Politics: And we’re off and running in the 18th
The GOP won’t be able to pretend that Aaron Schock doesn’t have an opponent in the November general election. The party chairman of the counties within the 18th Congressional district met Thursday and selected broadcaster Colleen Callahan as the party’ nominee.
Her biggest challenge, as I see it, is fund raising. She got off to a late start, while Schock has been squirreling away cash for months.
I disagree with reporter Karen McDonald’s unattributed assertion that Callahan is burdened by Schock’s greater name recognition. Sorry. But she’s been a household name for longer than Schock’s been alive, due to her reports on television on radio. Aaron, until recently, was little known outside Peoria. She’s probably been to county fairs and 4-H events in each of the 20 counties in the district.
I’m not going to make a prediction in this race, other than to say she’s going to be a much tougher opponent than John Morris and Jim McConoughey were in the primary. Her family has been linked to the Democratic Party at the state and national level. I think she’s going to be able to raise some cash, albeit not as much as Schock. The 18th District has skewed Republican for decades. Well, demographics change. And if the Democratic Party is headed by native son Barack Obama, look for a massive turnout in Illinois to help Callahan.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
One needs to look at the Special Election In IL-14 this weekend. The latest polls show Democrat Bill Foster leading Jim Oberweis in Denny Hastert’s old seat which was presumed to be permanently Republican. The ONLY advantage that Schock has is the fact that there is no ground game for the Democrats from the decade of neglect that comes from running sacrificial lambs. On the other hand Colleen has a number of social networks in all twenty counties via her ag work, and she has a presence in the urban centers of the Peoria and via her uncle Spingfield. Schock will hold the hard-line GOP voters. She’ll take the independents and enough of moderate G.O.P. voters to make the difference.
Let’s assume that Foster wins in IL-14. That will open the floodgates. Once any Republican seat can be taken, they will. Can you imagine the money that could flow to Callahan’s campaign once the activists from Daily Kos etc. decide to focus on a seat which hasn’t had a Democrat since the Wilson administration. Schock has a couple of months head start, but his advantages are not insurmountable. There are a number of pitfalls and wedge issues that lie in wait. I’ll go out on a limb and say 52-48 Callahan-Burns.
Billy’s on target…It will be her fund-raising over the next 6 months that will determine whether Callahan will run a competitive race. She will surprise a lot of people with her excellent communication skills. If she has a strong independent message and Obama’s on the top of the ticket she could win a close race.
Our GOP friends did Dems a favor by nominating the young lad with a penchant for weapons–both nuclear and those we can pack in our coat pockets, but an aversion to signing up for the real War in Iraq. Schock would rather join the Hot Air wars in Washington and leave the fighting to the real young patriots sweltering in Baghdad.
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Vonster:
did you really mean:
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Yours might be that big…..
Delighted to have Ms. Callahan running. Would be even more delighted to see Mr. Schock unemployed!
[...] Peoria Pundit has written some nice articles (here and here) about our Democratic candidate for the IL-18 race. We didn’t run anyone in the [...]
[...] after our not running anyone in the primary, the local Democratic Party drafted Colleen Callahan to run. I was somewhat critical of her for not telling us about where she stood on issues, and I got a bit [...]