Progress Illinois

Today, the Herald News picked up on 13th District GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga's recent statement during a CAN-TV interview that: "There are very few people these days that have no health service at all. I don't care who you are, if you're sick or you get hurt, you go to the hospital and you get taken care of." Reporter Patrick Ferrell noted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's release yesterday hitting Ozinga for the "out of touch" remark and also got a response from the Republican's campaign:

In the rest of the cable access interview, Ozinga discusses health care with the host for about five minutes. The rest of his quotes are similar to the views on the health care issues page of his Web site.

Andy Sere, Ozinga's campaign manager, said the candidate's quote was taken out of context. He even brought up an example of a Halvorson quote from a downstate paper in December, which if taken our of context, appears to show she is casting doubt on health care being an issue.

Ozinga favors expanding healthcare accessibility, but not through government-run programs. Instead, he believes government should pave the way by providing such things as tax deductions for individual insurance and allowing insurance pools to cut costs for small businesses. Ozinga also supports negotiating with drug companies for cheaper drugs and importing prescriptions to shave costs, according to his Web site.

Ah, the old "out of context" defense.

While it's true that Ozinga said a lot more about health care than just those two sentences, the theme that arises from his broader comments is also quite disturbing. He focuses largely on shifting the insurance burden from the employer to the individual. He emphasizes that "individuals ought to be responsible for themselves and they ought to take the responsibility and realize that just because you're healthy today doesn't mean that next year, to some surprise, you might find yourself sick and in need of health care."

Anyway, watch the video below (the health care conversation starts around the 38:00 mark) and judge for yourself whether he was taken out of context.

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Today, the conservative Illinois Review urged readers to watch a recent CAN-TV interview (full video after the jump) with 11th District GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga, asserting: "[Y]ou'll be impressed and encouraged to learn more about this exceptional quality candidate." The interview is an hour long and the first 35 minutes or so are spent discussing Ozinga's concrete business and personal background. The final 20 minutes are devoted to policy matters. And Marty's comments on health care are ... pretty unimpressive.

For instance, here Ozinga minimizes the health care crisis in American by asserting that everyone has access to "health service" -- via emergency rooms:

FRANK AVILA (host): Now what can be done about all the uninsured people and the under-insured people?

OZINGA: 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.

Marty is clearly taking his cues from President Bush, who made this statement in July 2007:

"I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room."

So Ozinga -- like Bush -- thinks that access to emergency rooms represents adequate health care for the 47 million Americans without insurance? Has he checked out the state of our ERs lately?

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Marty Ozinga's image as a capable businessman has been at the forefront of his campaign for the open 11th Congressional District seat. "I am not a politician," the GOP candidate is quick to point out, highlighting his decades-long ownership of a concrete company with business in much of the Midwest. To hear him tell it, this background is exactly what qualifies him to hold elected office. For instance, here's a line from his campaign website:

As someone who has made payrolls and managed budgets---as a successful Illinois job-creator---Marty understands how our economy works and has the experience to help get us back on track.

But a review of Ozinga Bros.' tax history shows that Marty didn't quite "manage budgets" as well as he says he did. As the table below shows, Ozinga-owned companies were late on their Cook County tax payments at least 20 times between 2001 and 2004, leading the county to file numerous tax complaints in circuit court:

(Click here to view a table with links to the source documents.)

Cook County isn't the only government that had to force Ozinga to meet his financial responsibilities. Records obtained by Progress Illinois also show that, between 1990 and 2004, Ozinga Bros. was late on over $45,000 in state taxes in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, leading to legal action against them in each state.

This tax history is only the most recent news to arise about Marty's concrete operation that conflicts with his carefully constructed image as a responsible, community-oriented businessman. Former Ozinga associates have long alleged that he set up front companies to exploit city contracts set aside for minority-owned businesses. And more recently, five witnesses in Marshall County contradicted Ozinga's public statements about a land deal he entered into with family farmers there. That incident is part of an extended legal battle between Ozinga and a group of rural landholders.

The Tribune's David Mendell takes a closer look at the Supreme Court's decision yesterday striking down the so-called "millionaire's amendment" and discerns that it wouldn't have any real effect on federal races here in Illinois this election cycle:

The amendment might have been triggered in the U.S. Senate race, in which incumbent Democrat Dick Durbin is being challenged by Republican physician Steve Sauerberg. The GOP candidate has given his campaign $1 million of his own money, but Durbin has raised $7.5 million. And because the amendment is implemented under a sliding scale formula, Durbin’s healthy campaign fund might have kept the amendment from kicking in. It would have allowed him to raise more than $2,300 from individuals, the current federal limit.

In the 14th Congressional district, Republican Jim Oberweis and Democratic Rep. Bill Foster each have dropped more than a $1 million of personal wealth into their campaigns, making the amendment a wash.

