* WCIA TV…
State Senator Sue Rezin, a pro-life Republican from Morris, could soon decide if she plans to run to challenge House Democrat Lauren Underwood, a freshman incumbent, in the state’s 14th Congressional District.
Illinois Republican Party officials tried to recruit Rezin to run against 22-year veteran Senator Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, but Rezin said Wednesday she remains “fully committed to exploring a run for the 14th Congressional District.”
Other possible candidates showing interest in the seat include state senator Jim Oberwhttps://capitolfax.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=42412eis and state representative Allen Skillicorn. Rezin said she is not surprised the primary race is “very crowded because it’s a seat we shouldn’t have lost.”
Rezin painted Underwood as out of step with a district that has been represented by a Republican for 76 of the last 80 years.
“She’s with the AOC group in Washington, D.C.,” Rezin said, referring to Underwood’s fellow freshman member of Congress and progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist from New York. “They have a very progressive agenda that doesn’t match with the Midwest or the 14th District,” she said.
Finding a “real” Republican opponent for Sen. Durbin won’t be easy in this climate.
Freshman Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville), recently removed references to a potential Democratic US Senate primary against Durbin from her campaign Facebook page. Her ActBlue page only references the Illinois House. I’ve asked her about this a few times, but have yet to receive a response. I’ll let you know if she does get back to me.
* But the Republicans do have someone to take the fall in Lipinski’s district…
Will County GOP Board Member Mike Fricilone announced a congressional bid Tuesday, a move that could prevent a repeat of 2018, when an admitted Holocaust denier, anti-Semite and white supremacist was the Republican 3rd District nominee.
Fricilone, 64, who lives in Homer Glen, is in his third term on the board, where he is the minority leader.
While four Democrats are running in the March 2020 Illinois primary in the Democratic-tilting district now represented by Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., Fricilone is the first Republican to launch a bid. […]
Fricilone, a furniture salesman at Midwest Office Interiors in Woodridge, said he was not recruited to run by GOP officials. “It was my idea.” […]
“He’s got a pretty big fight on his hands,” Fricilone said. “And I see Dan starting to move toward that liberal side of the Democratic Party in some of the messages I’m hearing out of him for fear of losing to the Democratic Socialist Progressive person,” who he did not name.
JB Pritzker won that district by 18 points last year. Hillary Clinton won it by 16.
* Related…
* Daiber takes aim at Madison County Board chairman seat
* ADDED: As she governs, Lightfoot kicks her political operation into high gear: In a series of little-noticed actions, the mayor has hired a continuing political team that will have a downtown office, begun exploring financial ways to pursue her agenda and raised well over $1 million since her election, with more fundraising yet to come.
