March 2006

Good Advice

ArchPundit March 23, 2006 3 Comments

Lynn Sweet offers up some advice to the Duckworth camp and all of it would be a good start

Here’s what needs to happen, and it’s more than having all of the Democrats show up at Saturday’s DuPage Dems post-primary breakfast in Oakbrook Terrace.

*Cegelis, even if she turns it down, needs to be asked to be part of the Duckworth operation.

*Emanuel, whose presence in the race touched a raw nerve among Cegelis supporters, needs to reach out to them. Durbin and Obama also ought to be mending fences.

*And there is one person who really could help. That’s Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. It was his people-powered, grass-roots, Internet-based, anti-war 2004 presidential campaign that gave birth to the movement that yielded Cegelis 40.4 percent of the vote.

Lindy is left out, but I think he should be included as well.

More than all of this is the very real problem that voter intensity is in the toilet and needs to be improved. Despite three good candidates, turnout was down. Voter intensity was the reason 1994 happened–Republicans were very intense, Democrats were not. Right now, at least in the 6th, voter intensity isn’t there despite all the time and effort spent there by the three candidates.

It isn’t just mending fences that needs to happen, but a strong and fast analysis of why Democratic leaning voters are not engaged.

Uncategorized

Fritchey on Potential Stroger Replacements

ArchPundit March 23, 2006 1 Comment

He brings up some interesting ideas. Emil Jones being one–and it doesn’t risk mixing up the state ticket and might have some personal appeal to Jones.

My one concern is the President Jones has done a hell of a lot better job than I think anyone thought he would when he became minority leader–perhaps better than Jones himself. He’s a real asset down there, though I do think the Senate bench is deep enough to find a reasonable replacement.

The other choice is the one I keep hearing and that being Jesse White. I think Democrats need to think through this pretty hard–Jesse will beat Rutherford, but putting a less beloved candidate in there could be a problem–Dan is a very good candidate. I like him generally, though Fritchey’s idea of Dan Hynes stepping into that race would be something that I could easily get behind.

I also like the idea of Clayborne stepping in for Hynes—downstate, non-white guy hits some key demographics and Pankau isn’t a strong candidate so someone stepping in wouldn’t face having to gear up extremely fast.

I think the Speaker is correct about needing a downstater on the ticket, but clearly Mangieri wasn’t the particular downstater needed.

Uncategorized

All That Effort

ArchPundit March 23, 2006 No Comments

And 4000 fewer people showed up in the Democratic Primary in the 6th District than in 2004.

36158 votes in 2004
~31996 votes in 2006

It’s about 20% up from 2002 (the first year of these boundaries. Even given the Barack effect for 2004, the District is still remarkably lacking in infrastructure—this isn’t a slam especially since I know Rick, Hiram and others who have worked so hard, but despite one candidate doing essentially 3 years of organizing, one reaching out to new primary voters, and one spending $700,000 in the primary, not many people showed up.

Roskam has virtually identical numbers to 2004, but that is down from 2002 when Republicans produced 66,000 votes to the 50,000 votes this year and in 2004.

Uncategorized

Don’t Bring Back the Chads

ArchPundit March 23, 2006 3 Comments

Okay, I was wrong about the whole late night thing, but I assumed that the problems were only with getting people to vote, not with collecting the votes. What is strange about the problem is that collecting everything should be even easier than ever—collecting cards is easier than collecting boxes from all of the precincts.

But don’t even think about bringing back Votamatics

Punch Cards are outdated technology–don’t believe me–how many out there have ever used a card for computer programming? Yeah, and we were still using them for counting votes. They disenfranchised poor voters at higher rates than any of the newer technology and were just as vulnerable to tampering.

I’m pretty confident David Orr will get this right by the General Election, but not so much with the City where election judges weren’t even given video training. Hands on training should be mandatory, but that also means those out there should sign up to be judges.

Personally, I’m on the Citizen Audit Panel in Saint Louis City. So I’ll report back on how their first election goes (it’s a muni election so it’ll be a good test.

