the most important news at this point is that early voting has begun. for those who live in illinois' 3rd congressional district, the ballot positions are:
all the democrats in this race have filed their voter guide questions. lipinski's response states "I have also been a leader in the battle to responsibly bring our troops home from Iraq." pera's response argues that "More than anything else, voters are tired of politicians in Washington D.C. who are beholden to special interests and they are fed up with the nepotism and corruption that we see from the Lipinskis and the Strogers of Cook County." bennett's response observes:
During those 27 years [as mayor], I've worked with my fellow mayors and other public officials to transform the town and our region. We've come up with innovative solutions for building infrastructure, improving law enforcement and securing a safer environment.
I've been campaigning for Mark Pera in the 11th Ward. It's a nearly-isolated island of the 3d Congressional District. As Yoda wrote earlier, we have seen nobody else out for this race. (I mean nobody out for the other three candidates. We have seen non-members of NDFA help us. Most Pera volunteers who aren't involved in our group campaign elsewhere.)
I've seen one states-attorney candidate's flyers and something for a guy who'w running for Republican committeeman. I've seen a mailing from a state-senate candidate in an open mailbox. I've seen nothing from Bennet or Caparelli.
it's a brand new year. the primaries are less than a month away and the campaigns in illinois' 3rd congressional district are in full gear. at least they should be. the biggest piece of news in this race is that the endorsement session for the chicago tribune is available:
the surprising thing is that dan lipinski wasn't there. perhaps one cannot be too surprised, given the ongoing scandal that surrounds the incumbent congressman. the introductory segment of the session gives a great summary of what the different campaigns think are driving this campaign. the video starts jim capparelli, then goes to jerry bennett while mark pera is the last to give his introduction.
there's been a slew of news in this race, for everybody running. rep. lipinski got the afl-cio endorsement [PDF] and the afscme endorsement. this isn't a surprise given the association of speaker madigan with lipinski, and madigan's closeness with the unions. lipinski also got the endorsement of pipefitters local 597.
mark pera got the endorsement of NARAL/Pro-Choice America as well as the endorsement of forrest claypool, who won almost 70 percent of the vote in four il-03 townships during the 2006 primary. pera was also endorsed by reformers ald. manny flores, ald. brendan reilly, ald. scott waguespack, st. sen. dan kotowski, st. rep. john fritchey, and mwrd commissioner debra shore.
if media was all that mattered, the race against rep. lipinski would be lopsided. lipinski has generated a lot of negative publicity in his run-up to re-election, and you'd expect someone to take advantage of it. the incumbent faces a mini-scandal, one that doesn't particularly help his image as he tries to separate himself from his father (who handed him the seat in 2004). kristen mcqueary lays out the reasons for the lipinski scandal, and rich miller, of the capitol fax blog, summarizes:
Bill Lipinski games the system to get his kid elected to Congress. The son keeps his dad's cronies on the payroll, and two of them (includng one who remains on the payroll) are getting payments from his father's childrens' charity fund, which doesn't appear to be doing a lot of charitable work except for Dan Lipinski's benefit. Dan shares an office with his daddy's lobbying firm and even pays that firm for advice, but he insists he never talked with daddy about a project that the elder Lipinski is working on.
mark pera has emerged as the early netroots favorite. he's demonstrated that he's serious about this race, lining up pat botterman as his campaign manager and julie sweet as his deputy. pera has gotten the dfa endorsement and convinced the local dfa groups (all outside the 3rd) to send in the troops. pera just announced the endorsement of citizen action, which has been a bellweather endorsement in the past.
The first thing of interest is how much the progressive blogosphere is played up.
Lipinski has been targeted by Democratic and liberal bloggers for a voting record that includes opposition to abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Lipinski was one of 59 House Democrats, and one of two Democrats in the Illinois delegation, who voted in May against a measure that would have required a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq beginning in 90 days.
