New face of Chicago politics

Holy shit - the face of new Democratic politics is on the rise. Exhibit 2007: Naisy Dolar, who just beat out a highly competitive field of candidates to face off against the incumbent Democrat Bernard Stone, who wants to hand the seat to his daughter in a nepotistic fit. Read Tim's rundown of the anti-incumbent mood here.

Sun-Times coverage the day after: " With all precincts reporting, Stone had 48 percent, with top challenger Naisy Dolar logging 28 percent.

Early in the evening, Stone was so far ahead, he declared victory and went home to bed. Dolar never conceded but sent her own supporters home, saying it was too close to call.

"And look what happened," she said. "We put the champagne in the car, and then we had to pull the champagne back out."

By holding him to under 50%, she was able to enter a runoff election. This was a true grassroots campaign, as she received little help from traditional footsoldier organizations. See her endorsements versus the guy who had the front-runner challenger wind before the vote happened. Citizen Action and the Women's Bar Association hedged their bets and made multiple endorsements. So this was mostly borne of volunteer passion, and a healthy sprinkling of leftover APIA energy from Duckworth's campaign. (No, that is not an oxymoron.) But let's be clear about what endorsements turned the tide: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune.

Even if she does not win, this is a victory for change in Chicago politics. Moreover, she has a pretty good chance of winning since this district encompasses an immigrant-dense neighborhood including Devon St, aka Little India. Thank you, Lord and thank you Naisy Dolar, and Tammy Duckworth, and all the APIA brothers and sisters who came before to make it possible. Let us not just remember the ones who won judgeships or made it into campaign or elected officials' offices, let's remember the ones who tried mightily and lost. Because every footprint that came before makes a mark.
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Administrator's sidenote: Reorganized blogroll. Reinstated archives and comments (decided to take them down because I noticed some non-political spam. Really, on the order of spam, I would prefer politics-related spam to random spam. If you have an APIA related topic you'd like to suggest, email me. Don't spam. I will not be nice to spammers. Hence comment moderation.) *looks at watch* Damn, where did the time go?