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.
Can i be the first to say this really sucks. I am so pissed at the Democrats right now…. If we were not in fascist times, i would support an independent run for Christine. but Peter Roskam is pure evil and cannot be allowed a seat, so i am now FORCED to vote for duckworth and have my rep. not live in my district and become a lap dog for the democratic machine with Washington a priority over my home.
yet another sad day for the democrats.
Pathetic. Six years later, and we still have people who haven’t learned the lesson of Ralph Nader.
If only this energy could be channeled constructively. Sigh.
I think the lesson of Ralph Nader is this: Give us a real progressives instead of Washington insider hacks like Al Gore and John Kerry, and nobody gives a shit about Nader. That said, I’d love to see Cegelis make an independent run.
Actually the lesson was, even with the “insider hacks” nobody gave a shit about him — at least after 2000.
In 2004, lawyers waited _in line_ to volunteer to go over his petition papers and toss him off the ballot.
As Jim In Chicago on the Lynn Sweet Blog says, “Primaries are about influencing who the nominees will be, but the general election is purely about ending 12 years of Republican mis-rule in the Congress.”
So M.V., are you saying that Cegelis supporters are still going to be xenophobic ninnies in the general?
I realize you wouldn’t call them that, but facts are facts.
FYI, Illinois state law prevents a candidate who has run in a party primary to run as an independent for the same office. So an independent run by Cegelis isn’t happening at this time, period.
what bullshit. a difference of 800 votes after all they threw at us. did Mr. Scheurer do everything he could have to help Christine? did he do anything? was he too busy getting his spoiler campaign together? if he has any support, sure seems he could of put that to work and maybe even put Christine over the top. IMHO fuck him for basically saying we are failures with a poor strategy for making change. 800 votes. sorry, but there is a difference in the parties. perhaps not much, and less and less each day. but there are a ton of little issues that have a huge impact for a lot of folks out there, where Democrats vote better than Republicans. things you rarely hear about like some increase in funding for Headstart vs cutting it. but Mr Scheurer doesnt want you to think about that, cause then hed never be congressman. unless, of course, he decides to partake in the emotionally draining and difficult work of helping to build the movement to win these primaries for good folks, like Christine and himself Im sure. 800 votes. imagine if he had challenged Bean. if he had done the hard work for more than a year. the establishment would have been stretched so thin, we could have won one or both races.
he was calling us out. had to return the favor.
William Maggos
DFI volunteer
Fortunately, everyone understood this isn’t criticizing Christine—after rereading the headline that may not have been clear—it’s about Scheuer and Scheuer only.
I just wanted to use this opportunity to thank all volunteers and Christine Cegelis. As William above says ?a difference of 800 votes after all they threw at us?. Exactly.
I know the loss hurts, but I?m afraid that an incredible lesson might be lost as well. It is thanks to you that we have a blueprint for all future organization. You had no money and still you got your message out. You had bad publicity and you still managed to turn it around. And you came very close to winning. And if the national party still thinks they can ignore you in November ? they are in for a rude awakening, imo.
Whatever the outcome, it is important that you share your experiences with the entire world. Because you know how to build a party, how to run for office against all odds, how to energize the entire district… And believe me your district looks much better to me (the eternal city rat) than it ever looked before ? all thanks to you. There are many people out there who are tired of money politics. Look how many really good candidates showed up in Illinois in this primary. I was greatly encouraged by this phenomenon as I don?t remember a recent primary I was excited about. Most of them lost. Lets not loose the effort thou.
Thanks. And tell us how you did it.
Alice
Can anyone tell me how many precincts Bill Scheurer canvassed for Christine Cegelis? Anyone?
If someone can show that Scheurer actually supported the Cegelis campaign by doing some of the damn hard grassroots labor, then maybe — MAYBE — I would consider taking him seriously.
Otherwise, this is rank opportunism.
Bill’s an opportunist. Where’d he go after challenging Bean? Nowhere? That’s right. He turned into a warm body holding a spot on a ballot for a state lege race. Didn’t show up. Didn’t put in the work.
Opportunist.