Dupage Policy Journal – October 12, 2019
As a 6th Congressional District candidate vying in the Republican primary for the right to face Democratic incumbent Sean Casten (D-Downers Grove), Jay Kinzler (R-Glen Ellyn) wants to see the race remain about the issues.
“The reason I’m running is I’d like to get to Washington and put an end to all this back-and-forth acrimony and bickering and get to the work of the people,” Kinzler, a surgeon, told the DuPage Policy Journal. “I think Republicans and Democrats need to realize we’re here as public servants and not to try to forward our own personal agendas, enrich ourselves and grandstand.”
The debate over what should be acceptable when it comes to campaign politicking has taken on a renewed sense of urgency in light of former state representative Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), also a 6th Congressional District Republican primary challenger, alleging that the campaign of fellow candidate Evelyn Sanguinetti supported and bankrolled a so-called “push poll” in an attempt to paint Ives in a negative light. The poll allegedly highlighted claims that Ives stands as the “favorite Republican” of longtime Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago).
Ives laments that the act essentially amounts to a repeat performance for Sanguinetti, as she was on the ticket with then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner back in 2018 when he and Ives faced off in the GOP primary and he resorted to similar tactics. Push polls are defined as ones where negative information is provided about the candidate not favored by the group paying for the survey just before the person being surveyed is asked which candidate they prefer.
“I don’t believe in dirty politics,” Kinzler said. “I think our constituents want more than that. I would hope, just as I’ve done in my medical practice, we’d work as a team. I’ve told people if we ran our hospitals the way they run Washington, most of our patients probably wouldn’t survive. The Republican Party has had a lot of infighting, especially at the governor’s level with Rauner and Jeanne Ives, and I look at this congressional race as kind of Round 2 of the battle as they’re going to pick up where they left off.”
Reports are that the Ives poll included at least three push-poll questions directly comparing the two candidates with such assertions as Sanguinetti “spent 10 years fighting Mike Madigan” while Ives is his “favorite Republican,” among them. The poll also made mention of Sanguinetti’s background as a first-generation American whose family fled Castro’s Cuba and how she “opposes AOC (Sen. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez) and the Squad.”
Just over a year remains before voters go to the polls for primary voting, where Kinzler, Ives and Sanguinetti are all slated to face off for the right to battle Casten in the general election in November 2020.
Paid for by the Kinzler for Congress Committee. Dr. Gordon (Jay) Kinzler is an Army Reserve Colonel. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by Dept. of Army or Dept. of Defense. © 2020 Kinzler for Congress. All rights reserved.