It wouldn’t be an election without an October surprise, and sure enough, the 2010 cycle will not disappoint.  This time, it’s not some 11th hour accusation about unpaid taxes, illegal nannies or secret love affairs, but an appearance from the Mad Hatter of pollsters whose crazy talk in the final days of the election is making black sound like white and and Nancy Pelosi sound…sane. Well, almost.

Who is the Mad Hatter of the 2010 elections?  Friends, follow me on a trip down the rabbit hole…

Dave Schweikert (AZ 5), who I met while in AZ in August and really like, has been ahead consistently by six to eight points against Rep. Harry Mitchell through the first of September.

So I became quite concerned when two polls in October showed him down by seven!  A 15 point swing in 30 days!

This is particular bizarre since Arizona is ground zero for voter angst this cycle.  My uncle, a retired professor of labor law, has never voted for a Republican in his life.  This summer, he started a blog against Harry Mitchell.  And it is nasty.

What moved him to do so?  His daughter (my cousin) narrowly avoided two rounds of layoffs from a major pharma company, each accompanied by a letter citing “recent changes in health care policy.” His premiums have gone up 15%.  Both his kids are under water on their houses.

Polls are moved by news. What could be happening in Arizona to turn Schweikert’s race around and make people like my uncle abandon his blog and let bygones be bygones?

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In October, 2009, at an Illinois GOP Governor Candidate Debate, moderator Chris Robling opened the debate with the line, “The on-going concern of the State of Illinois is in question!”  He was right, and the primary reasons Illinois is such a mess is the Chicago Democratic Machine.  This engine of self-dealing, corruption, and greed was powerful enough to put forth one of its own get him elected president.

It’s ironic then, that this powerful machine is trembling in fear of Cedra Crenshaw, a conservative, middle class, African-American mother in Will County, Illinois!

Why is the machine afraid?  Because a new class of leadership is starting to develop.  These new leaders threaten to end the shell game of taxes, politics, and patronage. Cedra Crenshaw is one of those new leaders, and she’s is running for state senate against one of the Chicago Machine’s rubber-stamp apparatchiks.

She’s  an accountant who wants to spearhead a forensic audit of Illinois state government.  A former auditor at Deloitte and Touche, Cedra supports an audit of the half a trillion dollars of Democrat controlled state spending during the blow-off historic corruption of Blagojevich/Quinn.  The Democrat Machine- contractors, politicians, and patronage army- stand in naked fear of the result that such an audit would bring.

Such an audit would fumigate thousands of campaign cash-for-patronage hires in agencies, boards and commissions; rescind bloated, rigged bid or mis-awarded contracts; stop the stealing, waste, and legalized graft that do-nothing, ribbon-cutting pork hounds like Cedra’s opponent  -  Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi -  thrive on…at your expense.

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It all started in Chicago. Rick Santelli’s call to arms was broadcast from Chicago. The first Tea Party was last year on a cold day in February.  I heard you.  We need a new generation of leaders that will serve the people, not the political class.  My campaign for Governor started because I heard you and I still hear you.

The Tea Party movement is now a year old and what better place to celebrate the movement than in Chicago. We will be at the Dierksen Federal Building plaza at 2:30pm having a rally in honor of the movement and to celebrate all that we’ve accomplished.

I’m also bringing in someone who knows a little something about freedom and just a few decades ago he was fighting in Eastern Europe and Ronald Reagan stood at his side. Lech Walesa will be addressing the gathering to tell us about his struggles.

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