I woke up this morning and a news article actually brought a smile to my face. Peter O'Malley has dropped out of the race in IL-06.
Why does this matter?
The preffered netroots candidate in this race has been Christine Cegelis. In 2004 she ran against Henry Hyde and received over 44% of the vote. In that election she was endorsed by DFA and pretty much every progressive group you can imagine.
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Christine supports universal health care, opposed the war, opposes unfair trade deals like CAFTA, is pro-choice and is genuinely a progressive candidate. This is NO Mellissa Bean who ran as a conservative Democrat and has voted that save way. Chrisitine understands our values and promises to fight for them.
Ever since the last election ended, Christine Cegelis has been running for 2006. She consistenly posts on DailyKos with updates and conversations about ideas she has. Recently, Christine was even a finalist in the voting for the DFA endorsement. She didnt' get it this time but will likely do so soon.
Still, Rahm Emannuel and the DCCC didn't endorse her and help clear the field, instead Peter O'malley was put up as a more "moderate" candidate. Well, after all the fundraising drives spearheaded by the netroots, O'Malley finally saw the writing on the wall.
From: http://capitolfax.blogspot.com/
" Mr. O'Malley, an arbitrator with the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, cited the demands of his job and the best interests and needs of his young family as the reasons behind his decision. "
Christine still has another primary opponent in Lindy Scott but should be able to win this easily. Now she can focus on the general and she needs your help. She's actually running against Peter Roskam, an anti-gay bigot who worked for AND still supports Tom Delay. This can be a pick up in 2006, if only the DCCC gets its act together and stops being so afraid of supporting a progressive candidate.
