Will Fighting Irish kicker of some three decades ago have a chance at Congress?

It shouldn’t be perceived as a surprise that Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., is going to face some serious competition if she wants to keep her Congressional post beyond 2020.

The political establishment is going to be determined to think that a young, black woman managed to win a DuPage County-based House seat only as a total fluke – and that it will be time for the natural order of things to be restored by dumping her from office.

IT’S NOT EVEN odd that one of the potential Republican replacements for Underwood has plans to significantly play up the fact that he has athletic accomplishments.

For people who think that politics is dull or boring or confusing or irrelevant to their lives, it may well be easier to comprehend old football footage than any attempt to get at the issues confronting our society.

So the political aspirations of Ted Gradel shouldn’t be dismissed out-of-hand.

Gradel played big-time college football (Notre Dame, class of 1987), before going into business and establishing a life for himself out around the Land of DuPage. Now, the Naperville resident thinks it’s time for him to serve in Congress.

WHICH MAKES HIM one of three people saying they will run for the Republication nomination to challenge Underwood in next year’s election cycle – Jim Oberweis and Allen Skillicorn are the other two, as of now.

But Gradel, who admits he has no political experience and thinks we ought to view that as a “positive in my book,” has, according to the Capitol Fax newsletter, hired a political consultant and has already put together his first campaign at touting himself.

UNDERWOOD: Can she win re-election?

That ad features one-time Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz touting just how wonderful a football place kicker Gradel was – and is loaded with footage of Gradel playing for the Fighting Irish.

In short, a perfect spot to appeal to people who otherwise wouldn’t want to bother thinking about politics.

THERE’S JUST ONE thing that could wind up hurting Gradel – the fact that by so strongly reminding people he played football for Notre Dame, he’s going to stir up the resentment and hostility of all those sports fans who like to denigrate Notre Dame every single chance they get.

HARRIS: Former gridder now in politics

The ones who think that anything that was ever special about Notre Dame football was long ago in the past, and they seem to get upset any time anyone includes the Fighting Irish amongst the ranks of the best college football programs in the country.

Will Underwood’s re-election bid wind up gaining the support of every single person who feels compelled to trash-talk Notre Dame every chance they get?

For that matter, Gradel includes footage of a field goal he kicked against Alabama all those decades ago. Will all the fans of the Crimson Tide (a school that has made increasing efforts to recruit for students throughout the Midwest – including Illinois) become instantly appalled with the Gradel campaign so as to disregard it from its opening moments?

IT MAY SOUND irrational, bordering in crazy and downright nuts!

FLANAGAN: Is he Underwood equivalent?

But then again, it wouldn’t be the stupidest thing that ever happened on the political scene – particularly if someone is being asked to base the casting of a ballot on the fact that someone once played a sport at a highly-competitive level.

So it will be interesting to see if Gradel can manage to beat out a pair of business executives who, at the very least, have gained a little bit of political experience serving in the Illinois General Assembly.

Or more importantly, was Underwood’s 2018 electoral victory over incumbent Congressman Randy Hultgren just a political fluke – something along the lines of back in 1994 when Michael P. Flanagan managed to win a Congressional post for two years as a Republican from Chicago!

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Revisiting Junior

It was toward the end of last week that I felt compelled to publish a commentary here saying that I didn’t care what Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s political predicaments were – I was unimpressed enough with the field of opposing candidates to think that any of them could amount to anything come Nov. 6.

JACKSON: Still likely a winner?

So naturally, the very next day reports started coming out of Washington about an FBI investigation that has nothing to do with any of the allegations that the Jackson critics have been spouting off about in recent months.

BUT IT IS “suspicious activity” (as described by the Chicago Sun-Times) relating to the Jackson congressional finances and the way he spends his money.

Enhancing the nasty spin of this was a report by NBC News last week that contends attorneys for Jackson actually met with federal prosecutors in Washington to urge them to hold off on any indictment of the Congressman until after Election Day.

That really has the critics going to the point where we have to wonder if it can actually snowball into something of significance – even though we really don’t know much in the way of specifics about what it was that Jackson is supposed to have done that a federal prosecutor would want to file criminal charges against him.

WOODWORTH: Following in Flanagan's footsteps?

All it takes is the word “indictment” and people will screech and scream.

BUT I STILL remain convinced that the motley crew of opponents to the Jackson campaign this year will be incapable of taking advantage of the situation.

When the most intriguing personality of the batch is the guy who couldn’t even get on a ballot and is going via the write-in route, it makes me wonder if the Jackson critics will be more upset about Jackson’s alleged activities, or the fact that the Republican political structure around here is so weak that it couldn’t come up with a real nominee.



Brian Woodworth, who gave up his professorial post to campaign against Jackson, is just too low-key to command attention.

WILLIAMS: Attempt Number 6?



And the Rev. Anthony Williams will be entertaining to listen to. But I don’t think his write-in bid this year will be any more successful than the bids he ran against Jackson in past years as a Republican, a Green Party member, a Libertarian, an independent and even once as a Democrat.

I SUSPECT THERE are those people who are thinking back to 1994 when an indicted Dan Rostenkowski tried to get himself re-elected to another term in Congress.

Ultimately, Rostenkowski admitted that the indictment just placed too much of an obstacle in front of him – enabling the political no-name Michael P. Flanagan to actually win that election cycle (only to lose to Rod Blagojevich come the 1996 cycle).

