Chris Ladd

Ongoing Jackson drama good for Kirk

Jesse Jackson, Jr. is generating heartburn for Democrats. He is an important key to unlocking the Southside Democratic vote-machine for any candidate. But his growing ethics problems are making him radioactive in the one year in a...

Kirk holds on to narrow lead in Senate race

With six weeks to go in the 2010 election campaign Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk is still holding on to a slim advantage in the polls. The latest RealClearPolitics average of public polls gives Kirk a narrow 1% lead...

Local nutjob continues to harass Naperville businesses

For nine years Scott Huber has been squatting outside Naperville businesses with his tent and his lunatic political signs. He has run for mayor and maintained a running siege against downtown business owners who want his show moved off...

Friday Night Lights attract boos in Elmhurst

The dense eastern areas of DuPage County face some challenges more familiar to the big city than the sprawling 'burbs. Elmhurst's schools are looking for ways to compromise with the neighborhoods packed tightly around their multi...

Could the GOP take the State House?

With the Democrats losing momemtum heading into the midterm elections, could Republicans in Illinois finally have a chance to take the State House?House GOP leader Tom Cross is beginning to describe it to the press as "doable."...

Looking at a Republican future

In this frenzied political season that's been so dominated by hot-air and bluster, it is refreshing to see some intelligent and durable leadership begin to emerge in the Republican Party.Chris Nybo won a very competitive Republican...

The risks of leaving office

Mayor Daley's decision to step down creates an interesting set of potential risks and rewards. The idea of leaving office without a humiliating perp-walk may be attractive, but it also gives away a critical body of...

Nationalized mortgage industry not helping Chicago

This news this week on the real estate front has been gruesome. Homes sales in Chicago in July were down almost a third over last year's already weak pace, worse than analysts were expecting. Those numbers...

An update on Homocon 2010

Apparently, the news announced earlier this month that Ann Coulter will be headlining a gay conservative event in September called "Homocon" was not in fact a joke. And the story keeps getting weirder. Criticism from evangelicals has...

DuPage Election Commission fends off activist group again

DuPage County officials this week successfully parried another jab from a group of local activists. The county has been in a running battle with the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, an organization fixated on voting machine paranoia. Their latest move was...

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