When State Rep. George Scully (D-Flossmoor) finally got his appointment to the bench, he opened up the pandora's box in the South Suburbs.  Terry Matthews, the Bloom Township Democratic committeeman, will decide who replaces Scully, and Matthews' loyalty is hardly to the Democratic party.

So it should be no surprise when Matthews' choice for the seat is:

a man known to some as a Republican....

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This year is an "off year" for elections in the United States. Still, there are important elections out there, several of which have potential national implications. Basically, we've got three states (Kentucky, Lousiana, and Mississippi) holding gubernatorial elections, and four states (Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia) electing state legislatures. Of these, I want to spend a few minutes focusing on my state, Virginia.  Specifically, I want to discuss why I believe Virginia is important, both in its own right as well as in the context of national politics for 2008 and beyond.  I also want to highlight our netroots success in raising over $11,000 for Virginia Democratic candidates - with the fantastic help of the great people at ActBlue - in just under 4 weeks.

Please join me after the "jump."

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Raising Kaine and ActBlue are joining forces!  Thanks to the powerful fundraising tools brought to the netroots by ActBlue, RK is launching its first coordinated fundraising campaign for our progressive Virginia candidates.  The first slate of candidates: Chap Petersen, Janet Oleszek, Bruce Roemmelt, Carlos del Toro, and Troy Farlow.  We'll be adding more great candidates soon, but we're excited to have this first great round of candidates in important '07 races.

Let's show the Virginia GOP the power of our progressive community and raise a combined $1,000 (or more!) in 15 days for these candidates and RK.

As you all know, this is an important year for progressives in Virginia.  Every single seat in the Virginia General Assembly - 40 in the State Senate and 100 in the House of Delegates - is up for election.  And Democrats have a real chance at capturing the Senate and making serious gains in the House.  Such success is especially important, as this is the last chance before redistricting in 2011.  And, given the fiasco of a transportation "compromise" the Republicans just passed, Gov. Tim Kaine (D) could use some more allies to help pass a REAL transportation plan next session.

So please click here to make your donation to your favorite candidate(s) in Raising Kaine's new ActBlue coordinated fundraising page!  Or you can spread your donation out to them all!

Thanks for all your support over the years.  And let's "Raise Kaine" for Tim Kaine and Virginia progressives!

(For more on these individual candidates, click through to the extended entry.)

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The United States, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. Once again they have proved their unshakable loyalty to the Israeli occupation by voting againstall of the six UN General Assembly resolutions regarding the "Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine".

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