Posted on 03/27/2006 9:32:00 PM PST by LdSentinal
Christine Cegelis will not endorse Tammy Duckworth, the winner in Illinois’s 6th Congressional District Democratic primary, because she has reservations about Duckworth’s positions on universal healthcare and free trade, a source close to Cegelis’s campaign said.
Duckworth, a wounded veteran of the Iraq war, defeated Cegelis by 3 percentage points in last week’s hotly contested primary. Cegelis, a liberal Democrat, won 44 percent of the vote against Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in 2004.
On Saturday, Illinois Democrats held a unity breakfast attended by Duckworth, party officials and Cegelis supporters who vowed to help Duckworth. Cegelis did not attend.
Duckworth had favored universal health insurance but changed her tune, advocating a more incremental approach, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The source asserted that Cegelis believes Duckworth has backed away from her opposition to the Central America Free Trade Agreement that the House and Senate passed last year. Despite that perception, Duckworth won the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsement.
Duckworth spokesman Billy Weinberg said that instead of focusing on the differences between Duckworth and Cegelis, voters should consider the differences between her and her GOP challenger, state Sen. Peter Roskam (Ill.).
“I would urge them to consider if that’s in the best interest of the goals we share,” Weinberg said, referring to the focus thus far on the differences between the two Democratic primary candidates.
Cegelis’s refusal has irritated national Democrats who said she had promised local officials that she would endorse Duckworth. The national party officials worry that her unwillingness to support Duckworth’s bid could dampen enthusiasm among some Democratic activists in November.
Democrats had hoped to avoid this scenario as early as last year. Top party officials studied the likelihood of trying to persuade Cegelis to drop out of the race but concluded she would not do so if asked, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) official said.
The heated primary reflected the tension between activist voters who favor a passionate, outspoken candidate and voters who support a candidate they view as having the best chance to win in a general election.
In the Republican-leaning, suburban Chicago district where the Democratic Party has had no real organization in recent years, Cegelis had built support from a coalition of activists and one-issue voters. She also earned the endorsement of Democracy For America, a prominent grassroots movement run by Howard Dean’s brother after Dean’s failed presidential campaign. Dean is now the chairman of DNC.
“There’s no respect now for grassroots support,” the source close to Cegelis’s campaign said, adding that Dean was the only national Democratic leader to call her after the race ended.
In the absence of a strong local party, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), handpicked Duckworth as the establishment choice. Illinois’s U.S. senators, Democrats Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, as well as Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), aided Duckworth’s campaign by recording phone calls to voters, endorsing her in direct mailings and raising money.
Illinois Democrats say that they are not worried about Cegelis’s decision not to endorse Duckworth because most Democrats, even if upset by the outcome, will choose Duckworth over Roskam.
Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America, told The Hill, “We’ve seen plenty of reaction in the past when Washington Democrats involved themselves in a race. I’m seeing a different reaction here. It’s not reversed itself into a Kumbaya moment.”
“I don’t sense a recrimination mode. The tenor of rhetoric from the DCCC is one of ‘well, that’s politics,’” he added.
A Democratic Party strategist said, “Maybe [Cegelis] can take some people with her, but with or without her this is going to be a hell of race. We hope that she is part of it.”
Yep. That's the scumbag Democrats for you - - turn America into a Euro-style, secular-socialist welfare state.... France.... a little at a time.
This should be fun to watch at the DUmp...more to come on the DUFU? :)
This is a very weird article. "In the absence of a strong local party..." you mean Democrats? In Illinois? Yeah, they don't have a strong local party in New York either. What's this reporter smoking?
Tammy Duckworth is a genuine heroine -- one of the few "Fighting Democrats" who was actually in combat, most of them were JAGs, and the only "fighting" they did was for yardbirds and enemy detainees -- and I wish her well, speaking of course as a political opponent.
A race against a high-profile, lavishly funded opponent will put the fear of God into Henry Hyde, and that's not entirely a bad thing.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Illinois’s U.S. senators, Democrats Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, as well as Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), aided Duckworth’s campaign by recording phone calls to voters, endorsing her in direct mailings and raising money.
I don't blame Cegilis one bit for being PO'd. It sounds like she ran the better campaign and was barely beaten by 3%. Undoubtedly done in by Kerry, Clinton, Durbin and Obama.
I'm glad they are stuck running a Lame Duckworth.
Oops, I should have RTFA, Hyde is retiring and Roskam is the Republican in the race.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Thanks to the radical blog-fringe taking over, moderates like Duckworth and Lieberman are being driven out of the party. This is how the Democrats may well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory come this Novemeber.
DuPage County is heavily GOP turf, and has been as long as anyone I know can remember.
They even broke hard for Goldwater in 64.
There just isn't a strong Dem presence in DuPage.
There was a Dummie Funnies about this race within the past week that's a good read. William Rivers Pitt, a DU contributor, was part of the Cegelis campaign. He wrote a DU post after the primary 'snitting' over the Duckworth win. The funny thing about it was that he also unwittingly trashed Cegelis in the same post.
Here's the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1602762/posts
Correct. Pied Piper Pitt, who worked closely in that election, poured poison down the wells of BOTH those Democrats. He called Lame Duckworth a last choice stooge of the Democrat bigwigs and also ensured that Cegelis' political career will remain forever BURIED by revealing that she was so inept that a QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS of campaign funds disappeared right under her nose.
I'm not in the district (My congressman is Don Manzullo (R), 16th District). But I'm going to follow this race for the fun of it. But then, we do have friends in the 6th.
Duckworth has NOT been a wild eyed anti war warrior. THIS is why the crazy rat has come to hate her. This is no surprise. The crazy rat will not back any of the band of frauds who does not foam at the mouth against the war.
Health care and free trade????? Please IF Duckworth can't convince the old knee jerk rank and file Democrats she is for these things and she can't convince the crazy rat she hates the war and Bush, and she doesn't live in the district where do her votes come from?
If anybody finds discussion of this article in DUmmieland, please send me the link. Thanx.
The Cemetary Vote
This damages whatever chance the Democrats had of winning this district, and it was never more than an outside chance.
Evans has been battling Parkinson's for years, and I've wondered how long he was going to remain in Congress while battling it. Mo Udall forced himself to remain past his time, and only when he took a fall down a flight of stairs was he forced to retire. This district was GOP prior to Evans's defeating RINO Tom Railsback's Conservative vanquisher in '82, and it is rather similar to Jim Leach's seat across the river, IIRC. With the right nominee, we might take the seat back.
Lane Evans's retirement is great news for conservatives. He had used his seniority to stay in Congress despite being far more liberal than his constituents. The 2002 redistricting made the IL-17 much more heavily Democrat, but they are fairly conservative Democrats, as can be gleaned from the fact that President Bush's vote percentage rose from 44% in 2000 to 48% in 2004. Given that Evans's retirement comes after the primary, I think the most likely result is that the Democrats will select a conservative Democrat from the Quad Cities area as the nominee, and he or she will be favored in the general election. But a Midwestern district that gave President Bush 48% in 2004 is far from unwinnable for us, and we are running an attractive and experienced candidate in Andrea Lane Zinga: http://www.andrealanezinga.com/
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