It was late last night, and not being part of the intended audience (GOP primary voters), I discounted the Alan Keyes carpetbagger effect in Jim Oberweis’ “I’m from Illinois!” message (Oberweis came in second in the Republican Senate primary to Jack Ryan, but was passed over by the out-of-state/out-of-mind Keyes as a Ryan replacement against Democrat Barack Obama). That said, when you have the baggage that Oberweis brings to the gubernatorial race, message refinement seems in order (unless you are focused on getting the anti-immigrant vote). I’ll have more thoughts on Oberweis communication later (in this post - I’ll edit it) when I have time.
[It’s been awhile - but here is some additional thought on this topic]
Oberweis could have tried something upbeat (with exclamation point) or more moderately heart felt (without exclamation point) like:
“I live in Illinois and love it!”
Or, he could have gone for the more somber and thoughtful:
“Understanding Illinois by living there”
“I know Illinois because I live there”
Or, Oberweis could have gone with a theme of pride:
“Proud to live in Illinois”
Whatever Illinois Republican candidate Jim Oberweis’ catch phrase ended up as - it should have avoided the possibility people would read it as nativist and anti-immigrant - unless that’s what he intended.
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