David Sirota would probably like to think his column, Measuring Electoral Success, adds to our understanding of how to advance the progressive agenda but it seems to serve basically as an apology for outside support of Tom Geoghegan's candidacy in the IL-05 special election.

Sirota writes:

There is a value in backing long shots, even if those long shots lose. In Geoghegan's case, many progressives supported someone who has been an important voice on so many issues, and who has had the courage to fight the good fight.

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Yesterday, the Democratic primary for IL-05 ended with the victory of Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley. Because the district has a partisan voting index of D+18, the primary was the election; Quigley will replace Rahm Emanuel in the House.

As I wrote last night, the consensus seems to be that Quigley was probably the second most progressive candidate after Tom Geoghegan, so on the face, this should be seen as a victory for the district and for our majority in Congress. Certainly he's likely to be far less cautious than Rahm Emanuel was as a legislator but standing next to Geoghegan, even a conventional progressive Democrat is somewhat of a disappointment. Take a look at these tweets from Quigley's campaign today to see what I mean.

First came:

QuigleyCampaign @tomgeoghegan Tom, congrats to you, your volunteers & supporters for proposing important ideas for the problems we face.

Then immediately following:

QuigleyCampaign @tomgeoghegan We'll fight for full access to health care & to protect Social Security.

Talk about not getting what Geoghegan was fighting for in the campaign at all. In fact, Quigley is precisely the opposite of the sort of Democrat Geoghegan promised to be. Geoghegan on multiple occasions spoke about how Democrats in Congress always talk about "saving Social Security" but in fact what we need to do is increase SS payments. In addition, while Quigley Dem boilerplate rhetoric on health care reform, Geoghegan was a fierce advocate for single payer.

As of now, I have no reason to doubt that Mike Quigley will be anything but a solid partner for Barack Obama in the House, but I sure hope he takes a long hard look at the actual ideas Tom Geoghegan was fighting for in this campaign as an example of the sort of better Democrat so many of us hope at some point will be plentiful in Congress.

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I was on a conference call with Tom Geoghegan on Wednesday to get the view from the ground and I can tell you that Geoghegan himself sounded genuinely energized and in good spirits about his chances on Tuesday.

The race is unique in that there are 12 Democrats running in this special primary, none of whom has definitive name recognition or money advantage over the others, so a sort of insurgent candidate like Tom has always had a real shot if the money, endorsements and grassroots support fell into place, which is exactly what seems to be happening.

As for money, Geoghegan has raised over $300k with an average donation of $120. They've also seen a spike in Twitter activity (follow Tom HERE) as well as volunteers in the office just this week. Also, the endorsement momentum I wrote about on Monday continued today with the endorsement of progressive online trailblazer Joe Conason, who writes:

He possesses a certain kind of plain-spoken eloquence that will quickly make him an important spokesman on substantive issues. Nobody will do a better job of explaining why we need labor law reform or single-payer healthcare reform, because he has represented workers against union-busting companies and sued the big insurance companies too. [...]

The thing about voting for Geoghegan, if you happen to live in that Chicago district, is that you can accomplish two worthwhile objectives at once. Shine up the city's political image (previous congressmen from IL-5 were named Rostenkowski and Blagojevich) by electing someone who is superior without being snobby. And send someone to Congress who was made for this historic moment, when the nation's dispossessed need as many strong voices as they can get.

Geoghegan's strategy has been to focus on the working class section of the district, taking his message of single payer health care and expanding social security, not just saving it to senior centers, L stops and Polish churches in the area. Geoghegan said that he's gotten a real education going door to door in the area. He said it's truly stunning to learn just how little people actually live on in America today.

Geoghegan explained one major reason he thinks he has a good shot: geography. His primary competition in the area of the district where he's competing hardest is State Rep. John Fritchey; over in the more affluent Lakefront section of the district, three candidates, State Senator Sara Feigenholtz, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley and author Charlie Wheelan are fighting it out. Geoghegan expects to get a good portion of the Lakefront district vote as well since it's the more affluent better educated (and hence more web-savvy) part of the district. In fact, all over the district people are telling Tom that they haven't made their minds up yet but that they're going online to learn more. The fact that Tom has won the netroots primary hands down is no small thing. Geoghegan's campaign estimates that 40% of voters are still undecided and while they have not done any internal polling, the fact that no other candidate has released his or her own is telling.

To get a slightly more complete view of the state of play in the race, I spoke with a representative from the Feigenholtz campaign who expressed optimism as well but acknowledged that the unique nature of this election really does make it wide open. He said that they have 500 volunteers working hard for them and they've made around 100,000 voter contacts. He said that Sara is competing hard throughout the entire district and benefits from the fact that while she represents one side of the district, she actually grew up on the other, so she sort of has two home bases. As for policy, particularly one of Geoghegan's top priorities, single payer healthcare, he said that Sara believes universal healthcare is a right for every American and that if we were starting from scratch, she would have no problem supporting single payer but that since we already have an insurance system in place, it just doesn't make sense to go that route.

From what I've read about Feigenholtz and from my conversation with her campaign today, it seems rather evident that she would be a fine progressive addition to the House and an improvement over Emanuel, but seems to be approaching her run for Congress -- and I suspect would approach her tenure there -- from a fairly conventional Democratic standpoint. Which is fine for most districts, but most districts don't have an exceptional candidate like Tom Geoghegan running to represent them.

