some old timers here will remember the bitter fight for IL 6 in '04 and '06.
i worked both those campaigns. christine cegelis knew it would take 2 tries to turn that red district blue.
in '04, she got 42% of the vote. enough to make henry hyde retire.
she was a dean dozen, and supported by the dnc.
in '06, the dnc got it in their heads that she wasnt raising enough money. but she was raising an army of volunteers.
that didnt count, and they pushed a not-ready-for-prime-time tammy duckworth into the race. she didnt even live in the district. her first policy statement was that she wanted to fix the alternative minimum tax, something many in those wealthy burbs had to cough up. she never did stand up for choice, which was ceglisis central policy stance.
tammy won the primary by 102 votes.
in those days, dupage county was a hotbed of election protection activism. those activists were there election night. they all agreed it was sketchy. their sage verdict- this is not a hill to die on.
despite demographic change and the fact that jan schakowsky carved out some the more blue collar areas of her district, tammy lost the general, and we were saddled w joe walsh and peter ro-scum.
now repped by raja krishnamorthy. a good guy but a blue dog. but that is the district.
brass knuckles, ppl. time to stop bringing butter knives to gun fights.
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