In 2006 the Republican candidate for Congress was Michael Shannon.  He did not report spending any money on his campaign that year to the Federal Election Commission.  However, he received 39, 916 votes – apparently the ambient Republican vote in the District.  

I want to thank each and every one of you for your support during this election season. The signs you posted in your yards; the smiles and thumbs up you gave me when I saw you out-and-about; the volunteer hours you spent knocking on doors and making phone calls to get out the vote -- this is the stuff of a true grassroots effort and I’m humbled by your commitment and your enthusiasm.

With our 2 to 1 victory, we sent the clearest of messages to Tea Party-endorsed candidates and their right-wing agenda:  “The soil of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois is no place to put down roots.  Don’t even think about it!”

I wholeheartedly thank you for your vote. Casting a ballot is one of the single most powerful things that a person can do to exercise his or her voice. I am so grateful and honored by the fact that you’ve chosen to put your support behind me. And I promise to continue fighting for you, for our district, and to keep this country moving in the right direction.  

While we had many disappointing returns in the races for the House of Representatives and in the Illinois Senate race, we cannot hang our heads and throw in the towel.  We’ve been dealt a setback, but I can tell you it won’t be a setback for long.  We already know how quickly the political winds can change direction.  In the face of our losses, I pledge to stand up even taller and to fight even harder.  But I need you to promise me that you will not give up!  We have to roll up our sleeves and come back fighting as we head toward 2012 when we re-elect President Barack Obama and take back the House.  Yes we can!

 Al Sindelar, an electrician from Niles, has been a Jan fan since before she was elected to Congress.

He told us that, “The big banks and corporations have their lobbyists, but we have Jan Schakowsky to fight for us in Congress.”  Watch "Al’s story," the TV advertisement we’re running to get the vote out!
We've got just seven days to boost our turnout operation and help Jan and every Democrat up and down the ballot.

Help us put this ad on the air and keep it there through election day. For every $50 we can air this ad once on Cable TV in the 9th district. Help us expand our buy this week!

Don't forget to spread Al’s message by posting the video link on your Facebook page or sending it to your friends.

It's come to this: Joel Pollak is holding a campaign rally next week and falsely billing it as a "debate" between he and Jan. The thing is, Jan never agreed to participate in an event with Pollak on Wednesday.

This guy obviously has a hard time not misrepresenting the facts -- this fake debate is just the latest in a slew of moves that have made up a campaign based on misinformation.

Somehow he's forgotten the two formal debates this month and numerous other joint appearances that he and Jan have already made. Just because he's advertising the event as a "debate" doesn't make it true. This is yet another stunt aimed at misleading the voters.

Help us trounce this guy on November 2nd -- we need your help. Send a contribution or volunteer a few hours to get the vote out. Let's show him how we do it in the 9th!

Go show your support for Jan and great Democrats by early voting TODAY! You can conveniently vote at these locations:

 

9th District Debate Shows Stark Differences Between Candidates

Schakowsky Highlights Opponent's Right Wing Views

 

EVANSTON, IL (October 10th, 2010)
At the League of Women Voters sponsored candidate debate Sunday afternoon, stark differences became apparent in the positions of the two candidates with respect to critical economic and political issues.

 

Schakowsky's Campaign Manager, Alex Armour, said that Republican candidate Joel Pollak's statements in the debate showed clearly that his right wing views are inconsistent with the progressive values of the 9th District.

 

Pollak was greeted with loud boos from the audience when, in his closing statement, he made personal attacks on Schakowsky and her husband.

 

Armour noted that the Chicago Tribune criticized Pollak's tendency to resort to character attacks in its editorial endorsing Schakowsky.  The Tribune Editorial called on Pollak to "dial down the disdain for people who disagree with him."

 

Schakowsky's opening statement is below:

I'm James Pappachen, Field Director for Schakowsky for Congress. Right now, that means I have the best job on the campaign. I work with people out in the field all day to make sure they get what they want: a new Jan sign!

As of 10:06 on Sunday, May 30th, we will have spent $1 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A trillion dollars is a baffling amount of money. If you write it out, use twelve zeros. Even after serving in Congress for over a decade, I, like most Americans, still have a hard time wrapping my head around sums like this.

This month, we mark the seventh anniversary of President Bush's declaration of "mission accomplished" in Iraq, yet five American soldiers have been killed there in May alone. Iraqis went to the polls nearly three months ago, but the political system remains so fractured that no party has been able to piece together a coalition. There are some indications that sectarian violence is again on the rise.

A major highlight of my life is looking out at the beautiful crowd that has gathered for each of the last nine years of now nearly 2000 women and as always, a healthy number of very secure men.  Thank you all for coming!  I hope you feel even just a fraction of how good I feel surrounded by the warmth and solidarity that fills this room.  Of course this is a place to see and be seen, and you do look marvelous.  But I hope that an even bigger draw for this lunch is the knowledge that this is a welcoming and safe place; a place where you feel supported and encouraged and inspired by amazing women like Helen Thomas; perhaps here you can connect with someone that can help you, or maybe you will leave feeling strong enough to solve a problem, take on a new challenge, or discover a project that you can get involved in. 

This is where the old girls network gathers, right along side younger women who are raising your families and/or trying to balance a job or career, or maybe still figuring and scheming and dreaming about the right path to take; and this is where I delight in seeing the students that are here including those from the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School, the “Women in History Class” at Oak Park and River Forest High School, and Zafra Lehrman’s science students.  And of course, the children who are still getting ready to launch like my grandchildren Isabel, Eve, Lucy and William. My daughter and friend Mary is here, and I do love seeing the men that are here too including my husband Bob, the love of my life, and my wonderful son Ian.  To all of you who are mothers, have mothers, know mothers, I wish you a very happy Mothers’ Day.

I presented the following remarks at the first meeting of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform:

We members of the Fiscal Commission are charged with a critical mission: "Identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run."

We gather, not as accountants, actuaries, bean counters looking through green eye shades at columns of numbers, but as policy-makers who care deeply about the lives of the American people of today and tomorrow who are impacted by the economic policies of our country. As the President said last week, "...some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged there's a family looking to buy a house, or pay for an education, open a business, save for retirement. What happens on Wall Street has real consequences across the country, across our economy."

The exact same can be said about the task in which we are engaged. Balancing the budget and reducing the debt are not ends in and of themselves. The welfare of the American people must be the goal of our fiscal policy. Everything we do here must be measured in terms of the impact on the well-being of our people, the opportunities we provide to our children and the values of our democratic society.