McHenry County Blog

One day after Labor Day, 8th district Republican candidate for congress David McSweeney revealed in his closing statement,

Congressman (Melissa) Bean is saying this is her last debate.

McSweeney was the last to speak, so any refutation will have to come somewhere else.

It was obvious that positions on several important issues—abortion and immigration—still needed clarification. More debates would obviously be helpful.

Typically in America, the public starts paying attention to campaigns after Labor Day, so, if true, Bean is essentially saying that paid advertising will be her communication method of choice from now on.

If one were going to make a matrix on this campaign using the two issues about which the most questions were asked—abortion and the war in Iraq—Bean would be in the box favoring both, Moderate Party candidate would be in the box opposing both, while McSweeney would be slotted in one in favor of the war and opposed to abortion.

The nuisances of the abortion and immigration debates I’ll leave to someone who had a tape recorder.

Bean did her best to characterize herself as being in the “mainstream,” while saying both of her opponents had “extreme agendas.”

But, the story for me started before the debate.

I showed up with my camera and security guards told me I couldn’t take a camera in unless I had press credentials.

“Who issues press credentials to a blogger?” I thought and started taking pictures of what I could see in the hall.

Greg Rivera of the Northwest Herald saw me, we had a short conversation and he went inside, I guess, to talk to his boss Chris Krug, who was moderator of the debate. When he returned I was allowed in with my camera, for which I am grateful.

As far as I know only CBS Channel Two was allowed to record the debate. Someone said that Comcast had not been allowed in.

I found the anti-war candidate Bill Scheurer, the most telegenic of the candidates, greeting people at the door. Later, I saw McSweeney and Bean working the crowd as well.

Just as Bean had her theme, that her opponents were extremists, McSweeney had one, too. He pointed out again and again that Bean had been on one side of an issue before being on the other.

I can envision McSweeney TV ads reminding people of 2004 Democratic Party candidate John Kerry’s having voted for the war before he voted against it and how Bean is just like him.

For the most exhaustive coverage on the debate, inclucing a review of the ten o'clock Channel Two news cast, click here.