Hello! I'm Charlie Wheelan and I'm running for Congress in the 5th District of Illinois to replace Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who has resigned to serve as Barack Obama's chief of staff.
This was a remarkable day. I remember when Barack Obama spoke at our neighbor's house, just over the back alley, when he was beginning his run for the Senate. I remember sitting with Leah at the kitchen table reading in the Sun-Times that Obama might run for president, and being thrilled by the mere idea of it. And I remember standing outside the old Capitol in Springfield on a cold January day when he made his official announcement for president-the bookend to what we watched today.
Obama was obviously on the front page of today's Chicago Tribune. But I want to draw your attention to David Greising's column in the business section, which focuses on my candidacy. He writes of my candidacy, "This is part of what makes this country great. Congress is chock-full of politicians, certainly. But there are also are a smattering of citizens who get motivated, leave lives of comfort, put themselves in front of the people and try to do some good."
The timing of the column is not coincidence. Greising writes that Inauguration Day-"when a once-obscure former University of Chicago law professor takes the presidential oath of office"-is a good time to contemplate how a tough race can turn out well. I urge you to read the whole article and pass it on.
Of course, Rahm Emanuel is irreplaceable. But nonetheless, the filing deadline for the IL-05 special election closed earlier tonight. Twenty-six candidates filed, including fifteen Dems. Here's what the Democratic field will look like (in alphabetical order, with descriptions mostly taken from Wikipedia):
Bryar, Paul - physician at Northwestern Memorial and professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Capparelli, Cary - marketing consultant
Dagher, Pete - former Bill Clinton and Barack Obama staffer
Donatelli, Jan - former commercial pilot
Feigenholtz, Sara - state Representative
Forys, Victor - physician
Fritchey, John - state Representative
Geoghegan, Tom - labor attorney and author
Monteagudo, Carlos
O'Connor, Patrick - Chicago alderman
Oberman, Justin - former Transportation Security Administration administrator (and son of former Alderman Marty Oberman)
Quigley, Mike - Cook County commissioner
Thompson, Roger
Wheelan, Charles - Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago and author
Progress Illinois says there are no real surprises here, though they're skeptical of how seriously Ald. Pat O'Connor will run (he filed at 4:59pm - second thoughts?). Nonetheless, there are still several big names here (principally Feingenholtz and Fritchey), making it a challenge for other candidates to break through, especially in such a short time-frame.
Yes, tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but it's also the filing deadline for the IL-05 special election to replace Rahm Emanuel, and the IL Board of Elections will be open to receive nominating petitions. That'll finally give us some clarity on the Democratic field. The special primary, by the way is March 3rd. The general is on April 7th, but that will almost surely be a formality - Kerry won this district 67-33, and Obama 73-26.
Also, one of the candidates running released an internal poll for the Dem primary. Anzalone-Liszt for Mike Quigley (1/8-13, likely voters, no trendlines)
Mike Quigley: 19%
Sara Feigenholtz: 11%
John Fritchey: 8%
Justin Oberman: 2%
Cary Capparelli: 1%
Jan Donatelli: 1%
(MoE: ±4.4%)
You can find a run-down of these names at Wikipedia. One big difficulty with this poll is that it didn't include labor lawyer & netroots fave Tom Geoghegan, who declared shortly before this poll went into the field. So I'm not really sure what to make of these numbers.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see more polling once the field is set. But like almost all specials, this one will likely be a bear to survey accurately.
The Iowa blog Bleeding Heartland, where I do most of my writing, is among the two dozen state community blogs for Democrats that use Soapblox.
This week hackers got into Soapblox and wreaked havoc with some of the servers, temporarily forcing several blogs off-line, including Swing State Project.
Preston has always charged low monthly fees to make the platform accessible for progressive bloggers, allowing many new community blogs to get going in the past few years.
If you appreciate this and other community blogs, the number one thing you can do to keep them going is to help BlogPAC save Soapblox.
On a related note, BlogPAC has done wonderful work supporting progressive change. For that reason, I have donated my share of the Bleeding Heartland advertising revenues to BlogPAC since I started writing there nearly two years ago.
In addition to raising money for Soapblox, BlogPAC is helping Tom Geoghegan for Congress in Illinois's fifth district (the seat vacated by Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel). You can read more about Geoghegan here. If you can spare a few extra bucks in this tough economy, please consider throwing them his way.
Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) announced today that he has set April 7 as the date for the special election to fill former Rep. Rahm Emanuel's (D) 5th district seat. [...]
In a statement from his official office, Blagojevich designated a special primary election for March 3, 2009.
Roll Call has more on the likely candidates:
Among the likely Democratic contenders for the seat: state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, state Rep. John Fritchey, former state Rep. Nancy Kaszak, who lost primaries to both Emanuel and Blagojevich, Chicago Alderman Pat O'Connor and Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley.
The Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet recently named Quigley, Feigenholtz, and ex-TSA official Justin Oberman as the frontrunners for the job, but we'll see how this shakes out. At at PVI of D+18, surely this district can afford to send a strong progressive to the House.
It's official -- Rahm Emanuel will sign on as Obama's Chief of Staff (potentially a great move for Obama, in my opinion). While the timeline is unclear, Rahm will soon be stepping down from his seat in the House, triggering a special election. Rahm's district has a PVI of D+18, so there's no reason why we can't fill this seat with a solid progressive.
This leads me to ask -- where else might we see retirement (or resignation) announcements before the next election? Roy Blunt is stepping down as the House Minority Whip, and you have to wonder whether he'll ride off into the sunset and quit politics altogether. And there are plenty of crusty GOP oldsters like Roscoe Bartlett (MD-06), Bill Young (FL-10), and Ralph Hall (TX-04) who may call it a day. And on the Dem side, Leonard Boswell will always be the subject of retirement rumors.
It's never too early to start thinking ahead to the next round of elections. Which House seats do you think might open up in the next two years?
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Wednesday that he will not seek another term as Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chairman.
Van Hollen presided over substantial gains Tuesday, with Democrats looking to add more than 20 seats. They have gained 19 already, with six races outstanding.
At a news conference with reporters, Van Hollen suggested he wants to continue in leadership, but not in his current position.
"I'm exploring all my options," he said in response to questions about his future. "But one option I'm not exploring is continuing on for another term at the DCCC."
There's also a lot of chatter about Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel accepting the job as Obama's Chief of Staff, but First Read says that he has yet to accept the gig.
