[UPDATE: Mike Madigan, in efforts to protect his job, has started a campaign against progressive Committeewomen candidates who oppose his leadership. Madigan isn't accused of sexual harassment himself, but failure to protect women in the party from credibly accused men in the party. From WTTW Chicago:
As he deals with the fallout of sexual harassment allegations in his office, House Speaker and Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan has indicated he isn’t going anywhere. In fact, his desire to stay in power may be stronger than ever, according to several Democratic political candidates who say he is retaliating against them in their races because they have refused to pledge their support for him.More information on Madigan's mailers and attacks at The Intercept here. More information on the the Our Revolution slate of State Central Committee candidates here at the Our Revolution website.
News-Gazette Interview 3/14/2018: Full article here. Excerpt:
Gronemeyer said she doesn't know why the head of the Democratic Party is using robocalls against her or mailers against some of her colleagues.An update with some of the spending numbers of Madigan's campaign on committeewomen here.]
"I don't know why Madigan would be afraid of us. We don't want to throw everything away. Gosh darn it, I supported a tax increase because we have to do something with our budget," she said of the state income tax increase last year. "They shouldn't be afraid of us. They should want people to be involved, and that's what our goal is...
Mazzotti declined to return messages seeking a comment.
Click here to jump to the 15th District.
13th Congressional District Race:
Mazzotti
GronemeyerThe race on the 13th Congressional District's Committeewoman is between Jayne Mazzotti (incumbent) and Pamella Gronemeyer. The Springfield Journal-Register has some helpful information in their article on these previous ballot rivals:
Schoenburg: Bernie-backing Gronemeyer vs. Clinton delegate Mazzotti for Dem postMazzotti has a personal facebook page and a committee named Citizens for Jayne Mazzotti, but I couldn't find a campaign page or website.
There will be a rematch in the March primary for a place on the Democratic State Central Committee.
PAMELLA GRONEMEYER, a pathologist from Glen Carbon, is running against incumbent JAYNE MAZZOTTI of Taylorville as 13th Congressional District state central committeewoman.
The same two candidates faced off in the spring of 2010, with Mazzotti winning by 53-47 percent. Mazzotti was unopposed in 2014.
“I think I represent the grassroots,” Gronemeyer now says. “I get out and demonstrate and deliver letters to our congressman each month and work hard to promote polices and issues.”
She is co-president of the Illinois chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, a coordinator of Progressive Democrats of America in Illinois, and was a BERNIE SANDERS supporter who was on the platform committee of the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She also coordinates a progressive group called Southern Illinois People for Progress.
“My goal is to try to activate people and I try to represent people that are pushing for more progressive ideals,” Gronemeyer said.
Mazzotti, a French teacher, union member and wife of Christian County Democratic Chairman JACK MAZZOTTI, is on the Democratic National Committee. She was also a convention delegate for former President BARACK OBAMA in 2008 and 2012 and for HILLARY CLINTON in 2016.
Mazzotti said via email that she wants to “continue the work that’s already in action, including meeting regularly with other members of the Democratic Party in our state and working together to improve polices rooted in fairness, justice and opportunity — opportunity like access to quality education. As an educator and a parent, I understand the importance of quality schools and learning tools that our young people so deserve.”
She said such access was recently “made possible to students throughout our state” by school funding reform sponsored by Sen. ANDY MANAR, D-Bunker Hill.
Manar supports Mazzotti for re-election.
Pamella Gronemeyer has a campaign facebook page. [More information at the Our Revolution endorsement page here and the N-G interview here. Excerpt from the Our Revolution page:
Pamella Gronemeyer, M.D. is a physician and a small business owner. She takes pride in the fact that her hard work insures that her employees have excellent health insurance for themselves and their families without paying any premium or deductible. She is an involved single payer activist who works nonstop for its implementation.
She is the Co-President of PNHP IL and the Vice President of the board for the Illinois Single Payer Coalition. As an activist, she is the organizer of a progressive group in Edwardsville, IL that was begun in 2005. She has been a longtime member of PDA and is the Co-State Coordinator for PDA IL.]
15th Congressional District Race (currently vacant seat):
The candidate information here was a bit harder to track down and still a bit scarce.
Vivian Robinson has a facebook campaign page.
Tonya Loker and Rena Elkins Bever met while waiting in line to file as candidates before realizing they were going to be running against each other. NPR story here. I couldn't find campaign websites for either, but Bever pops up on the Wabash County Democrats facebook page a couple times and the Daily Egyptian had Bever's political origin story:
Like Mendenhall the 2016 presidential election inspired Rena Bever to run for state central committeewoman for the southern Illinois congressional district 15.I couldn't find any campaign websites or other information on Diana K. Douglas yet either.
“After the election, I felt the need to talk to like-minded women,” Bever said.
Bever had coffee with six other women, which then grew to ten.
That was the beginning of the organization, League of Like-Minded Resistors, which is based in Wabash County. The league now has 75 members, both men and women.
The league provides members a space to have positive interactions with each other and has joined with the local democratic party.
Germaine Light is also a Vermilion County Board candidate and has a facebook campaign page. [More information at the Our Revolution endorsement page here:
Germaine is a retired public school teacher, having taught biology for 27 years at Mahomet-Seymour High School. She has extensive experience as a labor activist. Her first union experiences were with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) as a city bus driver for Bloomington-Normal Public Transit and attending solidarity rallies for the Normal, IL firefighters locked in jail for striking.
Germaine was a member of Mahomet-Seymour Education Association/IEA/NEA for 27 years, and held many union positions, including Area Representative, Local Treasurer, Local President for four years, Region Council Representative, Delegate to the IEA & NEA Representative Assemblies for over 10 years, IEA Grassroots Political Activist for 6 years, Region Chair and Vice Chair and IEA Delegate to Champaign County AFL-CIO Local Labor Council for 15 years.
Upon retiring in 2013, she became a member of IEA-Retired. In these positions much time was and still is spent lobbying public officials, noting their responses and performance in office, helping to run candidate endorsement meetings for IEA, and organizing union members to participate.
She has worked for many years to enhance community coalitions in local labor groups like AFL-CIO and Central Illinois Jobs With Justice, where she is a founding member.]Germaine Light also has a recent article in the CU-IMC's Public I arguing for fair income taxes in Illinois here.
[originally posted 2/7/2018, 4:40AM]
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