Grace: A funny thing happened at the candidate forum
I was honored to be a panelist at the League of Women Voters forum Monday night at the Norris Center in St. Charles.
At the forum were candidates in the race for the Republican primaries in U.S. House District 14 (Ethan Hastert and Randy Hultgren), Illinois Senate District 25 (incumbent Chris Lauzen and Sean Michels) and Illinois House District 50 (incumbent Kay Hatcher, Bob McQuillen and Keith Wheeler).
What follows are my observations from the night – the good, the bad, the ugly and the quotes of the night.
The good:
• Unlike some past primaries, Hultgren and Hastert have been cordial to each other. Both candidates showed a solid knowledge of the issues and focused on attacking current Rep. Bill Foster – who, along with other Democratic representatives, should get used to being called a Pelosi liberal as if it were some sort of Linnaean classification – rather than each other. Did it make for a fascinating debate? Not really. But it was still nice to see.
• For a political newcomer, McQuillen and Wheeler both were surprisingly comfortable in front of a crowd, with McQuillen getting some of the biggest laughs of the night. (Yes, I know this is not the point of voter forums, but maybe he has a career in late night TV if he's not elected. I heard NBC might be hiring.) Overall, I thought all three candidates for the Illinois House seat did well in what might be a close race.
• Chris Lauzen presented himself in his usual professional manner. He and Hultgren have the most experience with these events and it showed. Lauzen gave clean, crisp answers the entire night, while I thought Sean Michels did a good job of answering the questions without adding unnecessary frills to his answers. (There is a limit to this, though. Short answers are fine, but one-sentence answers typically aren't good at candidate forums or on first dates. Remember that kids.)
The bad:
• I dislike it when candidates talk about people in races other than their own at forums. Lauzen's take on the Hastert/Hultgren race in his closing statements was in bad form in my mind. I think you should stick to you own race at forums. But maybe I'm just a fuddy duddy.
• McQuillen admitted that he did not know how many years a state representative served just three months ago. Ehh. Not sure I would admit that. I admire his honesty, but maybe that was something you keep to yourself.
• Hultgren has said before – and he repeated on Monday night – that 85 percent of people are pretty happy with their health insurance. While 85 percent of people have health insurance, I think it's a fairly outrageous leap to claim that all of these people are "pretty happy" with it. Whether you are for health care reform or not, talk to most people and you'll find they have some significant gripes about their health care insurance. I have no problem with a candidate not being for the current health care bill being proposed, but let's keep our current health care situation in the proper perspective.
The ugly (specifically body language):
• While most of the candidates looked at whoever was talking, Hastert looked almost-blankly forward every time Hultgren spoke. Maybe not the best idea. Also, this isn't a necessarily a bad thing, but listen to Hastert without looking at him and the inflections he uses sometimes sound much like President Obama's (or Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen's impression of Obama), especially as he closes out a sentence. I hadn't picked up on it before Monday night, but it's somewhat eerie.
• Michels could not have been leaning farther away from Lauzen after both candidates used their closing statements to attack each other. I was a little afraid he was going to fall off his chair.
Quotes of the night:
"It's like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders for dinner tonight." – Lauzen on state legislators voting for term limits.
"Also, I like the convertible because I like my hair blowing in the breeze." – McQuillen on the old convertible he drives around town. McQuillen, like all of us, has many things in his life. Hair is not one of them.
• Joe Grace is the editor of The Chronicle. Write to him at jgrace@kcchronicle or call 630-845-5368.
