GOP targets Illinois as battleground for House seats

[wndycty]

GOP targets Illinois as battleground for House seats

National Republican Party pouring unprecedented funds into certain federal races
(Crain’s) — The National Republican Party is pouring unprecedented resources into races for U.S. House seats here—a sign of Illinois’ rare position in this election cycle of actually having competitive contests in multiple districts.

The Republicans are looking for about 30,000 sq. ft. of office space in the western suburbs to serve as a base for field operations in the 6th District, where the GOP hopes to elect state Sen. Peter Roskam to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, and for efforts in the 8th District, where Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean is being targeted, party insiders report.

The facility also could be used to help the as yet unselected GOP nominee for a seat in western Illinois being vacated by Democrat Lane Evans, and for some local contests.

Much of the cost of the operation reportedly is coming from the Republican National Committee, which also has two staffers in the state working to boost grassroots party activities.
-snip-

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=20391

[xray s]

1. actually this is good news

they view two seats that used to be considered totally safe Republican seats (6th and 8th)as battlegrounds.

That indicates just how far they have fallen.

[madrchsod]

2. so the national republicans

are going to force zinga to resign and place their canidate on the ballot?. i could be wrong but the source i just read said zinga was the canidate that the republicans in the 17th voted for. if this is what they are going to do i guess i`ll have to start reading the qct from now on...

[mopinko]

3. just like jim(?) ryan

sorry, george blots out all other ryans.
just one more example of the republican contempt for proper process. the day that i saw sennsenbrenner turn off the mikes, and refuse to recognize a point of order during the patriot act hearings, i knew we were, in fact, completely fucked. it will take dynamite to stop these fuckers.

[mopinko]

4. proving the wisdom of the 50 state strategy

i know this predates the dr's wise plan, but just showing that it does indeed work. there are way too many republicans in illinois. it is about time they got the fight they deserve.

[alusmotdnabed]

5. This probably won't help them...

ROLL CALL ONLINE

May 2, 2006

At The Races
ILLINOIS:
Local Labor Federation Gets Behind Rep. Bean

After a high-profile snub of Rep. Melissa Bean (D) last year, the Northeastern Illinois Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, recently reversed course and announced that it will stand by the freshman lawmaker in her re-election bid.

Bean drew the ire of organized labor with her vote in favor of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Local labor leaders were so incensed that the 20,000-member federation withdrew its invitation to honor Bean as its person of the year last fall.

Union officials also threatened to find a primary challenger to challenge her, although none ever materialized, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters endorsed one of the Republican candidates who lost the GOP primary to take on Bean.

In a statement dated April 20, federation President Lee Schillinger maintained that labor had never abandoned Bean. The federation's political action committee voted last month to urge delegates and all union members to back her.

Schillinger noted that Bean has a 73 percent voting record on labor issues since coming to Congress, according to the national AFL-CIO.

"Some prodigal sons of Labor walk a different path, some always have," Schillinger said. "But the men and women of Labor will come together and give their continued support to Congresswoman Bean. Men and women who work for a living know that in Congresswoman Bean we have someone who will listen to our voice even if she does not always agree with it."

Bean, who defeated 17-term Rep. Phil Crane in 2004 with the help of organized labor, is a top target for Republicans this fall. She faces wealthy investment banker David McSweeney in November.

- Lauren W. Whittington


I guess the Republican hopes of capitalizing on organized labor's "revolt" against Bean are evaporating. In fact, considering the problems they're having in the rest of the country, I'd say they're pretty screwed. OH REPUGS, PLEASE set up some big office in the Chicago burbs! You probably didn't want to keep all those seats in Ohio, anyway.

[AX10]

6. This is good for us. This means that the Illinois GOP is...

in deep trouble. Traditionally, the GOP has had the advantage here. This means that they are playing defense on their own turf. Also, Lane Evan's seat and Melissa Bean's seat will stay in the Democratic collumn. This will be a bad year for the GOP.

[KharmaTrain]

7. The GOOP In The Burbs Is Disintegrating

I'm in the 8th...been here for nearly 25 years...in the day when my wife and I were the only Democrats at our Bartlett polling place and if you wanted your vote to count, you voted in the Repugnican primary. Those days are long, long gone.

I worked for Melissa in '02 and '04 (I'd been working on campaigns to get rid of Crane since he took over that seat from Rumsfeld...yes that Rumsfeld in 1970)...and have seen this area go from red to purple (it's gonna take a while before it is blue...but purple is better than nothing). One big reason is how splintered the Repugnicans have become...the primary battle was just as brutal on the Repugnican side as the Duckworth/Cegalis contest in the neighboring 6th and has left a lot of scars. The scuttlebutt I pick up around here is McSweeney isn't "conservative enough" or he's "a mercenary" being put upon the district by Hastert over local elligibles. Lots of bruised egos and the collapse of the state and national parties are gonna make this election season one I've been looking forward to since I moved from the safety of the Democratic North Shore.

Yep...I sure hope the RNC dumps so much money here they can't fund campaigns in really contested districts (which hopefully are all occupied by incumbent Repugnicans with Wade/Abramoff sleeze all over 'em).

Cheers....

[AX10]

8. Good to hear that. The less red, the better.