http://www.dailyherald.com/special/electio...p?intID=3824175

Gore stops in Evanston for Bean fund-raiser
By Joseph Ryan Daily Herald Staff Writer

Former Vice President Al Gore stopped in Evanston to raise money for Melissa Bean Friday, bringing the most prominent Democratic name yet into one of the most watched Illinois Congressional races.

Three years ago Congressman Phil Crane of Wauconda, the most senior Republican House member, beat Bean, of Barrington, with 8 percentage points to spare.

But this time around, both candidates have said it will be a photo finish Nov. 2.

Bean campaign officials decline to reveal how much was raised during the breakfast fund-raiser at a supporter's home, but said it was a "more exclusive event" with about 60 attendees.

"(Gore) just stopped in for a few minutes," Bean spokesman Brian Herman said.

Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, was also in Illinois for other fund-raisers, mostly in Chicago, he said.

The appearance of such a prominent Democratic figure stumping for Bean sparked the fund-raising group for Republican congressman to issue a scathing press release.

"Al Gore endorsing Melissa Bean shows exactly why she'll never be elected to Congress," said Chris Paulitz, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Dennis O'Sullivan, Crane's campaign manager, also said Bean "has been trying to hide her liberal views."

"This just shows she does not mesh well with the voters here," he said.

Herman said the comments were "ridiculous" and "much ado about nothing."

http://www.nwherald.com/CommunitySection/284910734385607.php

Cheney helps out Crane;
Gore stops by Bean funder

By OWEN R. BRUGH

obrugh@nwherald.com

Vice presidents stepped up this week to help both sides in the race between U.S. Rep. Phil Crane and challenger Melissa Bean.

Crane, a Wauconda Republican, benefited from a fund-raiser earlier this week in Washington, D.C., where the guest of honor was Vice President Dick Cheney.

Bean, a Barrington Democrat, was the beneficiary of a breakfast fund-raiser Friday where the guest of honor was former Vice President Al Gore.

Even before the breakfast was over, the National Republican Congressional Committee sent out an e-mail claiming that the "liberal extremist" Bean had received the endorsement of the "liberal extremist" Gore.

Bean deputy campaign manager Brain Herman called the e-mail "desperate" and said it is a sign that Republicans are worried that Crane might lose.

"Why don't they point to all [Crane] has done for his district in the last 35 years? Because they have nothing to point at," Herman said. "This is what you do when you have no accomplishments. You smear someone so you can distract people."

Despite the caustic rhetoric and quick e-mail send button, Republican committee spokesman Chris Paulitz said the party is not concerned that Bean might win.

"When you have an opponent who raises some money and starts saying things, we start to pay attention," Paulitz said. "When somebody is annoying one of my candidates, we step in."

That annoyance might have come from the Bean campaign's idea of an interesting fund-raising promotion. For $20, a donor to the Bean campaign can receive a seat warmer. The cushion touts Crane as the "original seat warmer" and warns that it should be replaced after 35 years, a reference to Crane's tenure in Congress.

Herman said the idea came to a campaign member when they were preparing for a fund-raiser at a Schaumburg Flyers game.

"[The cushions] seem to be very popular," Herman said.

Crane campaign manager Dennis O'Sullivan said the seat cushion did not bother anyone at the campaign.

"It's a petty grasp at straws by a sinking campaign," O'Sullivan said. "Maybe they should ask the people in Johnsburg who got the wastewater treatment plant or Metra riders ... if Crane is a seat warmer."

As for the Gore appearance, Herman said it was a small gathering, Gore happened to be in the area, and he stayed for 20 minutes.

The appearance was not an official endorsement, Herman said.

Paulitz scoffed at that claim.

"I'm sure Al Gore is not grappling with whether or not to endorse Phil Crane," he said. "I don't think George Bush ever said he endorses Crane, but he stands behind him."

==Republican Smear Email==

LIBERAL EXTREMIST MELISSA BEAN ENDORSED BY LIBERAL EXTREMIST AL GORE

Washington, D.C. - Liberal IL-08 Democrat Congressional candidate Melissa Bean is being endorsed today by another liberal extremist, Al Gore. But that should come as no surprise, since Bean and Gore share the same extremist values that put them both out of touch with the people of the Eighth District - which is why Gore only received 42 percent of the vote in 2000 and Bean just 43 percent in 2002.

"Al Gore endorsing Melissa Bean shows exactly why she'll never be elected to Congress," said National Republican Congressional Committee Press Secretary Chris Paulitz. "Gore and Bean are both liberal extremists who don't live in the Eight District and don't understand the values of the people who live there. And neither one of them can vote for Melissa Bean for Congress."

Bean, a liberal who is trying to win a seat in a Republican dominated district, seems to be embracing all the wrong values.

For example, she was recently endorsed by the pro-abortion group E.M.I.L.Y.'s List, which is so radical and extreme it has withdrawn support for members of Congress who simply voted to end taxpayer funding of abortion and refused to endorse a candidate because she believed minors should obtain parental permission before having an abortion. It also abandoned two pro-choice U.S. Senators - Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ar.) - simply for voting to ban the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortions.

Except it appears that Bean wants to leave it to the state and would potentially support a compromise on parental notification
And a Bean win in November would cost Illinois enormous clout in Washington.

"Melissa Bean says she wants what's best for Illinois, yet she wants to strip the state of the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, and the second highest-ranking member on the most powerful committee in the House," Paulitz said. "If it were up to Melissa, our taxes would be higher, our Second Amendment rights would be trampled and there'd be partial-birth abortion on demand." The NRCC also challenged Bean to repudiate Gore's claim this week that people of faith are the same as extreme fundamentalists. When asked in the latest issue of The New Yorker of President Bush's Christianity and mentions of it in public, Gore said: "It's a particular kind of religiosity. ... It's the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, in religions around the world ..."

"Melissa Bean should use her time with Gore to explain to him that people of faith are not extremists," Paulitz said. "That is, if she disagrees with him."

So they are calling Gore a "liberal extremist?" That is hilarious! I guess if you call Bush on anything you are an "extremist."

Liberal extremist, my ass. When are these people going to get a grip?

I'm damn sick and tired of every article written about the REAL RESIDENT AL GORE has to say in it that he lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush. He didn't lose the election, it was STOLEN.

Damn that was me. I was so pissed off when I read the bullcrap about "lost the 2000 election," that I forgot to log in.

I know what you mean. That article just flat out said he lost to Bush which is a lie. They didn't even qualify the statement.

Gore is out there fighting for the Congressional candidates this time around again. Great!

Every article I read says Gore "lost" the election to George Bush in 2000. It always catches me off guard when I see that, but then I remember--the truth is that he did lose, in the sense that he isn't in the White House now. They won't bother to qualify the statement with the fact that he won the popular vote and that the Supreme Court intervened to hand Bush the election. It's too controversial, still, and at least half the people in the country don't want to hear about it. I'm afraid Gore will go down in history as having "lost" that election, and we will always have to explain to whomever will listen that that wasn't actually the way it happened. It'll be our job to be sure future generations know that the great Mr. Gore didn't lose that election, that it was stolen from him. Oral history, you know?

The truth must never be forgotten.

I will never get tired of saying it. AL GORE WON THE 2000 ELECTION. AL GORE is the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, elected November 7, 2000. DAMN, DAMN, DAMN.

Yes.