What Mendell fails to mention, however, is Marty Ozinga's vow not to spend more than $350,000 of his own money on his GOP bid for the 11th District congressional seat. That's the amount that would have triggered the amendment, allowing his Democratic opponent, Debbie Halvorson, to accept larger individual contributions.

It'll be interesting to see whether the Supreme Court's decision ultimately changes his thinking on the matter.

UPDATE: The Tribune talks to the Ozinga campaign and they indicate that the SCOTUS decision isn't going to have much of an effect on Marty's initial statements about how much he'd be willing to spend:

Wealthy southwest suburban congressional candidate Martin Ozinga III no longer has to worry about triggering the millionaire's amendment after the Supreme Court tossed that provision out of federal campaign finance law earlier this week.

But don't expect him to open up the vault and go on a spending spree in his 11th Congressional District bid to replace retiring Republican Rep. Jerry Weller.

"He's not planning to spend a ton of money out of his pocket. The honest answer to that question is, he has not made a decision on how much exactly he is going to spend," said Andy Sere, Ozinga's campaign manager, on Friday.

That mostly tracks with what Ozinga said when he launched his campaign in the spring, even if it's not what the Illinois Republican Party honchos were hoping for.

While his congressional campaign team positions him as a well-intentioned man of the people, Republican Marty Ozinga's legal troubles seem to just keep growing.

Last Friday, Circuit Court Judge John Barra allowed two more plaintiffs to challenge a land deal between Ozinga Bros. Cement and the town of Henry, IL. As we've previously reported, the town entered into a contract with the company to develop a mine and a port on the Illinois River. Part of that deal included an agreement by the town to give Ozinga Bros. what amounted to sole access to the new port. Local farmers Raymond Kunkel and Bill Maupin are joining the previous plaintiff, Kenin Edwards, in challenging Henry over that provision. The plaintiffs believe the town doesn't have the right to give Ozinga port access, while shutting out small businessmen like themselves:

The city's agreement with Ozinga bars the movement of mined materials through the port unless they come from property annexed or under an annexation agreement [between Henry, and Ozinga Bros.] The lawsuit alleges those terms amount to an "unconstitutional taking" of such property by preventing its full economic potential.

We've repeatedly noted Ozinga Bros.' ongoing legal battles with Henry residents, which follow the company's attempts to buy local land for the purposes of mining and transporting gravel (used to make cement).

The trouble began when Ozinga Bros. filed a lawsuit against Kunkel, an 83-year-old family farmer, alleging that he had sold property optioned by the company. When asked to give a deposition on the matter, Marty Ozinga claimed to have never had any direct communication with Kunkel regarding the deal. But he was subsequently contradicted by five witnesses who all recounted how he met personally with the farmer. Ozinga then submitted to a deposition, but shifted his version of events during the interview. The information that came to light in the depositions of both Ozinga and his company's vice president also lead to accusations that the company misled the town of Henry with regards to its plans for the farmland it was buying.

Over the weekend, the Tribune offered a fairly helpful run-down of an issue that has left many Democrats scratching their heads in recent weeks -- the public disagreement between Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and State Sen. Debbie Halvorson over the proposed third airport in Chicago's south suburbs. While the article didn't delve deep into all the recent accusations, it did explain the basic disagreement:

Halvorson and Jackson agree a south suburban airport would be an economic engine for the region. But Jackson wants mayors from Cook, Will and Kankakee Counties to sit on an airport board. Halvorson trumpets "local control," shunning all Cook County representation.

More importantly, the Tribune reports on how Halvorson's GOP congressional opponent, Marty Ozinga, has been milking the intra-party spat: "trying to be all things to all sides":

[Ozinga] has seized on the conflict and appears to be trying to be all things to all sides. Ozinga said Friday he favors a revised version of Halvorson's airport plan and opposes Jackson's version, but also pushed Jackson's allegations about Rezko.

"When fellow Democrats are making serious allegations that Halvorson did Rezko's bidding, those allegations need to be taken seriously," Ozinga said.

Ozinga's fellow Republicans say they developed Halvorson's airport legislation, which is stalled in the House.

"I've spoken with [Ozinga's] office and basically outlined our process from June of '05 to the present, as I understand it, to make sure he's aware of how the legislation was developed," said Jim Roolf, who is a Republican and chairs the Will County Center for Economic Development business labor coalition.

Today 11th District congressional candidate Marty Ozinga will be working the pumps at a Gas City gas station in Mokena. Described as a "four hour shift" in a campaign press release, the event is intended to highlight his conservative approach to the energy crisis. While Ozinga places the blame for high fuel prices on "career politicians," his policy reads like it was written by the oil industry. To save you the trip to Mokena, here are some highlights from the Ozinga plan:

- Drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

- Drill the Outer-Continental Shelf

- Drill the Gulf of Mexico

- Drill "other U.S.-controlled areas"

Once we've run out of places to drill, Ozinga proposes we construct more oil refineries and expand the ones we have. Hey, you gotta do something with all that extra crude!

