Mike Kelleher Will Not Be Running For the US Senate

In one of two stories today that required some (well, not much) actual reporting, Mike Kelleher confirms that he will not be running for the Illinois Democratic nomination to the US Senate in 2004. While he had not been listed as one of the likely candidates in most places, I had heard persistent rumors and so I asked him.

Kelleher, for those who are not familiar with him, ran a spirited race in the 15th Congressional District in 2000 coming within six points of Republican Tim Johnson who won the open seat vacated by Tom Ewing. While losing a race might not seem like a resume builder, Kelleher ran in what has traditionally been one of the most conservative Congressional Districts in Illinois and actually won McLean County–an amazing feat for Democrat. He then ran with Rod Blagojevich for Lieutenant Governor, but was swamped with Pat Quinn’s name recognition in the primary.

Initially, Kelleher was considering a run in 2002 against Johnson, but he was redistricted into Jerry Weller’s 11th Congressional District which was far less friendly than the 15th. To do this, Bloomington-Normal was split in two right down the middle leaving Kelleher in the 11th by a few blocks.

Johnson is, ummmm…let’s say a character. I’ll leave the fuller explanation for a time when he has done something really dumb. Certainly that is part of the reason Kelleher was able to do so well, as is the changing nature of McLean County. An interesting map I came across indicates McLean has the lowest percentage of individuals without High School Diplomas. With this base, he may have been an early benficiary of the argument made in The Emerging Democratic Majority.

With the crowded field the Senate race would have been a very tough one for Kelleher given the nature of the candidates already in the field. Hull has millions, Hynes has organization and name recognition, Pappas has Name ID, and Obama has organization. Oh, and this Simmons character has millions.

UP DATE: First, the link to the map doesn’t work. However, the two maps are present at the end of the link showing the rate of those with high school education over age 25 and the rate of those without a high school education. Champaign and McLean both have very high rates of high school education and very low rates of those without a high school degree. In a completely inside joke–Fred Walk taught me better.

Second, I indicated that Mike Kelleher was redistricted out of the 15th by a few blocks. I made the mistake of going by memory and was wrong. He was redistricted into the 11th by 1/2 block. He was quoted in the Tribune as saying, "If I go to the end of my driveway, I can through a baseball into the 15th district." I’ll cover the redistricting shenanigans in a later post, but he was not the only one who received such treatment. Luis Gutierrez’s primary opponent in the 2000 election was similarly excluded from Gutierrez’s new district.