Call It A Comeback
Roskam already mentioned here.
Carol Pankau—who has interesting views on Daylight Savings Time
She also just won Pate Philip’s former State Senate Seat.
Former state Rep. Tom Johnson of West
Former DuPage County Recorder J.P. “Rick” Carney
It appears his supporters jumped into a Rich Miller comment thread about the 6th District race–what are his details? Or Peter? Feel free to e-mail me.
Okay, I’ve set up an ACT Blue Account for the five races I’m currently suggesting people send money.
Bean, Cegelis, Lane Evans, Missouri Democratic Senate Race, and the DCCC.
Bean, Cegelis and the DCCC will be there for the cycle. Lane will be on until I determine he doesn’t have a serious challenger and the Missouri Senate race will be on as long as a real candidate shows up sooner or later. I’m also keeping an eye on IL-18, but I’m not raising money unless there is a serious Democratic candidate.
She discusses today’s announcement in a Kos Diary
You can donate to her through ACT Blue where she has set up an account
Illinois 6 is an open seat for 2006.
In 1985, served as a Legislative Assistant for Health Care and Education for Congressman Tom DeLay.
Any pictures of that service?
He’s also endorsed by the Illinois State Rifle Association–you remember the group that was highly critical of Jim Ryan for being against Concealed Carry legislation—how will that play in a suburban district like the 6th?
And of course, he gets a 100 from the Illinois Family Institute that to call anti-gay would be to downplay the vigorous level of bigotry they espouse.
On the other hand, with virtually no elected Dems in a District that went 46% Kerry, Christine Cegelis looks to be the likely Dem nominee and is already amassing campaign funds and volunteers–in case a special election gets called if Hyde moves on to the Vatican or something like that. Be sure to help her out with time or money.
One of my sharpest critiques of her 2004 campaign was that she didn’t raise enough money. I’ve been assured that isn’t problem this time around and will be addressed by the campaign. She’s already raised about $40,000 and that’s a great start.
Overall, she still has some issues that are not quite consistent with that District, but pulling in 44.2% of the vote should tell us all that District isn’t as conservative as it used to be and as an open seat this is a special opportunity.
What happens to Denny? I doubt they’d change midcourse, but one has to wonder without DeLay propping him up, does he stick around for another cycle?
Just a thought, but it’s becoming very clear that DeLay is a goner whether he knows it or not yet. I prefer for him to stick around because he’s a fine public face for the national Republican party from my perspective.
The question appears to me to be how hard does he fight and who does he take down with him. He’s a mean bastard, and I’m certain he has a scorched earth plan for those who turn on him in this case. Given the other scandals, he won’t be the only one touched.
Sweet says so and she has pretty good sources so I’ll take that as a tenative yes.
I’ve heard the Kerry-Bush number was 46-54 in the District meaning as an open seat, the advantage goes to a Republican, but it’ll be a race.
Bean is starting to prep for the next cycle as well.
Cegelis launches her campaign for 2006 by posting on Kos
I ran to win the first time but I was honest with myself that this could be the first year of a three year campaign cycle. I always kept in mind that I would be building for the future. In the end I received more than 44% of the vote, the most a challenger has received against Hyde since he first ran for Congress. Out of the 18 challenger races, on both sides of the aisle in Illinois, I received the second highest percentage of votes only behind Melissa Bean–I also raised the third highest amount of money. Most importantly, I became the adopted race of many grassroots organizations like the Democracy for America (DFA), and of course I was named to the Dean Dozen. In Illinois, this is an honor I shared with only one other candidate: Barack Obama.
I think there were some mistakes in the first run, but I think she can fix those this time. I’ll go into those at another time, but she ran a hell of a campaign and the groundwork was top notch. Jeff Smith, who ran in MO-3, was also a first cycle Dean Dozen and Jeff had a lot more experience running campaigns. That was an unbelievably hard undertaking and for someone like Christine to pull in 44% of the vote on a relatively low budget is amazing. She underpeformed Kerry by 2 % so a smart campaign should only require picking up 3 % from his total in the 6th. If Hyde retires a lot will depend upon who runs.
If Capitol Fax is correct and it’s Roskam who emerges on the GOP side, all the better. Cegelis will have a very conservative opponent with whom she can run a non-ideological campaign as Bean did.
The key–getting Rahm on board. With his blessing and DFA’s troops and the gift that keeps on giving–Social Security, this race will be decided unless a more moderate Republican wins the primary.
Christine needs to develop a clear position on social security refom and a specific proposal that will extend the actuarial predictions. After that, she is free to beat on any diversion of social security funds to private accounts.
Oh, and fiscal responsibility is a great card to play in this race–Roskam wants to expand the education tax credit while the state budget is tight. Good food for the base, bad fiscal policy. He’d fit in with spendathon going on in DC right now.
Christine is having a fundraiser tonight as well (via Austin Mayor):
“Going for the Green” Fundraiser for Cegelis for Congress
Date: Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Location: Cactus Bar and Grill, 404 S. Wells, Chicago
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Includes: two hours open bar plus nacho/taco buffet
Special Guest: Candidate Christine Cegelis
Suggested Donation: $50
Rahm is annoying the right people:
“He’s trying to create wedge issues to run on regardless of the merit of the policy,” said Pete Jeffries, a former spokesman for Hastert.
Oh, say like gay marriage?
When Tom DeLay’s pool boy gets done being outraged, he might look at the guy pulling his strings and notice the pot and the kettle kind of look a like.
He was the chief architect behind Democrat Melissa Bean’s ouster of veteran U.S. Rep. Phil Crane (R-Ill.) in November. He masterminded Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s populist-style campaign to import prescription drugs, which put the politically ambitious governor in headlines across the nation and forced President Bush in his re-election year to defend import restrictions that keep prices high.
Bean pulled in $30 million transportation funds.
To put this in perspective, each Member gets about $11 and Members of Transportation get another $22 this year from what I’ve heard. She almost got as much for her District as a Member of the Transportation Committee. Rahm’s plotting for 2006.
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