GOP bastions under siege in Illinois

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-061022sixth-eighth-story,1,838486.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Democrats gaining in land of Hyde, Crane, poll says

By Bob Secter, John Biemer and Susan Kuczka
Tribune staff reporters
Published October 22, 2006


Once finely balanced between the city and the suburbs, the political scales of metropolitan Chicago have been tipping ever more Democratic, and fierce congressional races in two long-safe Republican bastions now are putting that trend to an important new test.

With 82-year-old U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde stepping aside, the west suburban 6th Congressional District seat he has been re-elected to easily since the Watergate era is now very much up for grabs, according to a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll.

In the northwest suburban 8th Congressional District, the survey found strong re-election support for freshman Democrat Melissa Bean, suggesting that her 2004 upset of 35-year Republican U.S. Rep. Phil Crane was no fluke.

If Republican leaders feel blindsided by the turn, then they would do well to pay a call to the Wheaton home of Lois and Gerald Sheridan, for years one of the GOP precinct committeemen who rallied voters for Hyde at election time.

Fed up with the Bush administration and the Republican Congress, the Sheridans say they are backing Democrat Tammy Duckworth as Hyde's replacement over Republican Peter Roskam. They say a lot of their friends and neighbors will be doing the same.

Geez, am I glad I live in Illinois now! :woohoo: :woohoo:

dead heat against once popular mark kirk who had a reputation of being a moderate but who voted with delay 91% of the time. Word is getting out and I'm canvassing for Seals today and tomarrow.

www.dansealsforcongress.com

I'm in the 10th also. Can't canvass today, but will do tomorrow. We're going to take this district!

Kirk will be even less effective when the Dems have the majority in Congress. If by chance he wins the 10th, he'll lose his assistant majority whip seat as well as any other influence. Considering how ineffective he has been with his majority seat, he'll be a real loser next time around.

Also, don't forget to mention to people that Kirk just co-sponsored a bill that made it out of the House & will be voted on in the Senate that allows teachers & school administrators to strip search students. Creepy. Really creepy. Here's more info about it:

Kirk co-sponsored a bill that passed on 9-20-06 called "The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006" (HR 5295).

House Approves Strip Search Bill
A bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday would require school districts around the country to establish policies making it easier for teachers and school officials to conduct wide scale searches of students. These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require any school receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--to adopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might have drugs could give officials the authority to search every student in the building.

Thomas RE: this bill http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.05295: The bill has been passed to the Senate.

List of co-sponsors... http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR05295:@@@P
Here's a link to the diary at Daily Kos called "Republicans Pass Mandatory Strip Search Bill? WTF?" I think the school board & APT should be aware of this. While I realize that the bill isn't law yet, this is important for people to know about how "moderate" Kirk is...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/2/133711/534

I've been wanting some updated info. on how Bean is doing against McWeenie. It's good to hear that many Repubics find McWeenie too far right. In my neck of the woods, I haven't seen too many signs for Bean or McWeenie, so it's been hard to tell how where the race stands.

:woohoo: :bounce:

Black Box Voting has declared DuPage County among the top two WORST places to vote in America.

60 percent of the 6th district is DuPage County.

I'm in the midst of these races...plus, add Dan Seals in the 11th who is within MOE of Mark Kirk and election night looks promising...BUT...

I see a couple problems that have developed...one is a long-time concern that Democrats have worked so hard for Repugnican and Independent votes, they forget to follow up on their own. I call it the Busbee syndrome...and it's my biggest concern for a lot of races on election day...Democrats sitting home thinking this thing is in the bag.

Next, there's two stinko races that could depress Democratic turn-out. The Governor's race has turned into a race to the bottom as to whom Peter Fitzgerald will indict first and the Cook County Board race where the son of the incapacitated former board president (who waited until after the primary to dislose his father's poor condition) is running one of the worst campaigns in recent memory and the Repgunican could pull off an upset. The stench of these two races could keep some at home as well.

Lastly, there's a cash-flow problem. Last week there was a report that the Duckworth campaign had only about 200G of cash on hand for the final push (the DCCC has come through with TV ad buys, but this is "on the ground" money)...and they're going up against a literal machine operation Hastert set up to keep the 6th and retake the 8th. The districts are being flooded with auto calls, yard signs and other propaganda. I'd hate to see Duckworth come up short for lack of having enough people on election day.

I've lived in this area for nearly 25 years...back "in the day", when my wife and I were the only Democrats voting in our precinct. Yes, things have come a long way and I expect these areas to get bluer and bluer and it becomes more and more a part of the city.


Cheers....