Earlier this week, AC4508 reported on an item in Roll Call relaying an "insider" claim that the Republican leadership had settled on concrete contractor Martin Ozinga to replace fund-raising-adverse Tim Baldermann as the GOP candidate in IL-11. An article in this morning's Bloomington Pantagraph seems to indicate that the decision isn't a done deal yet.
Although Tim Baldermann hasn't filed the paperwork yet to end his congressional candidacy, Decatur native Harry Bond is moving ahead with his own effort to win the Republican nod to run for Congress in Illinois' 11th District.
Last week GOP officials said they will wait until April 30 to decide who will challenge for the right to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, a Morris Republican, in Washington D.C.
http://www.pantagraph.com/arti...
Pizza magnate Bond, whose name has also been mentioned in the same breath with Ozinga in earlier speculation on a replacement for Tim "I'm not calling a perfect stranger and asking for $2300" Baldermann, offers the same major attraction as the concrete man. The Monical's Pizza president can largely self-fund his campaign. 'Cause, you know, the Republicans' got nothin' this cycle.
So who knows? Maybe the information AC4508 reported is right, Ozinga is in, and Bond's move is akin to Ray LaHood's announcement a few months ago that he was no longer interested in the Bradley University position that BU insiders claimed he was never being considered for. Time will tell, apparently. Or maybe more reliable insiders.
This is my first diary at PSB. Although I don't live in IL-11, I can be there in less than five minutes. Walking. (Thanks to that Bloomington/Normal tentacle that slices through the little farm community where I live.) I'm pulling for you folks who live in the district. Debbie Halvorson sounds like she'd make a fine representative.