Then he wants to lift the Illinois state gas tax. If you recall, this is a ploy that has been tried by other "career politicians" to disastrous effect. Even many conservatives admit it would deliver meager savings to U.S. consumers and wreaks havoc on state finances. Indeed, Ozinga offers no proposal for how to offset the revenue generated by the tax, which is largely used to maintain the state's crumbling infrastructure. (It's also not clear how Ozinga plans to affect Illinois state policy from a federal post.)

But fear not. On the second page of the press release, the Republican candidate goes into what he calls his "second energy priority." That's right, alternative energy is a secondary priority for Ozinga. If you're in Mokena today and driving by the Gas City, you might want to swing through and ask him why.

Today, State Sen. Debbie Halvorson's congressional campaign released internal polling that bodes very well for her 11th District bid. According to the survey, conducted in May by Azalone-Liszt Research, she is 11 points ahead of her Republican rival, cement magnate Marty Ozinga. Here are some more details:

- Halvorson leads Martin Ozinga by a 43% to 32% margin, with Green Party candidate Jason Wallace at 6%.

- Halvorson still has excellent expansion potential. Among undecided voters (18%) Democrats lead the generic ballot 33% to 19%.

- In order to solidify and expand her support, Halvorson will need the resources to match Ozinga’s ability to self-fund his campaign. When voters hear basic information about both candidates, Halvorson’s vote expands seven points and she leads Ozinga 50% to 39%.

- Although this is a Republican-held seat, Democrats lead 42% to 36% on the generic ballot. Two-thirds (67%) of the district have no primary voting history with either party, and among these unaffiliated voters Democrats lead 44% to 33% on the generic ballot. Democrats also hold a 41% to 35% advantage in partisan self-identification.

A May 30 profile of 11th district congressional candidate Marty Ozinga in The Daily Journal devoted nearly 1,800 words to the candidate's religious affiliation. The article noted that he's of Dutch Calvinist stock and attends an interdenominational church. It classified him as a "Conservative Christian" and highlighted his business background and involvement with religious charities.

But at no point did the Journal discuss a single substantive policy matter. The profile didn't touch on Ozinga's apparent desire to weaken Illinois worker protections (something we covered here), or his positions on health care (anti-universal coverage), reproductive choice (against, of course), Iraq, or any other issue

Instead, the Journal crossed the line into breathless cheerleading by painting Ozinga's political aspirations as simply a noble extension of his Christian altruism.

Even Ozinga's involvement in the controversial "Metro Mix" cement company is portrayed as a "charitable work" that did not go "as planned." If you recall, some who worked with Ozinga in Metro Mix alleged it was an attempt to create a front company that could circumvent Chicago's minority-owned business quotas. You won't learn that from the Journal piece, however, which simply quoted Ozinga saying, "[W]e were probably too creative."

Likewise there is zero mention of Ozinga's current legal troubles involving a land deal in Marshall County,. As we've reported, Ozinga's sworn statements in the case have been contradicted by five witnesses.

Apparently, stories like these just didn't jive with the Journal's man-of-God narrative.

On Nov. 8, 2006, 11th District GOP congressional candidate Marty Ozinga and Barry Voorn, the vice president and chief legal counsel of his concrete company, attended a public hearing in the town of Henry, Illinois. The purpose of the meeting was to secure the town's approval for a gravel mine and river port that Ozinga Bros. Concrete Company hoped to construct in the small rural community. In the process of attempting to persuade the town to enter into a land incorporation and re-zoning agreement with the company, Voorn repeatedly asserted that they were interested in buying large swaths of county land only to provide "contiguity" between the Town of Henry and a proposed port and gravel mine. "I want to assure the board this evening that the petitions being considered tonight are not in any way any type of a disguised attempt to mine either the section 4 or the section 9 properties […] It's off the table," Voorn said, according to minutes of the meeting.

As Progress Illinois has previously reported, Ozinga Bros. Cement has become involved in a lengthy legal battle with residents in Marshall County over property rights to the proposed site. Initially, Ozinga claimed not to have ever met Raymond Kunkel, the 87-year-old owner of the land. Once witnesses came forward asserting that Ozinga was present at negotiations with Kunkel, a judge compelled him to give a deposition in the case. Then, during the deposition, Ozinga appeared to backtrack from his flat denial, instead saying that he "had no recollection" of meeting with Kunkel and the others.

But another troubling contradiction surfaced during Ozinga's deposition when he indicated that the company indeed had plans to mine the land in question.

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