the most important news at this point is that early voting has begun. for those who live in illinois’ 3rd congressional district, the ballot positions are:
Mark N. Pera #9
Jim Capparelli #10
Daniel William Lipinski #11
Jerry Bennett #12
all the democrats in this race have filed their voter guide questions. lipinski’s response states “I have also been a leader in the battle to responsibly bring our troops home from Iraq.” pera’s response argues that “More than anything else, voters are tired of politicians in Washington D.C. who are beholden to special interests and they are fed up with the nepotism and corruption that we see from the Lipinskis and the Strogers of Cook County.” bennett’s response observes:
During those 27 years [as mayor], I’ve worked with my fellow mayors and other public officials to transform the town and our region. We’ve come up with innovative solutions for building infrastructure, improving law enforcement and securing a safer environment.
capparelli says: “I’m determined to reignite the patriotism we all felt in the months following the attacks of 2001.”
it’s also endorsement season for the local newspapers. the chicago tribune endorsed lipinski. given that he didn’t even show up for the trib’s endorsement session, it’s hard to see why. one might assume it has something to do with it’s closeness to the chicago machine. the suntimes has yet to endorse in this race, even though early voting has begun. the local pioneer paper endorsed mark pera as “the best choice to unseat incumbent Daniel Lipinski.”
lipinski got raves for one of his earmarks. otoh, carol marin returns to lipinski’s ethics issues:
It was 3½ years ago that Bill ran and won in the spring primary, and only that summer when he felt the sudden urge to retire. Ward committeemen friends, familiar dynastic names like Daley, Hynes and Madigan, quickly marshaled the best man for the job.
Boom, there came Dan Lipinski, a college political science professor who had been working out of state for years, anointed to replace his dad on the November Democratic ballot. The opponent on the Republican side, a 25-year-old bar owner from Cicero, posed no threat. He was a plant previously recruited by the Lipinski forces to guarantee the general election was a gentle ride for Dan. And indeed it was.
the western springs doings talks about the race here. the southwest news herald covered a recent debate where lipinski showed up late. and the nearwest gazette had a story on several blogs’ support for mark pera.
lipinski has two new union endorsements: the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters and Sprinkler Fitters Local 281. pera has been racking up other endorsements: Blue America, Blue Majority, Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, Oak Park DFA, Planned Parenthood Action Fund and United Citizens for a Better America.
carl nyberg wrote a great writeup of the league of women voters debate, including a summary of the positions taken at the debate. yoda noted that rahm emanual’s leadership pac contributed $2,500 to lipinski’s re-election.
vasyl markus, the communications director from the bennett campaign, observes:
The biggest news is that Dan Lipinski is finally emerging from his bunker. There have been joint appearances with all four candidates at the Sun Times editorial board, the League of Women Voters debate, and at an event in Berwyn.
Jerry emphasized his experience and leadership at these events. He is the only candidate in the race with a track record of balancing budgets, keeping property taxes low, doubling the size of the police force, and working with the region’s local officials to build infrastructure and plan for the future. At both the League of Women Voters and the Berwyn event, audience members came up to Jerry to let him know that they support him.
Lipinski got grilled about his connections with his father by Carol Marin at the ed board meeting. Marin wrote a column criticizing Lipinski’s responses. Lipinski also tried to claim credit for funding certain transportation projects in the districts, but Jerry pointed out that each of those projects had been initiated by Bill Lipinski, and that Dan Lipinski has not initiated any new infrastructure capital projects for the region.
miss laura, wegerje and rob nesvacil covered the trib’s endorsement of lipinski while markos and michael in chicago covered the doings’ endorsement of pera. lots of blogs picked up the carol marin editorial. illinois informant has a post, as does reading on walden. miss laura at dailykos got in on the act. charlotte lynn continues the long line of questions about lipinski’s ethical problems; which was picked up by others.
aaron krager continues to cover this race. ray hanania interviewed pera on his radio show. yoda and frank swap canvassing tales. the pera campaign has put up a new video on health care, which also got covered by miss laura.
