Hi Kossacks,
First off, thank you for helping me win $5,000 from the Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation for my blogging! While many of the other bloggers nominated have done impressive work, I still feel as if my contributions to the political blogosphere were deserving of the award. So thank you all once again.
Secondly, I apologize for my absence from the blogs. Life at Drew University (where I'm a freshman)has been very stressful due to recent problems in the student government, of which I was a part of. Thankfully I've moved on and am preparing for my last final exam tomorrow. My New Year's Resolution is to be more active with my blogging, and hopefully I can fulfill that promise.
Now, I'd like to turn my attention to a 2008 Congressional race, Illinois-06. As many of you know, the Republican nominee, ex-DeLay staffer Peter Roskam squeaked by Democratic nominee Tammy Duckworth in November, 51-49%. At this time, Duckworth has joined Governor Rod Blagojevich's cabinet, taking her out of the running for 2008. 2006 saw enormous amounts of money spent in the district, and Roskam's narrow victory indicates that it can be won. But if not Duckworth, than who?
Christine Cegelis, that's who! First off, let me say that while I'm a proud friend of Christine, to the best of my knowledge she has not said whether she'd run again in the future. Therefore, what I am proposing is a draft campaign, using ActBlue to stockpile money as we attempt to persuade her to run. If she choses not to run, the money would go to the DNC. Secondly, this is strictly a "should we?" diary, not a "let's do it!" diary; I don't have any motivation other than a desire to see a good friend, a magnificent progressive and a committed Democrat get elected to Congress in 2008.
Now, allow me to tell you a little bit about Christine...
http://www.dailykos.com/... (From a February article I wrote about her)
here comes a time in everyone's life when you decide to take a chance, to move outside your "safety zone" and reach for the stars - even if those stars are relatively close to you. Yet in some cases you will be reaching for stars a galaxy away, and in between you and your goals are the vortexes and whirlpools of failure. You stand to lose much indeed when you strive for the stars; and yet, the effort, the opportunities, the eventual success make the struggle all the more appreciated when the goal is reached.
Christine took such a risk in late 2003. She was an Information Technology (IT) businesswoman, part of the rapidly growing suburbia of Chicago. She was (and is) a mother of two college-aged boys who had forged a career of her own. Christine's grandparents had immigrated from Lithuania, and never learned to write or read English; she worked her way through college as a hotel clerk, and was along with her siblings the first in her family to go to college. In short, she was living the American Dream that so many politicians talk about living and never had to actually go through. She was - and is - an average-Jane American.
Then she decided to run for Congress in September of 2003. As she has told me before, and as I have said before, it was for her sons - their future - that propelled her into taking such a risk:
"As I watched my sons and their friends begin their journey to achieve their own dreams, I saw the doors of opportunity that were open for me and my family are closing for the generations that follow us. I simply could not let that happen."
She gave up her job to campaign full-time against Congressman Henry Hyde, the 30-year incumbent who had presided over the Clinton Impeachment hearings. Hyde had won his last election with 65%, and so no one saw him as vulnerable. Christine raised less than $200,000, of which just 3% came from PACs. She even put in $40,000 of her own money to keep her campaign going. Her staff was almost entirely unpaid, the candidate herself inexperienced, and the incumbent a looming giant of the district. It was a true David - and - Goliath struggle.
And David mortally wounded Goliath.
True, Christine didn't win. But she won more votes and got a higher percentage of the vote than any of Hyde's previous challengers. How did a little-known challenger who was outspent by more than 3:1 by a legendary incumbent get over 44% of the vote? Simple: she did it the old-fashioned way, by reaching out to the long-neglected grassroots of Illinois' 6th Congressional District. For too long, the Illinois Democrats had largely ignored the suburbs of Chicago - and for good reason, as they largely voted Republican. For example, George Bush, Sr. drew 64% in Lake County (next to IL-06) in 1988. Yet times are changing: George W. Bush drew 50% in 2004. In the district itself, DuPage County (the largest part of the seat) dropped in support for Bush from 56% in 2000 to 53% in 2004. With increasing speed the Chicago suburbs have turned from manufacturing to technology as their economic base, and as such are trending Democratic.
