By Stephen Yellin
(Note: I've known Christine since late 2003, and so what I say here may seem a bit idealistic. Too bad for you naysayers, it's also the truth!)
http://www.cegelisforcongress.com
To my fellow bloggers,
There 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 Cegelis 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, 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. Hundreds of grassroots volunteers joined together to help Christine, inspired by her and by her progressive ideology. And together, they succeeded in driving Henry Hyde out of politics.
Christine has kept running for the seat since the 2004 election. But this will be an open seat race this time around. Alarmed by Hyde's weak showing in 2004, the RNC pushed him into retirement for 2006. Instead, they're running a former staffer of Tom DeLay, State Senator Peter Roskam. Roskam is not only an arch-conservative, but has the dubious honor of being the first non-incumbent featured by the DCCC's "Crony of the Week" program. Only a few months ago DeLay came to Illinois to fundraise for his protégé; now, Senator Mini-Me is running away from his Dr. Evil like he's running the 100-meter dash.
In short, Roskam can be beaten. The district is winnable, and especially so with the wind at our backs for 2006. More importantly, the district can be won by Christine Cegelis. I'm not going to go and criticize the DCCC for backing Tammy Duckworth over Christine in the primary; too much typing has been done on that subject already. Rather, I want to present a couple of key reasons why we should positively support Christine, and why she can and will win with our support. It boils down to this:
Christine is one of us
"One of us" can have many different connotations; in Christine's case, it is definitely so. She is a progressive, an average American and a blogger - in short she fits the profile of so many of us here who write our hearts out online. She has written 12 diaries here and elsewhere, and has made sure to answer questions herself. Just the titles indicate her passion for reform and for taking our country back:
"Time to Clean House" (1/7/06) http://www.dailykos.com/...
"Urgent Action Needed to Prevent Cuts on Critical Programs" (11/3/05) Note: This article was written not about herself, but for protecting Medicare and student loan funding.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"When There is no Vision, the People Perish: Proverbs 29:18" (9/12/05) Note: An article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and our responsibility to the poor
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"You Have to Run Twice" (3/8/05)
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Some of her articles have received over 100 comments; others, just 2 or 3. Regardless of how many she has received, she has kept writing, just as so many of us do. She understands our concerns, our desires, because she has those same concerns and those same desires. I urge you all to go to http://www.dailykos.com/... to see all of her diaries.
But there is more to Christine than just posting here; some of her best writing has never been commented on, sadly enough. Her own website, http://www.cegelisforcongress.com has had a blog since the summer, and she has written numerous articles there. She has commented on the erosion of civil liberties, on Francine Busby's (CA-50) "CLEAN House Act", on withdrawing our troops from the Iraq quagmire, on her grassroots efforts and on the path our country is taking. You can read her writing for yourself at http://www.cegelisforcongress.com/... and see for yourself what I'm talking about. But here's an excerpt for you:
"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. It is not only terrorists and their accomplices who are being targeted -- the scope of this illegal program implies that many ordinary citizens are under surveillance, some simply because of their faith or association with a mosque.
Would Americans feel the same way if they knew that it might be their neighbors who were being targeted? When will we find out that political enemies were on the list of those under surveillance? The point is: Absolute power cannot reside in one branch of our government. That is why our founding fathers created checks and balances.
I have many friends and colleagues in my district who are Muslim. I have been a guest on many occasions at their mosques and attended many of their civic functions. They are doctors, lawyers, store owners, office workers. They are the parents next to us at our children's soccer game. They come from a variety of different nations and cultures, and most have no more in common with one another than I have with a Roman Catholic from, say, Poland or Guatemala. They share a common faith. And now another thing they share is a sense that they are under scrutiny. Because this wiretapping by the NSA can be carried out at the discretion of the Bush administration, without the buffering judgment of a court authorization, it has only increased the feeling of these Americans that their faith has brought them suspicion, distrust and now, perhaps, surveillance of their private conversations and correspondence.
If we allow this illegal wiretapping to continue, we are failing in our responsibility to preserve the very freedom that makes us a great nation and we are denying the civil rights of our fellow community members. The President and his administration are not above the law. This illegal spying must end and those who authorized it must be punished." (1/12/06) http://www.cegelisforcongress.com/...
This is a progressive, a fighter we can be proud of! This open seat is a golden opportunity to elect one of our own (literally) to Congress, and we cannot afford to pass that up.
As for those who question whether she can win this race without DCCC support, I'd like to bring up the case of Maryanne Connelly in 2000. Who, you might ask? Connelly first ran for Congress in 1998 against Republican Bob Franks in my home district of NJ-07. Franks was considered unbeatable after clobbering a millionaire opponent in 1996; Connelly, a small-town Mayor held him to 52% after raising little money. She ran again in 2000, after Franks vacated the seat, and was challenged in the primary by the DCCC's "chosen one", Michael Lapolla. Guess what? Connelly won, and the DCCC decided to GET ON BOARD. Connelly ultimately raised nearly $2 million, and narrowly lost due to her opponent (Mike Ferguson, still my Congressman - ick!)'s questionable negative ads.
And 2006's climate will produce wins that 2000 would never have seen.
The national Democrats know opportunity when they see it. In 2000 they knew that they would have to contest NJ-07, regardless of whether Maryanne Connelly lost or not. In 2006, they will do the same thing for Christine in IL-06 - precisely for the same reasons. This open seat is too important to ignore, for if we want to take back the House this year we need seats like Hyde's to go our way. As such, I am confident that once Christine wins the primary (and if you knew her grassroots support there, you'd know that she will) she will get all the money she needs to beat Tom DeLay's sock puppet and become a Congresswoman.
Christine has currently broken her 2004 fundraising mark, and she needs our help to make sure she can continue that momentum. I urge you all to go to her site, http://www.cegelisforcongress.com and give what you can. Let me reiterate that her campaign is not about "sticking it"to the DCCC or even a typical"throw the bums out" campaign. Christine can truly become "our candidate", one that as a Congresswoman will remember that it was the average American - people like us - who got her to Congress.
Imagine having a Representative speaking the same words she's said before on C-SPAN, and having them in the Congressional Record.
Imagine have a Representative from the "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" as a freshman, a citizen-legislator who will fight for the future of this country with nothing to lose.
And imagine a Representative who took a chance, made a leap and reached the stars, all because she cared about the future her children would have.
If you care about that dream, that future, then you should care about Christine Cegelis. I hope you'll support her as I have, and help her get into Congress in 2006.