the biggest thing in the blogs from pera’s perspective is the blog-raisers going on. kos started it by challenging the blogs to raise money for him. miss laura picks up the banner and runs with it. kbal11 writes about his thank you phone call from mark pera while mark pera thanks the blogs. others got involved, locally as well as not-so-local, including leftword, mydd (direct democracy) america blog and wurfwhile. there are probably others i missed (though not intentionally).
the pera campaign notes:
We are in the midst of a fundraising effort sponsored by a number of national Netroots and progressive Democratic leaders. The goal of this fundraising drive – which is called “5,000 for Pera” – is to boost our total number of online contributors on ActBlue to 5,000. Since it began on Jan. 14, we have raised more than $40,000.
second life is also holding an online fundraiser for pera.
the bennett mailer i mentioned last roundup is up on their site (downloaded as a pdf). they have a second mailer is filling mail boxes this week. lipinski has sent out “just three mail pieces.” the pera campaign has their “Tired of being squeezed?” mailer up as well as their current walk piece (which is also available in spanish). you can expect everyone’s mail to start hitting now.
the pera campaign announced:
We have opened a third campaign office – which we’re calling our suburban office – at 9734 S. Roberts Road in Palos Hills. It is staffed by deputy field director Ahlam Jbaba, an Arabic speaker. Ahlam is responsible for coordinating our Muslim and Arab American outreach. Our other offices are located at 7061 Willow Springs Road, Countryside (Pera for Congress Headquarters), and 6158 S. Pulaski, Chicago (Chicago office).
the bennett campaign reports that they have initiated a series of robocalls in the district. it observes:
The Bennett campaign’s message from now until election day is twofold: First, Dan Lipinski has consistently supported George W Bush and conservative Republicans on issues such as abortion rights, stem cell research, the war in Iraq, and health care reform. Second, of all the candidates in the race, Jerry has the most experience dealing with the bread and butter issues that the next Congressman from the 3rd District will face.
the pera campaign’s message is:
Dan Lipinski has voted consistently with President Bush and the Republicans on the issues that matter most to Democrats. He has yet to acknowledge, much less remedy, the ethical challenges plaguing his re-election bid. People in the 3rd District are tired of politics as usual, nepotism and cronyism. If you want real change in Chicago, Cook County and Washington D.C., you should vote for Mark Pera, a real mainstream Democratic reformer.
they feel like this message is resonating with voters:
Mark, our campaign staff and scores of volunteers have called through literally hundreds of precincts throughout the the 3rd District and Democrats are telling us that they want change and that they are going to vote for Mark Pera when they go to the polls on Feb. 5.
Since Jan. 14, the start of early voting in Chicago and Cook County, voters on the phones and in person have said that they already have voted for Mark.
they still are looking for volunteer help:
We want you to be part of our campaign.
Your choice is simple: Mark is a principled Democrat and he feels strongly about the issues that voters care about most – the Iraq war, energy and the environment, health care, embryonic stem cell research, choice and privacy. Dan Lipinski votes with President Bush and the Republicans on each and every one of these issues.
As of Monday, we are just 15 days out from Feb. 5. We are continuing to gain momentum and we need you to help put us over the top by walking precincts, making phone calls, putting up yard signs and spreading the word about our campaign.
To get involved, call our field director, Jacob Dusseau, at (708) 579-2834.
the bennett campaign has two fundraisers in the next two days, including one with democratic pollster, celinda lake.
financial disclosure reports are still not available, but since the last roundup, the pera campaign has raised another $41,623 across actblue, the bennett campaign has raised another $2,175 (and doubled their number of online contributors) and the capparelli campaign has raised an additional $100 across actblue.
finally, it’s been frigid in the chicagoland area — something that has traditionally been called precinct captain’s weather. the idea behind that phrase was to suggest that only those who benefited from patronage jobs from the machine would be so bold as to go out and campaign when it was in the single digits. only now — after early voting has begun — are traditional precinct captains getting out and telling “their” voters who to vote for (ie, lipinski). the hold of the chicago democratic machine has been fading of late, but this congressional seat is at the heart of the machine. if they can’t win it for lipinski, they can’t win it for anyone. for the next two weeks, we’re going to find out how powerful the chicago machine is now. this is clearly the most viable threat that has been posed to the machine on the southwest side of chicagoland…