Report on Candidate Mark Pera

Written by: Sandra Verthein on Jul 17, 2007 8:04 AM EDT

At our July meeting we had Democratic Congressional Candidate Mark Pera as our guest speaker. Mark is running in the 3rd Congressional District for the seat currently held by anti-choice, pro-war, machine Democrat Dan Lipinski. At our August 9th meeting (RSVP and get details at http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=21514) we will be discussing whether or not we want to endorse or adopt Mark's campaign.

Why would a group like ours consider supporting someone against a Democratic incumbent?  Well, first of all there is the matter of how Dan got his seat in Congress.  I'll let this June 2004 Sun-Times article by Lynn Sweet tell the story:

"This is a report on a scheme-in-the-works. Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill.) is plotting to install his son, or another handpicked candidate, in his House seat, despite his statements that he intends to seek election to another term in November."

Lying about your intentions, conspiring to subvert the democratic process -- hey, its just another day in Chicago machine politics!

"Lipinski won the nomination in the March primary election, and if he drops out, a replacement is picked by the weighted vote of the Democratic ward and township committeemen whose territory is part of the 3rd Congressional District. [These] are the noblemen of Chicago's political royal families with ambitious sons and daughters in the clans. The wards of these aristocrat committeemen are the remnants of the Machine, and politics is a family business."

Enter heir to the throne Dan Lipinski, who had been living in Tennessee for years when he got the call to come back to Illinois and take over from dear old dad.  Here is a priceless quote from an August 2004 Sun-Times article by Abdon M. Pallasch:

"The committee voted. I wasn't hand-picked by one person." [Dan Lipinski said.] His father added, "The process was open to anyone who wanted to propose themselves as a candidate." In other words, between 4 p.m. Friday, when Bill Lipinski resigned, and 10 a.m. Tuesday, when committeemen approved his son, anyone could have approached the committeemen to vie for the support Lipinski had already locked up."

And, just to make things even worse, Dan starts voting 100% of the time with the National Right to Life Committee, votes against stem cell research, and votes for the Republican's intervention in the Terri Schaivo case.  Dan is also one of the "McGovern 13," the 13 Democrats from blue districts (districts that went for Kerry in 2004) who voted against the McGovern Iraq withdrawal bill, in spite of significant lobbying from a local peace and justice group, as well as numerous referendums in his district that went overwhelmingly for withdrawal. (He did, however, vote for the more recent withdrawal bill that the house just passed.)

It's things like this that make progressives want to not just get mad, but to get even.

Enter candidate Mark Pera, a Western Springs resident and Cook County environmental law prosecutor who honestly could hardly be more of a perfect candidate.  He has deep ties to the community, has experience running for office (he stated at the meeting that during his campaign for state rep he personally walked over 100 precincts), and has raised more money in his first quarter than last term's challengers did for their whole campaign.  He's right on all the issues that Lipinski is so wrong on, he's charismatic, confident, and well spoken.  And unlike Lipinski, if elected he will owe his allegiance to the people instead of to the Democratic machine.  If you are a voter in District 3, it's a no-brainer.

But should our group jump on board with this campaign?  Our mission is to elect socially progressive, fiscally responsible, ethically committed Democrats at all levels of government.  Per our bylaws, we are limited in the number of elections we can work on at any one time.  Should Mark Pera be one of them?

At our meeting we grilled him pretty thoroughly on a number of issues.  Often his answers weren't the kind of thing that makes a progressive's heart go pitter patter, though I give him great credit for being willing to say things that he knew might not be that popular with us. Here are a few bullet points:

• he said he believed in creating a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants, yet he also said a top priority of his was to "secure our borders"; he also stated that as a state's attorney, he knew first hand the impossibility of "rounding up 12 million people" and that basically we already were giving illegal immigrants a kind of de-facto amnesty because of that
• he said he supports a  "universal heath care system" for uninsureds but when asked if he would support a single-payer, medicare-for-all type system, he said he did not have a health care team assembled and would need to do more research on that type of proposal before he could respond  
• when asked if he would support repealing the Patriot Act, he said "absolutely" and that it was one of the worst examples of the administration's overreaching; but when asked if he would support the impeachment of George W. Bush, he said that it would be a distraction and that "we need to focus on more important issues" and getting important legislation, such a troop withdrawal, done before Bush is out of office,
• regarding alternative energy, he said he supported research into coal-to-liquid fuel technology along with other research, but was skeptical about ethanol because it takes more fuel to create than it actually replaces, and that most of its popularity was due to politicians from corn-growing areas pandering to their constituents
• on trade issues, he stated that he is "not a protectionist," but also said that we need to require our trading partners to follow basic environmental, wage, and worker safety issues; he said we needed "not just free trade, but fair trade"
• he also reiterated that he is pro-choice, consistently anti-war and in favor of the expansion of stem-cell research, all in contradiction to Lipinski

If you are a voting member (meaning you have attended at least three meetings and have done at least three candidate-related volunteer activities in the last year), please take the time to do the research necessary to make an informed decision before our vote on August 9th. And if you are not a voting member, please also do the research since we would greatly appreciate your participation in the pre-vote discussion.  Here are some links to get you started:

http://www.markperaforcongress.com
http://www.danlipinskiforcongress.com/index.htm
http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=33692
http://provisoprobe.blogspot.com/2007/07/mark-pera-speaks-to-dfa-in-oak-park.html
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/accidental-congressman-lipinski-draws-another-primary-challenge-2007-06-14.html

At our August 9th meeting (for this one month only we are meeting on the SECOND Thursday of the month) we will also be hearing from candidates for the 4th Congressional District:

Northside DFA Meeting with 4th CD Candidates (and vote on Mark Pera)
Thursday, August 9, 6:00 dinner (optional) and socializing, 7:00 meeting
Wing Hoe Chinese Restaurant, 2nd Floor, 5356 N Sheridan Road, Chicago
PLEASE RSVP at:  http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=21514

Peace,
Sandra Verthein
Northside DFA

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Location: Chicago, IL