Let us begin with a bit of history. Melissa Bean, running her first campaign against Phillip Crane in 2002, only garnered
43% of the vote, and she raised
$329,027.
Join me in the extended body.
Christine Cegelis, who ran her first campaign in Illinois 06 in 2004, only raised $189,398 but earned 44.2% of the vote. Both Cegelis and Bean ran against entrenched Republican incumbents, and neither was expected to win. But Bean received critical support for her 2004 campaign from organizations such as the DCCC. She ended up winning in 2004, earning
52% to Crane's 48%. But she had to spend
$1,603,230 in order to do oust her opponent. And a lot of these funds came from labor and ideological
PACs whose money normally funds incumbents and challengers with DC approval.
Enter Rahm Emanuel, who is only in his second term in Congress. A proven expert with unimpeachable experience on Congressional elections he certainly is not. That will be determined after the 2006 elections. For some inexplicable reason, he refuses to support Cegelis. Perhaps it is personal; perhaps it is ideological; perhaps it is due to his pro-war stance, or his belief that "Mrs. Pelosi's stance could backfire on the Democrats." So he decides to recruit a woman named "Tammy" Duckworth for the job. Duckworth has not intention of becoming a resident of Illinois sixth Congressional district.
His recruitment choice is not solely motivated by his desire to create a broader national narrative during the 2006 midterm elections, as many believe it is; it is also Rahm's attempt to communicate to Cegelis that a pro-war, pro-Dean Democrat is not welcome to the floor of the House. For this is how one reporter paraphrases Emanuel's strategy for criticizing President Bush's mishandling of the war in Iraq:
"What I want Democrats to be discussing is what the president's policies have led to," Emanuel said. He added that once discussion turns to a formal timeline for troop withdrawals, "the how and when gets buried" and many voters take away only an impression that Democrats favor retreat.
According to Emanuel, Democrats should not ask for troop withdrawl, as the "how and the when" will somehow never surface in the discussion. Instead, Democrats should passively criticize the Bush administration and simply await the outcome of Bush's problematic war strategy. Democratics should not be involved in policy, and they certainly should not try to shape it. They should just accept the war, not articulate the public's general disdain for it. If thousands of American troops and millions of Iraqis die, that is fine. We will just criticize the outcome. Thank you Rahm for a lesson in the politics of deadly cynicism. He calls it "go slow;" I call it centrist bilge.
So Democrats are not allowed to criticize the war. Unfortunately for Cegelis, she has been a critic of the war since her announcement of candidacy in September 2003. Here is her position on the war:
"[I]t is time to come up with a plan for a complete withdrawal from Iraq."
This may explain why she was a member of the Dean Dozens during the 2004 election campaign. Endorsed by the current Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and by a former Presidential nominee, she recieved a lot of national press and a lot of support in the blogosphere. But apparently it is not good enough for Emanuel.
And this should be of no surprise, for according to one commentator:
It was sad to see Emanuel and his cohorts fail to endorse Murtha. Despite the realization that Congress was sold a bill of goods in endorsing the war, the Emanuel-led Democrats fled when Murtha took a strong stand.
They also put a damper on Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee after he said Monday that "the idea we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong."
So a war between Pelosi and Dean and Emanuel and a loose band of House Democrats. And Cegelis is caught in the middle. Cegelis, being the intelligent woman she is, is acutely aware of Rahm's posturing, posting as she does a photograph of her and Pelosi on the cover page of her website. She met Pelosi at an invitation only event sponsored by the New House PAC. Cegelis may be Pelosi's choice, but Emanuel, who is publicly opposing his leader, has decided to make his opposition all the more official by choosing Duckworth. Cegelis is caught in the middle.
But it is not just Cegelis who has been uncomfortably abandoned in a no (wo)man's land; the voters of DuPage County and of Illinois 06 have also been abandoned by the Democratic party. Listen to Democratic Party of DuPage County Chairman Gayl Ferraro:
[T]he residency of Army Maj. Ladda "Tammy" Duckworth [who does not even live in Illinois 06] "is going to be an issue with a lot of our voters, from what I've been hearing."
Emanuel's undermining Cegelis has made some DuPage Democrats "very angry about the whole situation. They are looking at it as the DCCC coming in and telling them what to do.
But even worse, Emanuel's procurement of volunteers to circulate petitions in Illinois 06 on behalf of Duckworth may be in violation of Federal Election Commission regulations. And it certainly does not help the sixth district's Democrats to have a candidate in their primary that the Republican opposition refers to as "the non-candidate candidate." But unfortunately, they are right, for Duckworth, besides not residing in the sixth district, also lacks any political experience, although Rahm is presently trying to transform military credentials, WOUNDS, and her trips to Asia with Rotary International into relevant political experience. Too bad there are no military bases in the sixth district. There is only O'Hare airport, and Christine worked for two major commercial airlines before creating her consulting business. Tammy just flew military planes.
But this is not all. Rahm Emanuel is once reported to have said the following:
"People aren't happy with Washington! Look, we should be the party outside of Washington coming to goddamn kick ass out there."
Very laudable, this, but too bad it is not the truth. For according to Gayl Ferraro:
Democrats in DuPage, many of whom back Cegelis, have been working for years to build the party despite long odds.
And this statement uttered by a Roosevelt University professor corroborates Ferraro's characterization of DuPage County Democrats:
"The fact that there is any race at all is the real story." "This is new. In the old days, you were lucky to get anyone who wanted to run" because the district is so heavily Republican.
Christine also says it herself:
"I was not cognizant of how little-organized the Democratic Party was here. I ended up doing a Google search of how to get on the ballot." "The DuPage Democratic Party has been great in helping me out, but prior to that I would not have had any clue."
So from Google search to DC intervention. Apparently Emanuel really wants to be the organizer of the "outside party" that promises to "goddam ass out there." So much for being the pugilist, Rahm. I guess you have to vicariously fulfill this fantasy through a gullible woman who just lost three limbs.
So this is Cegelis's quandary. She is caught between a power struggle between Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi, and she cannot attract large doners in the Chicagoland area, because Rahm Emanuel happens to be both a Representative from a contiguous district and the Chairman of the DCCC. What can she do? What can Christine, who is one of us actually do? She can gain our support, and I urge all Kossaks to send her some money. Here is her website.
So Christine does better than Bean with less, but she must be punished more. Christine is one of us, and we must communicate to the DCCC that this is simply unacceptable. I know many are annoyed with those of us who support Christine, but this is just egregious. Democrats have a right to assume different stands from those who are in Washington, and a candidate who earned 44.2% of the vote in her district without the help of the DCCC despite her anti-war stance should not be punished. Please support Christine, and please place pressure on the DCCC to withdraw their candidate from the Democratic primary. Besides being potentially illegal, it provides the Republican party with more ammunition. Just look at the NRCC's website. Thank you Rahm for nationalizing an election that should be based on local issues.
