I'm not the only one who finds it really strange that Emanuel and the DCCC are not supporting Cegelis. From today's
Sun Times courtesy of Dick Simpson:
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) should quit playing games and support Christine Cegelis for Congress.
It's not just the lefty blogosphere thinking Emanuel and the DCCC are shortchanging the Cegelis campaign!
Duckworth has no experience, no campaign in place, no in-district time, and is basically going to be Emanuel's sock puppet - and I'm not the only one who has had this thought!
As Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet reported, Emanuel courted Army Major "Tammy" Duckworth to run as the Democratic candidate. He cynically believes that people will vote for her just because she is a wounded veteran of the Iraq War. She has no political platform and no indigenous campaign organization. She is still undergoing physical therapy for her war injuries and she had to get permission from the military to run. She will leave active duty on Dec. 1 to do so.
Apparently the campaign staff and cash would be helicoptered in from Washington because there has been no base built in the district even though nominating petitions are to be filed beginning Dec. 12. David Alexrod has been picked by Emanuel to run her public relations campaign locally.
As a candidate produced a couple of weeks before petitions are to be filed in an election for which she has yet to campaign, running is neither in Duckworth's best interest nor the party's. Emanuel just wants her to run because he can control her and use her in photo opportunities for the party.
So what about the Democrats already in the race:
In comparison to Duckworth and Scott, who have never run for office before, Cegelis received 44.2 percent of the vote in 2004 against long-term Republican incumbent Hyde. Her election would revolutionize suburban politics by making elections between Democrats and Republicans competitive.
In talks before audiences in the 6th District over the last couple of weeks, Cegelis asserts that she is fighting to reclaim the American Dream and better opportunities for Americans. She believes the country is going in the wrong direction. Because she is a mother, she is concerned about the next generation and the country we are leaving to our grandchildren. She argues the cost of a college education is too high. She points out the No Child Left Behind federal legislation is causing primary and secondary education costs in her district to soar at the same time some suburban schools are losing funding by being placed on the state's failing school lists.
She believes we have to be smarter in fighting terrorism by better gathering and using intelligence and data which the Bush administration is failing to do. On Iraq she has consistently said: "We need to develop a timeline and an exit strategy to get out of Iraq." She is pro-choice on the issue of abortion.
So what's the problem with Cegelis then? Oh yes, that be all, end all, money yardstick:
Cegelis' sin in the eyes of Emanuel is that she has raised only $160,000 this year and has only $50,000 in the bank. Washington insiders believe that only campaigns that raise $1 million win. Emanuel previously tried and failed to get some personally wealthy Democrat to jump in the race. Failing that, he is putting up a war veteran in the hope of winning the sympathy and patriotic vote despite the fact that the majority of Americans now want to get out of Iraq.
The national Democratic Party would do better to send money and support to Cegelis. She, her more than 100 campaign volunteers, and the Democrats and Republicans in the 6th District who voted for her last time, have earned the right to run this race.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The DCCC wanted to replace Cegelis with a millionaire candidte with deep pockets and inside ties. Since that failed, now the DCCC wants to try a pre-packaged 'war hero' candidate they can sell to the electorate as they attempt to buy the election with their resources and consultants. Rahm Emanuel and the DCCC have been trying to undermine the Cegelis campaign for months. Is is any wonder her fundraising has been hurt by their whisper campaign of promising Beltway insiders that Cegelis was a poor candidate they would replace with a sure winner?
There are 90+ Congressional races in which a Republican is running unopposed. What kind of a message does this send to local Democrats who might want to challenge for one of those 90+ seats? Will they look to Cegelis' experience and learn they'll get little to no support, and if they get the district close they'll be undermined by a DCCC pre-packaged 'war hero' candidate?
Undermining a local Democratic candidate like this is sends a loud and clear message to local Democrats: Don't bother.