Davis, Harold in the home stretch
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From an AP story about Congressman Rodney Davis’ GOP primary race against Erika Harold…
Early on, the race between Davis and Harold was expected to be tight. Brian Gaines, a political science professor at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs, said the Urbana lawyer, 34, is the kind of candidate many Republican loyalists would like to see on a ballot to broaden the party’s reach.
“She’s got a lot of qualities that make her in a sense a godsend for the Republican Party,” Gaines said.
But Harold has said that party insiders appear to favor Davis, a former staffer for U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, and failed to give her equal access to GOP campaign resources. She also has lagged in fundraising: Through the end of December, Davis had raised $1.45 million to Harold’s $215,000, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Gaines said her campaign has appeared disorganized — focusing on complaints about her treatment by party officials rather than effectively countering with grass-roots organizing.
Who said this race would be tight? Anyone not allied with Harold?
And, by the way, Professor Gaines makes an excellent point. As the old saying goes, “Don’t mourn, organize.”
- joan - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:04 am:
Erika has run an incredible race and she is a rising star. The fact is that HillJackRodney won’t win the general without Champaign. So Erika is well placed to take the seat back in 2016 and she’ll be on a national stage long after HillJackRodney has faded.
Sooner or later, this seat is coming back to Champaign and if the GOP was smart, they’d get behind Erika now.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:06 am:
“…this seat is coming back to Champaign.”
How parochial can you get?
- joan - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:07 am:
Long down your nose all you want, wordslinger, but HillJackRodney is the past, Erika is the future and everyone knows Champaign is the center of the 13th.
- SonofSuperAbe2014 - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:10 am:
Joan sound like the wife Dan Proft has always wanted
- joan - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:13 am:
Go ahead and keep it up superabe… Erika is a rising star. Get behind her are you’ll just be a brown stain on the pavement as she rockets by!
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:15 am:
Long down my nose? How would one do that?
- Can we raze Champaign? - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:17 am:
What are the polls at? Erika down 40? The Champaign Fap Brigade is a little ridiculous at this point. Is the entire staff of the News-Gazette going to wear black armbands in mourning when she loses? You know Tim Johnson isn’t relevant anymore. Get over it.
- Logic not emotion - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:18 am:
I like the potential appeal of Erika for the GOP; but whoever advised her to run against Davis in a primary gave her very bad advice. I’d favor Davis over Harold for this House seat; but I’d strongly support Harold over Durbin for the Senate seat and I suspect there are a LOT of others who feel the same way. I suspect that this act tarnishes her appeal; but she can overcome that with the right approach (starting with different advisors).
Joan: You sound like you are among the ones who gave her the bad advice.
- Logic not emotion - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:23 am:
Been a rough day… All these years, I thought Iuka was the center of the universe and now I learn that it is actually a place called Champaign and controlled by a lady named Joan!
Joan: On a more serious note, that is not the approach to use if you actually do support Erika and wish her to do well. Hopefully, she has some much more sage and eloquent people within her inner circle.
- Raising Kane - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:25 am:
In what world is Champaign at the center of that district? Does Joan own a map? She needs a big dose of reality….for the next 8 years that county will be represented by John Shimkus and Rodney Davis. And Harold will pack her bags and split town immediately thereafter.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:26 am:
The Johnson Crew ruined the opportunity for Erika Harold to make a first impression.
I think less of her now, that what little I cared about her before.
Go to NYC, get on FoxNews Erika. If you want to be “crowned” a rising star, instead if earring your way lild everyone else, the Cable TV route is a good way to be “privileged” and still seem “connected”
===“…this seat is coming back to Champaign.”===
What a Dopey way to be seen representing ALL the people.
Erika turned out to be a joke, because that Tim Johnson “Zombie” Brain Eating “Trust” saw a wagon to steal wheels from for relevance.
You all, Johnson’s Crew…Erika…you all don’t need to go away, just go would be ok.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:28 am:
“…earning your way like…”
- PoolGuy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:31 am:
sounds like Joan just filled out her Warren Buffett Quicken Loans bracket (as I did earlier) and has some added confidence knowing she is going to win (as am I). then we can bankroll Miss Harold in 2016 and allow Champaign to once again take their rightful place as the center of the universe. I-L-L…
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:37 am:
==The Tim Johnson groupies just can’t seem to wrap their head around the fact that “their” district no longer exists. A strange thing called “redistrcting” made this a Central Illinois/Metro East district, of which Champaign is only a part. The sooner they can understand that maybe the butthurt will end…but I doubt that day will ever happen.
- UISer - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:49 am:
Can someone please enlighten me as to what in the world “HillJackRodney” means?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:53 am:
Apparently, “hilljack” is the preferred slur over “hillbilly” to cosmopolitan super-sophisticates like Joan in Champaign, the center of the universe.
