I hear William Strong has the ability to pour his own money in to a GOP primary in the contest to replace Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in the 10th congressional district. Kirk is running for Senate.
WASHINGTON--Mike Quigley was sworn into the House of Representatives on Tuesday night. The man he is replacing to represent the Fifth Congressional District of Illinois, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, was on the House floor for Quiqley's first floor speech.
Quigley: Madam Speaker, you may find that Congressman Emanuel and I have different styles, perhaps a slightly different vocabulary. But though we are different in manner, Rahm and I share the same commitment--to fight for working families, to fight for health care, to protect the environment, and of course, to help our new president make good on the promise of fundamental change.
CHICAGO--The race to replace Rahm was a coming-of-age event for ProgressIllinois, the labor funded site that heavily reported on the Democratic primary contenders. Josh Kalven just posted a 300 second video wrap up on the contest, won by Cook County Board Member Mike Quigley.
CHICAGO--White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called Mike Quigley after the Cook County Board member clinched the Tuesday Democratic primary for the House seat Emanuel held before he left to join the Obama administration.
White House senior advisor David Axelrod also phoned in congratulations last night.
Quigley's plurality victory in the 5th congressional district race is tantamount to winning the seat. The April general election again nominal rivals is just a formality.
"Rahm called--good advice on constituent service," said Quigley spokesman Billy Weinberg.
Footnote: Axelrod handled media chores for three former congressmen from the fifth c.d., anchored on Chicago's Northwest Side: Emanuel, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski.
CHICAGO--Cook County Board Member Mike Quigley won the Democratic primary to replace Rahm Emanuel in the House Tuesday night while being outspent 5-to-1.
Quigley had a $550,000 warchest while his main rivals raised about $3 million, according to Quigley campaign manager Tom Bowen.
Most of Quigley's money--about $350,000-- came in the last three weeks. Quigley landed the support of Bill Brandt, a major Democratic activist with some of the best fund-raising connections in the nation.
Quigley will clinch with about 23 percent of the vote.
CHICAGO--Cook County Board Member Michael Quigley won the Democratic nomination in the race to replace Rahm Emanuel in the House with a veteran political and fund-raising team.
A win in the primary in this heavily Democratic district is tantamount to victory in the April special general election.
CHICAGO--With a strong turnout in Chicago wards, Cook County Board Member Michael Quigley headed Tuesday night towards clinching the Democratic primary in the hotly contested fifth congressional district race to replace Rahm Emanuel.
Quigley's victory will be a plurality win in a district where the Democratic nominee will face only nominal GOP opposition in the special general election next month.
FROM THE CHICAGO BOARD OF ELECTIONS
TC-Absentee 4,579 1.52%
TC-Precinct 39,093 13.01%
Total Registration and Turnout 300,551 43,672 14.53%
Registration Turnout
Registration & Turnout
Special Primary Ballot
3/3/2009
Summary Report
City of Chicago
Jan H. Donatelli 602 1.48%
Frank Annunzio 496 1.22%
Carlos A. Monteagudo 316 0.78%
Victor A. Forys 4,303 10.57%
Charles J. Wheelan 2,771 6.81%
Sara Feigenholtz 6,665 16.37%
John A. Fritchey 7,163 17.60%
Mike Quigley 9,368 23.01%
Patrick J. O'Connor 5,181 12.73%
Cary Capparelli 475 1.17%
Paul J. Bryar 836 2.05%
Tom Geoghegan 2,532 6.22%
Total 40,708
DEM - Rep. In Congress, 5th 391 of 486 precincts counted 80.45%
This is primary day in the race to replace Rahm Emanuel. This is the first of a series of dispatches from Chicago Sun-Times reporters at 5th congressional district candidate election night headquarters and out in the field.
By Abdon Pallasch
Chicago Sun-Times political writer
CHICAGO--First voter I interviewed at a Northwest-side polling place this morning said he's voting for, "The guy you guys told me to vote for. I think he'll bring some independence." Though he added, "My wife's probably going to cancel out my vote. She's voting for Fritchey. She'd like to get our sewers fixed."
In my very highly scientific survey at three polling places in what is supposed to be Fritchey/O'Connor/Forys territory, here are the very surprising results: Quigley - 3; Geoghegan - 2; O'Connor -1; Feigenholtz - 1.
By Abdon M. Pallasch
Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com
CHICAGO--I'm about to step into the shower as the doorbell rings. I open the front door in my robe, barefoot, unshaven, my hair askew.
State Rep. Sarah Feigenholtz, one of 12 Democrats running to replace Rahm Emanuel in Tuesday's primary election, opens her eyes wide, covers them with her right hand and turns her head away as she begins laughing.
"It's OK, Sara, you can look. I've got my robe on," I tell her.
Welcome to the front line in the election, the working-class Jefferson Park neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side..
It's Saturday morning. Ald Patrick O'Connor is live on the Irish Hour on the radio. The mailbox and television are filling with increasingly nasty advertisements from the candidates.
Feigenholtz turns to her staffers, who are also laughing and one says, "You aren't the name on our list."
