Primary upset in the 19th

Every election has a few surprises and the biggest one I saw last night was Daniel Davis winning the Democratic Primary against Joe McMenamin for the 19th Congressional District. McMenamin had the support of most Democratic Party county organizations, the AFL-CIO along with several unions, a number of endorsements from elected officials, far more money, and a good organization.

Things get unpredictable anytime a large number of new people vote in an election. The Democratic Primary turnout was huge. That means there were a lot of people who walked into the voting booth not knowing who was on the ballot outside of the Presidential race. It means a lot of people never saw anything from McMenamin, who concentrated his efforts on regular Democratic Primary voters.

Davis' win makes me wonder if he had some kind of campaign effort that went under the radar. But I doubt anyone could gather that much support without it being noticed. I think he's the beneficiary of a good ballot name, very little media coverage about this race, and weak party organizations in most downstate counties.

Joe McMenamin would have been a strong challenger against Shimkus. He's the kind of person who runs for office for the right reasons and I hope he runs again soon.

FutureGone

There are a lot of news articles about the Department of Energy backing off its support for the experimental FutureGen power plant proposed for Mattoon. A lot of criticism is rightly being given to the Department of Energy but this shouldn't be a total surprise after the FutureGen alliance announced a location ahead of schedule without the Department of Energy, after a manipulative selection process that pitted desperate rural communities against each other. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Most of the Illinois Congressional delegation sent a letter to George Bush asking him to renew his support. John Shimkus didn't sign the letter.

When Mattoon was selected as the FutureGen, Shimkus was quick to take his share of the credit for being a leader among those who made it happen. Will Shimkus now accept his share of the blame for a President of his own party backing away from it?

Shimkus has been George Bush's rubber stamp for seven years, and he claims he broke his term limit pledge at Bush's request. What good does Shimkus' total subservience to Bush do if it doesn't even get him a major federal project he considers to be a top priority for the region? Didn't it buy him any clout at all?

If Shimkus wants to be a real leader he should start promoting an economic future for Southern Illinois independent of the coal industry instead of being the hired hand of George Bush and coal lobbyists.