With how nasty the race for Dennis Hastert's vacant seat has gotten recently, you'd think a couple of high school girls were running the campaigns leading up to tomorrow's special election for Dennis Hastert's seat in Illinois 14th Congressional District. more ›

Leading up to the special election this Saturday in Illinois's 14th Congressional District, Bill Foster's campaign has announced a slew of endorsements. The list included the Aurora Beacon News, the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, the Kane County Chronicle, the Algonquin Countryside, and the Chicago Tribune. Besides local and regional editorial boards, he's also been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, who cited his credentials as a scientist, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, who like Foster's support of smaller class size, teacher recruitment programs, and more funding for technology in classrooms. more ›

With the Democratic primary election in the 14th Congressional District all but settled, Bill Foster and Jim Oberweis are duking it out over Iraq. Oberweis is accusing Foster of politicizing the Iraq War in his bid to take the seat that Dennis Hastert vacated by retiring. Foster says he won't support any policies that don't "change the course in Iraq and do it now." more ›

In a political season that has been marked by the theme of change, Illinois's 3rd Congressional District has become one of the battle grounds over what the Democratic Party might look like going forward in 2008. Critics of the incumbent, Dan Lipinski, are unhappy with his opposition to abortion rights and stem cell research, and his siding with moderate Republicans on the war in Iraq and domestic spying. Besides his voting record, they also don't like how he came to congress: If you don't remember the 2004 general election, the elder Lipinski won renomination in the primary, withdrew during the campaign year, and then led the process to pick his replacement on the November ballot - his son Dan, a political science professor from Tennessee. Although Dan won handily in 2004, angry challenges in 2006 held him at only 54% in the primary, with the opposition split between two opponents. more ›

Head to Daley Plaza this morning at 10:30 a.m. for a quick early voting rally for Mark Pera. Pera, the assistant Cook County State's Attorney who is running against Dan Lipinski for the 3rd Congressional District seat, is the first serious candidate to challenge Lipinski since he went to congress in 2004. Pera's campaign has attracted a lot of attention, both online and in the district. Online support has helped helped fund his campaign, but anger in the district at how the elder Lipinski handed his seat to his son has fueled the viability of his candidacy. Still, he's running against the full force and weight of Chicago's entrenched Democratic Machine. more ›

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Jim Oberweis campaign will be announcing “a major endorsement” today, and that that endorsement will be from Dennis Hastert. Oberweis is running for the 14th Congressional District seat that was vacated when former Speaker of the House resigned earlier this year. Although Hastert endorsed Oberweis for US Senator in the 2002 Republican primary, Jack Ryan won that race, later withdrawing after his (sexy) divorce files were unsealed. An... more ›

One of the races that we've been watching this winter is the Democratic Primary in the 3rd Congressional District. Incumbent Dan Lipinski is hoping voters will send him back to D.C. for a third term, but he's facing a tough challenge from Mark Pera, an assistant county prosecutor from Western Springs. That challenge may have gotten a little tougher yesterday when Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool endorsed Pera. If you don't remember the 2004 general... more ›

What happens when the party you believe in, that you dedicate your political career to, takes a turn for the worse? If you're Dennis Hastert, you resign graciously, take your kudos, and become the elder statesman you always knew you could be. Hastert resigned yesterday, bringing to a close an era of congressional Republicanism marked by increasingly bitter partisanship, an unpopular president championing an unpopular war, and a rash of scandals, both political and personal... more ›

Tuesday we gave you the rundown of who is running for a Green Party nomination in Illinois, but among the candidates, one in particular stands out. Richard B. Mayers, a white supremacist connected with Matt Hale's Creativity Movement is running against Jerome "Jerry" Pohlen in the 3rd Congressional District. This isn't the first time Mayers has run for office. In 2002 he was removed from the ballot in the 9th Congressional District, leaving Jan Schakowsky... more ›

With all the mudslinging in the presidential primary and the wrangling in the congressional races here, we almost forgot that the Green Party won a ballot line in Illinois last election. Unlike past elections, where Green candidates struggled to get on and stay on the ballot, this year marks the first time the Greens have had a state-wide ballot line, thanks to former gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney breaking the 5 percent threshold with 10.39 percent... more ›

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).... more ›

Rep. Dan Lipinski, who is hoping for a third term in the 3rd Congressional District, is facing a tough challenge from Assistant State's Attorney Mark Pera. Lipinski's critics are unhappy with his opposition to abortion rights and stem cell research, and his siding with moderate Republicans on the war in Iraq and domestic spying. Besides his voting record, they also don't like how he came to congress: If you don't remember the 2004 general election,... more ›

