On Thursday, October 18th we are having our third Chicago DKos Meetup in the past 6 weeks.
The first meetup featured Daniel Biss, an excellent candidate in the 17th Illinois State Congressional District, not to mention Kossack. Daniel's efforts at fundraising online for a State level race were recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal.
The second meetup featured Blue Majority candidate for the 3rd Congressional District in Illinois, Mark Pera. Pera's opponent in this race has recently seen the scrutiny levels turned way up on him, as the local press and blogs have laid into him for various electoral shennanigans, while Pera has received better than anticipated responses from Lipinski strongholds, like the Mount Greenwood neighborhood in Chicago.
Anyway, we are happy to announce that we have 2 great candidates joining us for the third meetup, not to mention several great format changes!
The candidates are Dan Seals, a Blue Majority candidate running in IL-10 against Mark Kirk. Kirk has joined with Dan Lipinski in recent months to promote what OpenLeft has referred to as the "Iraq Blurring Strategy," the two teaming up to introduce completely toothless legislation asking the President to pretty please think about changing course in Iraq.
Before Seals can take Kirk down; however, he has to get by a challenge from Jay Footlik, a Washington insider who believed that Kirk was unbeatable two years ago. That is, before Seals nearly knocked Kirk out running an underfunded campaign that flew below the DCCC's radar for most of the 2006 cycle. Now, Footlik, who is a close associate of Joe Lieberman, having donated to him after his loss to Ned Lamont:From OpenSecrets:
FOOTLIK, JAY
FALLS CHURCH,VA 22044
RSLB PARTNERS, INC./CONSULTANT
11/7/2006
$500
Lieberman, Joe
Footlik was also a senior foreign affairs staffer to Lieberman's 2004 Presidential campaign, and worked as a lobbyist until recently.
The other candidate is a one of our very own, Ron Shepston, who is running for the 42nd Congressional District seat in California. On DailyKos, Shepston is known as
CanYouBeAngryandStillDream. Currently represented by Gary Miller, the district covers suburban areas southest of Los Angeles. Miller has been listed on CREW's 20 most corrupt members of Congress (what is it with these California Congressmen?), having found ways to sell land in 2002 to the city of Monrovia without paying tax by claiming that Monrovia used eminent domain to acquire the property. The city makes no such claims. He did it again in 2005 and 2006, this time with the city of Fontana ( source). Mr. Miller is apparently under investigation by the FBI.
Anyway, those are the candidates this week.
Now for the other news. First, we have changed the venue. We have a room reserved at Goose Island - Clybourn (1800 N. Clybourn, Chicago, IL 60614). Goose Island offers a number of advantages over the previous site. GI has parking on site for those of you who prefer to drive. It is conveniently located near the Kennedy expressway (exit at North Avenue, go east to clybourn, turn left), near the North and Clybourn red line station, and about 3/4 of a mile west of the Sedgewick brown line stop. It's also near the North Avenue and Halsted Buses.
Furthermore, Goose Island offers FREE WIFI!!! WE WILL BE LIVE-BLOGGING THIS EVENT!!!!!! So all you kossacks who can't make it should plan on joining us Thursday night at 8 pm (ish). Bring your questions! And think about making a donation to the candidates!
Plus, Goose Island has great refreshments of both the adult and non-adult styles (Goose Island Beer and soft drinks).
To recap:
Date/Time: Thursday, October 18, 8pm
Location: Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn, Chicago 60614
Guests: Dan Seals and Ron Shepston
Cost: Free, though donations to the candidates are encouraged
When you arrive, tell them you are with the reservation under DailyKos Bloggers
Kossacks who can't make it to the shindig or the live blog, please leave any questions you may have for the candidates in the comments below and we'll try to ask your questions!
Future events are being planned...keep an eye out for future diaries!