Aside from the 3rd district where its Lipinksi vs. leftist loon Marie Newman on the RAT side and Will Frillone vs. neo-nazi holocaust denier loon Art Jones on the GOP, the wide open GOP race in the 14th district and the Jeanie Ives vs. Jay Kinzler primary in the 6th district, the remaining Illinois districts seem to be pretty sadly uneventful primary contests.
District 1 (my district, black panther Bobby Rush). DIABLO (Democrat In All But Label Only) Jimmie Lee Tillman Jr. was making noises about seeking the GOP nomination again, but didn’t file, so sacrificial lamb and actual Republican Phil White is unopposed in the primary.
District 2: (Jesse Jackson Jr.’s old district) - Theresa Raborn unopposed in GOP primary
District 4: (”Chuy”) No Republican running. “Independent” Ruben Sosa running as a write-in.
District 5: Sacrifical lamb Kimball Ladien unopposed in GOP primary
District 7: Craig Cameron unopposed for GOP nomination
District 8: (Joe Walsh’s old district, redrawn to be safe RAT, somehow people say its Joe’s fault for losing anyway) Joseph Hantsch running as write-in for GOP nomination
District 9 (Comrade Schacowky): Sargis Sangari unopposed for GOP nom.
District 10 (Markkirkland, former home of RINO, Inc.): Val Mukherjee unoppposed for GOP nomination
District 11: Krishna Bansal vs. Rick Laib in GOP primary, I have no idea which of them is better.
DOWNSTATE: Combiners and/or RINOs Mike Bost, Rodney Davis, Adam Kinzinger, and LaThug Jr. ALL unopposed in their primaries. LaThug Jr. is now the “most conservative” Republican Congressman from Illinois. His fan club gloats about that like its a good thing, its more akin to saying Police Academy 3 is “the best” direct to video Police Academy sequel. “Well, they all suck monkey balls, but Police Academy 3: Back In Training, SLIGHTLY less so!”
District 15: Open race for John Shimkus’ safe GOP seat because he is retiring, I have not researched the candidates.
District 17: Primary between Esther Joy King vs. Bill Fawell, I heard Fawell is a loon.
The 5th District has two republican candidates. Tom Hanson is the only conservative, in that race.
The Dem primary in CD 13 has an interesting candidate
In IL-11, a district redrawn to give it a strong Democrat lean (and which is unwinnable for the GOP absent fortuitous circumstances), the GOP primary is, as you stated, Krishna Bansal vs. Rick Laib. Bansal’s platform is fairly Trumpy (https://www.krishnaforcongress.com/platform/), but doesn’t discuss hot-button social issues such as abortion, gay rights or guns; Laib’s joke of a wwebsite does not discuss his stance on the issues.
But even were Laib to be a bit more conserbative than Bansal it would be idiotic to vote for Laib, given that, as of their respective February 26 FEC reports, Bansal had raised nearly $212,000 (and had around $95,000 cash-on-hand) while Laib had raised less than $8,000 and had $2,000 in the bank. Bansal actually might be able to get his message out to voters, whereas Laib isn’t even trying to campaign.
In IL-17, you were spot-on to describe Bill Fawell as a loon, and it would behoove the GOP not to nominate a “9-11 Truther” for a seat in Congress. Besides, Fawell has raised a bit less than $8,000, while his GOP opponent, Army veteran and attorney Esther King, has raised $365,000 (and has over $250,000 cash-on-hand), so this one is a no-brainer as well. And given that King’s issue positions are pretty good (except that she appears to be a bit of a squish on “Dreamers”), one wouldn’t have to hold one’s nose to vote for her over the nutcase: https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-md-maryland-first-coronavirus-transmission-20200312-ry4vxcsyhvev5keusxznk3etae-story.html
We have a guy in the 4th, he’s just dead that’s all. Given the choice of leaving it blank or not, I voted for him......
The party can name a replacement at a later date I think. We’ve had no one run before and the party slated a candidate.
To answer Phil’s question as to who, I’ll take any Republican that is currently alive and likely to stay that way. Preferably with a Spanish surname. We should be running Hispanic candidates in Hispanic majority districts. The right name is the difference between 20% and 30%.
Seems we’re down a Ward committeeman in my ward, no one on the ballot.
Kinzler has a fraction of Ives’ money, I haven’t been taking him seriously, what’s his deal, RINO?
No one (on the ballot) in the 8th, what a sad reflection on that district (though the lines are not what they were when Phil Crane had it, still, in 1998 thus would have been a safe seat)
Fawell was the only Republican to run in the 17th last time, needless to say he got his ass kicked by Bustos. I was disgusted to see him nominated, not as bad as the Nazi in CD 3 but almost. It’s unlikely but if Trump carries the district again and ticket splitting is low.......we need a sane candidate for a winnable seat.