IL-03: A Grassroots Dem Steps Up to Take on The Accidental Congressman

Written by: Eric Davis on Jun 13, 2007 12:54 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Oak Park DFA Meeting

Illinois's Third Congressional District is currently represented by Dan Lipinski, son of the longtime incumbent William Lipinski. Bill stepped out last cycle and put his son up for the nomination and the Chicago/Cook County machine put Danny boy in office.

Personally, I'm offended by the idea of a hereditary legislative seat (or a Presidency for that matter but that's for another time). We fought a Revolution to do away with just that sort of thing.

Howard Dean challenged us all - including me personally - to step up to the plate, to run for local elective office, to populate the grassroots with what many now proudly call Dean Democrats. He also challenged those progressive local officials out there to take the next step, to the State or Federal change. One of those, I'm pleased to report to Dean Nation, is Mark Pera. IL-03 is one of the few competitive Dem incumbent seats in the country. We can help replace a DINO with a member of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

www.markperaforcongress.com OK, the site is VERY basic but he's starting to get help. He does have an ActBlue page if you like what you see. A YouTube video is coming.

First of all, Mark Pera has lived in the District for a long time. This is important - those DC Dems who cooked up the Duckworth candidacy and pushed aside Christine Cegelis missed that part entirely. For the past several years, the man some have labeled "The Accidental Congressman" was living in Tennessee teaching at a local college there. Until Dad called him back to his boyhood residence in Illinois that is, after more than a decade away, to hold the family seat in the House.

This is about a wakeup call for the entrenched Democratic Party in an allegedly-blue state like Illinois. This is about building up progressive House delegations from the ground up. This is about pushing past conventional  wisdom and putting someone in Congress because of what they believe, not because of who their Dad is.

Mark has plenty of assets to bring to the table. Mark is an environmental crimes prosecutor - I didn't even know we had them! - for the Cook County State's Attorney's office. Previously he was doing consumer protection prosescutions. He's the President of the Lyons Township (High) School Board - which means he has his own constituency and his own supportive voters within the District already. He's put two boys through the public school he now runs - with a third there right now.

As an attorney, he has a base of peers in the famous downtown Chicago lawyers' community that he has started raising money with - but he's reached out to people like me because he knows the DFA movement is exactly the type of grassroots network that independent Democrats need to help get their message out against La Machine. This is a District that went over 60% for Kerry so fighting a D incumbent isn't risking a D seat.

Mark Pera is against the war and against the recent no-deadline bill. Danny voted for it. Mark Pera was appalled by the whole Terri Schiavo fiasco and strongly supports funding for stem cell research. Danny voted against. Mark Pera is for strong borders for the US but says The Wall is just plain wrong. Danny voted to build The Wall.

What he needs is - whatever help, suggestions and support you can give. His truly is a people-powered campaign. The only "names" who have signed on so far are the local suburban elected officials who don't owe their jobs to the Chicago Democratic organization. The names he WANTS are people like you, both in the District and beyond.

There is already a nearby DFA group - the one I help organize - and Mark is coming to speak to ours in July as well as at least one other DFA group in the Chicago area. Stay tuned about that.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for Mark Pera. www.markperaforcongress.com It's still early, and Mark has a lot more information he's going to be putting out there soon, but since Illinois has moved its primary up to February 5th this race is going to heat up pretty soon. Since Obama has taken the drama out of the Presidential contest here, people are starting to see IL-03 as a place to add more true blue to the picture.

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Location: IL