Mellisa Bean's "Kerry-esque" War Votes Draw Primary and General Election Opponents with the Same Last Name - Scheurer

Last night as I was listening to reactions to the Defense appropriations bill votes, I sent 2006 8th congressional district candidate for Congress Bill Scheurer an email asking if he had put out a press release.

Come to find out, he and his wife Randi have, complete with snappy new logo for he "Honk for Peace" web site. It follows:

In a series of Kerry-esque moves, IL-8th Congressional District Democratic Incumbent Melissa Bean has now “voted for” the surge in Iraq, after she “voted against” it.

This week, Bean joined a small minority of Democrats, and all but two Republicans, in voting to give the Bush administration another “blank check” for the war -- which includes, and fully funds, the escalation of hostilities -- having previously joined a solid Democratic majority in a symbolic vote opposing this same surge.

In the words of Sue Udry, Legislative Coordinator for the national coalition United for Peace & Justice,

"People have been dismayed to realize that Democrats and Republicans who have opposed the escalation of the number of troops in Iraq will still fund that escalation. Those who have decried the president's mismanagement of the war, are now willing to fund that mismanagement, with absolutely no accountability."

Bean also voted against another Democratic measure earlier this month that called for a binding timetable to end the war and bring our troops home.

This constant capitulation on the war has led the Scheurer family of Lake County to prepare another electoral challenge to Bean in 2008, only this time with a twist.

In 2006, Bill Scheurer ran as the independent Moderate Party candidate in the general election, getting over 5% of the vote and earning that party a guaranteed ballot slot for 2008. He intends to run again as an independent in the November 2008 election.

However, this time, his wife Randi Scheurer, a strong antiwar activist herself and a key force in her husband’s 2006 campaign, plans to run in the Democratic primary.

“I want to give Democratic voters a chance for something better,” she says. “If they are against the war, now they have a candidate to choose instead of the incumbent.”

The couple will spend Saturday May 26, with their Military Families Speak Out group attending the “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit at Grant Park in Chicago. Their son is an Iraq War veteran, and their daughter was a Captain in the U.S. Army.

This stirring, silent memorial displays a pair of combat boots for every American soldier who died in the war, numbering nearly 3,500 sets of boots by now.

Interested people can reach both campaigns at the www.honk4peace.org website.

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Honk for Peace demonstrators are seen on Route 31 last fall in McHenry. Photograph supplied by the Bill Scheurer campaign.

Told you there would be stuff of interest on McHenry County Blog this weekend. You can even see what Randi Scheurer looks like.