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Tammy Duckworth, the DCCC and the Left

On the 2006 6th district congressional race, and frustration among the activist community. Tammy Duckworth, Rahm Emmanuel and how they affect the Left
Tammy Duckworth, the DCCC and the Left

November 2004, Illinois 6th district- progressive democrat Christine Cegelis, comes percentage points from unseating republican Henry Hyde. Early 2006, with Hyde having announced retirement at the end of his term, Cegelis with strong grassroots support seems destined to challenge Tom Delay acolyte Peter Roskam in November.

Enter Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rahm Emmanuel who chooses to ignore the independent-minded Christine, throwing the weight of the party behind unknown, out-of-district, injured Iraq war vet-Tammy Duckworth. With a budget of $1 million, Emmanuel and the DCCC would enlist Senators Durbin, Obama, Clinton and Kerry as well as the scheming of media consultant David Axelrod. Duckworth would go on to win the Democratic primary by less than 3 percentage points.

The victory of topdown candidate Duckworth would divide the left- animosity towards Emmanuel and the DCCC, voter apathy, talk of punishing the Democratic party come November by allowing pass
a Republican victory. "Where did they get off bringing in an outsider with no local support? Where did they get off trying to poach the hard work Cegelis had done over the previous two years to establish a Democratic presence in a district that had not known of such a thing for decades?" asked William Rivers Pitt of the New York Times voicing a common opinion

With few ground troops and little community enthusiasm behind her Tammy Duckworth and her DCCC
handlers face the deep- pocketed and powerful Roskam in the battle of the 6th district; the heart of traditional GOP territory.

Election year 2006, ultra-right ideology and their agents of internal division and external conquest dominate the House, Senate, Supreme Court and Presidency. Foreign invasion and aggression, corporate privatization, job loss, union busting, anti-choice, unattainable Health Care, rascism, blurring of the line of church and state in short- disintegration of all hard- won social, human and economic rights has been the fruit of such ominous a concentration of power.

"The point is not to elect Duckworth in November simply for the sake of electing Duckworth. The point is to win the November race in order to take one step closer to ending the Republican majority in the House of Representatives" said former Cegelis campaign manager Kevin Spidel. The 6th district congressional race, with the exit of Hyde makes it one of the 14 most vulnerable seats standing between continued GOP rule or a Democratic John Conyers presided- majority in the house which would wield a venemous blow to the reigning Neo-Con monster with the entrance of an opposition party whose stances on key social and economic issues of the day: abortion, the war in Iraq, health care, education, immigrant rights, union rights, the social safety net, graduated taxation, gay rights, the death penalty and the criminal justice system are vital tactically
in the movement for social and economic liberation of the working class and minorities.

In the words of Malcolm X "A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target" And our target is clear- The end of Neo-Con power and impunity- The elevation of the working class and minority. Emmanuel, Duckworth and the DCCC we can and must use tactically.

Vote, if need be- vote holding your nose, we must not surrender the 6th district.

Cristóbal Cavazos
 
 

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