Really short coattails
It appears that there might be a limit to how many members of the Chicago machine can be absorbed by Washington:
Obama’s favored candidate, hand-picked by Rahm Emanuel to succeed him in his Congressional seat (with the implied promise she would surrender the seat whenever Rahm returns from Washington and wants it back), was Sara Feigenholtz — who lost badly to Mike Quigley for the nomination.
Feigenholtz practically had Obama’s campaign “O” emblem tattooed to her forehead. Obama featured prominently on all of her campaign literature. Her posters and website featured large photos of diminutive Feigenholtz with Obama towering over her, making it clear whose bidding she would clearly do in Washington. In fact, she even came right out and said as much in all of her campaign materials, including her slogan, which was: “Give him the healthcare advocate he needs.”
Not that Mike Quigley is exactly a Blue Dog — on most issues you care to name, Quigley’s positions are pretty close to the President’s — but if actual Chicago voters may have had it up to here with the Chicago Way, 2010 looks a lot more interesting all of a sudden. And it might even be more so if the GOP actually decided to try to win this one for once.
