Lisa Madigan for Attorney General – “Talks”

State Senator Lisa Madigan needed to create an ideological wedge in Chicago against opponent Joe Birkett to win her race for Attorney General. If voters in Chicago and its suburbs were convinced that Joe Birkett was out of step with their views on key issues like the right to choose and gun control, Madigan could achieve the margins she needed in northern Illinois to overcome Birkett’s margins outstate. “Talk” was one of a pair of mailings on gun control to 320,000 likely voters that helped make Joe Birkett unacceptable to key urban and suburban voters. While Birkett himself tried to hide his positions on gun control, the money trail from anti-gun control groups was unmistakable. On Election Day, Lisa Madigan won 63% of the vote in Cook County on her way to squeaking out 50.4% of the vote to Joe Birkett’s 47% statewide.