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Of the grassroots congressional campaigns this season, Mark Pera's race to unseat 3rd District Congressman Dan Lipinski is among the more notable. According to the Pera campaign, they out-raised Congressman Dan Lipinski during the 3rd quarter, $100,000 to $75,000. Even more telling was where the money came from: Pera's nearly 850 contributions came from individual donors, while just one of Lipinski's 74 contributions was from inside the district ($100 from a single contributor in Brookfield). The rest of Lipinski's money came from Beltway PACs and clout-heavy Chicago Machine hacks, including long-time Daley pal Patrick Harbour, whose firms hold exclusive construction contracts at O’Hare International Airport, and Ardmore Associates who received exclusive contracts at O’Hare. Also on the list of contributors to Lipinski's campaign is Louisiana Republican Rep. Richard Baker's Back America's Conservatives PAC, based not in Illinois's 3rd Congressional District, but in Alexandria, Va.
Although Lipinski has more cash on hand than Pera does ($321,000 to $180,000), these figures make us wonder about the strength of the incumbent. Can a congressman who raises the bulk of his campaign funds from outside the district really claim to "work with the people in his district to help make their lives better,” as Mike Madigan said recently? At this point, it's hard to tell if Lipinski is a product of the Chicago political Machine, or just another DC flunky.
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Good lord! A PAC based in Washington! Who heard of such a thing?
Lipinsky might be a douchebag, but I'm sick of Kevin's soapbox--and his recycling of Daily Kos as his own work.
whymustiregister: It's not so much that the PACs giving to Lipinski are DC-based. It's who they are and who they represent that are troubling, especially if you live in that district.
As for your charge of plagiarism, it's not surprising that a blogger at DailyKos came to many of the same conclusions I did. The data speaks for itself.
"Can a congressman who raises the bulk of his campaign funds from outside the district really claim to 'work with the people in his district to help make their lives better.'"
Probably not. But does that mean he won't get reelected? Not at all.
This is something that really bothers me about Chicagoist writers. They tend to bring up a couple of points but never really answer the questions they pose. What does the strength of the incumbent have to do with his claims about representing his constituency? They seem to go together, but they really don't.
Thanks Kevin,
I enjoyed this. Ingore the whiners.
It isn't whining. It is bitching. Kevin and his comic book good and evil politics get old.
His facts are frequently wrong and his articles are anything but thought provoking. "Here's what you should think: blah blah, machine, blah blah Daley, blah blah everything sucks."
Gee, Kevin, your post looks familiar.
Oh, yes.
It's plagiarized from the Pera campaign.
Lookie, lookie.
From: Pat Corcoran
Date: October 15, 2007 9:27:32 PM CDT
To: patc@pera08.com
Subject: Pera 3Q
Reply-To: patc@pera08.com
Hi,
It's Pat Corcoran from Mark Pera for Congress with some campaign money news for you.
The final numbers are in and, during the 3rd quarter, we out-raised Congessman Dan Lipinski during the 3rd quarter $100,000 to $75,000.
I wanted to get the word out tonight about our fundraising totals since this is going to be one of the big campaign money stories tomorrow here in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.
More importantly, we had almost 850 contributions compared to just 74 for Congressman Dan Lipinski.
Our average contributor gave $120; his averaged $1,000-plus.
After taking a long look at the folks — mostly PACs — who sent money to Lipinski for Congress, remarkably, there was just one from the 3rd Congressional District.
At this point, it's tough to tell if Dan Lipinski is more a product of the Chicago Machine or the Washington D.C. PAC/Lobbyist Machine. Roughly 60 percent of all the money brought in by Congressman Lipinski during the 3rd quarter came from PACs. On top of that, he collected more than $7,000 from lobbyists and lobbying firms in the 3rd quarter...
If you want more details, I've outlined some stats on a fact sheet that is attached.
There's a good chance we'll see more stories like this tomorrow popping up tomorrow. If you're interested in reporting on the 3rd quarter money totals, please let me know if I can be of any help.
In other good news, thanks to our 3Q showing and continued success thus far in October, we should be up, getting the word out about our campaign on cable television by the end of the month.
One stat that I can let you in on is that since being endorsed earlier this month by the national DFA (Democracy for America), we've collected more than $13,000 in contributions from more than 500 individual contributors.
Thanks for your interest and please feel free get back to me if you'd like to talk with Mark or if you have any other questions.
Best,
Patrick
(847) 687-7579
Kevin didn't improperly copy anything from anybody. Good article, Kevin. I learned from it.
Don't worry, I am not going soft. I'll probably disagree with you next time.