again, the most important news is that early voting has begun. for those who live in illinois’ 10th congressional district, the ballot positions for the primary election are:
only dan seals completed the voter guide question. his response notes:
After a short 11-month campaign and a lot of hard work, Dan shocked the pundits and incumbent Mark Kirk by winning 47 percent in the election. Dan is vying for the seat again in 2008, and this time with even more support.
the financial disclosure reports are out. seals reports a healthy “quarter:”
Total Contributions
Qtr: $329,731.01
Tot: $904,762.27Total Operating Expenditures
Qtr: $199,646.21
Tot: $383,183.77CoH: $627167.58
footlik’s report confirms what people are seeing on the ground:
Total Contributions
Qtr: $133,433.08
Tot: $422,308.08Total Operating Expenditures
Qtr: $414,415.88
Tot: $480,341.28CoH: $133,351.09
the saddest thing is, despite footlik’s considerable drop-off in donations, he still managed to raise in the 4th quarter pretty much what john laesch raised in an entire year.
being newspaper endorsement season, endorsements lead the news in this race, too. seals has swept these: he got the pioneer press endorsement, the daily herald endorsement as well as the chicago tribune’s:
Seals gets the edge, based on a better grasp of local issues and concerns. He is endorsed.
the sun-times endorsement was more expansive:
Seals our choice in the 10th District
Democratic voters in Illinois’ 10th Congressional District on Chicago’s North Shore should consider themselves lucky.
Two strong candidates are running in the Feb. 5 primary, vying for the chance to take on Republican incumbent Rep. Mark Kirk, who is running unopposed.
[…]
But the endorsement goes to Seals, who has significantly more local support than Footlik. We like his well-rounded background, including an international economics master’s degree, fluency in Japanese and a stint working for the federal government in Washington.
He also has an MBA and worked as director of marketing at GE Capital, experiences we hope prove helpful in national economic matters. He is the son of former Chicago Bears guard George Seals and a social worker.
Several of Seals’ policy ideas are more fleshed out than Footlik’s, particularly on the economy and immigration reform, including a push for Mexico to do more to control the flow of immigrants and boost its own economy.
Seals also has the best chance to defeat Kirk.
jay did get another endorsement that went last time to dan seals, that of the jewish political alliance of illinois. dan, otoh, got dick durbin’s endorsement again. durbin noted, as reported by the sun-times:
“If Dan Seals were not the candidate, Jay would be a very interesting choice,” Durbin said. “But Dan has been battle-tested. He knows the district inside and out. His opponent does not have that kind of experience.”
the chicago tribune used this quote:
“I think he’s one of our strongest congressional candidates in the country, and he proved it last time,” Durbin said. “He came very close, and I think he deserves another chance at it. I think he’s battle-tested and I’m happy to support his candidacy.”
the journal also covered durbin’s endorsement of seals.
chicago public radio covered the race. the chicago tribune noted that the difference in name recognition may be the biggest difference between footlik and seals. the ap story observes that our economic difficulties is of great concern even in illinois’ wealthiest congressional district.
the debates between footlik and seals got more attention. the 10th dems convention got coverage, as well, with a seals’ slant here and here. seals got 180 votes in the straw poll while footlik received 44 votes. this margin, you might remember, reflects the same margin found in seals’ internal poll. and these are democratic activists — all of whom were likely to be aware, at least, of footlik’s candidacy.
if you noticed, these roundups have a specific format. the first section is basically the news reported by the mainstream media. the second section i call, what’s new. this is the segment were i talk about the blogs and websites, etc. skokie talk, a website for jay’s hometown of skokie (in the 9th CD represented by jan schakowsky) notes this good news for jay:
Footlik currently lives in Buffalo Grove with his wife and daughter. He’s expecting another daughter in February.
congratulations, jay. i’m sure i speak for many people when i say that.
jta, a jewish news service, has increased it’s coverage of this race dramatically. it now has a reporter on the ground (jacob berkman). it reports footlik’s charges about dan’s position at northwestern, about footlik’s “jewish credentials,” how some were offended by footlik’s humor and about how much the footlik-seals matchup mirrors obama and hillary. the latter write-up was called by archpundit a good overview:
My read is that Jay is a great guy and a good candidate, but given Seals is well liked by Democrats in the District and most understand you need to run twice to win, most of the reasons for supporting Jay aren’t catching with people. Jay’s campaign would argue he’s stronger in a general, but I’m not sure that the greater burden of building up name recognition wouldn’t make it just as difficult. Last time, it was a seven point difference with virtually no national help for Dan.
I like Jay and would like to see him run for something another time, but I don’t see a compelling case as to why Seals shouldn’t get a second shot given how well he did without national support last time.
it’s obvious that footlik made a valiant effort, and he clearly has tremendous political talent. i’m pretty critical of “policy wonks,” just because i’ve had to deal with the frustrations that voters have trying to understand them.
ellen’s 10th CD blog continues to be the leader in coverage of this race. she live blogged the lwv debate in arlington heights, covered a meet and greet for seals the next day, attended the durbin endorsement, live blogged the 10th dems convention, reported the straw poll results, noted the cpr story and broke the 21st century dems’ endorsement of seals.
these two campaigns are revving up towards election day. the seals campaign reports that:
Voters are responding enthusiastically to Dan’s message of bringing wholesale change to Washington. On issues like the war, healthcare, and the economy, they are ready for a new direction.
Dan’s message is (and has always been) that it’s time for a change in the course of our country and the way business is done in Washington.
it’s difficult for me to see how footlik pulls this out, but what i will be looking at when the election returns come in is whether footlik is able to win the dominant jewish areas in the district (highland park, glencoe, buffalo grove). what i want to test is whether jay’s message that he would do much better against kirk resonates in that community. if jay wins these areas, it would signal that dan has some work to do to strengthen his position among jewish voters.
this race hasn’t turned out to be as heated as i feared or as competitive as i thought possible. in the end, democrats in the 10th seem satisfied with the leader they recruited in 2006 to beat mark kirk. this will be the final IL-10th roundup, not because there won’t be more news, but because it’s increasingly apparent this one has been decided…