Gay Activist George Gollin Trounced In Primary

[Herbert Spencer]

Callis Disses Gollin

After gay activist George Gollin stalked her at her headquarters, lied about her willingness to debate, and even lied about her political positions in TV ads--positions she had stated while he was sitting right next to her--it's no surprise that Ann Callis dissed Gollin when he tried to make a post-election concession phone call.

She probably thought he was going to ask her what she was wearing and then breathe heavily into the phone like a pervert. Her public statement was that she was speaking to her active duty military son on a secure line. Or in other words, she had something better to do than talk to a stupid loser asshole like Gollin.

Okay, no big deal, sometimes these things happen. Probably not the first time a degenerate running for office pissed off a more or less normal person with vile, underhanded campaign tactics.

What was Gollin going to say if he could have talked to her? Here's where the Gollin clown car starts unloading again. Oh, just an amusing little anecdote about torture and crucifixion. If she didn't already think he was a dangerous nutcase before the call she certainly would have after.

And how about this Thomas "Chip" White reference by Callis: "Oh, we'll have coffee someday." Remember, Chip's coffee is "specifically optimized" for cleansing regimens. Just the thing to chase away those post-election blues. Come on Georgie, you know you want it!

Tom Kacich: Dem rivals in 13th tilt finish on sour note
Wed, 03/26/2014 - 7:00am | Tom Kacich


The somewhat testy relationship between Democrats Ann Callis and George Gollin, who were opponents in last week's 13th Congressional District primary election, continued well after the election campaign and even into election night, according to Gollin and his chief campaign strategist, Walter Ludwig, of Indigo Strategies of Washington, D.C.

"It started when George called to concede and to wish (Callis) well (on election night), and she refused to take the call," said Ludwig, managing partner of the firm that was the general consultant for the Gollin campaign. "In my many years of working politics, I've never heard that before, never happened before. It was pretty dumbfounding on election night, that's for sure. That's just not how it's done."

Gollin said Callis finally called him back Saturday morning, four days after the election, and they spoke for about "a minute and a half."

"It was quite civil," he said. He said Callis told him she had been busy talking to supporters and later was committed to talking to her son, who is overseas in the military, and they had to reserve a secure line.

Gollin said he didn't have expectations for a thorough review of the campaign in the phone call, which is a formality of election night politics.

"I had thought, what do I want the conversation to be like? Just have a little bit of closure and have a friendly conversation and just be done with it," Gollin said.

He decided he would tell Callis about a call he made to a potential donor who said that not only did he support capital punishment but also torture and even crucifixion for some crimes, including financial fraud.

"I thought we could talk about some little thing and then we'd be done," he said. "But she didn't really engage. She listened but didn't have her own friendly little thing to talk about."

Gollin, a physics professor at the University of Illinois, said he offered Callis his help "on matters of higher ed or science policy."

She said, "'Oh, we'll have coffee someday,' and that was it."

Gollin said he wondered what he would have done "if things had gone the other way" and he had won the Democratic primary (he ended up with 31.3 percent in the three-way race).

"I would have spoken to her Tuesday night as soon as she had called, and I would have tried to offer some consolation and tell her, this is politics and though things got a little combative at some point, I would have tried to smooth things out and not do things that would have been personally injurious to her," he said. "But that's not just something she chose to do."

On the other hand, Gollin said, two days after the election he met Rodney Davis, the incumbent congressman and victor in the three-way Republican primary in the 13th District.

"I disagree with many of his policies, but he came in to offer his consolation and sympathy and to wish me well," Gollin said. "It felt very sincere, and I thought it was very gracious of him."

Asked for comment on Gollin's and Ludwig's remarks, Callis campaign manager Marshall Cohen issued the following statement:

"I want to thank Dr. Gollin for his support. We connected by phone over the weekend, and I valued our conversation and his offer to help. It is important we come together as Democrats, and I appreciate he mentioned that in his remarks last week. There are serious differences between our vision and Rodney Davis' vision. This election is about how Congressman Davis has spent his first term siding with the special interests and how I bring a new approach to Washington that focuses on results for middle-class families in Illinois."

Gollin, in the wake of his defeat in his first-ever political campaign, said he was generally pleased with the eight-month-long effort and was grateful for the work done by his campaign staff and volunteers.

"I liked very much that I learned lots about some of the fine points of policy and that I understand many things better than what I did before," he said. "What I would have liked to do differently, I thought we needed to work really hard to get students on the campuses registered to vote and then turned out to vote."

But campaign strategists dissuaded him, telling him it's a "resource-intensive thing to do." "I would have liked us to work that aspect of the campaign hard, but that just wasn't executed," he said.

In fact, voter turnout in University of Illinois campus precincts was poor, as it usually is in nonpresidential elections. Some precincts turned out only 1 percent or 2 percent of the registered voters.

Some of the results were baffling, Golln said, such as in Macoupin County, where he finished third behind Callis and David Green, also of Champaign.

"That doesn't make any sense to me because I was really campaigning, and David wasn't," Gollin said. "I don't really have an explanation for that."

He said he expected Green to get 3 percent to 4 percent of the vote in the 13th District, but that he ended up with 14 percent. . . .

Gollin can't figure out why Green got 14% of the vote spending no money, even finishing second in Macoupin County. There's that giant physics genius intellect at work again. Gollin, you dumbass, the reason is that even wild-eyed radical nutjobs recognize Green as sincere and committed to his positions. You, on the other hand, they immediately recognized as a poseur committed to no one but himself, a Johnny-come-lately who thought he could buy their votes with outright lies and bullshit.