Under-the-radar candidate wins Ill. race (state rep)

[jacksonian]

Nov. 4, 2004 | Cicero, Ill. -- Michelle Chavez didn't plaster the town with campaign signs. She didn't hold fund-raisers, hand out leaflets or even bother responding to a reporter's questionnaire before the election. But she was on the ballot as a Democrat, and apparently that was enough for voters in this Chicago suburb to elect her as a state representative over the Republican incumbent.

"I can't think of an instance when someone ran such a low-scale candidacy and won," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "It's kind of like a virgin birth in the General Assembly."

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/11/04/senate/index.html

Ha! Sorry this just caught my eye. Something happened here that's not mentioned in the artice. The Cicero Repugs have been infighting for years and been providing pretty good comedy material. Cicero is still a place where reform candidates get their garages blown up.

It's a hoot. A few years ago the mayor got uppity and tried to throw her weight around and buck the party. She got bitchy about some bill in Springfield and slated her own House candidate and put her "machine" behind him. She lost. You know what comes next, massive investigation and an indictment for stealing some pidly amount of money (not that she wasn't a crook mind you). So the mayor went off to jail.

And now what happens - looks like someone masterminded a SHTV (stay home the vote) and screws the state rep. Can't wait for the next election cycle, there's sure to be more to this.

IL Repugs are the funniest in the nation, no doubt about it.