Jacobson- Rabid fox in the hen houseOn Sunday we looked at a relatively new phenomenon happening in American politics right now: conservative-- usually Republican-- billionaires investing huge sums of money in Democratic primaries.
Tuesday night, with 483 of 500 precincts counted (97%) Marie Newman refused to concede to reactionary Blue Dog Dan Lipinski (who also refrained from declaring victory). By bedtime, the score was 45,615 (50.9%) to 44,016 (49.1%). Newman said she "would like Mr.
This Tuesday is primary day in Illinois. There are several crucial battles going on between progressives and corporate Democrats but there are4 none where the contrast is clearer than in the Chicagoland seat which pits Marie Newman against right-of-center Blue Dog Dan Lipinski. The DCCC has sided with Lipinski of course, but progressive Democrats from Jan Schakowsky, Luis Gutiérrez and Ro Khanna to Bernie Sanders and Chuy Garcia are strongly backing Marie (also endorsed by Blue America).
It shouldn't surprise anyone that Steny Hoyer has been an enthusiastic, full-throated supporter of anti-Choice, ant-immigrant, anti-healthcare, anti-LGBTQ fake-Dem Dan Lipinski all along. Hoyer's slimy money laundering operation AmeriPAC, gave Lipinski $5,000 immediately (at around the same time the GOP PAC, Susan B. Anthony List gave Lipinski $6,200.) Pelosi's backing for the bigoted right-winger was slightly more surprising.
Reminder: today is March 9, The Illinois primaries are Match 20. And unlike the Texas primaries Tuesday, there are no runoffs. These are for keeps. The other day, we ran a guest post by Tony Sterbenc about a young progressive, Ryan Huffman, running in the crowded IL-06 primary for the Democratic nomination to take on vulnerable Republican Pete Roskam.
The first video is the first TV ad for the Chicagoland district (IL-03) by progressive reformer Marie Newman, the Democrat working to unseat Blue Dog Dan Lipinski, one of the most pro-Trump Democrats in Congress. It's pretty self evident what Marie is doing to create a plausible narrative to replace Lipinski. Recent polling shows that if the messaging in the video gets out to voters in the district, Lipinski will be defeated.
The Illinois primaries are just around the corner-- March 20. In a safely blue Chicago districts like IL-03, where Hillary beat Trump 55.2% to 39.9%-- that's the day the next member of Congress is determined. It's a big deal this year on IL-03 because the extreme right incumbent Democrat, Dan Lipinski, has his first-ever primary challenge.
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has a great voting record-- pretty much as good as it comes. ProgressivePunch rates her record a strong "A" and she's one of only 6 members of Congress this cycle with 100% scores (along with people like Barbara Lee, Jim McGovern and Jamie Raskin). When it comes to politics, though...
When Kirsten Gillibrand first ran for Congress, I used to talk with her frequently. She had me fooled that she was a progressive and Blue America helped her raise money and even got Rickie Lee Jones and the Squirrel Nut Zippers to help us make an ad for her campaign.
Incumbents always-- always-- circle the wagons around other incumbents of their own party who are challenged in primaries. Even when they know the incumbent being challenged is a corrupt bucket of slime bringing disrepute on the party and on Congress, incumbents will turn their backs on worthy challengers. Have any elected officials given Tim Canova a hand against Wasserman Schultz?
