Several
African-American House members are starting to worry about potential primary
opponents backed by Senate President Emil Jones and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but
it's unclear right now how many will get opponents and how involved the two
leaders will be. Jones and Blagojevich have engaged in open political warfare
with House Speaker Michael Madigan pretty much all year, and it looks like they
may be taking another big step by attempting to take out some of Madigan's
people.
Sen.
Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), one of Jones' top lieutenants, is backing an
opponent against Rep. Art Turner, one of Speaker Madigan's top guys who
represents half of Hendon's state Senate district. Hendon claims his candidate,
Dotti Walton, already has enough signatures to get on the ballot.
But
Hendon is also facing a primary race. Three candidates have lined up against
him, including Amy Sue Mertens, an official at the University of Illinois
Chicago campus whom Hendon claims is a Madigan candidate. Mertens has recently
met with some people close to Madigan, but while impressed with her they report
that she has not put together much of a campaign on her own.
Sen.
Hendon and others deny it, but it looks very much like Senate President Jones
is behind Stanley Moore's campaign against state Rep. Monique Davis
(D-Chicago). Moore is a former member of Jones' appropriations staff, Davis
represents half of Sen. Jones' South Side district and Moore just moved into
that district last December, according to Davis. It's not too difficult to
connect the dots there.
Word
from the Senate side is that Moore and the Senate Democrats expected Rep. Davis
to announce her retirement this fall and take a job with the administration.
Davis said, however, that she has no plans to retire and intends to make a
fight of it. She also ridiculed Moore for opening a campaign office in the
wrong district. Turns out, Moore's campaign headquarters listed on his
statement of candidacy is in Rep. Kevin Joyce's neighboring district. Oops.
Rep.
Davis has not only withstood challenges before when her committeemen have
turned against her, but has racked up huge victory margins. The committeemen
and aldermen appear divided at the moment, but Davis says she has commitments
from most of them.
Meanwhile,
Sen. Hendon says that Rep. Deborah Graham's Democratic primary opponent is not
technically his candidate... yet. Hendon said that Phyllis Logan approached him
about running and he allowed her to speak to a meeting of his organization.
"Most of my people are supporting her," Hendon said, but added that
he hasn't yet officially endorsed her.
Graham
has the backing of most or all of her district's committeemen and they're not
exactly happy about Hendon's involvement. Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) has been
sending people from his township party's organization to Iowa on the weekends
to help Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, but word is he will keep many of those
people home to work for Graham if this develops into a full-blown war.
But,
wait, there's more. Rep. Mary Flowers' Democratic primary opponent works for
the Illinois Department of Corrections, which is prompting speculation that the
governor is behind this one as well. Flowers is a staunch ally of Speaker
Madigan.
And
then there's freshman Rep. Al Riley, whose Democratic opponent, Toni Ashmore,
is married to a former top official at the governor's patronage filled Department
of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
For
many of these challengers, the big question may be whether Jones, the governor
and the governor's surrogates, particularly the Service Employees International
Union, dump big bucks into their races. The governor's campaign fund doesn't
have much money in it, but his top fundraisers are gearing up in a big way.
SEIU will be making endorsements sometime in November, after the petition
filing deadline ends, so we'll know more by then.
The
House Democrats say they're ready for anything. But if any of these challengers
can put together a credible effort, voter anger over the botched session could
make for some interesting contests. And it will make the war between the
state's top Democrats a whole lot more intense.
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Rich
Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com