Ozinga Chief Unable To Overcome Democrats’ Smear Apparatus In Congressional Race

In his first bid for public office, Chicago ready mixed producer Martin Ozinga III came up short on Election Day 2008 against an opponent entrenched in

CP STAFF

In his first bid for public office, Chicago ready mixed producer Martin Ozinga III came up short on Election Day 2008 against an opponent entrenched in the Illinois Democratic Party and financially emboldened by the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The Republican candidate for the Illinois 11th Congressional District, Ozinga garnered 34 percent of the vote against 58 percent for Debbie Halvorson, Illinois Senate majority leader.

The 11th District spans south suburban Chicago and farming communities south and west. Its seat was opened by the retirement of seven-term GOP Rep. Jerry Weller, and became a key target in the DCCC’s Red to Blue program. Halvorson appears to have benefitted much from a DCCC-funded television ad campaign portraying Ozinga as a concrete millionaire and using an animated, conspicuously blue mixer truck. The latter effect mocked the signature red and white strip mixers Ozinga Bros. runs throughout its 30 northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana ready mixed operations.