Is Brian Woodworth the next Mike Flanagan?

I just don’t see it, particularly since there were other circumstances that made that ’94 election cycle one likely to favor Republican candidates (and create the first GOP congressman from Chicago since the late 1960s).

BY COMPARISON, THIS year’s election cycle is shaping up in ways that Barack Obama will continue to be a strong influence in Illinois – we love him here in ways that the rest of the nation does not, particularly when you get into the Chicago area.

Which works to his advantage.

I have amongst my collection of campaign trinkets throughout the years a mailing that Jackson sent to people in the Illinois Second Congressional district back in 2004 – one advising him of his support for this “Obama” guy for the U.S. Senate.

Jackson support helped Obama emerge from the pack of candidates to win that cycle.

FLANAGAN: Chicago's last GOP congressman



This year, Obama returns the political favor by stirring up enough district voters to ensure that the Kankakee County part of the district will not generate enough votes to oppose Jr.

WHICH IS WHY I still see a Jackson victory – no matter how much anyone wants to believe that these latest reports are the political “kiss of death” for the son of the civil rights leader.

I suspect many people in the Illinois Second Congressional District will cast their ballots for “Democrat,” thereby placing their faith in the party structure to pick a congressional replacement should circumstances wind up that Jackson does have to depart.

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How important does Walsh think he is?

It strikes me as being incredibly egotistical that Joe Walsh (not the former guitar player for The Eagles) thinks he can make a “major announcement” out of his plans for the 2012 election cycle.

WALSH: He'll tell us today

Who does he think he is? Herman Cain!!!

BUT THAT IS the case with the Congressman from the outer Chicago suburbs, who says he will tell us on Monday which congressional district he will bless with his presence in Washington.

As though the reality isn’t that he’s likely to join Michael Flanagan (not the one-time Baltimore Orioles pitcher) as one-term members of Congress from Illinois whose election wasn’t solely because of an election fluke.

Remember Flanagan? He was the guy who got elected from the Northwest Side back in 1994 to replace Dan Rostenkowski, then was defeated in 1996 when Rod Blagojevich decided he was tired of being a lowly state legislator and wanted to move up to Congress.

Since then, the one-time financially-struggling attorney has turned himself into a Washington-based consultant and seems to be making an adequate living for himself.

WHICH IS NICE, since Flanagan basically was a decent human being who during his two years in the House of Representatives was most likely in over his head with the political mess that came about from the’94 election cycle that saw so many shifts toward the Republican Party – and which will be the subject of much political debate during the upcoming year IF Newt Gingrich actually succeeds in getting the Republican nomination to run against Barack Obama for president.

But a part of me feels guilty about bringing up Flanagan and Walsh in the same commentary. Because I don’t recall Flanagan ever letting his ego get the best of him the way that Walsh seems to enjoy.

Which may be why Walsh felt compelled to make an issue this weekend about his use of Monday as a date to announce which congressional district he will run in.

FLANAGAN: Can't Walsh follow his example?



And I was foolish enough to think that Monday was just going to be another dull day.

NOW AS ANYONE who is bothering to read this likely realizes, the congressional boundaries have been redrawn, and the northwest suburban resident had his current district split into two.

Initially, he planned to run for the new Illinois 14^th Congressional district, which is the one that will contain his McHenry home. That would put him into a head-to-head fight against Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., with the winner of the Republican primary on March 20 likely getting a free path to Congress come the Nov. 6 general election.

But perhaps it is a bit of self-awareness that Walsh truly was a freak of nature (otherwise known as the 2010 Tea Party movement that swept up many rural and ex-urban areas in the country) and that 2012 will be a different phenomenon.

Because now he’s throwing out the hints that he will move at some point (although the rules are so loose that he may not have to relocate for a long while) to another part of his old Congressional district.

HE ENVISIONS BEING the lone Republican running in the new Illinois 8^th Congressional district. That is the one that has no incumbent and likely leans toward Democrats.

It is the one that has establishment favorite Tammy Duckworth and Raja Krishnamoorthi currently facing off for the Democratic nomination come March.

Which means Walsh likely has delusions that the two of them will beat up on each other so badly that the winner of the primary will be bloodied up enough that even HE could win come November.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Walsh used an appearance in St. Charles this weekend to make statements about how he doesn’t want to “give… a district” to a Democratic Party member of Congress. He even used the “boogeyman” image of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., returning as House speaker – IF enough Democrats manage to win come 2012.

SCARE TACTICS. THAT is what the campaign is about, should he decide to make such a move rather than take on Hultgren from his hometown.

Then again, I have noticed various e-mails feeding into my box during the past week from Krishnamoorthi backers, trying to create their own image of an out-of-touch Walsh – making sure he remains irrelevant should he decide to get into that campaign that would have him seeking support from Cook County voters.

And you just know that the child support issue involving his ex-wife isn’t going to go away – no matter how much Walsh tries to scream and shout it away. It’s going to be an ugly campaign, as Walsh tries desperately to avoid becoming the next Mike Flanagan – that one-termer whose perception amongst his colleagues never amounted to much.

Then again, maybe I owe Flanagan an apology for bringing his name up in the same context with Walsh. After all, I’m not aware of Flanagan ever having a headline like Judge scolds Rep. Joe Walsh in child-support case with ex-wife appear like Walsh has.

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