Posted on 07/13/2007 7:53:30 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Democrat Tammy Duckworth won't seek a rematch in the 6th Congressional District next year against Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam.
Her husband is back in Iraq, and she's got a new prominent job as Illinois veterans' affairs director.
"I'm not going to run. It was a really hard decision. It just came down to 'Where can I get the most work done?'" she said Sunday. "(I did) a lot of soul searching about why I entered public life. Did I do it because I wanted to win the congressional seat or make things happen and get things done?"
In the end, after talking with her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, Duckworth decided to stick with her job as head of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Out of the blue, he said, 'If I get killed, I want you to run for political office again,'" Duckworth said of talking to her husband. "I told him, 'I would curl up in a fetal position if you get killed.' What we, in our conversations, came to realize, you're getting more done in this job than you would as a freshman in Washington."
Last week, she scored national headlines for a pair of new programs to screen all returning Illinois National Guardsmen for brain injuries and to staff a 24-hour post traumatic stress disorder hotline. Duckworth also has worked on a new low-interest mortgage program for veterans and a $600 tax credit for businesses that hire Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Last November, Wheaton's Roskam edged out Hoffman Estates' Duckworth by 5,000 votes out of 178,000 cast in a nationally watched contest to succeed retiring Rep. Henry Hyde. Roskam said Sunday he's not relaxing.
"My view is from the get-go is that I never underestimate the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and I won't this time," he said.
Suburban Democrats will have to scramble to find a replacement for political celebrity Duckworth in time for the Feb. 5 primary.
"I'm really disappointed. It would have been easier to just keep running, but I understand where she's coming from. It's hard to run a campaign when your husband's in Iraq," said Gayl Ferraro, DuPage County Democratic Chairman.
Ferraro declined to offer any names, but said she plans to talk to the national Democrats to see how much support they'll give and to start interviewing local prospects the next couple weeks.
Oh, brother!!!
Her husband is back in Iraq, and she’s got a new prominent job as Illinois veterans’ affairs director.
No he probably came home and punched her in the mouth.
“a $600 tax credit for businesses that hire Iraq and Afghanistan veterans”.
I love my country and I love you Vets but this type of program is at the heart of our problem which is “Mommy Government” and empowers again the IRS in yet another tax code.
That's right, I said she's just another communist and I MEAN it.
I don't care how many limbs she lost. She's as communist as Norman Rockwell was NAZI.
Both war veterans.
I don't have to respect Norman Rockwell because he was a war veteran. He was contemptible.
I don't have to admire a communist DuckWorthLess because she lost a leg. She is contemptible.
LibKill, I think you mean George Lincoln Rockwell, not Norman Rockwell.
I had to think about it for a while before I remembered that KKKlintoon sent in tanks to murder American tax-payers.
Actually, Norman Rockwell was a leftist.
Yeah, especially when you're giving aid and comfort to the enemy and stabbing all of our fighters in the back.
It's just so...unseemly donchaknow?
What’s a duck worth?
Apparently not much.
So? Nazis are leftists. They're just nationalistic leftists. Both love vast and powerful governments. Right wing extremists are best exemplified by anarchists, rather than Nazis, since they take small government to extremes.
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