IL-05: Special Election Dates Set

I guess Blago really is still Governor:

Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) announced today that he has set April 7 as the date for the special election to fill former Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s (D) 5th district seat. […]

In a statement from his official office, Blagojevich designated a special primary election for March 3, 2009.

Roll Call has more on the likely candidates:

Among the likely Democratic contenders for the seat: state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, state Rep. John Fritchey, former state Rep. Nancy Kaszak, who lost primaries to both Emanuel and Blagojevich, Chicago Alderman Pat O’Connor and Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley.

The Chicago Sun-Times‘ Lynn Sweet recently named Quigley, Feigenholtz, and ex-TSA official Justin Oberman as the frontrunners for the job, but we’ll see how this shakes out. At at PVI of D+18, surely this district can afford to send a strong progressive to the House.

9 thoughts on “IL-05: Special Election Dates Set”

  1. Famed labor lawyer and writer Tom Geoghegan is running and has raised about 15k so far on ActBlue in just a few days.

    http://www.actblue.com/entity/

    He also seems to have the suport of tons of major liberal bloggers and writers (Rick Perlstein, David Sirota and a few others are members of his Facebook group)

    http://www.facebook.com/group….

    He’s my favorite in the race, it’d be cool to replace Rahm with someone like him. Feigenholtz would also be a very solid rep.

  2. I mean Rod can’t possibly be through wrecking the Illinois Democratic Party?

    (and scarily if I recall he DOES actually have a father-in-law who is an Alderman and a cousin of some sorts in the state legislature)

  3. I seem to remember hearing that she took about 40% in the 2002 primary. Was that due to having a strong base of support, or was it just an anti-Emanuel campaign?

    If it’s the former and she can retain even half of that, she’s liable to win it.

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