This week Scott Harpers‘s campaign in IL-13 was one of only five races nationally and the only one in Illinois to be upgraded to the Red to Blue Emerging Races list by the DCCC.
On top of that this week Harper was also endorsed by DAPAC (Democratic Advancement Political Action Committee). From their website: “DAPAC is a unique progressive political action committee that targets Republican held seats in the U.S. House and helps “new progressive” Democratic candidates run and win in those districts.” They only support progressives: “All of our elected members of Congress from the last cycle have voted progressively on the issues. No other Democratic organization comes close to having a record as progressive as ours.”
All the smart, hard work Scott, his campaign manager Sarah Topy, her staff and the volunteers flocking to the campaign are putting in to elect this great candidate to the House is really paying off.
Read on for how this race is shaping up to be one of our biggest House wins this cycle.
Scott is the first serious candidate Bush loving, do nothing, 10 year incumbent Judy Biggert has ever faced. On primary day, Super Tuesday he got 25,000 more votes in the district than Biggert and her wingnut primary challenger combined.
We’re seeing a sea change folks, in formerly Republican stronghold DuPage County which makes up about a third of the district, where Markos cut his eye teeth canvassing in his misspent youth, almost 133,000 voters took Democratic ballots to 109,000 Republicant. I’ve been here for most of my life and I can tell you that’s never happened before. And it’s not like Repubs had nothing to vote for, this was long before Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos”, Biggert had her challenger, and there were several other contested primary races on their ballot. And let’s remember it was the last chance they had to vote for anyone but McCain to be their nominee. Romney dropped out two days later. I’m a precinct committeeman here and spent all day at my polling place. I know my voters and I know the Repubs. There were a lot of angry, fed up Republicans who felt betrayed crossing over. My Repub counterpart was a convention delegate for Romney and desperately tried to get them to vote for Mittens but he didn’t come close.
Keep in mind back in February hardly anyone knew who Scott was. He’s not a longtime politico, he’s never run for office before and if you googled his name last year chances are you’d come up with a reporter in Georgetown or a swimmer from Australia. I never heard of him before I met him at Yearly Kos in Chicago last year. On Super Tuesday he was just a name on the ballot with a “D” next to it. Now, thanks to Scott’s hard work, a lot of nights and weekends spent by volunteers, the grueling hours his staff puts in, and the money supporters have dug deep to contribute, a whole lot more voters not only know him but are excited about his candidacy.
The same can’t be said of Judy Biggert. Scott’s forced her to open a campaign HQ and for the first time ever she’s mounting a field campaign. She had to skip the Republican convention and the opportunity to hobnob with all those big money donors to march in Labor Day parades where Scott’s contingent more than doubled hers in all but one parade thanks to the Giant Ice Cream Cone disaster of 2008 in Naperville that kept many supporters from getting to Lemont in time.
By the end of the 2nd quarter on June 30 Harper outraised all four of Biggert’s previous challengers combined for their entire races. As a matter of fact he’s outraised her since the beginning of the year. But unfortunately that’s not enough.
Biggert has had a 10 year head start. She started with a huge warchest and can count on big banks she “oversees” (I use that term loosely) as the ranking member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. BTW she got that plum assignment, the only subcommittee or committee she’s ever risen to chair or been ranking member of in her illustrious career in the House when her Republican predecessor dropped dead. You’d think with her district being right next door to Denny Hastert’s all those years she’d be a brighter star in the wingnut firmament by now, but not Judy Biggert.
But I digress, She not only has big bank bucks backing her, (say that 5 times fast), she joined the rest of those fools on the House floor this summer spouting “drill baby drill!”. Hilariously the only wingnut I found that wrote anything on the net about her speech into the darkness said without a mic she couldn’t hear a word she said even though the writer was in the third row! It’ll come as no surprise that while she gives lip service to alternative energy and actually votes sometimes for it’s R&D funding she fights tooth and nail to make sure the fossil fuel industry stays on top. And why wouldn’t she? She’s got hundreds of thousands invested in them and has taken almost $88,000 of their campaign cash at last count, and probably a lot more since her grandstand play in the darkened House last month.
Her daughter is a pharmaceutical lobbyist in DC so what’s her take from healthcare interests? A cool $230,000.
I could go on and on but you get the picture. Scott Harper is up against an old fashioned money con backed by the fattest of cats who want her to keep fighting for their privileged position, the future be damned.
We’re on the verge of winning this race but we need people like you and me and our small donations to help make up that cash difference. The money will go toward the advertising blitz in the last few weeks that’ll help us reach those who don’t know enough about Harper yet and put us over the top.
Please give what you can to Scott’s campaign through the Emerging Races ActBlue page, $50, $100 bucks, even $5 would be a big help.