14th Congressional District Update

From Former Quigley Supporter;

Around mid-day on July 9, State Senator Sue Rezin (R, Morris) officially entered the 14th congressional district race by filing her paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). 

By early afternoon she announced her candidacy via a media advisory, and launched her campaign’s web site, Facebook and Twitter accounts. 

Rezin’s entry has been picked up nationally, including this morning’s POLITICO:

Outside of POLITICO leaving off part of Lake County is also in the 14th district, overall it is a good write-up.   

he Chicago Sun-Times included this information, in the write-up by D.C. Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet:

ANALYSIS:  Given Rezin has been taking shots from Jim Oberweis, Lauren Underwood’s senior political adviser and a veiled shot from James Marter, Rezin’s entry into the congressional primary in the 14th is as a top-tier candidate. 

She is a few months behind fundraising, which Tuesday’s FEC filing will allow her to do. 

If her campaign fundraising in Illinois is any indication of how her Federal campaign fundraising will be, Rezin will have enough campaign funds in order to compete in the primary. 

Being the only woman candidate, and a woman who better represents the 14th than the congresswoman (being a mother having raised four children and a business owner in addition to being a state senator), she at this point would appear to have the best chance to emerge from the crowded Republican primary field with a strong case to replace Underwood in the fall of 2020. 

Given her strong pro-life record and her gender, Rezin will not be dismissed as “another man telling a woman what she can do with her body.” 

In her introduction yesterday, she distinguished herself as a battle-tested winning candidate with a record of flipping a state House district in 2010, and successfully defending her state senate district from strong Democratic challengers.

POLITICO Link:  https://www.politico.com/newsletters/illinois-playbook/2019/07/10/kalish-on-the-skids-with-dems-rezin-wants-underwoods-seat-sales-griffins-next-big-thing-455250

Chicago Sun-Tmes Link:  https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/7/9/20688306/gop-state-sen-sue-rezin-in-congressional-primary-aiming-at-democratic-rep-lauren-underwood-illinois

Skillicorn Sizes Up the 14th District Republican Primary Field

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At a meeting with McHenry County Libertarians this past Monday in Algonquin, State Representative Allen Skillicorn, who is currently a prospective candidate for the 14th congressional district, briefly talked about the upcoming 14th district Republican primary, where he said:

“…Skillicorn predicted only three have a chance.  Besides himself, he pointed to the two state senators, Jim Oberweis and Sue Rezin…”

ANALYSIS:  While it is easy to dismiss candidates like Danny Malouf and Anthony Catella, despite what both men bring to the table, dissing Ted Gradel and James Marter shows Skillicorn has a lack of depth understanding successful men in the private sector.   

Monday night, when Skillicorn made this assessment was his 45th birthday, so maybe he was doing a “birthday wish” with some wishful thinking when discussing the congressional race. 

Skillicorn may be writing off James Marter, despite he is the strongest supporter of President Trump including being a maxed-out donor to the President’s re-election, because of Marter’s two past unsuccessful primary challenges against incumbent Republicans. 

That doesn’t take away Marter’s success in business, his record as a party chairman for Kendall County and his patriotism, including attending President Trump’s inauguration. 

Ted Gradel is a successful self-made millionaire. 

Both men have raised children into adulthood, and Marter’s oldest son was elected as a Republican to a village trustee office earlier this year in Oswego. 

Gradel back in May, saw his oldest daughter graduate from the University of Notre Dame, and commissioned into the Army as a 2nd lieutenant, due to her participation in R.O.T.C.

Skillicorn, despite being a 2-term state representative and before that a village trustee in East Dundee, is going to have to distinguish himself if he runs for Congress. 

Just being an elected official with a Libertarian voting record is not going to be enough to convince voters to support your candidacy, or donors to contribute to a federal race under federal rules. 

The sooner Skillicorn commits to the congressional race, file his FEC paperwork, and start raising the million dollars it will take to be competitive in the primary, the better Skillicorn will see how he really stacks up in this 7-person field.

