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Syndication
| Monday, November 13, 2006 |
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Thank You!
By Jan Schakowsky @ 5:45 PM |
Thank you!!! I would love to say that election day couldn’t have been better, and in some respects that’s true. Winning a majority in the House and Senate were our primary goals, and we did it! So many of you worked so hard for Tammy Duckworth and Dan Seals, that I know your joy is somewhat bittersweet. But we have not heard the last from these two great people, and we should all stand ready to help them move forward.
I am personally so grateful to you for helping me win with a huge margin, 74%. I wake up every day realizing how privileged I am to be one of only 535 Americans chosen to make decision that can affect everyone in our country and even the world.
At least that was the theory, but under the Republican House leadership, the reality was that Democrats were shut out of the process. Nancy Pelosi has pledged not only a new direction for our country, but a new way of doing business in the Congress. The American people want us to actually get things done and work together. That is our intention and hopefully that of the Republican minority.
A very special thanks to Alex Armour, my Political Director, who helped run the Get Out the Vote operation for Tammy Duckworth. He did a fantastic job in a very Republican district. Peter Roskam put up some of the most vicious and deceptive ads that I have ever seen. It was really shameful how he lied about Tammy. Even so, she came very, very close.
A huge thanks go to the Committee of 100 led by Daniel Biss and Daniel Dennison who sent hundreds of people over the months on a repeated basis to both Tammy and Dan Seals. I have talked to Dan about running again, and I hope you will all encourage him to do it. 2008 is a Presidential year and the 10th District goes Democratic in those years, having voted for Kerry and Gore.
I can’t thank all of you who worked on the election enough, traveling outside your district, working in the district, serving as an election judge, making phone calls, putting up signs, walking door-to-door, talking to your friends, writing check after check. It all made an enormous difference.
We were able to keep Illinois in Democratic hands. We simply could not turn over the Governor’s spot to the Republicans and we didn’t. Rod Blagojevich won handily, not just because voters didn’t like Judy, but because they appreciated his priorities which are Democratic priorities – health care, child care, women’s rights, raising the minimum wage.
I am glad that Todd Stroger won, though, like many of you, I was very disappointed in the way he became the candidate, and earlier had supported Forrest Claypool. I am glad because he is a Democrat and shares our basic values, and I am confident, that working with our great Commissioner Larry Suffredin, that he will listen to our concerns and respond to them.
Thanks to you, we send back our State Senator Jeff Schoenberg and State Representative Julie Hamos. At the west end of the 9th District, Dan Kotowski ran a great race and will replace a Republican as the new State Senator. I know many of you helped on that race too. Congratulations! I was supporting Judith Rae Ross for State Representative and though the votes fell short, congratulate her on a good campaign.
I am leaving in a few hours for Washington. I will be going back to a new world, a world in which the first woman in the history of our country, my friend Nancy Pelosi, will be Speaker of the House, and Democrats can begin the job of turning our country in the direction of peace, and shared prosperity, and a bright future for this generation and those to follow. You, along with activists around the country made this possible. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you!
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