Illinois Congressional Races

Rahm Leading the Charge on Iraq?

ArchPundit September 7, 2007 No Comments

Democratic Leadership is failing miserably on Iraq.  Rahm appears to finally, and fully get the problem:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/dWdIT-86exE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

If he feels this way, he has the leverage to push.

Mr. Speaker, the previous days have offered a series of reports on conditions in Iraq.

And these reports have been consistent: Iraq remains dangerous and unstable, and political progress is virtually non-existent.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The President’s escalation was supposed to give the Iraqi government and the ethnic groups the room they needed to make political progress. That progress simply has not happened.

So now, after four and a half years, billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and countless new slogans, the Bush Administration is just giving us the status quo light.

Instead of a new strategy for Iraq, the Bush Administration is cherry-picking the data to support their political objectives and preparing a report that will offer another defense of the President’s strategy.

We don’t need a report that wins the Nobel Prize for creative statistics or the Pulitzer for fiction. Americans are demanding the facts, an end to this open-ended commitment, a surge on the political and diplomatic front. In short, the American people want a new direction in Iraq.

Things That Make You Want to Hit Your Head on the Wall

ArchPundit September 7, 2007 No Comments

Jerry Weller story in the Trib:

Uneasy fit within GOP caucus

Weller’s emergence as a real estate developer near the booming beach resort just north of the Costa Rican border is another step in the political and personal migration by the one-time University of Illinois agriculture major who grew up on a hog farm.

Elected to Congress as part of the Republican landslide in 1994, Weller has been an uneasy fit within the Republican caucus. He has lost numerous intraparty races for leadership posts, and has never achieved the high profile he hoped for when he arrived in Washington.

Increasingly, Weller has focused on international issues, notably in Latin America, a region that has come to dominate his personal life and his private business dealings.

In January 2002, Weller made his first government-paid trip to the region, including a stop in Nicaragua to attend the inauguration of newly elected President Enrique Bolanos. In November 2004, Weller married Zury Rios Sosa, a member of the Guatemalan Congress and the daughter of Efrain Rios Montt, a general who ruled Guatemala in 1982-83, at the height of a brutal, nearly four-decade civil war during which an estimated 200,000 people were killed.

Between 2003 and 2006, Weller served on the Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the International Relations Committee and quietly made himself into a go-to guy for interests seeking a conservative advocate on Latin American issues in the Republican-controlled House.

Cass Ballenger, a retired North Carolina Republican representative, claimed credit in a recent interview for helping to guide Weller’s career.

Ballenger, who headed the Western Hemisphere panel, said he told Weller, “If you want to get on some codels [taxpayer-funded overseas congressional travel] you ought to get on this committee. It’s something legal where you can live like a king.”

Congress Daily on IL-14

ArchPundit September 7, 2007 No Comments

From National Journal’s Congress Daily

With President Bush taking 55 percent of the vote in the district in 2004, it’s not the most vulnerable Republican seat in the state –the district of GOP Rep. Mark Kirk owns that distinction. It’s not eventhe one with the fairest playing field, which falls to the district of GOP Rep. Jerry Weller. But the goings-on in Hastert’s 14th District will tell us how seriously we should take Democratic pickoff attempts in more-Republican leaning districts, like that of GOP Rep. Don Manzullo or the open contest for LaHood’s seat.

For Democrats, winning a seat like Hastert’s isn’t a pie-in-the-sky proposition. First, the district represents suburban Chicago, and any northern suburban seat — especially an open one — should warrant attention.

But second, according to the Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voter Index, the district has the same presidential performance as that of Reps. Dan Boren, D-Okla., Charlie Melancon, D-La., and Dennis Moore, D-Kan. All three sit in pretty rocky territory, but have managed to hold on for a couple of election cycles. So it’s possible for Democrats totake Hastert’s seat, but it will be an uphill climb.

Three Democrats are vying for the nomination: 2006 nominee John Laesch, attorney Jotham Stein and scientist and businessman Bill Foster. Laesch spent nearly $300,000 in 2006 in an effort to defeat Hastert, but took only 40 percent of the vote. For this contest, Stein has raised $73,000 and Laesch only $13,000.

So far, Foster has been fundraising and acting like a frontrunner. He has raised more than $130,000 and some Democrats believe Foster’s background as a scientist will help in an environment that is looking for change.