I agree with Conason that we have a true "historic moment" in front of us, one that we need to embrace. As Kathy G writes, Tom's election truly would "afflict the comfortable" and the comfortable sure could use some affliction. It will be interesting to see if the voters in the IL-05 agree on Tuesday by choosing Tom Geoghegan to represent them.

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Great move by Geoghegan:

At a press conference at the Dirksen Federal Building this morning, Geoghegan -- along with co-counsels Scott Frankel, Rob Cohen, and former alderman Marty Oberman -- announced that he has filed a suit in federal court against the state of Illinois and Gov. Pat Quinn seeking a special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. [...]

Speaking to a large assembling of reporters, Geoghegan outlined three purposes for the suit: to "end the embarrassing stalemate" that is the Blagojevich-Burris charade, to establish rules so the people can vote for their elected officials, and to assure that the government is conducted by the rule of law. "This is why I went to law school" he said. "And the Constitution exists to make sure the democratic rights of the people are secured."

Geoghegan's complaint, which you can read HERE, doesn't claim that Burris's appointment was illegal, just that it was temporary until a special election could be scheduled to allow voters the chance to choose their Senator. Progress Illinois reports that in fact Secretary of State Lisa Madigan has concluded that Burris doesn't even need to have resigned or been expelled from the Senate for the legislature to schedule a special election to replace him.  

As for the accusation that this suit is merely a political attention getter 5 days out from the IL-05 special election on Tuesday, Geoghegan responded:

"For 30 years, I've been bringing public interest cases like this to the courts," he said. "Just because I'm running for Congress, I haven't given up my day job."

Contribute to Tom's campaign over at ActBlue today. This is still a very winnable race.

Update [2009-2-26 16:52:27 by Todd Beeton]:]Read Tom Geoghegan's "State of the Union" over at HuffPo.

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6 days out from the special election in IL-05 where progressive author and labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan will be facing off with 13 other Democrats to replace Rahm Emanuel in the House, Geogeghan seems to be everywhere and I'm not even talking about the blogosphere.

Harold Myerson at The Washington Post:

Little about Tom Geoghegan resembles Ronald Reagan, but his hard-to-decipher last name rhymes with the former president's. A wry, heterodox liberal intellectual with a lifelong passion for American workers, Geoghegan...[has]... become the go-to lawyer for Chicagoans who've lost their jobs through discrimination or who've been denied the pay they've earned. And now, he's the congressional candidate who supports single-payer health care, expanding Social Security to compensate for the decimation of private pensions, and government investment to rebuild our offshored manufacturing sector.  [...]

There are, by actual count, a gazillion candidates for Emanuel's old seat on Tuesday's ballot, including a number of conventionally liberal pols, some of whom would probably make fine members of Congress. But Congress has no shortage of conventionally liberal or conventionally conservative pols. Of streetwise political intellectuals who've devoted themselves to a career of economic justice it has none.

Mickey Kaus at Slate:

The liberal magazine writer's favorite Congressional candidate--former liberal magazine writer (turned labor lawyer) Tom Geoghegan--is still in the hunt in the wild, multi-candidate, low-turnout race to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Chicago's Fifth District. [...]

I like Geoghegan, not because I agree with him on most issues (though I do) but because it would be great to have him in Congress. I've known and admired him for decades. He's the opposite of a hack--a big-thinking reformer who wants to actually solve the country's problems rather than pass a few little bills and get himself reelected. He knows exactly what's wrong with conventional liberalism, even as he runs to the "left" of the field--maybe that's even the reason he runs to the left.

Michael Barone at US News & World Report:

[Geoghegan's] way, way to the left of me on issues, but, hey! it's a heavily Democratic district, and it would be helpful to have an intellectually honest Democrat in the not intellectually very venturesome House Democratic Caucus.

In a mostly annoying substance-free piece on the race, Laura Washington of The Chicago Sun-Times offers this warning to Geoghegan's opponents:

Geoghegan is an old friend, but I'm not endorsing in this campaign. When I chatted with him at a campaign forum Wednesday night, he was flushed with anticipation. He is campaigning across the district and winning kudos from "people I don't know and have never met," he exclaimed. "I have a sense that things are breaking our way."

Feigenholtz, Fritchey and Quigley have been beating up on each other and ignoring Geoghegan, at their peril. Here's a heads-up to Q and Sara: Beware of the G-man.

Howie Klein has more:

Meyerson follows endorsements in the last couple of days by three of Chicago's legendary progressive reformer elders, Abner Mikva, Dr. Quentin Young, and Leon Despres, and from one of Tom's former opponents, Marty Oberman. [...]

DFA, The Nation, Progressive Democrats of America, the American Nurses Association, the Greater Chicago Caucus, the Teamsters and Steelworkers unions and a long list of progressive writers from Katha Pollitt and David Sirota to Thomas Frank. Garry Wills, Don Rose and James Fallows have come out for Tom.

This sort of multi-candidate low turnout election is precisely where a last minute surge of money and volunteers can have the most impact, so donate to Tom's campaign HERE and make calls for him from home HERE. If you're local, sign up to volunteer for the campaign in its final stretch HERE and go meet Tom tomorrow night in Norwood Park (details HERE) and help send the man Thomas Frank calls an "unrepentant New Dealer with an old-fashioned sense of civic duty" to Congress.

Update [2009-2-25 22:49:22 by Todd Beeton]:Just got off a conference call with Tom. The reports from the ground sound promising. Will post on it tomorrow.

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