I admit that I didn't know much about DK Hirner, the Democratic candidate for the US Congressional IL-18 seat. So, I went to a "meet the candidate" function to find out; the meeting was in a neighbor's house. What I found blew me away; D. K. Hirner is NOT a throw-away, "just go through the motions" candidate to fill in the ballot.
More below the fold (cross posted at my personal blog)
There's a primary race between two Democrats seeking to unseat Aaron Schock in the Illinois 18th Congressional district. Whoever wins will have a very tough race in a gerrymandered Republican district. That's probably why there's so little media coverage of the primary.
A glaring gap in that press coverage needs to be filled. Democratic candidate Deirdre "DK" Hirner was, until recently, Executive Director of the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group. The name certainly sounds environmental and a recent column blandly describes it as a group "which helps businesses work with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency."
The Peoria Journal Starr's first coverage of her campaign went further, describing it as an "environmental advocacy organization." It makes me wonder what she's telling reporters about her job.
The Environmental Regulatory Group is a Chamber of Commerce front group run by the worst polluters in Illinois. The Illinois Chamber website tells us that IERG was started for Chamber members to "represent business interests" in environmental regulation.
Their statement of purpose says they exist to "advance the interests of its Members, which include companies engaged in industry, commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, trade, energy and transportation." It doesn't mention anything about protecting the environment.
(I promoted this, as its a candidate diary, and that's what we do here. - promoted by BobB)
PLEASE NOTE: I originally posted this at Daily Kos on March 23rd, but I wanted to introduce myself here before posting anything else. Today is the day when I try to make a difference. But I'll need your help. I'm launching an exploratory committee today, to test the waters for a run against Aaron Schock in 2010 for the IL-18 Congressional District and I'll only be successful if I have the support of the Netroots. This is a PVI +5 district that hasn't elected a Democrat to Congress since 1914 so resources are scarce. I'm pretty much starting with nothing and facing an uphill battle, which for me is familiar territory.
As President-elect Barack Obama works to fill the final positions in his Cabinet, officials familiar with the decision said that a leading contender for Secretary of Transportation is Representative Ray LaHood, who would become a second Republican to join Mr. Obama's team.
One of the tasks awaiting the transportation secretary is helping to implement the vast public works projects that Mr. Obama has proposed to jumpstart the economy. A member of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. LaHood has experience overseeing - and spending money on - such projects.
Mr. LaHood, who is retiring this year after seven terms in Congress, has represented Peoria and the surrounding area in downstate Illinois. Known for moderate views, Mr. LaHood belonged to the Republican Main Street Partnership, but first rose to prominence when he presided over the House impeachment vote against President Bill Clinton.
I saw a new TV ad for Aaron Schock's Congressional campaign this week. This one features pictures of Illinois waterways and wetlands. Aaron poses next to a river while he promises to "keep fighting" for clean water.
So, does Schock have a strong record of protecting Illinois rivers and wetlands? I decided to ask some Sierra Club leaders who watch environmental issues in the Illinois General Assembly about major clean water bills in the last few years. There was an important bill on wetlands protection the year before Schock took office, so he doesn't have a voting record on that.
There were two bills about regulating surface discharge from septic systems included in the Illinois Environmental Council's 2007 legislative scorecard that environmental groups lobbied on. Schock voted against protecting waterways in both cases.
Colleen tells the truth about the G.O.P.'s wonder boy in her first two campaign commercials which are now up and running on the Callahan for Congress YouTube channel.
18th District Congressional candidate Aaron Schock is currently running ads that repeat the national Republican Party talking points about energy policy complete with pictures of windmills.
At a recent press conference announcing his rumored energy plan he parroted language that's often used by industry special interests who want large public subsidies for polluting sources of power, while making token efforts for renewable energy and efficiency projects. He specifically mentioned several items at the top of the agenda for pro-pollution lobbyists, including drilling in ANWR and off-shore. They would have us believe that this will lower gas prices but the minor increase in supply won't come close to matching the increase in demand from China and India.
Is Aaron Schock's plan any different than what's being offered by the polluting industries?
Wednesday evening I went to a packed open house for the new Springfield headquarters of Colleen Callahan, the Democrat running for Congress in the 18th District. I'm not very good at guessing crowd size but I'd say around 200 people came.
The crowd included the Springfield Democratic leaders usually seen at events for candidates with a good shot at winning. State Comptroller Dan Hynes spoke to introduce Callahan. Also there was her uncle, Gene Callahan, who's well known and popular among Springfield Democrats. That connection to Springfield will be important for a district spread out as far as the 18th.