Illinois Congressional Races

Change Progressive to FTN and Oberweis to Scheuer

ArchPundit March 22, 2006 11 Comments

Hot build a successful party

Christine Cegelis vs. Democratic Party Machine

By Bill Scheurer

To all my friends who supported Christine Cegelis in the Illinois 6th Congressional District primary race — my heart goes out to you and your candidate. You carried out a great grassroots campaign — both, locally and nationwide. You brought out our best. Unfortunately, our best was not enough.

In a mere three months, the D.C. Dems — with the full party apparatus — brought in nearly a million dollars, and all their big names, to beat back what Christine and her supporters had built up over three years: a true grassroots, progressive force. The D.C. Dems? worst nightmare. Or, more accurately, their second worst nightmare.

What do the D.C. Dems fear more than a grassroots progressive primary challenge? A grassroots progressive challenge in the general election. The only thing that can put at risk what they value most — winning, no matter what.

This is the only way progressives will have real power — when we are willing to go outside the party, no matter what, to carry our issues and choices to the people. Only when the Democratic Party elite can no longer count on us to fall in line behind their handpicked candidates as ?the only game in town? (?the lesser of two evils?), will we ever seize real power to move forward the progressive agenda.

Progressive Democrats of America was one of the groups that most valiantly supported the Cegelis campaign. PDA professes to have an ?inside/outside? strategy. Their support for Christine reflected the ?inside? part of this strategy. Now, I ask PDA — is there really an ?outside? part of this strategy — or, is this just a phrase?

Democracy for America also supported Cegelis, to their great credit. Now that the D.C. Dems have showed clearly what they really think of progressives — eat at the children?s table, kids — we must decide what to do about it. Will groups like PDA and DFA remain quasi-auxiliaries of the Democratic Party — running sideshow campaigns in the primary elections? Or, will they become a real force — holding real chips in the game?

It is time for supporters of social progress and peace to eat at the adults? table. The only way to do this, is to start running progressive candidates in the general elections.

Bill Scheurer edits The PeaceMajority Report, and is an independent progressive candidate for U.S. Congress in the Illinois 8th District.

2006 Governor's Race

The Other Guy You’ll be Hearing about A Lot in Political Circles That You’d Never Heard of Before

ArchPundit March 22, 2006 3 Comments

Randall Stufflebeam, seeking to be on the ballot for the Constitution Party of Illinois

He even has an FAQ should Topinka be nominated:

I could only hope and pray that the Republican Party would select Judy Baar-Topinka. With her liberal leanings, her nomination would almost assure me of a victory. However, if the poll that was taken on the ?Illinois Leader? website is any indication, the likelihood of her being nominated is not all that great. However, as the ?Illinois Leader? is more reflective of the ?Conservative? Republican, this would not necessarily account for the more moderate republican who may think a more liberal republican would have a greater chance to win.

Randall isn’t going to be Governor, but that’s not the point really.

2006 Governor's Race

The Logistics of Getting on the Ballot Now

ArchPundit March 22, 2006 No Comments

“New Parties” Must submit petitions gathered between March 28th and June 26th (Last day to file) to get on the ballot. If Meeks were to attempt a run, he’d have to gather about 25,000 signatures plus extras to avoid challenges. He can do that and do it relatively easily, but my guess is he’s willing to bargain–the question being will Rod be willing to negotiate enough to satisfy him–are there ways to make Meeks happy if not.

The real question though is whether Meeks is really going to only hurt Blagojevich. Given Meeks is to the right of both on social issues, does he take a huge chunk of religious voters as a minister? Or does it only come from African-Americans?

Does splintering the vote lead to more people getting in? Oh, the irony if Roeser were to back some clown.

Illinois Congressional Races

Bill Scheuer’s Fans

ArchPundit March 22, 2006 No Comments

Bill is being promoted by the NRCC

You can disagree with Bean on many issues, but if you think David McSweeney would be an improvement, you are kidding yourself. Bean is in a 56% Bush District. You aren’t going to elect Jan Schakowsky there.

ICFST