McHenry County Blog Link:  http://159.89.184.83/2019/07/09/skillicorn-brings-inside-dopester-report-to-libertarians

Underwood Misleads Again in Social Media

During the appellate court hearing in the 5th circuit in New Orleans yesterday, Congresswoman Underwood sent out the following tweets:

Given Underwood, through her role on the House Homeland Security Committee, has been critical of misinformation on social media, let’s see where again, Congresswoman Underwood is misleading through her own use of social media, this one from her campaign Twitter account. 

First, it must be very clear, it is NOT the Trump Administration who initiated the litigation that saw Obamecare struck down at the district court level last year. 

It was states, through their 10th amendment rights, who challenged Obamacare when the key funding mechanism was removed by Congress in 2017. 

The litigation was filed by several states, not the Trump Administration. 

Yes, the Trump Administration supports the plaintiff’s in this litigation. 

Most likely, if the 5th Circuit Appellate Court upholds the district court’s ruling, this case will be before the Supreme Court.

Second, Underwood cites she introduced and passed an amendment to prohibit federal taxpayer dollars from funding the Trump Administration concerning the current litigation, or any other litigation against Obamacare. 

Let’s look at what Underwood actually did with this amendment she referred to in her tweet, since a reasonable person would read this tweet and think what Underwood did was a done deal. 

Far from the truth. 

What Underwood did was during the appropriations legislation last month, 

The bill, H.R. 3055, was passed in the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.  H.R. 3055 is appropriations legislation for fiscal year (FY) 2020 for several departments, including the Department of Justice. 

FY2020 does not start until October 1st of this year, assuming a budget passes both houses of Congress and the President signs it into law.   

Therefore, anything the Trump Administration is doing in support of the current litigation is legal, if its expending anything at all in this litigation initiated by the states.

Congresswoman Underwood did successfully introduce and pass an amendment to H.R. 3055 for FY2020.   

It’s #89, which is below:

The amendment was passed by the House on June 20th on a nearly party-line vote of 238-194. 

Four Republicans did support the amendment, but this is by no means a bipartisan amendment. 

The entire H.R. 3055 was passed by the House on June 25th on a nearly straight party-line vote of 227-194, with 1 Democrat voting against it. 

No Republican voted for this.   

If Underwood’s amendment survives negotiations with the Senate is problematic at best. 

Clearly, Underwood’s campaign twitter account has given misinformation to voters, because even if Underwood’s amendment was approved by the Senate and signed by the President, the earliest it would be implemented is October 1st.

As far as the future of the Affordable Care Act, that is literally in the hands of the courts.  President Trump has promised to propose a replacement to Obamacare in 2021, assuming he wins re-election. 

The next representative from the 14th district will need to be fully ready for dealing with health care, and may all of the Republican candidates be thoroughly ready, complete with position papers published by the end of the year, so voters can evaluate the Republicans on the important issue of health care.
POLITICO Link:  https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/09/obamacare-lawsuit-1404171H.R. 3055 Link:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3055

As written in yesterday’s update, the fallout over the passage of the Senate-amended version of H.R. 3401 continues. 

The next bill coming up is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2020. 

The Senate version of NDAA passed on June 27th with a bipartisan vote of 86-8. 

The Senate bill, which is S. 1790, has been sent to the House. 

Similar to the bipartisan vote of H.R. 3401, the House now faces a strong bipartisan approved Senate legislation. 

The details, which is an interesting read, is in The Hill article link below. 

The progressives, who are still feeling the sting over H.R. 3401 last month, appear to be digging-in. 

The progressives are led by the usual suspects, who call themselves “The Squad” and lead by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

The feud between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez is hitting a new front on NDAA. 

Thinking to myself, there is 49 1/2 years age difference between Pelosi and AOC. 

For Republicans, dramas like this between the Democratic leadership and the progressive may write itself as a reason to replace Congresswoman Underwood, and other Democrats, next year. 

This kind of drama is something average general election voters do not want to see.

Congresswoman Underwood, as pointed out in my update yesterday, has wisely stayed out of the crossfire. 

She and Congressman Sean Casten voted with the Speaker on H.R. 3401.  Remains to be seen what happened on NDAA.


McHenry County Blog Link:  http://159.89.184.83/2019/07/09/14th-congressioal-district-update

The Hill Link:  https://thehill.com/homenews/house/452298-dem-tensions-snag-defense-bill

POLITICO Link:  https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/10/pelosi-progressives-twitter-1405763


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