But Why Mark Pera?
A big part of the time talking about IL-3 is spent bashing Dan Lipinski. And for good reason, but there’s another aspect that I’ve neglected and that is why I support Mark Pera.
I was somewhat skeptical of Pera run after the Sullivan race last time. John was a great, great guy, but just wasn’t able to put a campaign together. So when I was trying to organize the regional caucus for Yearly Kos I ended up e-mailing a ton of people and one was Pera and his early campaign advisors. He sounded like a nice guy and that’s not always a good sign. Also, there were rumors of a more establishment candidate who would have good access to fundraising and I’m not above choosing electability.
However, I got the chance to sit down and talk with him for a bit at Yearly Kos and I was very impressed. Mark was sitting down outside the main hall doing some reading before Pat Botterman took him around to chat with some folks. The first thing I noticed was how easy going he was. I sat down to chat with him and he was one of the most approachable candidates I’ve met. We comfortably talked about our families and jobs before even getting into the politics.
This kind of easiness is important when campaigning and being able to listen well is often the best characteristic of a good candidate. Too many Democrats launch into rants about policy or such without establishing that personal connection.
When we turned to politics, he pulled off what I consider an essential element of a good candidate–he was passionate, but not the angry guy shaking his fist. He talked about the stakeholders he had met with and the general frustration they had with Lipinski including pro-choice advocates, embryonic stem cell research advocates, immigration rights activists, anti-war activists, and civil liberty advocates.
Finally, he told me he took a leave from work to campaign full time. Challengers cannot run effective campaigns part time. There is simply too much work to do in raising name recognition and fundraising to make that work.
Checking into Mark’s background was interesting as well. He was a private attorney until 1996 when he ran for the State House losing by a few points to a Republican. Instead of going back to private practice he went to work for the State’s Attorney’s office which is like a reverse career pattern for most lawyers. If a lawyer is going to work in an SA office, they do it early and then either make that their career or move on to make more money in private practice. He didn’t and likely took a decent pay cut compared to his previous work.
And he worked on interesting cases working on public utilities and the environment. He took part in the closing of the incredibly dirty Premcor refinery and pointed out the folly of the reverse auction con in Illinois for electric utilities. The choice to work for the State’s Attorney office on such issues is an incredible testament to his commitment to the public.
There’s another aspect of his background that impressed me as well. He came from the are and worked his way up. He worked in the steel mills in East Chicago and Gary before college and largely worked his way through school. It’s quite a contrast to a guy who was handed his seat in Congress by his Dad.
It’s easy to want to beat Lipinski, but that doesn’t always mean you getting a great candidate–in this case we are.
Mark is progressive, committed to the race, and has incredibly life experiences that would make him a fantastic candidate to represent IL-3.
There’s a lot of talk that Lipinski is a placeholder for a few years until a young potential party guy is ready for the seat–this is the time to elect a guy who can work within the system, but who is also independent. Let’s take that opportunity and convert it.
October 25th, 2007 at
You can add my name to the chorus calling for Lapinski’s head.
But I’m unwilling to jump on the Mark Pera bandwagon when there is a better candidate out there.
Why is there no mention of the other Democrat in the race in here? Where is your research on Jerry Bennett?
Not only does he have substantially more experience than Pera on issues that directly relate to serving the district, he’s also extremely well known in large parts of the IL-3.
I can only assume that you have not taken the time to get to know all of the candidates, or have been convinced to advocate for one over the other. Because by all criteria – name ID, qualifications, even fundraising performance in his first few weeks, Jerry Bennett is already proving he is the Democrat to unseat Lapinski.
Jerry Bennett had my vote for Mayor. Now he’ll have my vote for Congress.
October 25th, 2007 at
Post on Jerry Bennett and I bet people would come out of the woodwork to tell you how right you are.
The guy is just great – talk to anyone who has had the good fortune of working with him either as Mayor of Palos Hills or as a small business owner and great family man. He’s raised three beautiful, smart daughters, has an amazing wife, runs a successful company, and maybe most importantly for this race has been the Mayor of our small town in the district for 27 years.
Jerry Bennett has made our town a thriving, progressive, amazing place to raise a family.
He’d be a better option than Dan Lapinski any day.
October 25th, 2007 at
Why is Mayor Bennett even running considering he endorsed Dan Lipinski?
Sure are a lot of concern trolls crawling all over this race…
October 25th, 2007 at
PS: Who’s “Lapinski”?
Odd that both “Melissa” and “IllinoisDem” spell his name wrong in exactly the same way.
October 25th, 2007 at
Bennett’s fundraising? You’ve got to be kidding! At the end of Q3 Bennett had raised $54K — $25K of which came from himself. Mark Pera had $180K CASH ON HAND. Bennett might be a great guy, but where has he been for the last six months? The election is in 100 DAYS! When is he planning to actually start his campaign? No real candidate would just be getting started NOW.
Plus check this out:
http://www.jerrybennettforcongress.com/issues.htm
Apparently Bennett’s only “issue” is this:
“This information will be posted soon. Please check back within the next few days.”
Ha!
October 25th, 2007 at
[...] Arch also had a detailed write-up earlier today about his positive encounter with Mark Pera a few weeks back in Chicago. In it, Arch describes why he thinks voters in the 3rd shouldn’t just vote against annointed son Dan Lipinski but should actually vote for Mark Pera. [...]
October 25th, 2007 at
expanding on Bennett: If you go to Lipinski’s [website http://www.danlipinskiforcongress.com/index.htm you will find the following quotes by Bennett.
As Pera asked in a recent news article, why wasn’t Bennett on the phone months ago demanding that the endorsement be taken down?
Then in his campaign kickoff Bennett says:
So what earth shaking event has brought about this change of heart by Bennett since 2006?
Given the political traditions in this district and Cook County, Bennett is going to have to do better than that to convince me he’s legit.
October 26th, 2007 at
All we need is Mike Joyce and it’d be like a reunion.
November 6th, 2007 at
To all of the very naive poster referring to the Lipinski web site. Do you think that if Bennett was not the real challenger in this race Lipinski would have this quote on his site???? What experience does Pera have? He is a lawyer, and this makes him qualified!!!! I think not. His views are so far left that they will have to expand the page! I have lived in this district all of my life and this will not fly. You have the far left with Pera and as far right as you can get with the Lip. Who is in the middle and has a proven record Jerry Bennett.
November 6th, 2007 at
==His views are so far left that they will have to expand the page!
What view of his is ‘far left?’