13 Comments - Mississippi King - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:03 am: IF YOU ASK ANYBODY IN THE 17TH DISTRICT THEY WILL SAY “MANGIERI, MANGIERI, MANGIERI, MANGIERI, MANGIERI, MANGIERI” BECAUSE HE IS A REAL MAN AND PEOPLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER WANT A REAL MAN TO REPRESENT THEM IN CONGRESS, ESPECIALLY IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES!!! - Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:06 am: Hey, King, doesn’t the University of Chicago teach you to not use all caps in blog comments? This is I think the third time you’ve posted the exact same comment on different threads. Enough, please. - Xolotl - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:31 am: Mississippi King - How about the rest of the district that is not on the Missippii? I am sooooo sick of people discounting the other 50% or so of the CD that is not on the river or the other 75% or so of the voting age population that does not even live in Rock Island County! - anon - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:53 am: Just curious if anyone has heard anything from the two news conferences the RI Dems are having this morning? The first which was to be exclusively John G announcing his favorite to go on the ballot was held at 9a, the other was to be a coalition of RI Dems in different offices announcing that they too back John G’s choice. And it’s been widely spread that John G’s choice is the same as Evans’. While John Sullivan is the biggest threat of keeping this seat from the GOP for years to come, the selfishness of the RI Dems appears as though it could lead us to electing a Republican. What irony, the same zealotry that has kept Evans riding strong for a quarter century eventually directs the district back to a Republican! If anyone gets reports from this morning’s two news conferences, we’ll look forward to reading them right here at cap fax! - 17th Anon - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 11:57 am: John Sullivan is clearly the best candidate to hold this seat for the Democrats. He is the one the R’s fear the most. His appeal transcends party lines. It’s time the folks in R.I. realize they are not the machine they think they are. If they were they would give us someone better than Phil Hare. I have a lot of respect for Lane Evans and I can understand why he is backing Hare, but everyone else who knows him knows that he is not the best candidate. Lane has made some mistakes over the years and Hare is at the root of all of them. This is a real opportunity to move forward in a positive way. Sullivan is the man and R.I. should step out of their “civil war” for a moment and realize it. - Anon - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 12:14 pm: If Evans was half the man everyone thinks he is, he would resign and let everyone have an equal chance in a special election to fill his vacancy, which would be held before the deadline for selecting a replacement on the November ballot. The precint committeemen can then name the Democratic winner for the November ballot. - Anon - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 1:12 pm: I am amazed at the endorsements for Phil Hare. Since they have not talked to the other candidates, how do they know that Phil is the best candidate for the job? This has nothing to do with selecting the best candidate and everything to do with RI trying to control the entire district. I find the endorsements by AFSCME and SEIU highly questionable. Did they have a fair process? Interview the candidates? Strange that under normal circumstances they would have a survey or at least an interview with all the candidates? HMMMMMM makes you wonder what is really going on doesn’t. - Gia-Pet - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 1:44 pm: The greatest fun, and I hope lots of TV cameras are there for it, will be watching John Gianulis try to run the meeting, that is if he wins the battle at the Board of Elections. John has been increasingly inacapable of controlling such forums, and he will not only procedurally make a mess of it, but will probably say something that will embarass the party. This is sad for Democrats, and it’s sad for John. If John had guts he would have said no to Lane, because he would have really been saying no to Phil Hare who manipulated Lane into this decision. Hare is not the best candiate for that district and we all know it–except Phil. I think there are several talented pols (Phil is no pol) in the district, and most all of them would be more competitive against Zinga in the general that Phillip Hare. I just had a very sad thought: Phil Hare encouraging Lane to hang on year after year–Lane struggling just to walk from his office to the House floor, increasingly unable to express himself and looking (and probably feeling) confused when talking to constituents and his own staff, a man in need of his close friends to encourage Lane to make plans for his retirement in a way where he could live and work in dignity but instead they lie to him, in short Lane finishing his career in a way that is not representative of his true and stellar legacy–so that Phil Hare could maneuver himself into position and pick the moment, after a primary, when Lane is maximally vulnerable and isolated, and make himself the choice. That’s not just Machiavellian, it’s cruel. And for Phil to think he is worthy of “replacing” Lane, it is pure folly. Many people play with the idea of the “wisdom” of voters, but I think that is used when convenient by pundits and winners alike. In this case I pray that voters (precinct committeemen) use their wisdom to reject Phil Hare and pick someone who is worthy of working in a district so ably represented by Lane for all these years, and someone able to convincingly beat Zinga in the general. - Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 2:41 pm: Mike Boland’s announcement for the congressional seat was so huge that it didn’t even make the front page of the Moline paper. Or the 2nd or 3rd… in fact I didn’t see it in the first section of the paper anywhere! - anonymous - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 3:20 pm: From my vantage in the Quad Cities, if Sullivan puts together a coalition of moderate Dems from the southern end of the district, he may end up facing Andrea Zinga for Congress. As long as Boland, Hare and Schwiebert are in the race, dividing up the QC vote, it’s Sullivans to lose. - Anon - Friday, Apr 14, 06 @ 3:26 am: All right, the best Dem out there is Paul Mangieri. From the center of the district, lives in the district, is moderate and can capture repubs and independant votes and come on, have you ever heard Mangieri speak. Hare, Sullivan, Boland anyone else can’t come close to him. Unfortunately he will not run, because lost the Treasurer’s race to the mobbed up rich kid. Not only his loss, but our loss. - Anon - Friday, Apr 14, 06 @ 9:37 am: I have a couple of questions for everyone out there. Why is having a candidate from the largest area of the district so wrong? What has John Sullivan done, why is he a better candidate? What’s so wrong with Phil? I hope that he gets the nod, because he is the best candidate. He is the only candidate that has been involved in national politics for 23 years. Where Boland and Sullivan are just State legislators which doesn’t give them the experince they need. Also I wouls like for my Congressman to live in my district. Not is Congressman LaHood’s district. - anonymous - Friday, Apr 14, 06 @ 10:43 am: Senator John Sullivan can still put a southern coalition together that would have more than enough votes to beat three candidates from the Quad Cities. Sullivan, who beat back the state republican machine in a red senate district, could whallop Ms. Zinga in November. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.