26 Candidates Running For Rahm Emanuel's Old IL-05 Congressional Seat

Filing for the Chicago congressional seat for Illinois' 5th CD, abandoned by Rahm Emanuel, ended yesterday. The election will be held on April 7th and there are 15 Democrats, 6 Republicans and 5 Greens who have tossed their hats into the ring-- 26 candidates. The reality of the race, however, revolves around the March 3 Democratic primary. Both Obama and Emanuel won almost 75% of the vote in the district in November and the district has a PVI of D+18.

Conventional wisdom favors progressives Tom Geoghegan, Sara Feigenholtz, Mike Quigley and John Frichey with Chicago Alderman Patrick O'Connor also expected to take a serious shot at it. Other Democrats expected to get votes from people beyond their immediate families include Justin Oberman, Pete Dagher and Frank Annunzio.

DWT has endorsed Tom Geoghegan, a labor attorney, community activist and brilliant author. Sunday, February 1 the DePaul Democrats, the IVI-IPO, and Northside DFA will host a candidates forum at DePaul University Student Center, Lincoln Park Campus from 1-3 pm.

Last week Tom Geoghegan showed what kind of a congressman he is likely to be when he responded to Bush's request for the release of the second half of the $700 billion TARP funds. He's calling to three conditions to be met before the funds are released:

• Give priority-- directly if possible-- to help people keep their homes.
• Get public interest representatives or directors on bank boards in all of the banks receiving money.
• Penalize any bank that has been hoarding money from the first bailout.

I hope everyone who wants strong proponents of America's working families will contribute to Tom's campaign. You can do it through ActBlue here. As an incentive for some I spoke with an old friend, Scott McLean, who has made a very generous offer to Geoghegan donors. Scott buys large collections of records and CDs. He's especially interested in rock, soul, vintage country, personality and original shows. He pays high prices and has been in business for 30 years. He's agreed to donate between 10 and 20% (20% for collections he pays over $1,000 for) to Tom's campaign. In other words, sell him your record collection and wind up with, say $2,000-- and he will donate another $400 to Tom's campaign. Contact Scott at jaideeone@yahoo.com and tell him DownWithTyranny sent you. If you don't have a record collection to sell, please consider even a $5 or $10 contribution to Tom's campaign.