. Ryan taught them well to get John Shimkus elected in the first place. Although, anti-gay, he has no qualms about taking their donations (or is there a hidden part of John Shimkus that is just begging to come out of the closet?). So much for integrity.)

9. Q: Does he perform poorly under pressure and in handling criticism?
A: N/A (He uses garden variety passive-aggressive avoidance behaviors. He cruises through elections as much as possible so persuading him to agree to ONE debate on the ONE day he would agree to was like pulling teeth!)

10. Q: Is he less active due to age, health or apathy?
A: YES -- He is active only when he has no choice, and his health took a beating with his surgery last year (all that MTBE contamination in the So. IL groundwater is viscious to live with -- just a guess).

If voters can honestly answer YES to at least 1 or 2 of these questions, there is really no reason to keep John Shimkus in office. His score is 7 YES, 1 NO, and 2 N/A. Typical for a Zero who could write volumes on Diminish, Impede, Maintain (DIM). He diminishes quality of life, impedes household income levels, and maintains good ol boy cronyism. The 12 years John Shimkus has be on The Hill have left So. IL very dim indeed. People deserve a persuasive leader not a milktoast follower.

Unfortunately, the DCCC considers IL-19 and every GOP incumbent congressional district safe so they will do nothing for the candidates unless their name is Tammy Duckworth (IL-06) or Rep. Melissa Bean (IL-08). They received over $6 million from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for their campaigns. Remember the following facts:

• The DCCC does not give any form of support to the candidates they choose to ignore.
• Representatives call potential donors and tell them that they are working with the DCCC to identify said races.
• Representative callers then tell potential donors that some of that money will be coming back to the district to help the candidate.
• Finally, the representative callers use the candidate's name to get contributions from potential donors with no intention of helping the district candidate at all.

Voters need to take a stand -- NOW! Subsequent generations will get the bills for the overspending of today's generations. The best solution is contributing directly to Dan Stover's campaign and VOTE for him in November!