IL-Sen: Schakowsky Says She'll Run if There's a Special (Maybe Roskam, Too)

[ccharles000]

The Seminal has a great scoop:

Last night at the Midwest Academy Awards and 35th Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown introduced Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky by saying, "We may have a special election in Illinois, and if Jan Schakowsky runs, I'll support her."
At the end of her speech, Schakowsky threw her hat in the ring, announcing that she was "passing around a clipboard" for people to sign up to be on an organizing committee for her "Senate race, and a basket for donations will follow right behind." The audience cheered.

In related news, it looks like GOP Rep. Peter Roskam might be interested as well:


Kirk isn't the only credible Illinois Republican mulling a Senate bid. A source close to Rep. Peter J. Roskam said the second-term congressman is also "very interested" in running for the Senate seat and wouldn't automatically defer to Kirk. Roskam has a more conservative voting record than Kirk and has won election to a suburban Chicago seat during two rough election cycles for the GOP.
This is potentially great news. I'd love to see Roskam and Kirk bash each other to bits in a GOP primary. And I think, despite Kirk's seniority, there's a good chance Roskam could win by appealing to conservative elements in the Republican Party. Who knows - maybe the Club for Growth would get involved on his behalf.

http://www.swingstateproject.com

[lapfog_1]

1. I don't like the idea of the special election.

A Democrat won that Senate seat and it should remain in Democratic hands until the term expires.

What I want is for Blago to wake up and smell his fried bacon and f'ing resign, letting the Lt. Governor take over and appoint whoever to the seat.

A special just opens up the door to losing the seat to the repukes (unlikely I know, but why take any risk?).

[terrya]

2. I'm not sure that Blagojevich will resign anytime soon.

It looks to me, right now, like he's digging in his heels.

Hell, if you have the next President of the United States, all of the Democratic members of the United States Senate, not to mention all of the top elected officials of the executive branch of the Illinois state government demanding that you resign, that's a pretty clear signal. I'm thinking that they'll have to resort to an impeachment and removal of office here. As we've seen, Rod Blagojevich hasn't exactly been into altruism and serving the interests of the people first in his dealings as governor.

[mucifer]

3. Schacowsky's husband was involved in scandal. I think she is great. But, she"s

not gonna win a senate seat. Unfortunately, I think it's gonna be mark kirk. He has a false reputation of being a moderate repub when he really is very conservative and no scandal in his background. It's not what I want but I think it's what's gonna happen.

[ccharles000]

4. ....

In a radio interview on June 18, Kirk said "if we see Obama there's a shoot-on-sight order."<20><21><22> He later acknowledged that he misspoke, personally apologized to Senator Obama and posted a public apology on his website.<23>



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kirk#Political_actions_and_positions

[mucifer]

5. dammmm! well that might count him out. I'd hope anyway.

However kirk got elected after saying that and his district is not conservative. My brother lives in the district and he voted for both Obama and kirk. Lots of people did.