IL-16 Map
2004
Bush 55 %
Kerry 44 %
2000
Bush 54 %
Gore 43 %
Cook Partisan Index +4
Republican: Don Manzullo, incumbent since 1992 and was Chair of the House Committee on Small Business. He’s a strong constituent service Member and avoids controversy to the point of being unknown outside of his District.
Democrat: Robert Abood, a nuclear scientist, son of a wealth Chicago Banker, and President of the Barrington Hills Village Council. He’s an interesting candidate because he has enough money to spend it to get the campaign going and is well known in the suburban Chicago area of the District. He’s also running next to IL-14 with physicist Bill Foster creating an interesting issue of the crossover buzz with two scientists running.
Independent: General John Borling ran as a write-in candidate last cycle and is threatening to run as an independent this cycle. Borling potentially could be a spoiler delivering the race to Abood since Borling is generally considered a Republican though socially moderate. While he is unlikely to win, he can run a credible enough race to have a serious impact.
The District is a large district geographically going from the Northwestern Exurbs of Chicago to the Iowa state line with Rockford in the middle. Rockford proper produces a good number of Democratic votes and will have to deliver good margins for this to be a race. Borling’s potential entry is the most likely reason this race could become one to at least keep one eye on it. Abood also fits the profile of a guy who can make some headway in the suburbs.
IL-8 Map
2004
Bush 56 %
Kerry 44 %
2000
Bush 56 %
Gore 42 %
Cook Partisan Index +5 R
Republican: A couple random guys, and Steve Greenburg, a businessman who can partially self-finance–a big plus for the GOP this year with bad RNCC fundraising. He considered a race against Durbin, but reality set in and he took on a reasonably tough race, but one with a chance at least.
Democrat: Incumbent Melissa Bean. She won in 2004 against entrenched Republican fossil Phil Crane and won again in 2006 with 51.2 % of the vote compared to 43.7% for partial self funder David McSweeney and 5.1 % of the vote for independent candidate Bill Scheuer.
Bean works hard as an incumbent and has very good constituent service. She has a relatively moderate voting record and has broken with key Democratic constituencies on several issues making her unpopular with many activists. Her only real vulnerability comes from if she were to lose a lot of votes to Bill Scheuer again and Greenburg could make up some of the losses McSweeney faced. But frankly, McSweeney was a decent candidate who worked hard and had strong base support for his run. It’s hard to see how Greenburg does better than him.
My guess is both of these districts are holds for the respective parties, but if one is going to break, it’ll be 16 if Borling gets in.
Check this letter to the editor from the NW Herald on Aug 30th. Dont know how much pride Manzullo can take in his constituent service…
Poor response
Comments (7 comment(s))
To the Editor:
My family and I recently contacted our respective congressional representatives regarding my niece, who has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and a federal agency under the jurisdiction of Congress.
The reply from Don Manzullo’s staff was that they could not help because my niece is not a 16th District resident. End of story.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that official inquiries to the agency in question had been made by Melissa Bean (Illinois’ 8th District), Frank Wolf (Virginia’s 10th District), and Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
Amazing what people can do when they just want to do the right thing regardless of boundary issues. I am ashamed that my congressman could not have made a phone call. It was done by a representative from Virginia, a representative from Illinois’ 8th District, and a senator from Alaska who saw the need and picked up a phone.
Thank goodness there still are some people in public office who are willing to think outside the box. With an election year drawing near, I would urge the constituents of the 16th District to consider the possibility of a more forward-thinking member of Congress to represent their interests in Washington.
Joanne Gard
Lake in the Hills