Thursday, March 23, 2006

Ill. 6th District Dems: Don't Rahm candidates down our throats

Cross-posted on Marathon Pundit.

Previous Marathon Pundit posts on this subject:

Congressional race to watch this fall: Illinois' 6th District
Durbin on election night on Bush, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth's candidacy

Chicago area residents tend to be clannish and suspicious of outsiders. And more so than other people, they don't like to be told what to do. Or how to vote.

Tammy Duckworth, an Iraqi war veteran and double amputee barely won Tuesday's primary for the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Peter Roskam in Illinois' 6th District.

Duckworth doesn't live in the district, and had a lot of outsiders, such as John Kerry, Hillary Clinton--as well as nationally known Illinoisans such as Dick Durbin, Barack Obama, and Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel promoting her candidacy.

Rahm Emanuel is the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; in short he's in charge of getting more Democrats elected to Congress.

Duckworth received 44% of the vote, followed closely by Christine Cegelis, who came close to defeating longtime 6th District Congressman Henry Hyde in 2004.

Lindy Scott finished third on Tuesday.

Don't look for a Rahm Appreciation Day in Chicago's western suburbs any time soon.

From the Chicago Tribune (free registration may be required):

The close primary reflected Cegelis' many supporters who had stuck with her since her first race and bristled at Duckworth's late entry and massive push from leaders such as U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

York Township Democratic Party Chairman Doug Cole said the 40 or more precinct committeemen in his township who supported Cegelis or Scott may vote for Duckworth in the fall because "we can't stand Roskam," but they're unlikely to work for her campaign.

Duckworth lives in the neighboring 8th District, and her campaign was the product of "top-down politics as foisted upon us by Rahm Emanuel. Not only do they not need us, they don't want us, so we'll take the message," Cole said.

Scott wished Duckworth well Wednesday but said he was "disappointed by the uneven playing field" in terms of money and media attention that confronted him and Cegelis.

8 comments:

Jeff Wartman 9:23 PM  

Can it be confirmed that Duckworth does not live in the sixth?

Cal Skinner 9:24 PM  

Duckworth lives in Bean's district.

Whose district does Bean live in?

Marathon Pundit 10:06 PM  

A few media reports have that fact in their reports. It's largely been overlook. The 6th covers part of Hoffman Estates, Duckworth lives in the part that lies in the 8th.

Bill Baar 6:31 AM  

Military friends contributed to build her a handi cap accessable house.

I liked Duckworth and could vote for her but the test will be how she and her party deal with Feingold's movement and the impeachment efforts. If she latches onto that, if a vote for her becomes a vote for impeachment, then it's really tough to vote for any Democrat.

Bill Baar 6:59 AM  

She's going to have to get a little more creative then this though,

I'm running because I think Congress should put our interests – not the special interests – first. That begins, first and foremost, with the issue that has been the centerpiece of my campaign: bringing affordable, accessible healthcare to all Americans who need it.

It's from her thank you email.

Durbin and Rahm recruited her because GWOT is the issue. She doesn't mention it once in her email. She needs too.

Democrats need a Foreign Policy that's not quit and run. She can help start that.

She ought to come out against Roe v Wade too. She ought to agree with Scalia and says Judges have to business judging personal morality. It belongs in the legislatures.

It's an issue that's devasted Democrats because Jill Stanek make a compelling and understandable case: Abortion is murder.

Democrats are stuck with this ambigous position of conflicting rights between mother and the unborn and they fumble it.

Democrats ought to recognize the value of punting this issue to the voters. It would solve many problems for them.

Yellow Dog Democrat 4:41 PM  

Baar --

Democrats have a policy that isn't quit-and-run. It's called internationalizing the peacekeeping effort. George Bush has rejected it.

And I agree that Jill Stanek's simplified view of the world has appeal, just like all simplified views do. If Republicans really do believe as Jill Stanek does that human life begins at conception, they should introduce legislation banning abortion in all cases except when a women's life is in imminent danger, and another to ban birth control methods that prevent that tiny human from attaching to the uterine wall. Just how many Republican lawmakers in Illinois do you think would vote for that?

And the political operative in me says it would be shrewd for Democrats to punt this to the voters, but punting is not leadership.

As for the topic at hand, the only reason the race with Cegelis was this close was Duckworth made a conscious -- and smart -- choice not to run negative ads against Cegelis and save her money for the real fight, with Roskam. Who needs a landslide?

Anonymous,  7:17 PM  

"Duckworth made a conscious -- and smart -- choice not to run negative ads against Cegelis and save her money for the real fight, with Roskam. Who needs a landslide?"

From the 03/22/2006 Chicago Tribune: "[Duckworth] had garnered almost $520,000 by March 1, mostly from outside the district. She spent almost $400,000 of it"

And she won by just 1080 votes.

You've posted a hell of a lot of stupid things in the past, but this line of bull takes the cake.

Anonymous,  11:30 AM  

OHHHHHHHHHH, Tammy Duckwalk:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/bunny_tapdancer.html

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