But the grassroots of these suburbs had been neglected for a long time, and Christine saw that. She brought people together from all across the district, giving them a reason to believe that someday they would elect a Democrat to Henry Hyde's seat. You can ask any of the Illinois-06 posters here - and there are many of them - why they are behind her, and you'll get the same main thrust of reason: she cares.
She cares about how we're going to make Iraq safe - and how to bring our troops home without endangering that safety.
She cares about why we need to give health insurance to each and every American - fulfilling the promise that Harry Truman gave to American in 1948.
She cares about the quality of life her children - all of us, too - are going to have; what kind of education, protecting the social safety net, saving our jobs.
She cares about protecting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights from the assult and battery it has suffered in the last six years:
"The Bush Administration has created such a level of paranoia and fear in our nation that half of our country thinks they are willing to give up their basic constitutional right to privacy and allow anyone the Vice President and company chooses to be wiretapped."
And, perhaps most importantly, she cares about the kind of future this nation will have; whether we will take the low road of fear and suspicion, or whether we will march along the high road of progressive Democracy. And that is what this election is all about! That is what Christine Cegelis is all about, and that is why I'm supporting her for Congress.
That's Christine's story - up until February 2006.
Christine was running in the Democratic primary against Tammy Duckworth and another Democrat. Duckworth ultimately won the nomination by a 44-40% margin, and went on to fight Peter Roskam in the general election. But Christine did not fade away. She became a Field Organizer for Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) (http://www.adaction.org/index.htm), which is an old-school progressive organization that pushed hard for Democratic candidates in 2006.
A little bit on ADA:
ADA is America's oldest independent liberal lobbying organization. In the spirit of the New Deal and ADA founders Eleanor Roosevelt, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, and former Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey we lobby through coalition partnerships, through direct advocacy, and through the media. Our lobbying philosophy is based on democratic action - motivating our grassroots members to lobby their senators and representatives as constituent-advocates. With 65,000 members nationwide, numerous state and local chapters, and its headquarters in the District of Columbia actively engaging in the political process, ADA continually strives to push for democratic and progressive values and ideals in American policy. Our founders included Eleanor Roosevelt, labor leader Walter Reuther, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
http://www.adaction.org/...
It was as part of ADA that Humphrey successfully got the 1948 DNC to pass a pro-civil rights plank over the objections of a segregationist Southern delegation. The African-American vote swung back to Harry Truman as a result (from Henry Wallace), and probably put him over the top.
ADA originally was founded as a liberal but anti-Communist organization. Now that the USSR is dead, they are active with labor unions, passing progressive iniatives (such as the Minimum Wage increase efforts) and running local grassroots campaigns. Its President is Congressman Jim McDermott.
This is the organization that Christine chose to get involved with - after losing a rough primary campaign. She went all across the Midwest in 2006, pushing for Democratic candidates and helping to get people involved. She picked herself up from the ground and helped raise other people to office. When I last spoke to her before the election, she was driving through Wisconsin on her way to help a Congressional candidate in Iowa. His name? Dave Loebsack, now Congressman-elect from IA-02.
Now Christine is back in Illinois, and presumably is getting some well-deserved rest. But I strongly believe that if 1,000 votes had gone her way in March of 2006, she would be Congresswoman-elect Cegelis right now. The grassroots base in IL-06 likes her a great deal (if you recall from the primary), and she has the experience to run a strong campaign against an arch-conservative like Roskam. And with Illinois likely to vote Democratic in 2008 (and by a wide margin), look for the district (which gave Kerry 47% in 2004) to go Democratic for the Presidential race as well.
So, here's my dilemma: I know Christine can win in 2008, but she doesn't have the personal wealth or national connections to raise the necessary funds. My question for you guys is this: could the blogosphere be able to fund her campaign? We're talking about $1 million dollars here, a true national movement for a Congressional candidate. We've raised that money in 2006, and no doubt will accomplish that again in 2008 - why not for Christine?
But that is for you guys to decide. Take the poll, and comment below, and let me know what YOU think. Thanks!