From the Illinois' Sixth (Cegelis vs. Duckworth) to PDA

[Kevin Spidel]

Dear DU friends,

Well, today marks my return as National Deputy Director for Progressive Democrats of America. My work as campaign manager with the Christine Cegelis for Congress campaign has come to an end. Yesterday’s vote was an historic moment for the Democratic Party and its grassroots core, one that everyone involved can be proud of.

I came into the Cegelis campaign six weeks ago. We raised over $60,000 in that time to establish an intensive field campaign targeting district voters, and to get out the vote. By comparison, the Duckworth campaign spent nearly $1,000,000. That money, in the end, won the election by less than two votes per district when the numbers are balanced out. Yes, it took that much money to beat us by that tiny margin.

Here is the deal. The final numbers, as we have them today, give Duckworth 42.83% of the vote, compared to 40.43% of the vote for Cegelis. Percentages, however, cannot tell the whole story. Tammy Duckworth won by 721 votes. There are 512 precincts in the 6th District. Essentially, the Duckworth margin of victory was a little more than 1.4 votes per district.

It is going to be important, going forward, to tell the story of what happened out here in the Illinois 6th. The final outcome was not what we desired, but the fact that we took on the party machine and fought them down to the wire, while being outspent across the board by an opponent that brought virtually the entire Democratic Party establishment to bear against us, speaks volumes.

We must begin building this kind of effective base in every congressional district. Tomorrow, I will be going on the road again to do exactly that, and to help build more chapters for PDA. With this type of infrastructure, and with the game plan laid down out here in the 6th, we will take on the DCCC, the DLC and the Republicans, and build the progressive majority in congress we all desire as progressive Democrats.

As far as the future of the 6th District goes, the ultimate goal must continue to be snatching another House seat away from the GOP. We must do this for one simple reason: a Democratic majority in the House will see John Conyers, Jr. sitting in the chairman’s seat of the Judiciary Committee. George W. Bush and his friends can contemplate few scenarios more terrifying than this one. It is worth all our efforts to achieve it.

It is good to be back. See you on the road,

Kevin Spidel

[IsItJustMe]

1. You fought the good fight. You will sleep well when you lay your head

down. Keep up the great work.

[benddem]

2. this has made me very sad

I supported Christine and was hoping for a win. The tight race was amazing. All evening I was glad I wasn't in either hq.
Thanks for all you did.

[HereSince1628]

4. Primary elections guarantee disappointments, soothe it, and come back

ready to try to make the district go blue. You can also work to educate Duckworth and bring in the progressive ideas that were part of a campaign that took a respectful 40% of the vote.

[KoKo]

3. Well worth the doing and without the third Dem Candidate you might

have won. :shrug: Might be good in the future for Dems to work these things out so that there isn't a "third" candidate when there are two popular frontrunners. It would be nice if everyone who wanted to run could...but sometimes it can look like spoiling. Was Scott such a great candidate that being in the race was of utmost importance?

...but I think you all did a great job. Something to build on! And, I hope the "establishment" takes notice.

:toast: :applause:

[acmejack]

9. I will never forgive the Party establishment for this betrayal

That is what I regard it as too, a betrayal. It was a slap in the face to ll who worked their rears off building Christine's grassroots organization & exactly why Rahm & his merry gang of assholes felt compelled to do this totally escapes me.

In fact, I wish someone wiser (or a DLC apologist, no shortage of those folks around) would kindly explain to me why they did this to Cegalis and created so much animosity unnecessarily.

[Old and In the Way]

5. You did yourself proud, Kevin.

Your financial analysis is quite illuminating. I would think that the lesson for the DNC and Senate/House leadership might be that they should stay out of primary fights and allow the candidate that has the most appeal/fundraising/grassroots to win. The current method is lose/lose for the Party....they dump a lot of money into a primary candidate that would be better spent in the general and they piss of organization that loses, especially if the differentiating factor is $ invested.

I really don't have a problem with endorsements and having money raised in this manner...but I don't think the Party should play favorites in the primaries.

[helderheid]

6. ya done Good, Kevin. If you decide to raise money for a recount, you can

count on a few bucks from me.

[Cults4Bush]

7. Good job! Though I dont really think the establishment Dems will let

us seek impeachment, indictment and imprisonment (I know the last two are mine, but seriously we are talking warcrimes here).

Lesser of two evils party just doesn't cut it anymore when you are trying to mobilize the apathetic... and neither do the constant boogeyman threats of "you better vote for such and such or there will be a repug win", far too many people see too little difference between the two and we have ourselves to blame for that.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. The DCCC and Duckworth damn well better win this seat in November. . .

else we get Cegelis back in the game (if she wants to) and force the DCCC, DSCC and DLC to STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY this time.

:kick:

[madfloridian]

10. Christine was a big winner last night in every way.

She had some good folks working with her, held the party machine to such a close final. She should hold her head up high.

Interesting blog post today, Kevin, click on my journal.