BTW: The only way that she wins that district is if the urban welfare recipients stay home on voting day, and the far south/soutwest suburban voters show up and vote.
It's very much a black vs. white race in that district. (I live just outside it, thank God.)
usconservative and ought-six, before declaring that Halvirson has “no chance” in Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s old district, you should consider the fact that at least a half dozen prominent black Democrats will run in the primary, and that IL does not have a run-off if the winner gets below 50%, so Halvorson could win the primary with as little as 25%. That’s exactly how the black-majority Memphis district represented by the Fords for over 30 years ended up electing a white Democrat in 2006 (when Ford, Jr. ran for the Senate): several black candidates split the black vote and Cohen waltzed in with maybe 40%.
While it may appear to be a quixotic run for any Republican in that district, GOP primary voters should pick a black conservative with crossover appeal to Democrat constituencies because it would improve greatly the GOP’s chances of winning (and if Democrats nominate Halvorson or some other white, who knows?, we may shock the world, since black pols may refuse to lift a finger fir the “white interloper,” thinking the odds of a black Democrat reclaiming the seat in 2014 would be much higher if the incumbent is a Relublican than a white Democrat.