Sometimes we just love a candidate and we will work for him no matter what. Doesn’t have a chance? That’s okay. We are getting important issues out into the public debate. Or building name recognition for next time. Or maybe our favorite is going to win by 15 point? That’s okay too, because she can run for higher office, or help other progressives run for other offices.
But other times we are strategic. We work for someone we don’t really agree with in order to win a larger goal. Or we skip working for the candidate who is highly likely to win (or highly likely to lose) and spend our time on the candidate who is expected to have a very close race. One Democrat I worked for won his Congress seat by a margin of less than one vote per precinct. That night at the victory party each of us felt that our efforts alone may have made the difference.
There may be a candidate that makes sense either way you look at it. More, and why this is a perfect race for a strategic progressive activist in the Chicago area, after the break.
I carried petitions today for Mark Pera. (Petitions are being turned in tomorrow.) I have not met him yet, but the piece we distributed is quite good. There are 4 issues: Iraq (immediate pull-out); Health Care (probably calling for universal coverage); Stem cell research (fund it); and Conservation (tax the oil profits to develop renewal energy). It seems one of the reasons these issues were picked is because the incumbent, Bush Dog Daniel Lipinski, has bad positions on all of them (I did not confirm that he is opposed to universal health care, but it appears so).
And while apparently legal, the incumbent is also using unsavory tactics in the elections. He only has the office because his father, 11-term conservative Democrat William Lipinski, won the primary in 2004 and then dropped out of the race and had the party nominate Daniel. Since the district is 60% Dem., the real election is the Democratic Primary and the voters were denied a chance to choose their candidate. This time there are four candidates, but it appears that two of them are only running to split the anti-Lipinski vote and help Daniel win another term.
But the best thing about working for Pera, for me, is that it is strategically a perfect race. There are a number of interesting primaries near Chicago, but none that look like they will be so close or that offer such a clear choice between a Bush supporter and someone who stands for progressive policies. And whoever wins the February 5th primary, a Democrat is going to win in November. So this practical progressive will be working on another race.