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While the national candidates get the limelight, Chicago bloggers illuminate some of the local politicos.
Obama, Romney, Lauzen, Suffredin, Laesch…wait, who?
In case you haven’t heard, come February 5, it’s not just the national candidates we’ll be vetting. Four local political bloggers give their takes on the race for the West Side 3rd Congressional District, which has been under Democrat Dan Lipinski’s control since 2005; the northeastern Illinois 10th District, run by war-supporter Republican Mark Kirk; the northern Illinois 14th District race to replace recently resigned Republican Dennis Hastert; and the Democrat-filled scramble for Cook County state’s attorney.
3rd District “Dan Lipinski is a conservative hack, but more than that, he only has his seat from nepotism, has a bunch of crooked patronage hacks running his machine, and his father continues to use his business to profit off of the office.”10th District “As for Kirk, it’s pretty simple why this guy has to go. He’s considered a ‘moderate’ Republican by many anonymous strategists in insider publications, because apparently in D.C., up is down.”14th District “Chris Lauzen is the genius who, after fighting in a primary over his credentials with another candidate, sued the man for defamation and attempted to change his name to Chris Lauzen CPA.”Cook County state’s attorney “I’m moderately behind Larry Suffredin.”
gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ revenge_of_the_second_city/
3rd District “In what was widely considered a gross act of nepotism, Bill [Lipinski] was able to convince the Democratic committeemen to slate his son, Dan Lipinski, to run in his place.”
10th District “Dan Seals has earned the respect of the grassroot campaigners; I believe he’ll win.”
14th District “Bill Foster seems to be the most serious.”
Cook County state’s attorney “Suffredin has shown that he’ll go against machine politics and work toward progressive change.”
3rd District “Lipinski is, at best, a D candidate. That’s a D for below average, not Democrat.”
10th District “It doesn’t appear that Dan Seals will have to spend as much money to beat [Jay] Footlik as I’d wager they planned to spend.”
14th District “Foster’s organizational and financial advantages make him the front-runner. This is true despite the fact that John Laesch has run before and is a sentimental favorite, of sorts, to many on the blogs.”
Cook County state’s attorney “Assistant state’s attorney Anita Alvarez offers perhaps the best credentials out of that office: She oversees the day-to-day operations of more than 900 assistant state’s attorneys.”
3rd District “If Mark Pera came out hard against the machine, I’d feel some sympathy for him. He doesn’t. He blames Bush for the high price of gas instead. So, am I to believe Pera would be okay with BP’s refining Canadian crude in Indiana?”
10th District “In the 10th, between Seals and that other fellow, I couldn’t pick. I do know Kirk should be talking more about Iraq.”
14th District “Laesch is not my kind of Democrat. He’s the now-pervasive kind of Democrat who’s taken over and made it impossible for Lieberman-style liberals to find a home there.”
Cook County state’s attorney “I wouldn’t trust any Democrat. We need Tony Peraica there…someone completely independent of the machine. If push came to shove, I guess I’d pick Suffredin.”