Until 2006, Foster worked as a scientist for Fermilab, a Batavia company that employs nearly 2,500 people. The company is well-known throughout the district, and campaign manager Tom Bowen said it gives Foster a base of support he normally would lack since he hasn’t been on the ballot before.  Foster plans to spend $1 million in the primary, and he appears to hold a strong position heading into that contest.

The reason panic is setting in with activists and party regulars in Districts like these is that the scope of the problems on messaging are starting to hit home.  The war and the President are only supported by about 30 percent of the public so even in a +5 Republican District such as this (IL-8 is more Republican), the sentiment against the war is strong and the Republican primaries are virtually guaranteeing a candidate who supports Bush’s policies or thinks they are too liberal.

That’s why many Republicans are starting to refer to 1974, the post-Watergate election that resulted in huge losses for Republicans.
Read More

Grassroots Democracy Conference: Mobilizing Volunteers and Voters in 2008

ArchPundit September 7, 2007 No Comments

Dan Seals will be introducing Senator Dick Durbin this Saturday, Sept. 8th at the Grassroots Democracy Conference at 10:00 a.m. Please call 847-998-1002 to register by Friday at 10:00 a.m.    Cost is $12 per person to cover lunch.

Grassroots Democracy Conference: 

Mobilizing Volunteers and Voters in 2008

Saturday, September 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Chevy Chase Country Club, 1000 N. Milwaukee Ave in Wheeling

(near Lake Cook Rd. )

Freedom Watch Radio Ad

ArchPundit September 7, 2007 No Comments

Listen Here (MP3)

It has to suck for Mark Kirk to have your own Whitehouse running ads to keep you in line.

Pera on Firedoglake This Saturday

ArchPundit September 6, 2007 No Comments

Pera, candidate for IL-03, to join Firedoglake readers in online discussion

Mark Pera, the Democratic challenger in Illinois’ 3rd U.S. Congressional District, will be the featured guest during an online chat beginning at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday, Sept. 8 with progressive activist Howie Klein.

Pera is battling for the Congressional seat held by incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, a so-called “Bush Dog Democrat,” who has voted in lockstep with the Bush Administration on issues such as reproductive rights, stem cell research, the Iraq war and the environment.

The Illinois Democratic Primary is scheduled for Feb. 5.
Pera, of suburban Chicago, is an assistant Cook County state’s attorney. During his time with the State’s Attorney’s office, he has prosecuted cases against major industrial polluters in the Chicago area. He is also a school board president, a husband and a father of four.

Klein, who will host the chat, has been honored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California for his work in the area of free speech. Klein also writes the political blog “Down With Tyranny!” The chat will be take place live at www.firedoglake.com.

To participate, just click onto www.firedoglake.com at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 8, click on the link and submit your question or comment to Mark Pera.

Pera said he hopes interested voters will take time to hear from the right kind of Democrat.

“We’re committed to reversing the damage done by the Bush Administration and the more complacent members of Congress. I’m happy to have this opportunity to discuss my platform and field your questions. It’s an honor to be asked to participate,” Pera said.

Lipinski has been called the “accidental Congressman” for the way his father’s political machinations allowed him to sidestep the 2004 Democratic Primary. After winning the primary former U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski retired and his son was selected as his replacement. Lipinski won the 2004 General Election in the traditionally Democratic-leaning district.

For more information on Mark Pera, please visit www.PERA08.com or call (847) 687-7579.

Time for Dan Lipinski to Go Back To Academia

ArchPundit September 5, 2007 23 Comments

Dan Lipinski, Congressman IL-3

He’s supposedly a Democrat, but he certainly fails the small D definition when he originally got the position by his father putting a fake candidate, Ryan Chlada, into the Republican nomination and then after the elder Lipinski was renominated, he bowed out and had his son placed on the ballot to replace him.

Chlada was a Cicero town employee and ran a bar. And didn’t like the spotlight very much. He was even found by Fox Chicago for this newscast:

Download link (slow–working on improving it)

Lipinski went to Congress despite never having to seriously campaign. IL-3 is thought of as socially conservative with a lot of Reagan Democrats, but that simply isn’t the case anymore. In 2004, John Kerry got 59 percent of the vote. It is a liberal District now.

Most interesting then was his voting record. Despite being out of town for years, he was marked as having voted in person since 1990:

Until his dad crowned him a congressman, he spent 15 years out of town working at universities in North Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee. Somehow, while being a resident of other states, he managed to vote here, not by absentee ballot but in person. Election judges in his father’s 23rd Ward marked him present in every Chicago election since at least 1990, according to official records.

