Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich set a March 3 special election primary and an April 7 special election for the successor to Rahm Emanuel, who resigned from the House of Representatives effective January 2 to become White House Chief of Staff.
Blagojevich said primary voters in the state’s 5th Congressional District will head to the polls March 3, and make their final pick April 7. The dates are based on recommendations by local elections officials.
At DailyKos, brownsox provides some history:
The seat should be safe for whatever Democrat manages to win the nomination. With one blip on the radar (the 1994 election of Republican Michael Flanagan after the incumbent, Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski, was indicted on corruption charges) the seat has been in Democratic hands since time immemorial, and sports a PVI of D+18.
The Fifth District covers a large portion of Cook County, including most of the North Side of Chicago. Rahm’s predecessor in the seat was current embattled governor Rod Blagojevich.
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The Democrat victorious in the March primary will very likely become the congresscritter here, but that person could emerge from the pack with less than 25% of the vote, given that there may be more than a dozen candidates in the primary election.
Time for progressives to pick a pony in this race, I’d say. Rahm probably has a favorite already, perhaps someone who’ll step aside when he’s ready to come back to the House.
Teddy, it occurs to me that if Rahm is in the trouble that Emptywheel thinks he might be, then anyone known to be “Rahm’s pick” may well find that to be the kiss of, if not death, at least a severe electoral head cold. In which case we have a chance so long as Rahm’s people don’t do the divide-and-conquer bit with the prog vote, running multiple candidates designed to split and weaken the progressives.
Gotta hand it to him – if acting like the Governor makes you the Governor, Blago is pulling it off. It may not last, but what a pair.
However, seeing him absolutely school Harry Reid is not unpleasant.
Dugg, of course.
If Blago eventually resigns, can we get his recipe for ballsupitude before he leaves?
Seriously, the dude is whacked, but he is not meek.
We need more not meek.
Extraordinary political courage seems to come in 2 rare packages – those with extraordinary political courage, and those with not a damned thing to lose by exercising it.
There is a reason that the Congress is held in such low regard by the people.
Whomever it is who is elected or appointed to the various positions, if they could keep their heads outa their arses, that would be great.
As. If.
Looks like we got ourselves a potential Blue America candidate for this race:
http://www.geogheganforcongress.com/
Would be so satisfying to have Emmanuelle replaced by an actual Liberal.
Sounds like Digby’s on board with Tom Geoghegan:
Tom’s “Why I’m Running” statement is reprinted at Hullabaloo.
Howie Klein needs to do an interview with the guy to evaluate if he qualifies for a Blue America candidate…..
I’ve never doubted that Rahm has skeletons in his closet. Much of his public conduct has demonstrated a rather dubious sense of ethics. In selecting Rahm as WHCOS, Obama is courting disaster.
Well .. just a hunch .. but Howie thinks well of him already .. but yeah .. an interview would be justified and needed.
Wait a minute. People aren’t in an uproar because he set a date? I thought because he was “tainted” he can’t act as governor? Looks like he’s being a governor to me.
I bet Harry Reid will block these dates. He’s like that nowadays.
Yes, and DiFi will heartily endorse these dates. She’s ‘going rogue’