- Friedman - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:58 am:
A lot of arm chairing going on here. Davis didn’t exactly trounce Gill. A lot of universities in this district(young people). People who want change show up for mid-term primary elections.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 11:59 am:
===A lot of universities in this district(young people)===
I think ten.
And college students don’t vote in off-year races.
- ChrisB - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:01 pm:
Serious question: Has there ever been an instance where an incumbent wins the primary, loses the general/seat flips, and then two or four years later the losing primary challenger wins the general?
Anytime I hear the, “He’ll lose the general and then she’ll flip the seat” just sounds like preemptive sour grapes. It’s a ridiculous premise in an If, Buts, and Coconuts kind of world.
- LincolnLounger - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:01 pm:
They kept telling Erika Harold that it wasn’t her turn. And you know what — they were right.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:03 pm:
- Friedman -,
How about one race at a time. “Davis-Harold” is the Primary. Davis is now an incumbent Congressman, of the opposite party of the President in a Mid-Term election.
So, one race at a time, and Harold made a Primary happen, for really no good reason but ego, Hubris, entitlement, and relevance; not only hers, but the Johnson crew too.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:04 pm:
===They kept telling Erika Harold that it wasn’t her turn. And you know what — they were right.===
You nearly made me choke on my Tapioca Pudding. lol
- Pius - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:21 pm:
====And college students don’t vote in off-year races.=====
I visited 3 polling places on campus at the UI. Total of 3 votes. It could be 4, maybe 5, by now. Sad to see.
- Not your normal Normalite - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:41 pm:
I’m surprised she’s not at Disney. She could meet up with Jerry Clarke, he always spends the week of election down in Florida. They could hold a Tim Johnson flunky convention down there.
- Johnny Q. Suburban - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 12:57 pm:
Even by ILGOP standards, this was poorly planned and organized.
- Downstater - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 1:26 pm:
ERika Harold has had her 15 minutes of fame, as they say. Her poor decision to run, says a lot about her political instincts. None. A rising star, that didn’t make it above the horizon. Maybe, just maybe, if she had helped some Republicans in the last election cycle, she would have garnered some real support.
- John Boch - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 1:34 pm:
I think Erika will be back.
She has kind of grown on me in the past few months and I circled her little oval today.
Sorry, Rodney. You’ve been nowhere to be found on this campaign trail.
John
- Friedman - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 1:44 pm:
I would suggest any Davis supporters take a look at his dismal speech on the house floor in support of the farm bill.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 1:52 pm:
===I would suggest any Davis supporters take a look at his dismal speech on the house floor in support of the farm bill.===
Your point? They don’t grade speeches in Congress last I checked…
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 1:53 pm:
I would suggest any Harold supporters read today’s WaPo which dug up an old Harold quote about wanting to be the “first Black female President.”
All tiara, no lift, that lady.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 1:59 pm:
Wow, - AA -, nicely done.
If she is “above 23.5%”, she claim a victory?
If it goes 80-20, or worse, Harold is damaged goods for a while…
It’s not like 75-25 is better but…
- Bemused - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 3:22 pm:
Got a robo call last night asking me to pull a GOP ballot. If I could have voted on this one I might have done it. Repeal and replace Rodney drives me up a wall. The transition phase for ACA is not going well but never a peep about how doing what he wants makes things better.
- T.J. - Tuesday, Mar 18, 14 @ 5:05 pm:
I sincerely hope that isn’t seriously Joan. If it is Joan and not some troll, that’s all you need to know about Erika’s loss today.
- Joan Dykstra - Wednesday, Mar 19, 14 @ 7:28 am:
I received an email alerting me that a poster named “joan” has been weighing in on the 13th Congressional race. Just to be clear, I don’t post or generally read Cap Fax. I find it to be the same echo chamber of misinformed, relentlessly junior high unkindnesses.
Since my name has inexplicably become part of the dialogue, let me take this one time to comment. I was a very part-time, unpaid volunteer for Ms. Harold for a few months last summer. Our first conversation was after her decision to move back to C-U. She is a wonderful young woman and I’m privileged to know her. However, my plate is full with teaching and community volunteer work during the school year and I wasn’t involved with her race. Yes, I’m really a teacher. I worked in Congressman Johnson’s office for his last two years but my life-long career is teaching.
I have always been a strong advocate in a true Primary process; that is, real choices for voters in each party. It ultimately makes candidates and their party stronger. Congressman Davis has worked hard throughout the 13th District during the Primary process and in his time in Congress. He is, by far, the better candidate in the General Election and will prevail in November.