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A freshman congressman unseated a 10-term veteran colleague in a bitter Republican primary in a redrawn Illinois district.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R) unseated longtime Rep. Don Manzullo in Illinois's redrawn 16th congressional district. The Associated Press called the race for Kinzinger on Tuesday evening.
AP, file
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, right, unseated longtime Rep. Don Manzullo, left, in a bitter Republican primary.
The Kinzinger-Manzullo battle was just one of several districts forming the undercard of the day's presidential primary battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. (Romney won that race handily.)
But none of those contests were as bitter or high-profile, though, as the battle between the veteran Manzullo and Kinzinger, a 34-year-old Air Force veteran and deputy whip in the House who is seen as a potential rising star in the GOP.
The two Republicans had been drawn into a shared district by Democrats in the state legislature. The new 16th district had been seen as marginally favorable to Manzullo.
The race had become a generational battle, and took on higher significance after a somewhat unusual endorsement by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, whose super PAC spent $50,000 on advertising against Manzullo.
Cantor’s decision to endorse added a new dimension of bitterness to the primary, prompting Manzullo to ask for the Virginia congressman’s resignation as majority leader.
Democratic leaders were more willing to get involved in another intramural scrape between Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., and former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, who was swept out of office by the Republican wave in 2010 after only a single term in office.
Jackson won the contest easily, and the AP called the race for him Tuesday evening.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., traveled to Chicago earlier this month to endorse Jackson, who was facing the toughest primary battle of his career from Halvorson. Jackson has served in Congress since 1995 and is the son of the civil rights icon who shares the same name.
But Jackson has also been forced to address allegations that he or an associate was engaged in an effort to raise campaign contributions for then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, in exchange for an appointment to Obama’s old Senate seat in 2008. Blagojevich was eventually convicted and sent to jail on corruption charges; the House Ethics Committee continues to investigate Jackson.
Another Democratic favorite with ties to the Obama administration won a primary battle in her bid to challenge firebrand freshman GOP Rep. Joe Walsh in November.
Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq war veteran who served in the Obama administration as an official in the Department of Veterans Affairs, prevailed over opponent Raja Krishnamoorthi, according to the Associated Press.
Duckworth, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, enjoyed the support of top Democrats including David Axelrod, the Chicago-based senior strategist to President Obama. She'll face Walsh this fall in a new 8th district redrawn in Democrats' favor.
Liberals also suffered a disappointing loss, too, in a Democratic primary in Illinois’s 10th congressional district. Liberal advocacy groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have raised money to promote candidate Ilya Sheyman over businessman Brad Schneider, a more moderate candidate favored by the establishment.
Schneider was able to hold off Sheyman, though, in the battle to take on freshman Republican Rep. Bob Dold in a competitive suburban Chicago district.
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Kinzinger is only a "potential" rising star? He must not be corrupt enough yet.
Manzullo is on notice that his term is about to end. Term limit determined by voters. Looks like a great choice. This is how we end terms....they are called elections. If you want to end the term of an incumbant don't vote for the incombant. Is that hard for people to understand or what?
Next get rid of Eric CAN'Tor. We need people that will work together to solve problems, not people who say no just to hurt the other party.
Look at Ronald Reagan, he worked with Democrat Tip O'Niel to get things done. These guys in office today have to remember we are all Americans and divided we are falling.
Cantor spent $50,000 to get him a win. Enough said for me. Send the jerk packing. Just what America needs...a mini Cantor! Yuck!
Term limits means just that. We have term limits for the president but no one else. We need term limits for congress. 2 terms for senate, 3 or 4 for the house, no special retirement or privileges.
"the House Ethics Committe continues to investigate the case"Yea, an in addition to "still investigating" Jesse Jr',they have been investigating Maxine Waters.But after over a year of "investigations",the dimocraps just can't find enough evidence to solitify a case!What a shock!I believe Jesse,Jr. is caught on tape implecating himself in the "selling of a Senate seat" case.Maxine,big entitlement spender and demander, Waters' husband was on the board of that bank involved in payoffs to get some of that TARP money!Can't seem to close the deal on her either!Amazing!The corruption taking place by the demogogueing dimocraps!
Pres. Bush would never have taken us to war except for???? 911. If the democrats would have been in power nothing would have happened. Remember Jimmy Carter? Remember Bill Clinton? He was so busy boinking Monica he didn't care what was happening in Cosovo....another reason Muslims hate us. But really, want to blame some one, blame the Muslims.
Universal health care . The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions).
Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt.
What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government . Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors.
Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."
Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Barack Hussien Obama's plan all along.
His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
Legalize 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security ..
Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go?
It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country.
It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues).
All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America ..
The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful.
The ends justify the means. Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama).
Now that we've gotten past the 'feel good' moment of electing "The historic first Black President", perhaps we can return to electing people with a record of accomplishments, not someone whose sole resume consisted of running for political office and giving vague speeches.
Unfortunately, our children and grandchildren will be stuck with the $7 Trillion in new debt at the end of Obama's current term ($4.6 Trillion since the end of fiscal 2008, plus the $2.4 Trillion increase in the debt limit he needs to get past the 2012 elections).
I suspect our children will eventually ask the obvious question "What were you thinking?"
where is that pride in ourselves that got us thru well over 200 years?
when will we get back to the business of being the leader of freedom loving people of the world? "and what is wrong with that" stop apologizing !!!
The economic situation, that is occurring in this country is effecting the entire world economy detrimentally> And that's "not good"
Where do we go from here? I believe we all deep down care about each other and want what is best. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are stalwarts of our very existence. America has nothing to apologize to any one for our exceptional presence in the world. the world is a better place because of the "shining city on the hill" 1 case in point where would we be now if the United states of America had not engaged in ww2? "ZEIG HIEL mine furer" just saying. we have had our good times and our bad times made mistakes and right-full choices this divisiveness no matter where it emanates is counter productive there can be a balance and cohesiveness shared among us all were all Americans
vote 2012
republican conservative tea mongerers can't even agree that a huge , unjustifiable killing has taken place again in our country. keck said race relations are worst in 50 years, that's why that murderer shot that kid. 50 years ago , a black person had to move off the sidewalk when a white person was passing. 50 years ago , blacks weren't allowed to eat at same restaurants with whites. 50 years ago , blacks could not be in certain parts of town , at certain times of night. 50 years ago , black kids couldn't attend schools with white kids. SO , IT'S APPARENT , '' THIS IS THE LIFE, REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE, WHITE TEA DRINKERS CALLED , '' THE BEST RACE RELATIONS ''. THESE GENUIS MUST ALSO THINK THERE ARE RAILROAD TRACKS IN HEAVEN. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MANY ARE PAYING THE PRICE FOR THAT SERIOUS MISCALCULATION ????? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!