From the Peoria Journal Star:

Negative ads sour elections for voters
High stakes have candidates pulling out all stops for a win

November 3, 2002

By JENNIFER DAVIS

of the Journal Star

PEORIA - At 22, John Crusen hasn't been a voter for long. But this year, he won't be a voter at all.

"I'm opting not to," says Crusen, a teacher's aide with Peoria School District 150 who says it's because he's disgusted by the flood of negative campaign advertising. "You don't know what to believe. I'd rather just not vote."

Low voter turnout. It's what negative campaigning is all about, says Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

"Candidates tend to have their hard-core supporters, but most people are in the middle, so negative advertising - it's more about making sure they don't vote for your opponent," Canary says.

Still, even Canary admits, "This, for whatever reason, is one of the nastier general elections that I can recall. There's a lot of money in the system right now, which means you have all these consultants saying, 'Negative can win.' Also, there's a potential for real political shift this year."

What's at stake

For the first time in more than two decades, Illinois Democrats see their best shot at winning the governor's race. Many voters, weary of the ongoing license-for-bribes scandal under Republican administrations, are saying it's time for a change.

Until recently, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan has trailed far behind his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich, a Chicago congressman.

Redistricting - required every decade to reflect population shifts - benefited the Democrats this time. With a map drawn in their favor, Democrats could also win control of the state Senate. They already control the state House.

One local example of a race that could change the balance of power in the state Senate is the contest between Knox County State's Attorney Paul Mangieri, a Democrat, and Republican Dale Risinger, a former state transportation district engineer.

Both men are vying for the west-central Illinois district held by state Sen. Carl Hawkinson, R-Galesburg, who is now running for lieutenant governor. And both charge the other with taking what should have been an issue-based campaign and turning it nasty.

Risinger was even able to enlist U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, in his defense. LaHood on Friday held a news conference blasting Mangieri's so-called attack ads.

"There are at least two pieces that have been mailed to people in the district that are just not factual," LaHood said Friday. "The idea that you can just besmirch someone's many, many, many years of good public service is wrong.

"And the worst part about it is that it makes it out that there's something really awry here with Dale's record, with his current job. That, simply, is not true."

One flier, prepared and paid for by the Democratic Party of Illinois, has a "G" painted over the IDOT, the acronym for Illinois Department of Transportation, making it spell "IGOT."

The flier goes on to say, "After working as a regional director at the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Dale Risinger went to work for Clark Engineers, a company that does business with the department - and a company Risinger oversaw and approved for thousands of dollars of extra work."

Risinger disputes the claims, saying he didn't have say over awarding contracts. And Clark Engineers has more work, Risinger adds, because of the pending $400 million reconstruction of Interstate 74, not because of his connections.

"As of last Tuesday, we made a determination that we would not run any negative ads," Risinger said Friday. "What we ought to be doing is talking about the issues."

Mangieri's campaign counters that Risinger crossed the line first.

"Dale's whining when he started this," said Mangieri campaign manager Robin Johnson. "If he really dislikes negative campaigning, then he never should have started down that road. . . . We started out wanting to run a positive campaign based on the issues.

"Paul challenged Dale to debate, and he refused. Later that same week, Dale started running negative attacks on Paul's character in the mail and on TV. We were in a position then that we had to respond."

Both men, with help from their respective state parties, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to win this seat.

According to research by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, Risinger had raised $819,882, and Mangieri had $703,338. Both figures were gathered through Illinois State Board of Election reports filed by their campaigns.

Local lies

But negative campaigning doesn't necessarily take a lot of money. Even low-budget local races see it.

Given that they had a gentlemen's agreement to run positive campaigns, Peoria County Board member Mike Phelan was shocked when his opponent mailed a so-called attack flier less than a week before the election.

"There isn't a completely true statement in the entire thing. It's almost downright lies," said Phelan of the flier from Republican opponent Dorian LaSaine. "Also, this is made to look like a Peoria County newsletter instead of campaign literature."

The flier, for example, says Phelan "votes to pay two administrators at the same time at Bel-Wood" Nursing Home. It does not explain that the county had a contract with a management firm while searching for a full-time administrator and that there was a brief transition time between the two.

LaSaine claimed Peoria County Board member Roger Monroe prepared the flier. Monroe, who is not seeking re-election, couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

"He approached me initially and told me he'd take care of it. I said, 'As long as it's accurate,' " LaSaine said Friday. "Maybe it could've been sent out sooner, but it certainly wasn't a midnight type of deal.

"I regret anything that gives a false impression. I was assured repeatedly that everything was correct. I regret there is some question as to whether it tells the whole story or not."

Other County Board members were targeted with similar fliers, including Sharon Kennedy and Allen Mayer. Tom O'Neill also was falsely criticized as having a poor County Board attendance record by his opponent in a paid full-page newspaper ad.

LaHood, who boasts he's never run a negative ad in his eight years in office, says it needs to stop - regardless of which party it's coming from.

"If we're going to be able to get good people involved in politics, then they have to have the ability to go out and campaign and do it in a way that distinguishes the office they're running for," LaHood says. "Negative ads are bad for the process."