First Contact: Robert Emmons, Jr. (IL-01)

I'll have to ask Mr. Emmons how he thinks that turned out

Blue America is at the very beginning stages of getting to know-- sounds so much better than "vetting," right?-- Robert Emmons, the progressive Democrat challenging longtime Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush. When he first e-mailed and asked for our endorsement, I was super-slammed with the whistleblower papers being released so I responded with this e-mail, thinking it might give me some breathing space to postpone a phone conversation by a few days so I could catch up. "Nice to hear from you, Robert.," I wrote. "Before we talk on the phone, can you tell me the case you're making against Rush and how you sense that is going over in the community?" The other possibility with a request like that-- a telling one-- is that a candidate doesn't have it together to respond at all. Almost half the candidates who request endorsements don't have what it takes to carry out a simple task like that. It saves me a lot of time and energy because then I know right off that bat that there's nothing we can do to help them.

But not Emmons. He was ON IT-- and FAST! Here's his response:

Here is a sample of our case:

We respect Bobby Rush, but he has failed our community for far too long. When Barack Obama ran against Bobby Rush in 2000, he said that Bobby Rush is out of touch and represents a reactive politics. We couldn’t agree more, and 20 years has made the situation even more dire.

I want to point out that we have a vision for the district that goes beyond politics. We want to make this the last generation to be faced with everyday gun violence by addressing the root causes. This is not an issue that Bobby doesn’t care about. This is an issue that we have disagreements on how to solve. Militarizing and criminalizing our community is not the answer. Addressing poverty and environmental racism’s is the answer. Our campaign is predicated on the belief that we are the solution together; that the solutions to our community’s most pressing needs are in the minds and hearts of those who have been hurt by the laws designed to hold them down.

  Issues:

• Bobby Rush voted for the disastrous 1994 crime bill. This further exacerbated the vicious cycle of poverty and hence violence in communities of color across the nation.
• 25 years after the Crime Bill passage, he still supports local policies that are “tough on crime”. For example he supports proposals of 50 million dollars on drone surveillance on the Southside of Chicago. Evidence has proven this strategy to be ineffective and a terrible use of resources. This means that even though he has apologized for the 94’ crime bill, he hasn’t learned from the impacts it has had.
• He has always taken money from the fossil fuel industry. This is while we in the First’ have some of the highest percentages of people with asthma in the nation(including myself).
• He sits on the committee on Energy and Commerce. He called the Green New Deal a smash and grab. This isn’t surprising due to his relationship with the fossil fuel industry.
• He has one of the poorest run constituent services. Electeds around the district have said that they can’t work with him.
• He has spurred division in our district. More recently in the Chicago Mayoral elections.
• Our District is ready for reinvigoration. We have felt an energy in the district that we haven’t felt in our lives.
• We have built a multi-generational coalition across the district.
• Our campaign has 40xs more small dollar contributions than Bobby Rush. We have proven to be about the people.
• We received endorsements from public officials, YoungPac, People For Bernie Sanders, and more recently Brand New Congress.
• We have already started working with elected officials to make our district stronger. 

Our campaign has received support from folks in 43 states.

I hope this helps to begin. Please let us know if you’d like to discuss these points further. 

And that was good enough to set up a phone call so we can begin the process of making sure Mr. Emmons will make a member of Congress we know we will be able to count on to do the right things for IL-01 and for the country. After all, these congressional candidates wind up as senators and governors and cabinet secretaries and even presidents. We have to make sure we're not going to wind up with some fast-talking crook like Joe Biden. I promise to let you know how it goes. So far my gut is telling me, we have a good one here. Here's the video he released on his campaign site; sounds good, right?