Two blogs about Cegelis and Duckworth situation.

Kos posted about the IL-06 primary fight, and Rahm Emmanuel's involvement in it. I've been meaning to circle back to this issue, and I will in a bit with some firmer information. From my initial phone calls, here's what the situation on the ground seems to look like. Christine Cegalis, a Mom and a political amateur, decided out of pure civic anger to take on a 30 year incumbent in 2004, Henry Hyde. Il-06 is a suburb of Chicago, a Republican district turning bluer by the day.

Cegalis was a netroots candidate. While she was not expected to do particularly well in 2004, she exceeded expecations and got 44% of the vote, though she exhibited a lot of the pitfalls a new candidate does. In particular she low fundraising numbers, though she had lots of small donors she was light on the big ones. She is progressive and grassroots oriented, and has built a substantial volunteer presence in a moderately Republican district that is turning bluer (it's a suburb of Chicago). The seat is now open since Hyde is retiring, and IL-06 is seen as a prime pickup opportunity. Prior to Cegalis, the district had almost no organization, and she seems to have had a big hand in building what exists there now. Her fundraising has been low, but not excessively so. Rahm's district is right next door at IL-5, and he has consistently tried to recruit someone else to run. Duckworth is his third choice to run in the primary, since the other two dropped out. Additionally, even the DCCC isn't raising that much money, falling behind the RNCC, the DCCC is dropping $1 million on Duckworth to help her against Cegalis. He also engineered her appearance on This Week to announce her candidacy, and he has been discouraging donors to give to Cegalis.

IL-06 looks set to host a bitter primary between grassroots star Christine Cegelis and decorated Iraq War vet Tammy Duckworth. I've expressed my admiration for Duckworth before, and I've been a fan of Cegelis since her first run in 2004. So I've got no dog in this race. Like the Ohio Senate Democratic primary, I feel that Democrats win regardless of who emerges from the primary.

But, this is a classic insider-outsider race. The DCCC has been undermining Cegelis for months, making sure donors knew that they were working hard to find someone to replace/take on Cegelis. The D-trip claimed Rahm's efforts stemmed from Cegelis' poor fundraising, but of course Rahm was working to sabotage her fundraising. It's the same dynamic we're seeing in Florida as the GOP works to sabotage Katherine Harris' fundraising, then using her poor results as an excuse to try and find an alternative.

(Kos is correct on Katherine Harris...they are undermining her at every turn and will put in their own choice.)

So a little ugly, but that's politics. Tensions are bound to run high an all sides, especially when the DCCC does its "heavy hand" routine. But like Klau writes, it's a democratic process. The voters of the district will ultimately decide who they support.

But then Klau caught someone at the D-trip running astro-turf on his site on Duckworth's behalf:

And then there was this comment left earlier today by "Lisa", who says she lives in Melissa Bean's district and lays out why she thinks Duckworth is the right candidate. Interestingly, the IP address associated with Lisa's computer is owned by the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

The DCCC is in the same building as the DNC. Perhaps a rogue staffer, but still, not the sort of thing the DCCC needs as tensions run high. This whole situation has clearly been mishandled.