Over at Bill Dennis’ site, contributor Diane Vespa recently asked Colleen Callahan, candidate for the 18th District House Seat in Illinois, “where’s the beef?” regarding Ms. Callahan’s supposed “vagueness” and “lack of accountability”.
I currently, btw, have a question at the end of that post’s comments section that has gone unanswered.
So I visited Project Vote Smart this evening, hoping to learn more about Mr. Schock and his own policies.
Part of what you’ll see when you click on the specific page I’ve linked for Project Vote Smart is this:
Representative Aaron Schock repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff.This candidate will be asked again to provide responses during the general election.
See that? “…repeatedly refused to provide ANY responses…”. So again, I’m asking, if Ms. Callahan is going to be accused of dodging specifics, when is Mr. Schock going to be held to the same standards by contributors to Bill Dennis’ board, and other Peoria area voters who have their mind made up, simply because Schock will have an “R” next to his name in November?
For the record, here are the others who have been asked, but HAVE NOT responded to Vote Smart’s “political courage test” in Illinois:
State Sen. Koehler (D), State Rep. Leitch (R), Senator Durbin (D), Senator Obama (D).
Here’s a little list of those who HAVE responded and have their positions stated on the website:
State Sen. Risinger (R), Gov. Blagojevich (D), Congressman Lahood (R).
When it comes to federally elected officials, we can simply go to www.ontheissues.org to see how the likes of Durbin, Obama, and Lahood have voted. But I like Project Vote Smart because you can check on state-level officials.
4 responses so far ↓
1
11Bravo
// Apr 29, 2008 at 9:07 am
I dunno how much credibility I would grant to Project Vote Smart BJ. It seems officials who HAVE submitted to this organization are the exception and not the other way around. I don’t necessarily think that is a good thing, but you can’t really attack Aaron for that when the vast majority of officials haven’t returned a survery either.
2
11Bravo
// Apr 29, 2008 at 9:14 am
As a matter of fact none of the presidential candidates’s have submitted surverys either. I even went to go check out some other states and found that over in California, Arnold hasn’t filled one out even though it states he was contacted by a number of current and former officials of both parties including John McCain. But when you go to McCain’s presidential info he hasn’t filled one out either even though he has been “asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff.” It all seems like a shady excuse for a non-profit to me…
3
BJ Stone
// Apr 29, 2008 at 10:12 am
Bravo, yep, I’m very aware of what you’re saying, and as I put after the jump, many pols haven’t taken the time to answer these questions.
But my point was more towards the “Colleen’s got no answers” insinuation that Ms. Vespa made on Billy’s site, when I could say the same thing towards Mr. Schock, who, for all intents and purposes, has really done nothing in the last few years except campaign for his next job.
His occupation could be “professional campaigner’ and it wouldn’t be far from the truth.
But seriously, I agree with what you’ve said, and yet that doesn’t mask the fact that other than his desire to sell nukes to Taiwan, I don’t know where Mr. Schock truly stands on most anything other than the current populist position on the issue of the day. And to me, populists aren’t the answer, they’re the problem.
4
bjstone
// May 3, 2008 at 9:08 am
Wow, still no rebuttal on this site or Billy’s site from the person who wondered aloud where the beef was with Ms. Callahan.
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