Monday, May 29, 2017

Can Randy Hultgren Be Defeated In 2018? Not If The DCCC Inserts Another "Ex"-Republican As The Nominee

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When the DCCC announced that IL-14 (Randy Hultgren) was on their target list there was a lot of snickering. For Chicagoland, it's a pretty Republican suburban district (primarily McHenry, Kane, Lake, Will and Kendall counties with a bit of DeKalb and a bit of DuPage). The PVI is R+5 and, although Obama edged past McCain in 2008 (50-49%), Romney won in 2012 (54-44%) and SeƱor Trumpanzee beat Hillary 48.7% to 44.8%. Hillary was the wrong candidate for much of the district and, in fact, Bernie beat her in the primary with a strong 58%.

The GOP incumbent, Hultgren, is a hapless backbencher and knee-jerk religious nut and shill for the GOP leadership. He started his shameful political career working for serial child molester Denny Hastert. First elected to Congress in 2010 against worthless New Dem Bill Foster, his 3 reelection bids have been by huge numbers (59%, 65% and 60%), the DCCC sitting out all 3 races. He beat Foster 51-45% in 2010 despite being massively outspent by the corporate Democrat $3,737,519 to $1,552,578. In 2012, 2014 and 2016 the Democrats who opposed him had no resources. Last year, for example, Jim Walz spent $19,745 to Hultgren's $1,297,836.

The DCCC-- and a couple of conservative Democratic congressmemembers from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- Blue Dog Cheri Bustos and New Dem Bill Foster-- are recruiting Montgomery mayor Matt Brolley-- another of those repulsive "ex"-Republicans corrupt conservative Democrats are so fond of. Brolley doesn't live in the district and doesn't live in the Democratic Party. He pulled Republican ballots in 2010, 2014 and even last year! Now, of course, Brolley is pretending to be a Democrat with progressive stands. That's not how he smells though. There is also some chatter about another DCCC-favored candidate, Lauren Underwood, who says the DCCC is asking her to run and just moved to the district in order to run for Congress. And progressive Jim Walz is running again as well.

The DCCC is especially eager to pass Brolley off as a viable candidate because their worst nightmare-- a pragmatic progressive Democrat, Victor Swanson-- is already running for the seat. For all the bullshit about how the DCCC supports veterans-- Swanson served in the Navy-- the DCCC only supports Republican-lite veterans, not progressive veterans. Swanson has been working as a social studies teacher for 17 years. His wife is also a public school teacher. We spoke with him yesterday and asked him if he's aware of what a difficult task he's taken upon himself. He was very aware of it. "When I began to think about running for Congress," he told us, "I began to have conversations with a variety of people whose lives revolve around the political arena including campaign staffers, congressional staffers, and even Members of Congress. Everyone of them said the same thing, I could not be successful because I had a real job, as a teacher. Those conversations just reinforced my feelings about how broken our Congress is. I decided to forge ahead with this campaign no matter what the naysayers thought. Congress needs to look like America and would greatly benefit from having at least a few members who have worked a real job. I am looking forward to this challenge and I want to help reinvent the political process by bring back real representative government to the People's House."

I'm hearing some chatter in the district that there's a strong move to draft John Laesch, the dedicated Berniecrat who was originally responsible for driving Hastert out of office by running against him-- in the face of concerted and vicious DCCC sabotage-- in 2006 and exposing his myriad... vulnerabilities. Stay tuned. This field is starting to get very crowded.

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3 Comments:

At 6:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's another DWT offering that follows the vector further than simply going from polls saying the R is horrible to the irrational conclusion that it means the D will win.

For the D to win, it has to be a GOOD D and not a DNC/DxCC D (corporate whore/opportunistic former R).

Truman said it best here: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=14116

"If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat"

In fact, read the entire speech. You'll see that the seeds of today were sewn even 65 years ago. The Rs didn't really change much in the interim except for enforcing fascist and reactionary purity.
But what DID change is:
1) The D party is so corrupt and feckless, it is indistinguishable from the Rs of the Reagan era. In some ways they are far worse even.
2) voters have changed. They are far more stupid and gullible (giving us the Reagan era and all since) and many sentient voters realize there is nobody worth voting for any more and stay home.

 
At 10:42 PM, Anonymous Bil said...

Maybe Ano, but John Laesch is still the right guy just like he was earlier this millennium.

This is Hastert's old district. Hultgren's not tough, Laesch is.

Kane County is SICK of Hastert leftovers.

 
At 10:17 AM, Blogger Catherine Collins said...

I don't agree with your comment that Lauren Underwood was recruited to the area. Lauren Underwood grew up in Naperville, Illinois and attended Neuqua Valley High School. She like many, attended College outside of Illinois. The fact that she attained a Master's degree and worked in Washington in the Obama administration is what I would call obtaining experience. It is a stretch to say she is not from the area.

The information about Matt Brolley not living in district is shocking. I have not seen that reported other places and would like to know how you got that information. I have attempted to look up his address but the internet is not what is used to be.

 

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