Progress Illinois

The latest from the race to replace Rahm ...

In the wake of Sara Feigenholtz's new ad criticizing instances in which Mike Quigley has aligned himself with Todd Stroger, the Tribune editorial board followed up on their previous endorsement with a weekend editorial headlined "Why We're For Quigley":

Let's bring it down to this. If you're a Democrat and you want a candidate with solid Democratic values, you can almost throw a dart at the ballot. Almost all of them qualify.

If you're a Democrat and you want a candidate who fights every day against the corruption and ineptitude that plagues state and local government, you have one candidate: Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley.

And another writer for a progressive magazine endorsed Tom Geoghegan's candidacy.  This time it's Chicago's own David Moberg of In These Times, who describes the labor lawyer as the "anti-Blago":

Geoghegan, on the other hand, is a bold thinker, inspired by what European social democratic parties and unions have accomplished and unapologetic about the role of government in promoting social solidarity and protecting ordinary citizens. To take only one example: At a time when even some Democrats talk about “entitlement reform” that involves cutting Social Security benefits, Geoghegan argues for increasing them. He points out that public pensions in most western European countries provide, on average, between 65-70 percent of working income, while Social Security provides not even 40 percent. [...]

Can a brainy, creative, progressive candidate parlay volunteer workers and a web-fueled campaign into victory over better-known, better-funded, organizationally based conventional Chicago Democrats? The odds are definitely against him, but the odds were also against Obama in his Senate race four years ago.

In other news, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver puts odds on the winner of the Democratic primary and there's one last candidate forum Sunday morning for those looking for a last glimpse of the field:

10:00-11:30AM
All Saints Episcopal Church
4550 N. Hermitage Ave.

Meanwhile, Friday was a big day for 48-hour filings.  John Fritchey and Feigenholtz each reported over $30,000 in large contributions, while Quigley disclosed over $15,000.  Here's our updated fundraising table:

Full Disclosure: The SEIU Illinois Council -- which is the sole sponsor of Progress Illinois -- has endorsed Sara Feigenholtz in the 5th Congressional District race.  You can read Progress Illinois' full assessment of the top tier candidates here.