From the Chicago Tribune:
There will be no redux for Tammy Duckworth in the 2008 election.Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran now serving as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, said Sunday that she has decided not to run again next year against U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) in the 6th Congressional District.
Roskam, an experienced state legislator before his election to Congress last year, proved to be one of the slicker Republican candidates of the 2006 cycle; despite receiving a well-funded challenge from Duckworth last year, his campaign succeeded in snagging Duckworth in skirmishes over illegal immigration while Iraq was mostly left off the table until the closing weeks. He went on to win by a two-point margin while Democrats scored victories in twelve seats that were more Republican-leaning than Illinois’ 6th District.
While the DCCC has made some noise about Roskam’s far-right voting record in recent months, there are no other obvious names set to challenge the freshman incumbent next year. It’s widely noted that IL-06 has been rapidly losing its traditionally strong Republican edge (while Gore lost this district by nine points, Kerry only trailed by six). It would be a shame if Roskam would be able to escape 2008 without facing an aggressive challenger who would be willing to push Iraq as the number one issue facing the district, and the nation.
(Hat-tip to DailyKos diarist chipoliwog.)
How about Christine Cegelis?
And why would Duckworth run again? She ended up with a cushy political patronage job at taxpayer expense, and perhaps that may have been all she wanted in the first place. Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
I hope she does good work in her current position, and forgets about electoral politics. Pity about Cegelis. One can’t blame her, either.
Roskam’s young. Maybe he’ll beat Congressman Young’s record for House longevity. Our best hope will be that he can be lured out to run for Senate against a Democrat who can beat him, and lose his seat that way, in some future cycle.
Her primary campaign was pitiful. Her whole campaign was pity me, the big bad DCCC doesn’t want me as the candidate boo hoo. Then her unwillingness to endorse Duckworth right after was even worse.
All of my family lives in this district so I know a little bit about the district. My aunt whose lived in the district for the last 30 years explained the difficulty of getting a Democratic Congress person in the district. What she told me is that the district is sigificantly less conservative now than it was when she moved their, and while it still leans GOP the right type of Democrat could get elected. The problem is, the infrastrcture of the district is still all GOP giving them a decided advantage in terms of grassroots organizing so they still have to build from the ground up in that respect. That, and the fact that Roskam outspent her were the reasons Duckworth lost.
but if i were in duckworth’s shoes, i *might* be thinking that:
A) the district leans R, and the “waves”, such as what happened in 2006, tend not to happen on consecutive cycles in the same districts
B) I would need to stay in the new job a little longer than 6 months before starting to campaign again. otherwise, i’d open myself to significant criticism about taking a tax payer salary just to support campaigning
C) name ID wasn’t the problem–it was demographics of the district
D) If Obama ends up as pres or vp, then there’s an opening for statewide, in which the demographics are far more dem friendly
—
There are certainly valid counterpoints to be made to some of these ideas that I think she might be considering. In the big picture, however, this is possible. Obama originally lost in a House primary challenge, then went on to get the Senate primary nod.
She’s getting a lot done and is getting her name in the news doing it. Besides a Dem president might make her VA administrator or if Obama is elected Blago might appoint her to his Senate seat.