Race For 2nd Congressional District Heats Up

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 18, 2013 8:40PM

Second Congressional District frontrunners Robin Kelly (left) and Debbie Halvorson.

Early voting opened last week in the Second Congressional District to find a successor to Jesse Jackson Jr., who agreed to a plea deal on misuse of campaign funds Friday. Right now it looks as though the Feb. 26 Democratic primary (and by extension the April 9 special election) is former State Rep. Robin Kelly’s to lose.

Kelly already received endorsements from Reps. Danny Davis, Bobby Rush and Jan Schakowsky, the SEIU and, as of Sunday, State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who dropped out of the race and threw her support behind Kelly. Hutchinson previously earned the endorsement of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle; Kelly was Preckwinkle’s former chief administrative officer. State Sen. Napoleon Harris also dropped out of the race and endorsed Kelly.

Perhaps the best endorsement Kelly has received is the $1.4 million in cash invested in the race from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Independence USA SuperPAC that has funded attack ads against Hutchinson and former congresswoman Debbie Halvorson. The string of endorsements, candidates ending their campaigns and attack ads has Halvorson calling for Kelly to “come clean” about what she’s doing behind the scenes.

“This district deserves honesty and transparency, this district deserves better. This poor district has been pulled over a barrel for so long. . . . My phone has been ringing off the hook. The people who did go out on a limb for [Hutchinson] are livid.”

Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Independence USA PAC, told the Sun-Times they’re investing in the race to fight “the scourge of gun violence” and Halvorson opposed President Obama’s gun control measures.

A spokeswoman for yet another candidate in IL-2, Ald. Anthony Beale, called Kelly’s campaign “a desperation move,” even though she’s one of the frontrunners in the race. Delmarie Cobb claimed the Beale campaign received a call over the weekend asking him to end his campaign. Cobb wouldn’t take the final step of claiming the call came from Kelly’s camp, but the insinuation was still crystal clear.

The money flowing into the race from the Bloomberg SuperPAC has called for Gov. Pat Quinn to ask that SuperPAC money not dictate elections, even though Bloomberg’s gun control measures is an issue he supports.