1. - Leroy - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 12:38 pm:

   110-to-four

   Boy, all the incumbents voted to change the rules to favor them over challengers? Amazing.

   The hammer of oppression continues to fall.




2. - team america, world police - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 1:12 pm:

   As has been noted previously, this amounts to a de facto endorsement of a primary candidate by an entire state. Wish I’d had a chance to vote on whom I’m endorsing. The hammer has not just fallen, it has flattened everyone in the state not named Blagojevich, Madigan, Jones or Daley.




3. - Patriot - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 1:21 pm:

   An idea whose time has finally come.




4. - Squideshi - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 1:37 pm:

   The State has no compelling interest in regulating the internal candidate selection process of political parties, which are private, voluntary associations. The State has no right to force a party to use a primary election to select its candidates, when the party may prefer some other method, such as a consensus decision making process, as is used within the Green Party. The State has no right to deny political parties their constitutional right to freedom of association, which implies the right to not associate, by forcing political parties to accept, as members, anyone who signs one of that party’s nominating petitions or who requests their primary ballot. The State has no right to force political parties to allow non-members to interfere in their decision making process by participating in their primary elections. These are gross violations.




5. - Squideshi - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 1:39 pm:

   In addition, the State has no right to dictate the structure of political parties, forcing them to use district, county, and statewide central committees, comprised of voting precinct committeemen.

   Established political parties, which have earned the right to ballot access, should simply be able to certify their chosen candidates to the election authority, for placement on the ballot.




6. - frustrated GOP - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 1:44 pm:

   I say now would be a good time to tax political media buys and service contracts for political consultants. We will see those significantly increase next year.




7. - M.V. - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 1:52 pm:

   I think they should call this the “It’s Too Freakin Cold to Vote” act.




8. - North by Northwest - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 2:09 pm:

   Is the entire primary being moved up, or just the presidential? And is this a one-time-only change? Madigan and the power brokers will always want the primary as early and as COLD as possible!




9. - Daniel Biss - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 2:15 pm:

   Note, though, that Peter Roskam made the “primary defense” list among GOP-help seats they need to defend, and districts 10 and 14 (Kirk and Hastert) all made the “secondary defense” list.

   This is from slide 10 of the presentation:
   http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070328111824-19475.pdf




10. - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 2:55 pm:

    The primary won’t make news. The idea that it would help Obama is naive. Paul Simon won the 1988 Illinois Democratic Presidential Primary. When you have a local politician running, a state’s primary isn’t news.

    Move the date to February, or keep it in March, it doesn’t matter when you have an Illinois senator running for office.

    The other information isn’t news either. Durbin is so slippery there isn’t any handles to hold onto him. He morphs into whatever group he panders to. He is loaded with money. He smiles, cries crocodile tears on cue, looks like he wets his pants before he sadly drops an oratorical bomb on an opponent, and plays his role admirably. You hate him because he is so good at it. He is so fake he seems sincere.

    There is also nothing in the Illinois House delegation to strike at either. The money they save by running no one at Durbin can be used to shore up costs to keep the GOP House seats in 2008. At this time, there has been nothing to make observers believe 2008 will be a revolution.




11. - Truthful James - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 3:00 pm:

    We are going into a class system of elections. The rich survive, ideas lose. The races will cost more than $1 Billion, guaranteed.
    No campaigning or media buys before July 1 of the election year. No franking campaign material for votes.

    Primaries all in August, Convention over Labor Day, two months campaigning and advertising. Given the media opportunities, that sure is enough to know candidates and their positions.




12. - Team Sleep - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 3:01 pm:

    From a voter’s perspective, this is awful. Primaries need to be closer to the general election, not farther away. The closer a primary is the more intense the general election is. Now it’s going to be nearly nine months of a gap!? We are certainly heading in the right direction.

    All I know is that Karl Rove has become “master of the obvious” and Henry Waxman should put on a ringleader’s outfit and conduct a three-ring circus. D.C. is such a joke right now. Where is the leadership???




13. - Team Sleep - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 3:08 pm:

    And there will be one contested house seat. I look for Mark Kirk to receive another stiff challenge. If Dan Seals runs again, he can beat Kirk. Kirk is a great Congressman and he can use his vote against the troop surge as a defense, but his overall record will not resonate will in the 10th.




14. - Jeff Trigg - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 3:37 pm:

    So the primary petitioning period will be from the begining of August until Nov. 5th the year before the general election. Brilliant. 2 year terms for Reps and they will be officially running for re-election at least for 1 year and 3 months every term. 9 months after they win, they have to start petitioning again. This is just an irresponsible abuse of power.




15. - Truthful James - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 3:44 pm:

    Jeff –

    Worse, it will be an even greater denominator in determining legislative positions. Don’t look for a principled candidate, only what has he done for me lately.




16. - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 5:00 pm:

    Melissa Bean just voted against the House bill that protects Americans from being sued if they report suspicious behavior on airplanes and it turns out to be wrong.

    She was in the definate minority on this vote.

    What does she want to do? Lose her re-election chances?

    Dumb stunts like this can get her booted out of her district.




17. - Outraged - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 6:10 pm:

    So this is a PERMANENT change? This isn’t about Barack. it’s about solidifying the Machine’s power. Who will vote in the blizzards of February but the precinct captains and the people at the public trough? March was bad enough. But February?




18. - Papa Legba - Wednesday, Mar 28, 07 @ 9:08 pm:

    Every state should have the primary the same day. One month later have a run off for the top three chumps in each party. That would shake up the “election” process.




19. - T.J. - Thursday, Mar 29, 07 @ 5:07 am:

    Dumb stunts like this can get her booted out of her district.

    Oh, right, like Illinois voters are about to hold anyone accountable.




20. - bored now - Thursday, Mar 29, 07 @ 7:27 am:

    rich, i think you misunderstood the house slide. it’s the top 20 gop targets of democratic house incumbents, not the top 20 vulnerable seats.




21. - cermak_rd - Thursday, Mar 29, 07 @ 8:35 am:

    Folks, it’s not like IL primary is going to be the earliest in the union or anything. I would imagine it’s cold in New Hampshire when they vote too. I, for one, am tired of IL not really having a say in primaries.




22. - Napoleon has left the building - Thursday, Mar 29, 07 @ 11:08 am:

    Thanks for posting that CSPAN clip, I’m stunned at their arrogance. Where is the special prosecutor?

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