The Pallasch household has gotten at least five fliers from Feigenholtz in recent weeks, but all addressed to the woman of the house. Feigenholtz has surgically targetted women voters in her campaign. If she can just get all the women in the district to vote for her in a 12-candidate race with 10 male candidates, that's certain victory.
"You just missed her," I said. "But I show her all the stories."
"Don't show her that last one," Feigenholtz says sternly, apparently referring to a short item I wrote Thursday about how Feigenholtz used to date one of her main rivals, Cook County Commissioner Michael Quigley.
WASHINGTON--White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is retaining his $1.76 million political warchest, I've been told, with Emanuel keeping his options open for a return to an elected position some time in the future.
"The account will obviously remain dormant during the time that former Congressman Emanuel is serving as President Obama's Chief of Staff," Emanuel spokesman Sarah Feinberg told me. "No decisions have been made about what will be done with the account or the funds in the account in the future."
WASHINGTON--Candidates in the March 3 primary in the Illinois fifth congressional race to replace Rahm Emanuel--must as of Thursday report contributions of $1,000 and more within 48 hours.
click below for FEC filing schedule
(Photo by Jon Sall)
White House chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel gesturing; lower right, David Axelrod, White House senior advisor.
(photo by Lynn Sweet)
Cass Sunstein, Samantha Power
Sunstein is the incoming Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget.
Power is a foreign policy advisor
(Photo by Lynn Sweet)
Robert Bauer, Anita Dunn
Bauer, an attorney was the lawyer for the Obama presidential campaign.
Dunn, who runs a Democratic consulting firm, was one of Obama's top presidential campaign advisors.
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Chicago Sun-Times Political Reporter
CHICAGO--The two-tiered dias at which 19 Democratic ward and township committeemen sat Saturday at the Zam Zam Banquet Hall on the Northwest Side looked like a wedding head table. There was elegant white bunting and mirrored walls, and canopied tables with coffee and cookies and doughnuts sat off to the side.
But none of the five would-be grooms could quite muster the 50 percent-plus-1 of the weighted vote to be officially joined to the Democratic Party of Cook County as slated candidate to replace former Rep. Rahm Emanuel.
So it's every man or woman for himself or herself for the next 50 days, in this abbreviated primary election likely to determine who will represent Emanuel's district in Congress.Emanuel has given up his seat to become President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff.
Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th), Mayor Daley's unofficial floor leader, had said as late as Friday night that he had close to enough votes to wrap up the endorsement, and he had pleaded with his fellow committeemen not to "shirk their responsibility" by declaring an "open primary." That's what backers of State Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, had sought .
WASHINGTON--The race to replace former Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) is heating up. A special election will be in late February or early March. "Bored Now" over at MyDD put together a good story about the websites of the contenders. There will be a few posts along the way in this condensed election: money raised always is one. Who makes the best web play--and gets the net roots and grass roots going--is another.
WASHINGTON -- If you did not know the back story, you would not fully appreciate Rep. Rahm Emanuel's resignation letter to Gov. Blagojevich, who is the subject of impeachment proceedings in the Illinois House, for, among other reasons, trying to auction off President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat.
Emanuel, first elected to the House in 2002, formally announced Monday he would end his House career Jan. 2 to join the Obama administration as White House chief of staff. He was the fourth ranking Democrat in the House, given the post after he ran the political operation that won back control of the House for Democrats in 2006.
He informed residents of his 5th Congressional District, anchored in Chicago's North and Northwest Side neighborhoods, with robo calls on Monday. Emanuel is on a long-planned vacation to Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, traveling with his wife, Amy, their three children and friends.
WASHINGTON--Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), incoming chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, will resign his seat on Jan. 2, days before the start of the new Congress. The race to replace him is attracting a large field of contenders, with 11 people having already filed statements of candidacies with the Federal Election Commission.
Emanuel, in Africa on a long planned vacation with his family, sent out the official news of his departure from the 5th congressional district seat in a robo call to his constitutients on Monday and a resignation letter to Gov. Blagojevich. Though the seat will be vacant with the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 6, House rules allow the congressional offices in Chicago and Washington to remain open and staffed to assist any ongoing casework. A special election will be held to fill the seat, with the date to be set now that Emanuel's departure date will be established. Emanuel must decide what to do with the $1,782,189 million in his campaign warchest, of which about $400,000 is a loan he made to his campaign.
" I also want you to know, it has been a privilege and an honor to serve as your Representative for the last six years. Thank you for the opportunity and thank you for your confidence," Emanuel said in his taped call.
Eleven people have already filed papers with the Federal Election Commission declaring they are possible candidates:
Alexander Victor Forys
Mike Quigley, Cook County Board Member
Charles J. Wheelan
Sara Feigenholtz, State Representative
Reichel Matthew
Joey Vartanian
Israel Vasquez
Justin Oberman, former Transportation Safety Administration official
Cary Capparelli, son of former State Representative
Debra Mell, incoming State Representative, daughter of Ald. Dick Mell who is not going to pursue the seat
Jan H. Donatelli
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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