We reported a week ago on IL-18's Colleen Callahan's opponent Aaron Schock's fund raising event. Well hat tip to Jonathan Singer over at MyDD for reminding us that 500 bucks is kinda cheap for a sitting president:
That the President has to go this low on the Democrats' target list in order to find a candidate willing to be the recipient of his fundraising largesse is telling.
But just how great is that largesse? According to the article, this is a $500 a plate fundraiser -- less than a quarter of the maximum $2,300 contributions Bush used to be able to demand for such appearances. The $500 donations being asked for to get into this event are the types of contributions that a former Governor or a campaign event featuring one of those '70s bands you kind of, but don't totally, remember are able to pull in. But a sitting President? Only $500 for a sitting President? That certainly seems a bit underwhelming.
If you are down that way here's her upcoming schedule:
Second quarter filing deadline is up, and below is a handy chart of fundraising courtesy of James at SSP:
Roskam is crushing Morgenthaler. Bean is sitting on a pile of cash. Kirk is outraising Seals and also sitting on a pile of cash. Ozinga had a really good quarter but Halvorson is still ahead in cash on hand. Harper and Biggert had similar quarters, but Biggert is winning the CoH race. Foster is kicking Oberweis to the curb. Abboud not so much. And Schock is pulling away.
During the Republican primary for the 18th Congressional District Aaron Schock got a lot of criticism for suggesting that we threaten to send nuclear weapons to Taiwan. I was more shocked by his suggestion that the United States covertly fund "Freedom Fighters" around the world such as Reagan did in Nicaragua and Afghanistan.
There must be something Schock missed when he studied the conservative revisionist history of the Reagan administration. A friend showed me this Schoolhouse Rock video that may help Aaron sort things out since he missed that day in school.
This morning, Billy Dennis, a.k.a. The Peoria Pundit breaks the story of the first Democrat to show interest in contesting the Republican nominee for the open Congressional seat being vacated by retiring Congressman Ray LaHood.
Dick Versace was the only Democrat to file to run for IL-18, the seat being vacated by Ray LaHood. Capitol Fax Blog (Rich Miller) reports that Versace has quit the race.
The Democrats can replace Versace with an appointed candidate.
It takes a lot of hard work and talent not to win in almost a century. Am I talking about the Chicago Cubs? No, I'm talking about an even more inept and much less lovable group of losers, the Democrats of IL-18 who haven't had a winner since the Wilson administration. Imagine, a district that has had one party rule through two world wars, a stock market crash, a great depression, a cold war, and the recession of 1982. We can land a man on the moon, but . . .
Peoria Pundit has a good interview up with Bill Edley, the former state Rep. who is considering a bid to replace Ray LaHood in IL-18. A couple of things are particularly noteworthy in the interview. The first is Edley's take on how to win in the 18th: economic populism.
When people vote their prejudices, they are going to get their pockets picked," Edley said. That's how politicians operate. Thirty years of this kind of Ronald-Reagan, unfair, laissez-fare, economics has not worked for the majority of the people."
Because of this, working families must cope with stagnant wages and a lack of health insurance if their employer doesn't provide it, he said.
"Where would we be today if we hadn't approved Medicare back in 1965?" Edley asked. "That was supposed to be a down payment for a similar system for everybody."
Instead, the nation had to pay for fighting the war in Vietnam and then pushed any thought of universal health care aside.
"[What we have now] is unsustainable. But there are very strong interest groups - the insurance companies and some medical groups - who oppose any kind of universal health care."
Edley isn't jumping in to the race just yet though. First he wants to know what Dick Versace is doing. Edley won't get into a contested primary. His belief is that the Democratic candidate needs all the money they can get for the general and that they will need to come in under the Republican's radar in a way that wouldn't be possible if they had just fought through a primary field.
I deleted my most recent quick hit. I have yet to see a single other media source report on Dick Versace, beyond the blurb in the Sun Times column. Sports reporters should stay away from politics, methinks.
I also noted a story in the Springfield paper from today that said that Versace is still considering a run
Anyway, my apologies if anyone else got over excited.
Today is the day when I try to make a difference. But I'll need your help. I'm launching an exploratory committee today, to test the waters for a run against Aaron Schock in 2010 for the IL-18 Congressional District and I'll only be successful if I have the support of the Netroots. This is a PVI +5 district that hasn't elected a Democrat to Congress since 1914 so resources are scarce. I'm pretty much starting with nothing and facing an uphill battle, which for me is familiar territory.
