Rex Bradfield to Kick Off Campaign
Champaign, Illinois- Rex Bradfield of Urbana will officially announce his candidacy for State Representative of the 103rd legislative district on Tuesday March 7, 2006. Mr. Bradfield will make his announcement from the back patio of the Illini Union at 12:30pm. The public is invited to attend.
Rex Bradfield makes a unique contribution to Central Illinois politics. Born and raised in Indianola, he has called East Central Illinois home his entire life. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Engineering and began a life devoted to solving problems and improving Champaign-Urbana. As the owner and operator of Zamco, Inc., located in Urbana, Rex has acquired the necessary experience to understand the needs of businesses. As a land surveyor in Illinois and Indiana, Rex works side by side with the working men and women of Illinois, earning their respect and trust. Rex is happily married to his wife, Sandy, and has called Urbana home for the past 20 years.
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Time for change
Posted March 7th, 2006 at 02:56 PM by Jason Barickman
It's great to see voters in the 103rd House District will have a choice in who represents them in Springfield. Additionally, Rex's campaign will provide voters additional opportunities to hear Rep. Jakobsson defend her vote against the University and in favor of Mike Madigan and the Chicago Democrats.
Competition is always good, especially in this case.
Oh, man. No one should have to be born in a town called "Indianola." Much less raised.
This should be a good campaign. I am looking forward to it.
I would welcome a good challenge to Rep. Jakobsson. I would like to see someone represent this district who is not beholden to any Chicago politician, which, I believe, explains her vote on the pension issue.
He's going to be demolished by Naomi.
"It is better to have fought and lost than not to have fought at all." I have yet to vote for a canidate that has no challenger.
The Rex Bradfield campaign would like to thank everyone who came out today for the formal announcement. The university was very accommodating (thanks, Serendipity!) to our needs and even supplied the beautiful weather for the event.
This event wouldn't have been possible without the support of some very important people. Special thanks go out to Jason Barickman, the College Republicans from both UIUC and Parkland, and our website and print graphics designers at MACMEDIA (www.macmedia.net) who are both overworked and underpaid.
Today is also the "official" launch of our website, www.rexbradfield.com, which contains lots of great information, ways to help, and a blog to discuss issues that are important to the voters. We encourage you to check back with us regularly for important updates.
"He's going to be demolished by Naomi."
Justin might have finally stumbled onto the truth. If someone is going to represent a party in an election, he/she might at the very least attempt to secure the backing of that party before he/she annonces his/her decision to run. It's generally kinda hard to win without the backing of the party. The decision to run just so Naomi has an opponent is also debatable.
Moreover, Rex made an arse of himself at a big-small-all meeting I attended.
"If someone is going to represent a party in an election, he/she might at the very least attempt to secure the backing of that party before......"
Silly me, I thought this was a primary election on the 21st, where the party was chosen then the canidates were chosen. Getting the backing of the parrty prior to the primary demostrates how really screwed up our political system really is in the Great State of Illinois.
Get back to reality. You've got to have the party's support to win an election -- especially state rep.
I am in reality-----it takes the party's support to win a primary. So why have them?
Look there is no reason for Democrats to try and put Rex down for running. He is making a principled choice that someone should run against Naomi. Thats fine, no Democrat should care and in fact all Democrats should be glad.
Now Republicans on the other hand should be pissed as hell that Rex is running. Republicans said they want to take the State Senate and the County Board and it is obvious that they are pushing hard on both of those fronts believing that can pick up one seat in Seven, one seat in Nine, and retain the State Senate.
There is no doubt that Naomi and the resources she has backing her are going to stay active in this district thanks soley to Rex's run to give voters a choice.
Local Republicans would have only had to face Frerichs and his resources and the Gov. which really probably won't amount to much so really they would just have to contend with the Frerichs campaign. Now they will have to also contend with Naomi and her resources.
Rex is the best thing that has happened to Champaign Democrats in 2006. Way to go Rex!
"I am in reality”—“it takes the party's support to win a primary. So why have them? "
Just depends on the race. The most partisan Dems turned against Satterthwaite and he was toast in the primary. Same thing will probably happen to Beckett/Wysocki in a few weeks. Shelden, Black, Burns and Myers (sounds like a law firm) got together in another backroom deal to select Myers and avoid wasting money in a primary that could be better spent beating Frerichs in the Fall.
Everybody knows the 103rd is gerrymandered to heavily favor the Dems so that Naomi (despite being an ineffectual state rep) is virtually assured victory. Republican resources could be much better used to defeat Frerichs than in a wasted effort to offer Naomi token opposition. So why is Bradfield running? It's certainly not helping the Republican agenda in the county. Who wants him to run? Again , he didn't discuss his campaign with anyone I know, he just decided he was going to run--and lose.
I love when Republicans complain about how gerrymandered the 103rd District is. How would you like the district to be drawn? Do you not believe that the sister cities of Champaign and Urbana should be in the same district?
I think you must have meant the sister cities of Urbana and (half of) Champaign?
Tapley's correct. The 103rd conveniently omits the western part of Champaign that's dominated by Republican voters. That's called g-e-r-r-y-m-a-n-d-e-r-i-n-g. That's the only way Naomi could beat Burns.
I can see why the Republicans are pissed at Rex. His presence ensures that the Naomi steamroller is going to crush Rex and every other local Republican up and down the ballot. Look out!
Justin, you hit the nail right on the head.
Rex has F****d the local Republicans. He is hurting their chances of winning the county board in 7 and 9 and Frerichs campaign will get a boost in voter registration, GOTV efforts, and probably outreach just because Rex is running and forcing Naomi and her resources to stay activated.
I can just see the angry faces on Mark Shelden and Scott Tapley's now. Barickman has to play the diplomat because he does not want to offend anyone being a new committeeman so he will say things like isn't it great Rex gives a choice.
Justin and PRI,
Your comments might have some validity , but I seriously doubt Naomi is too concerned about Rex. No one is taking his campaign seriously. Frerichs will need all the help he can get.
Of course Naomi isn't concerned about Rex Bradfield, he's a fringe candidate, but there's a reason why Steve Hartman actively discouraged him from running. When he's not building crappy overpriced restaurants on Green Street, Hartman sometimes stumbles on to intelligent political logic: the Madigan organization will keep a staffer here as long as Naomi has an opponent.
If T-Rex had just listened to Hartman, the Madigoon would have been in Morris or Decatur or Peoria by now. Instead, the Madigoon will be here until November operating the much ballyhooed (for good reason) Madigan field plan (voter registration on campus, well coordinated canvassing, etc.) that will turn out Democrats, helping Dems from Frerichs down to Carrie Mellin/Langenheim/District 9.
Take a look at your president's latest approval ratings (37%). If that trend continues, which is very likely, all Dem/lean Dem voters in the 103rd will need is a little prodding to vote down the ticket against the president's party (especially if Topinka loses the Guv primary).
Mr. Tapley:
So it's gerrymandering when Dems cut out part of Champaign, but it's not gerrymandering when Urbana is in the same district as Rantoul and Champaign is in the same district as Paxton? Nobody ever claimed that the 103rd is not favorable to Dems, but it's simply laughable when you people act like drawing a map favorable to your party is something only Dems do.
Ted, Madigan won't have any staff in C-U for Naomi, because she won by 30 percentage points last time.
Blue, I didn't call Naomi's district lines gerrymandering...but that is what it is (and you're correct that the former 103rd was gerrymandered, too).