Progress Illinois

This entry was originally posted on August 12 at 11:28pm.

Last Friday, we learned that State Sen. and Democratic congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson's stepson, Jay Bush, was seriously injured while serving in Afghanistan.  According to an account in the State-Journal Register today, Bush "had been riding in a truck that came under fire at night ... Ordered to evacuate, Bush jumped out of the side of the truck. He did not realize the vehicle was parked on a bridge, so he fell 25 feet, landing on rocks."  The Register also reported that Halvorson and her husband were visiting Bush at Walter Reed Hospital in D.C., where he was flown over the weekend.  Before heading East, Halvorson said that Bush had "broke his back, and they think his neck."

If you're the GOP candidate in the 11th District race, common sense should instruct you to lay off your opponent until she's gotten through this ordeal.

Well, think again.  At least if you're Marty Ozinga.  

That's right.  While Halvorson is in Washington dealing with a family emergency, the Ozinga campaign has apparently put out a robocall attacking her.  We have it on good authority from a contact in the field that the call hit district residents' phones earlier today.

Pretty despicable when you think about it.  Especially from a guy who claims he "not a politician." To the contrary, it looks like politics are foremost in his mind.

But we already had an inkling that Ozinga lacks a certain ... decency. 

For instance, there were his now-infamous comments downplaying the health care crisis in this country: "There are very few people nowadays that have no health service at all. Almost anybody -- I don't care who you are -- you go to the hospital and you get taken care of."  Southtown Star columnist Kristen McQueary responded: "I hate to break it to him, but our fellow man is dying on the floors of emergency rooms and getting dumped at homeless shelters by overwhelmed hospital staff"

Then there's his suggestion that injured Illinois laborers don't "hurry to get back to work" because the worker's compensation policies here are so generous.  Meanwhile, Ozinga complimented Indiana's system, which the head of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission characterized as unfair and inhumane.

There's also the 2005 Tribune investigation suggesting that Ozinga's concrete company exploited a City of Chicago affirmative-action program to win lucrative contracts set aside for minority business owners.  Shortly after launching his congressional bid, Ozinga said he was "proud" of those efforts.

Finally, there are Ozinga's questionable business dealings in Henry, IL, where he sued 83-year-old family farmer Raymond Kunkel over a 190-acre plot of land.  Ozinga's account of negotiations regarding the land were contradicted by five other individuals, leading him to shift his "recollection."

We're trying to get our hands on audio of the call and will post it when we do.

UPDATE: Here's the audio of the robocall, recorded off an answering machine:

Internal mp3

To be clear, this call went out to 11th District residents on August 12.

UPDATE 2: VoteVets.org responds.

UPDATE 3: Ozinga camp originally said it would suspend attacks on Halvorson.