Tuesday was primary day here in the Land of Lincoln, and it was bittersweet. Our gubernatorial favorite took our county (hooray!), but only secured one other and it wasn’t the one that Chicago is in. Dan Lipinski squeaked into the 3rd district too, as I’m sure many of you saw. Locals tell me that he won’t survive 2020, so that’s good.
Tuesday was also my wife’s debut as a campaign manager for a friend who ran for a seat on the county board. It was a surprisingly exciting campaign. Our candidate was running against the incumbentiest incumbent in all of Illinois. The longest-tenured county board politician in the state, he had served for 45 years. There were all kinds of twists and turns in this campaign, including a ratfucking fake flyer that was circulated as if it were coming from our candidate! Whaaat? Yes. This might sound absurd for what is probably the lowest rung on the ladder of elected office. But our candidate, an outspoken, tall woman who will occasionally dye her hair a bright color, is a lightning rod for the local RWNJs.
Our candidate ended up taking 71% of the vote. (Man down! Somebody call Jerry Orbach because there has been a homicide!) Don’t waste any time feeling bad for the loser. He called around to his Republican friends and pressed them for endorsements, including the Republican county sheriff and a fellow board member who said that he didn’t think “community activists” had any place on the county board. Uh-huh. So, thank you for your service and enjoy your retirement, pal.
Some of you have expressed an interest in hearing about other races in other places. I have that interest too. To that end, I have set up an email address and encourage any and all of you to send the story of your local political scene. If selected, we will front-page it and include fundraising for congressional nominees. The Chicago sports media have coined the term “out-of-town stupid.” It’s an exculpatory expression usually applied to members of the media from elsewhere who only know the surface story and none of the context. (When the Bulls had Ben Gordon playing at the shooting guard position, the national media take was that the Bulls had finally found a Jordanesque player who could fill up the basket and pour in 30 on any given night. But locals knew that he couldn’t guard a folding chair and was as much of a liability on the court as a benefit. You can’t know that from looking at a couple of box scores. It’s not your fault if you don’t know this. You’re just out-of-town stupid.)
So help the rest of us not be out-of-town-stupid about what’s going on in your neighborhood. Here’s the address: [email protected]
I was reminded that I once said to my wife, “When the money starts flowing, you’ve got to keep milking that money monkey.” She asked me never to use that expression again and once we hit 50K, I vow to you, I will. This is the fund that’s split between all eventual
Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.
I’ll Take You Down The Only Road I’ve Ever Been DownPost + Comments (63)