Oddly, Lipinski, can’t recall casting those votes. “I’m trying to think back to that time,” he told me. “I honestly cannot remember.”

Now, the voting records are, wait for it…, mysteriously missing.

Lipinski isn’t just a guy handed a Congressional seat, he’s a supposed Democrat with an incredibly reactionary record. His ACLU rating–one of the lowest Democrats outside of the South/border states. He has zeros from NARAL and Planned Parenthood.

So no family planning at all. Dandy. He and Costello were the only Illinois Democrats to get zeros–the rest? 100s.  When the chance was there to vote for contraceptive use by those receiving money in other nations, he voted against it and he voted against funding Planned Parenthood under Title X–contraceptive funding.
From the Family Research Council–71 percent approval. To get that? He voted to remove the power of the Courts to review cases involving the Pledge of Allegiance. He voted against embryonic stem cell research. He voted to not allow those who win federal civil liberties cases related to religious cases to receive court fees. IOW, if you sued to protect your civil liberties and won in a religious liberties case, you could not be compensated for the costs incurred to enforce your rights.

He’s from a heavily Latino District–his rating from the the leading anti-immigrant group–60%. And that’s down from 71 percent and higher previously.

A big zero on the gay and lesbian measure from Progressive Punch

Drum Major Institute focusing on progressive policies for families, 50 percent.

And, of course, he voted to ignore the 4th Amendment and give one of the most corrupt and incompetent administrations ever the ability to listen to domestic phone calls without a search warrant.

Lipinski must go. He has a conservative agenda in a liberal district. He ignores his constituents including the 20 percent Latino population in IL-3 and he has little interest in actually being a democrat-small d intended.

Support Mark Pera in his bid to unseat Lipinski.

Donate Here.

Updated to eliminate two votes from his father that were listed in the Planned Parenthood vote ratings.

Rock and a Hard Place

ArchPundit September 5, 2007 6 Comments

Mark Kirk gets visited by Freedom Watch’s radio commercials.

Very few details on the newest effort from the White House front group, but they have been targeting GOP moderates and wavering members with ads. They spent at least $5 million on the first wave of TV and have promised to spend $15 million. So far I’ve only confirmed they are on WBBM 780, but I bet more information will roll in soon.

So Mark Kirk can vote with the majority of his constituents who want out of Iraq, or the party base he relies upon to show up on election day. Maybe he needs some police officers to help insulate him.

Quick Update:  Big buy–it was also on Channel 7 broadcast news.

IL-14: The Panic Sets In

ArchPundit September 4, 2007 2 Comments

Dallas Ingemunson:

“But former Kendall County Republican Chairman Dallas Ingemunson said that to even assume the next 14th District representative is going to be a Republican is ‘an unwarranted assumption in this day and age.’

He cited the changing political landscape across the country, including voter dissatisfaction with the direction of the Iraq War, and said that while the basic makeup of voters in the 14th District may not have changed much since Hastert took office, the events surrounding the district have.”

Human Events:

The stumbling block for Oberweis is one conservatives frequently face in primaries for open offices: Another conservative is competing for votes on the right, so the one moderate GOPer could possibly emerge on top with a plurality of the votes.  The other conservative is State Rep. Chris Lauzen, who first won his seat in 1992 as one of a group of legislators known on the right as “the Fab Five” for their opposition to key initiatives by moderate Republican Gov. (1990-2002) James Edgar.  The lone moderate in the race is Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, who will be able to tap into considerable money through his contacts as a professional fundraiser for charities.  While both Oberweis and Lauzen are strongly pro-life, for example, Burns will say only that he is “personally” opposed to abortion.

Whoever wins what is sure to be a bruising primary will not be home free next year. After holding Hastert to a career-low re-election percentage in ’06, Democrats are now gearing up for a major assault on his open district with likely nominee Bill Foster.  A successful businessman and active civic leader, Foster has so far promised to spend $1 million of his own money on the primary and $1 million on the general election.

Washington Times

“Both parties are expected to fight hard for Mr. Hastert’s seat. Bill Foster, the likely Democratic nominee, has an impressive background as a businessman and a scientist that has resonated with voters in recently surveys.”

The Politico:

But a weak crop of Republican candidates could help the Democrats. One Illinois Republican operative called the likely GOP candidates seeking to succeed Hastert “unimpressive.”