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Anti-War Activists Target Bean At Rally

The News-Sun
Ralph Zahorik

MUNDELEIN — Anti-Iraq War activists, including military families opposed to the war, are planning a demonstration against U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington, at a Democratic rally Sunday at Diamond Lake Slough, a Mundelein park.

Bean and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, are set to headline the rally, according to organizers.

In a statement, an organization called Military Families Speak Out said members will "deliver" flowers to Bean — one flower for every Illinois service person who has died since she took office in January 2005 "to highlight the human cost of the war."

Bill Scheurer, an independent candidate for Congress running against Bean and Republican candidate David McSweeney, is a member of Military Families Speak Out.

"She (Bean) would like to hide behind Jan Schakowsky's record, but she lined up with the Republicans to support the war," said Marge Haracz of Mundelein, a member of MFSO.
If Bean attends the rally, she will receive 48 carnations, Haracz said.

The MFSO statement said Bean "failed to support a resolution for an open debate on the floor of the House floor regarding Iraq" in June 2006 and "voted with the Republican majority to 'stay the course'" of the war.

Bean couldn't be reached for comment. Brian Herman, her campaign spokesman, declined comment.

The Democratic event in Mundelein is called "Bluefest: Rally for Democracy" and is for "Democrats, independents and recovering Republicans who believe America is headed in the wrong direction and want to help ... take the country back," said Cher Daluga, rally organizer.

Bean and Schakowsky will be jointed by Democratic candidates from Lake, McHenry and northern Cook counties, she said.

Attendees can meet and hear the candidates and enjoy food, entertainment and family activities, Daluga said. Admission is free, but a $10 per family donation is requested to help local candidates, she said.

The rally is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. Sunday and continue to about 6 p.m. The 43-acre Diamond Lake Slough park is off the south side of Route 60/83 between Midlothian and Diamond Lake roads. The entrance is east of the Irish Mill Pub.

Partylines: Bean Declines Debate With McSweeney, Scheurer

Weekly Journals
NW News Group

There are three candidates on the Illinois 8th District Congressional ballot this November, but before the election, it might be hard for voters to get to see more than two at a time, if Melissa Bean has her way.

According to a press release from independent candidate Bill Scheurer, a pre-debate meeting scheduled at ABC-7 TV in Chicago was cancelled when Bean, the freshman Democratic Party incumbent, refused to participate.

Republican candidate David McSweeney and Scheurer were both willing to enter the three-way debate, according to Jayme Nicholas, ABC-7’s public relations manager. McSweeney has consistently called for three-way debates in all his public statements on the question.

Nicholas said she hoped Bean would change her mind.

This is not the first time Bean has refused to participate in a three-way debate.

On July 17, McSweeney and Scheurer faced each other on Jeff Berkowitz’s “Public Affairs” program on public access television. During the interview, McSweeney noted several times that Bean had declined to appear.

Although Scheurer gathered more than 14,000 signatures to get his name on the ballot, Bean has refused to face him in any public forum.

Scheurer says his platform, which includes ending the war in Iraq and protecting the needs of working families in areas like taxes, trade, healthcare, and immigration, is significantly different from either of the other two candidates.

"Melissa Bean does not want the public to see that her voting record would be almost identical to Dave McSweeney's on nearly every important issue," Scheurer said. "My candidacy is the only one that offers voters a real choice in this election."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved $2.32 million for three weeks of television advertising for Bean, on top of the more than $2 million already sitting in her own campaign coffers.

"What they want to do is spend $5 million on a massive ad campaign attempting to sell us 'canned Bean' instead of exposing her to the voters in a real debate," Scheurer said. "The two parties sell politicians on TV like credit cards, cars and beer."

All three candidates are invited to appear on CLTV, according to CLTV political reporter Carlos Hernandez Gomez.

He said the three-way taped interview is tentatively scheduled to run on Oct. 11, assuming candidate cooperation.

Partylines: Lindenhurst Man Makes November Ballot

Weekly Journals
NW News Group

Lindenhurst resident Bill Scheurer has done what no one in Illinois history has ever done. He has overcome a 14,000-signature requirement to get his name on the ballot to run against the Democrat freshman incumbent Melissa Bean and the Republican challenger David McSweeney for the Illinois 8th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“People were very supportive of our signature drive,” Scheurer said. “There is a hunger to take back our democracy.”

Scheurer’s campaign focuses on four main issues: protecting the needs of working families from attacks by unfair trade, discriminatory taxes, and shrinking benefits; bringing our troops home and taking care of them when they get here; fixing our broken healthcare system and balancing the federal budget.

“Neither of the two [other] candidates are credibly raising these issues,” Scheurer said. “Voters need a real choice, which can only come from real competition.”

He added that Illinois does not provide a level playing field for alternative parties.

Illinois’ draconian rules for third-party candidates require them to get petitions signed by 5 percent of the most recent vote count for the seat they are seeking. Members of the two "established parties" need only 1/20th as many signatures.

In the 8th District, this amounted to 14,000 signatures required to get Scheurer on the fall ballot as the Moderate Party candidate.

“They (the Republicans and Democrats) make the rules,” Scheurer said. “It’s pretty clear they do not want anyone crashing their party. They might as well put a big sign on the voting booths: ‘Voters without a political party will not be admitted.’”

In the history of the United States, only four individuals have ever successfully overcome a petition requirement of more than 10,000 signatures to gain a place on a ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives. Scheurer will now be the fifth.

Information about Sche-urer’s campaign can be found at www.winwithbill.com.