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin more ›

Nearly two weeks after Congressman Luis Gutierrez announced that he will, indeed, seek a ninth term in Congress (after announcing that he wouldn't run again), First Ward Alderman Manny Flores has announced that he won't seek the congressional seat. "I did this of my own accord. He's my friend," Flores told the Sun-Times, adding that Gutierrez didn't try to persuade him. Of course, Gutierrez's decision shouldn't be too shocking. The conventional wisdom is that if... more ›

Now that Tony Peraica has thrown his hat in the ring for Cook County State's Attorney, and Luis Gutierrez has been worshipped in seeking a ninth term, we now have a whole flock of Democrats and Republicans lining up to beat the shit out of each other over Dennis Hastert's congressional seat. Addressing a crowd of supporters last Friday from the steps of the Kendall County Courthouse, where he launched his national political career, Hastert... more ›

Remember a couple weeks ago when we said it seemed like every political writer with a byline was watching the race for the 6th Congressional District? We weren't kidding. Someone with Reuters sent us this pic of Times Square that showed a poll they did in conjunction with Zogby that says Tammy Duckworth leads Peter Roskam 54% to 40% in the race to represent the 6th District of Illinois in the U.S. Congress. When... more ›

When Chicagoist was living abroad, discussions of American politics were often the most interesting, as well as the most embarrassing. Unlike the U.S., where many people would prefer news about Brangelina to political races around the globe (or in the States, for that matter), the global media has always taken interest in American politics. This election season, the hotly contested 6th Congressional District seat has unexpectedly become an international election favorite, with reporters from Europe,... more ›

Just a couple of weeks ago, Senator Barack Obama, in light of the ongoing City Hall scandals, expressed reservations about putting his support behind Mayor Daley’s possible reelection bid. Considering Obama’s enormous popularity and appeal, this could be bad news for the administration, and good news for any candidate who wants to unseat Daley and is able to win over Obama. Just when it looked like Daley might be starting to lose political support from... more ›

Tenth Congressional District Representative Mark Kirk is the kind of centrist legislator that, with one or two minor opinion changes, could move from Republican to Democrat - or vice versa - pretty easily. In 2001 the League of Conservation Voters rated him a 71 out of 100, and the National Taxpayers Union rated him a 59 out of 100. Pretty close to the middle, as votes go. He's a Naval Reserve Commander, and yet gained... more ›

An open seat Congressional race is like catnip for people in politics -- and they don't come often. Only days after Congressman Henry Hyde's announcement that he will not run for reelection in 2006, one Democrat is in the race for sure, and two Republicans have officially announced their intended candidacies for the Sixth Congressional District. Of the two Republicans, State Sen. Peter Roskam of Glen Ellyn seems to be the front runner. A... more ›

Chicagoist reported on the Bean-Crane Eight Congressional District dust-up a couple of days ago. For some reason this weak story has managed to stay in the news cycle, and the various picayune details of a Congressional transition is getting a lot of ink. What gives? more ›

Chicagoist has a friend that is known to hack away at G-Dubs for hours on end. This normally happens at night when he has been drinking. You can tell him over and over that you agree or you're with him or he's preaching to the choir or you hear him, but you just can't stop him. You have to leave the room and even then he will continue to seethe and spit and scream. We... more ›

Last night was the last debate before Obama takes Illinois Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald's seat in the Senate. It got a bit heated, but overall it was more of the same. Sunday, the Tribune reported on a recent Tribune/WGN-TV poll that put Obama at 66% and Keyes at 19%. You've heard it here first. Chicagoist predicts that Barack Obama will win the 2004 Senate race. So since that race isn't really even fun anymore [see... more ›

� Chicagoist gets a sneak preview of Matt & Ben and loves it more ›

Hobbling on crutches as he recovers from a motorcycle accident-related hip fracture, University of Tennessee Assistant Professor Daniel Lipinski, 38, was introduced by his father, Rep. William Lipinski, as the new Democratic Nominee for Illinois' Third Congressional District. Lipinski The Younger, was unanimously nominated by the Democratic Ward and Township Committeemen in his district, an impressive political feat orchestrated by Lipinski The Elder, and anticipated for months. more ›

With Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama running unchallenged, and President George Bush essentially conceeding Illinois to Democratic challenger John Kerry, the top of the ballot this November isn't drawing a whole lot of attention. This has opened up a whole lot of possibility for races further down the ballot, like the 8th Congressional District race up in northwestern Cook, and Lake and McHenry Counties. The seat, held by Republican Rep. Phil Crane for thirty-three... more ›