Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Watch Brady, Gidwitz, Rauschenberger, Salvi and Schakowsky

Revised and links added at 2:00 pm on Tuesday.

Five New Video and Audio Podcasts come to the Public Affairs Cinema Complex today. “Public Affairs,” shows with each of the below referenced guests can be watched and listened to by going here.

Republican Primary Gubernatorial candidates Bill Brady, Ron Gidwitz and Steve Rauschenberger debate and discuss the issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.

Senator Bill Brady, a Bloomington downstater, has twelve years of combined statehouse and state senate legislative experience and has been involved in running a diverse mix [real estate development, broadcast and more] of substantial, [about 120 employees and 160, or so, independent contractors (realtors)] closely held, family businesses for the last twenty-five years. Brady received the Conservative Summit's endorsement in September. However, questions have been raised-especially among certain influential conservatives-- as to the significance of that endorsement [See here and here]. Only twenty-six individuals were reported to be involved in the final endorsement vote [It has been asserted by the organizers that 100 were invited, but only 38 showed up].

Ron Gidwitz [Chicago], a social moderate, was Chairman of the Board of the City Colleges of Chicago, as well as Chairman of the State Board of Education, which Senator Brady, BTW, would like to abolish. Gidwitz also was CEO of his family's business, Helene Curtis, increasing its sales revenue by sixteen-fold, before it was sold, as a public company, to Unilever, for about a billion dollars, with the "Gidwitz Family," receiving about 200 million dollars from the sale. Gidwitz is the only Republican Primary candidate currently running TV ads, which are said to have cost him a few million dollars.

Senator Steve Rauschenberger was elected to the State Senate in 1992 as one of the "Fab 5" [others were former U. S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald (who has endorsed Steve for Governor), current State Senators Dave Syverson and Chris Lauzen, and former State Senator Pat O'Malley]. Rauschenberger became a freshman Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which obviously is quite unusual. Rauschenberger [Suburban Elgin] received almost all [26 of 30] of the Illinois newspaper editorial board endorsements during his Republican Primary run for the U. S. Senate in 2004 [3rd place, 21%, in a field of four credible, campaigning candidates] and he is known for his vast knowledge of the Illinois Budget and a broad range of other public policy issues.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky [D-Evanston], who is campaigning for the No. 4 Leadership position in the Democratic House Caucus [See here, 2nd Paragraph], debates and discusses the issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.

Our show with Cong. Schakowsky focuses on national issues, e.g., Congresswoman Schakowsky’s assessment of the Bush presidency, including her arguments about a culture of corruption in the Republican National leadership; high gas and heating oil prices, “gouging,” expanding crude and refined energy source supplies and legislation related thereto; the indictment of Tom Delay and Jan’s campaign to win the No. 4 leadership position in the House Democratic Caucus. The show’s taping preceded the indictment of Scooter Libby and the withdrawal of Harriet Miers, but Congresswoman Schakowsky does have a thing or two to say about Rove and Miers and she makes some predictions about their fate. We also discuss what Republicans, these days, like to call the culture of corruption in Illinois.

The show with Cong. Schakowsky also airs in the suburbs this week [See the end of the post here for a "Public Affairs," suburban airing schedule] and throughout the City of Chicago next Monday night at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV].

8th CD Republican Primary candidate Kathy Salvi [R-Mundelein] debates and discusses the issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz. Kathy is the wife of Al Salvi, a former State Rep. [1992-1996], U. S. Senate Republican Nominee [1996] and Secretary of State Republican Nominee [1998], but she emphasized that she is her "own Woman," and she has not always agreed with her husband on the public policy positions he has taken. Indeed, as Kathy Salvi discusses on the show, Kathy, still a practicing trial lawyer, was put in charge of teaching Al Salvi how to try cases when he was starting out in the law. And, from all accounts, she did a pretty good job.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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