League of Women Voters event shows Underwood can be bested in debates
Saturday afternoon, Chicagoland chapters of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Illinois hosted a candidates forum between Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and Republican challenger Jim Oberweis.
The head to head virtual forum is little over an hour, and the video was released late Monday afternoon. The video is here:
First Impressions: Saturday’s candidates forum between the two candidates for the 14th district produced a surprise. Watching the ZOOM forum live, this forum win goes to Oberweis.
Using baseball metaphors (as a shout out to both the Cubs and White Sox making the postseason), while Oberweis did not knock anything out of the park during the forum, he definitely hit a few ground rule doubles and extra base hits, manufacturing runs.
And this was the worst ZOOM performance for Underwood. Throughout the forum, she appeared nervous, touching her hair and face, something she has not shown in other ZOOM debates or editorial endorsement board interviews. Whether she was rattled by the resonating and effective campaign commercial of Oberweis or recent polling showing Oberweis’ campaign’s effectiveness making the race close, she was not herself and did not bring her “A” game Saturday.
Grading the two candidates, while not a decisive win, it was a win for the Republican:
- Oberweis: B+
- Underwood: B- –
While Underwood scored some points, particularly on Veterans legislation, she told multiple untruths, and attempted some new attacks which did not stick, for example:
- Inference to the discredited “1619 project”, and “400 years of racism”
- Embellishing “bipartisan” more than usual, including attempting to connect the House passage of her H.R. 3525 “U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening Standards Act” legislation, and saying it passed, and it was signed into law (instead, only the Electronic Health Records funding being included in Defense/Homeland Security Appropriations Bill) by President Trump
- On Elections, Underwood hit a foul ball loosely accusing Oberweis of FEC complaints
- Said the Equality Act (H.R. 5) which includes having boys participating in girls sports represents the values of northern Illinois
And Underwood still fails to condemn the violence, which corresponds to the commercials Oberweis ran for a week and complemented by the Louisville riots news stories. Additionally, and oddly, Underwood omitted in her opening or closing statements, about the three editorial board endorsements from Shaw Media, the Daily Herald or Chicago Sun-Times.
She didn’t mention the appointment to chair a subcommittee on the House Homeland Security Committee which went public the day before and was still news. Not a word about recent campaign or congressional achievements.
Oberweis hit a couple of foul balls, too:
- Accused Underwood of supporting Medicare-for-All
- Missed hitting a potential homerun when Underwood talked about the merits of the H.R. 1 “For the People” Act, failing to call out the truth of “public financing of political campaigns”
- Again, said Underwood’s leftist voting record prompted him to run for Congress
Combination of Underwood having her worst candidates forum and Oberweis his best combined to make it a win, though not decisive victory for the Republican.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Good job, Jim.
Underwood does not fit the district.
Oberweis will end up winning by 2-3 points.
And exactly 17 people will have viewed the borefest.
What the hell happened to Underwood’s hair?
Can’t she do a makeover like Kim Foxx?
I couldn’t understand Underwood’s Ebonics.
Underwood supports boys competing in girls’ sports?
That’s really extreme! ☹️
The League is an ananchronism today. A group exclusively for women by the title of their organization. Where is their diversity? Are they living in the 1800’s?
Can anyone imagine a group formed in 2020 to sponsor debates about political candidates and it is named, The League of Men Voters. Or, a number of Democrats in the U.S. Congress who in 2020 formed a group exclusively for Democrat Representatives and Senators composed of persons of the White race, The Congressional White Caucus.
There would be a broad based uproar from all areas of the U.S. condemning the formation and naming of these groups.
Bred Winner, agreed, but 100 years ago, suffrage became the law of the land and the LWV, which does welcome/include men, is a holdover from those days.
Now, let’s ALL get to discussing the contents of the candidates forum from Saturday afternoon.
In the 1920s, states still determined who could(n’t) vote.
Not all women were allowed to vote then. ☹️
Here’s a pretty good op-ed, I’m sure stained Underwood won’t like it, but hey, it’s the truth.
https://www.unz.com/ishamir/trump-did-not-flinch/
Under-Hood is the biggest racist in town.
Saw her new commercial. Kooky.
She lied and I only watched the first 5 minutes!
Still pushing the nurse narrative.
She never saw a patient!
She went right into working for Obama developing the failed healthcare system that is not affordable nor does it advocate for patients!
Wow typical Republican name calling and racism here.
Why would I expect anything less in this county.
Too bad the greedy power hungry fatass Oberweis lost.
Made a damn fool of himself saying he won.
I stopped buying oberweis products years ago.
Doesn’t he have enough money how many pensions does he want to get out of the state of Illinois for holding different offices?
And typically I would never dream of name-calling but since it seems to be so prevalent on this blog I feel it’s open season
Jim Oberweis has served in only one Illinois position–State Senator.
Cal is correct, in reference to Jim Oberweis service as a state senator from 2013 to 2021.
Additionally, Oberweis was the elected state central committeeperson for the IL Republican Party in the 14th Congressional District under the 2001 map from 2010-2014 (1 term).