Matt Stoller, who blogs at OpenLeft.com, has branded Lipinski as a "Bush Dog Democrat." Commentators on popular left-leaning sites DailyKos.com and MyDD.com have repeatedly criticized Lipinski's social-issue conservatism.
That's the first step. The second is in coalescing the progressive blogosphere around a single candidate (Mark Pera). The third step is getting that support into the media narrative. Even the CQ (CW?) article notes that with three declared challengers there's going to be a split of the anti-Lipinski vote. Which brings us to the second major point I took from the article.
[Mayor of Palos Hills and challenger Gerald] Bennett declined to comment on Lipinski's record in Congress. He said he was interested in the 3rd District seat in 2004, but that a campaign was precluded by how William Lipinski timed his retirement to allow his son to be nominated in his place.
Great job Jerry. There's no better way to beat an incumbent then to not comment on their record in Congress.
The Daily Southtown says that Palos Hills Mayor Jerry Bennett has officially filed with the FEC to challenge Lipinski in the primary.
Mark Pera, the school board president for Lyons Township High School and resident of Western Springs, has filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run in the 2008 Democratic primary against U.S Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd).
Palos Hills Mayor Jerry Bennett also has filed a declaration of candidacy with the FEC.
Because it always benefits an incumbent to face two or more challengers (they split the vote of dissatisfied constituents), it won't be long before people begin to speculate if one of the candidates is a stalking horse for Lipinski.
When I wrote earlier about the possibility of a Lipinski plant in order to draw votes away from Mark Pera, I did so with tongue firmly in cheek and without any proof or expectation. It is still there, there's no evidence that Jim Capparelli is in the IL-3 primary to draw anti-Lipinski votes from Pera or to act as a Lipinski surrogate against Pera. That said, the idea has now made the leap from the blogs onto the printed page. Will it take the next step into the voters minds? Will it matter?
Ray Hanania of the Southwest News-Herald writes:
Three people have announced their intentions to challenge former Cong. William O. Lipinski's son Dan for congress in the February Democratic primary: The most serious seems to be Mark Pera of Western Springs.
He's the least likely to have been nudged into the race by the very politically savvy senior Lipinski to divide the vote and protect his still young political son.
Southwest News-Herald reporter Dermot Connolly reported that Jim Capparelli is also planning to run. I am definitely not convinced about Capparelli, whose supporters begin their criticism of Lipinski by saying "Nothing against the Lipinskis, but …"
Now there's a great slogan for an attack brochure!
Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett says he might run, too. Seriously? He'd have to work real hard at name-calling to prove that.
Lipinski's supporters are openly criticizing Pera, implying he is an "ingrate," but not saying too much about Capparelli, which might suggest they secretly back Pera and oppose Capparelli.
A third candidate has now entered the primary battle against Dan Lipinski in Illinois' 3rd. Jim Capparelli is by all reports a good guy. He was in the army and is currently a Lt. Col. in the reserves. He followed that with a position in the Will County State's Attorney's office before taking a position as Veterans’ Rights Bureau Chief for Lisa Madigan. He's now in private practice. He's against continuing the war in Iraq (though without details it's hard to say what that means) and dislikes the nepotism that got Lipinski his position.
That said, I can't for the life of me understand why he got into the race. He doesn't have a history as an elected official and his positions don't seem to be substantially different from those of already declared candidate Mark Pera. He admittedly has no money and his supporters are reported as consisting primarily of a "large extended family".
I don't begrudge anyone the right to run. And while I like what I've seen from Mark Pera already, who's to say that it wouldn't have been exactly the opposite if Capparelli had declared first? I don't have any reason to believe that there are any motives behind his candidacy other than attempting to better represent the people of the 3rd (who it would certainly seem deserve a better representative than Lipinski). I still have to wonder though, are we just seeing a replay of the 2006 primary where two candidate split the anti-Lipinski vote while the incumbent skates through without a worry?
