Monday, August 10, 2009

Schakowsky Endorses Hamos (UPDATED); Mark Kirk on Downstate Tour; Keller Grudgingly Admits Investigation Caused Him Not to Seek Re-election

Light blogging today, so let's contemplate last Friday's endorsement from ultra-liberal Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of candidate State Rep. Julie Hamos to be the Democratic nominee to take on whichever GOP candidate emerges from the wide field to try to replace outgoing Congressman Mark Kirk. Video here, if you can stomach it. Telling that the endorsement was in downtown Chicago rather than the 10th District.

Where does that leave Dan Seals? Maybe he ought to run against Jan in the primary, in the 9th District where he lives. (UPDATED: Serial commentor FOKLAES brought to our attention a new poll released by Seals showing him crushing Julie Hamos, and also this analysis of the Kirk senate race from Real Clear Politics.)

Meanwhile, Kirk is downstate trying to expand his reach beyond northern Illinois in his bid to win the U.S Senate seat currently held by Blagojevich-appointee Roland Burris.

Finally, I missed this piece from last Friday's News-Sun, but LakeCountyEye noted that Dr. "Death" Keller, Lake County Coroner (for now) grudgingly admitted that his lame-ass excuse of being tired of politicking and therefore would not run for reelection, was just a dodge for the fact that the Lake County State's Attorney is investigating Keller's involvement in a drug-overdose death that Keller was involved with, and then conduced the coroner's investigation.

On Thursday, the day that a five-month Lake County State's Attorney's investigation into Keller and Green Dragonfly Methadone Treatment Center was made public, Keller said he's confident that he and his staff did nothing wrong, while acknowledging that the investigation did somewhat prompt him to announce last month that he will not seek a third term as coroner.

"Yea, this may have something to do with it," Keller told The News-Sun.

Ya think?

Of course, LakeCountyEye implies that Team America was tipped off about the investigation when he wrote this post, and knew then that there was more to Keller's announcement than met the eye. While TA's sources are many, I will also say that it was a pretty darn obvious conclusion from the circumstances and TA's research into Keller's fundraising record that raising money was never something that he spent a lot of time on, which LakeCountyEye fails to mention.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dr."Death" Keller should resign and never practice again. He killed young Vaughn and then covered it up.

Anonymous said...

Comrade Jan's on a losing streak, wimped out of a fight against Mark, feighenholtz lost, seals twice, and she got killed in a bid for leadership. Oops.

Dan has a poll out in the Washington Post showing him destroying Hamos. Remember the election is just 5 months away.

Seals Far Ahead in IL-10 Survey: Dan Seals, the Democratic nominee against Rep. Mark Kirk (R) in 2006 and 2008, holds a wide lead in the 2010 Democratic primary, according to a survey done for his campaign and obtained by the Fix. Seals takes 63 percent of the vote compared to to just eight percent for state Rep. Julie Hamos and two percent for attorney Elliot Richardson in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup. The survey, which was conducted by Anzalone-Liszt Research for Seals campaign, also showed Seals -- not surprisingly -- as by far the best known candidate in the Democratic race with 83 percent name identification. Hamos, who won the endorsement of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) last Friday, has a meager 18 percent name identification. And, roughly two-thirds of voters agreed with the statement that Seals had earned the right to a third run for the seat while 23 percent said it was time to give someone new a chance. With Kirk leaving the 10th to run for Senate, Democrats have a very good chance of taking over this North Shore district.

2nd, for all the talk about the senate race, this is a pretty good shot at reality and actual statistics. I haven't done polling here lately, but the fact that Illinois is the 4th best state for obama according to gallup, only adds to mark's tough climb.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/10/can_republicans_take_obamas_senate_seat_in_2010_97821.html

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm not so sure that Hamos would crush Seals, but he will post higher numbers than old Jan can envision. Schakowsky is not all that highly regarded out in the 10th. That said, please know that Hamos has the endorsement of Garrett, May, Gash and their loyalists, so don't count out Hamos. She's their buddy and they take care of their own.
As for Keller, you know he won't resign. It's just another black mark in a long series of black marks and shady behavior from those in power out here. But never, ever underestimate the power of the Dems out here on in this State and that's why this IS an uphill battle for Mark Kirk.

Anonymous said...

About 30 million dollars has been spent to raise Dan Seals name ID to 83 % in the 10th, it is no shocker that he cleans up in a DEMOCRATIC primary. The funny thing is, after 30 million dollars spent nobody is calling him Congressman. His negatives after the beat down mark has put on him over the years must be huge. Should be an easy pickup for whatever moderate GOPer can self fund in the primary.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather face hamos than seals, only because you can tag her with springfield.

The article from realclear gets to what i think is the most important issue for the party right now even more than mark's race. That we are getting destroyed in these areas that used to be very republican. Remember, the heritage foundation, the most powerful conservative organization in the country was founded by aides to the republican t hat used to hold bean's seat.

Until we get party leadership that wants to address those issues, we are going to have to suffer the dans and jans and ellens.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

TA, why should Seals be the only one to challenge Schakowsky in the Ninth? Hamos lives there too. They should all challenge Jan if they want a seat in Congress.

Seems the Ninth District wants two representatives at our expense. I’m getting tired of all the carpetbaggers.

Anonymous said...

Swing State Project is getting into it pretty good (http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/5398/il10-seals-posts-commanding-lead-in-own-poll).

I certainly agree Seals should go away, but it appears he won’t. We also can’t really call Seals a liberal since he’s never been elected to anything and has no voting record. Seals is a nothing who has been unemployed for at least three years.

Julie Hamos qualifies as a liberal based on her voting record and can only win in our district—not hers—if she runs against a right-wing conservative. Beth Coulson would defeat Hamos pretty easily. She, like Mark Kirk, is a proven moderate with the voting record to prove it.
That’s what I like about voting records. They tell us what people are likely to do so we can make intelligent choices about them.

Anonymous said...

hmm. Seals did the poll virtually the same time Hamos announced. That's pretty easy for someone who has run and lost twice to claim huge name recognition over someone who has been elected SIX times in the IL house just (mostly) outside of the tenth. And unlike Seals, Hamos is actually moving into the 10th.

seems like a pretty convenient timing to take a poll with more than expected results. Hamos has a real record of leadership and standing up to Madigan. She'll get it done...

Anonymous said...

Hamos standing up to Madigan! What a joke. Hamos has Daley, AFSCME, The Chicago Network, and years in Springfield on her rap sheet. She's a protegee of Schakowsky, who was an integral part of the Blagojevich election machinery.

Anonymous said...

Hamos’ condo is not on the market yet so until she makes an effort to offer it priced to sell, she’s just as much of a carpetbagger as Seals. They should all run in the Ninth against Schakowsky if they want to sit in Congress and leave us along up here. We can find plenty of good candidates.

Anonymous said...

Running for Congress, the longest Dan Seals has ever held a job.