3rd Party 8th Congressional District Candidate on the Ballot
Capitol Fax is where I found this stunning news.
The Democrats did not challenge 8th congressional district Moderate Party candidate Bill Scheurer’s petitions, even though he was short of the 14,000 required. Even though Mike Kasper, Democratic Party Mike Madigan’s election lawyer of choice, picked up Scheurer’s petitions.
Scheurer had made a big deal about having been deceived by a person whom he thought was a political consultant whose day job was with Democratic Party first-termer Dan Lipinski.
But, he issued more than a press release.
He filed suit in Federal Court against Lipinski, House Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Congressman Rahm Emanuel (8th congressional district Melissa Bean’s godfather, so to speak) and House Speaker Mike Madigan in his capacity of party chairman in Illinois.
Whether it was the suit or something else, the Democrats decided to let Scheurer stay on the ballot.
And, that is stunning, because conventional wisdom says anti-war Scheurer will drain enough votes from Democrat Bean to elect Republican David McSweeney.
This was originally posted at McHenry County Blog, where I have a story about a Winnebago County school district PAC that broke election law and was fined for it by the State Board of Elections.
6 comments:
Why would anyone vote for Scheurer after he admitted being duped on such a basic thing?
More to the point, your premise that Scheurer would pull votes away from Bean is a false one. Scheurer voters are going to be one-, maybe two-, issue voters.
He's against the war but also against abortion. That makes him just as likely, if not moreso, to pull votes from McSweeney because in theory there are plenty of conservatives who are pro-life and see the folly of staying in Iraq with no end in sight. Scheurer is their only candidate.
Given the tenacity with which both M-Madigan and Emanuel run their respective ops, I'm inclined to think they have numbers showing Scheurer was better for Bean on the ballot than off. Besides, he affords her the opportunity to show this conservative district her conservative leanings (and buck her party, demonstrating her obvious independence). All positives for the 8th.
McSweeney might want to rethink his standing in the race...
Besides, in this district, a Republican is going to win anyway; not sure if it will be the one that has a D after her name or not. ;-)
No knock on her; she serves a conservative district after all.
With regard to the abortion issue, all of the GOP candidates were pro-life, but the Illinois Federation of Right-To-Life PAC endorsed David McSweeney.
The IFRL PAC has advertised on WIND reminding people that McSweeney is THE pro-life candidate (which, I think means that a lot of pro-lifers don't know that fact).
Somehow I don't think Scheurer will be able to work the issue as well as McSweeney.
Somehow I don't think Scheurer will be able to work any issue as well as any other candidate in that race....
Don't know what gives me that idea though.
there are an awful lot of hispanics in the district angry at Bean for joining the immigrant bashing crowd. Maybe they have a place to go now. doesn't take a lot of defectors in a race like this.
there needs to be a progressive antiwar libertarian who will run on impeaching bush and cheney winning in november
otherwise, authoritarian theocracy, here we come
my ¢¢
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