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| UNDERWOOD: Already being challenged |
She
is, after all, a black woman Democrat who ran in last year’s elections for a Congressional
seat representing one of the most intense Republican districts in Illinois.
Meaning I expect GOP political operatives will think of her as THAT WOMAN who
had the NERVE to take a seat away from their ranks.
TRYING
TO REGAIN the Illinois 14th congressional district post may well be
one of the priorities for Republicans nationwide in the next election cycle.
Yet
I can’t help but admit that I’m wondering if Republicans are going to be their
worst enemies, and that they won’t be able to overcome the advantages of
incumbency that Underwood will have as she seeks a second term in Congress.
As
the Capitol Fax newsletter reported Monday, documents were filed with the Federal
Elections Commission that would have state Sen. James Oberweis, D-Sugar Grove,
as a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois.
Except
that Oberweis has no intention of actually trying to depose Sen. Richard
Durbin, D-Ill, who would be running for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate come
that election cycle.
 |
| Oberweis couldn't even win in '02 … |
IT
SEEMS A campaign aide for Oberweis marked the wrong box in filing the forms for
his boss. He’s going for the House of Representatives seat – making him one of
three Republicans thus far with an interest in taking on Underwood.
Should
we really think that highly of a candidate whose staffers are inept enough to
misfile their candidate’s forms? They can’t even tell which office he wants to
run for? Unless they’re really amongst the few deluded enough to think Oberweis
is worthy of one of Illinois’ top political posts?
 |
| … against Durkin, how could he think … |
It’s
certainly obvious enough that the voters don’t think much of him. He’s run for
U.S. Senate and Illinois governor. In fact, he would have been the candidate
who tried to take on Durbin way back in 2002 – except that Oberweis couldn’t
even win the Republican primary that year.
It
wound up being Jim Durkin (now the Illinois House Minority leader) who won that
primary, only to get his behind whomped by Durbin’s desire for a second term in
the U.S. Senate (he’s now on term four, and would be seeking a fifth if the 74-year-old
Springfield resident actually makes it all the way through the process).
 |
| … of beating up on Durbin |
MY
POINT BEING that if Oberweis truly is the best the Republicans can come up with
for the 2020 election cycle, they may well be handing Underwood a victory
already.
Because
despite his multiple election campaigns throughout the past three decades, the only
post he’s ever been able to win is that Illinois Senate seat from DuPage
County.
He
may be just the local jamoke who’s incapable of taking on anybody bigger –
particularly if the Democrats are able to build up Underwood’s national reputation
to any degree.
 |
| Ocasio-Cortez younger by three years |
Because
she is the woman with a medical professional background who currently has the
so-called title of the youngest African-American woman (age 32) to be elected
to the House of Representatives.
SHE’D
ACTUALLY BE the youngest woman ever if not for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortex from New
York, whose victory last year came at age 29.
Admittedly,
Underwood doesn’t have anywhere near the mouth that Ocasio does – the one that
manages to offend Republican partisans so intensely that they usually wind up
managing to put their feet in their own mouths whenever they try to attack her.
 |
| STAVA-MURRAY: Dem really faces tough times |
But
I have to admit, Underwood is going out of her way to respond to just about
every issue and put herself in the mix of what is happening in D.C. I’ve literally
lost count of the number of statements she has issued that wind up in my e-mail
box.
And
if it turns out that she has challengers as inept as Oberweis, she could wind
up being the favorite – particularly since I get the impression that Naperville
political operatives are going to be more focused on causing the political
defeat of Anne Stava-Murray, the Democrat with a mouth who says SHE wants to
take on Durbin come 2020.
-30-
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