I have diaried this before, but am doing it again, because I have personally met with Colleen Callahan, and having had such a great meeting with her, one on one - am now a committed vote and volunteer. So here's my little plug for her candidacy.
She is running for the seat that has been held by Ray LaHood for 7 terms, and prior to him, Robert "Bob" Michel from 1957 till 1995 (that's a lot of terms), whose predecessor was Harold Velde from 1949-1957, and Wikipedia says that before him it was Edward Jenison, another Republican, but the dates don't seem to gel. So IL-18 has been held by a Republican since 1949 at the very least, and if we count since 1947 - that's 61 years. Too long, my friends.
First, I post here for y'all the relevant links, should you not want to read my thoughts on our meeting, or care what I think:
Callahan's Act Blue page
Colleen Callahan for Congress website
A blogstory on her campaign event with Steny Hoyer
So, I met with Colleen last Thursday, with two other local environmental activists that I know well, in a lunch meeting that lasted about 2 hours, over pizza and lemonade, and was specifically to discuss environmental issues, local to national. I don't have a lot of time to write, so the salient points
- she really listened, and the dialogue was excellent.
- one of my cohorts really pressed her on sustainable energy, specifically coal and the "myth" of clean coal. Again, she listened and IMHO really heard what we were saying. They ended up agreeing to disagree (Joyce being very anti-coal and Colleen wanting to give "clean coal" a chance), but she was very gracious.
- She is for cellulosic ethanol - which honestly stunned us. She comes from a farming family, and we were relatively sure she'd be pushing corn ethanol - but she was straight up cellulosic. Though she pointed out the challenges with that, transporting all that grass (vs. tiny kernels of corn), she had no problem.
- She admitted when she didn't know about things, and was actually forthright enough to ask us our thoughts on things like FutureGen, admitting she hadn't read up completely on it yet.
I was very impressed - her candor was awesome, her intelligence was sharp, and her honesty was obvious (to me anyway). I ended up marching with her in the West Peoria 4th of July parade, and proud to have done so.
I was wavering back and forth between Colleen and the Green Party Candidate Sheldon Schafer, whom I've worked with and for politically, and whom I consider a friend. My now final choice boiled down to three things 1. the excellent meeting I just described, 2. Sheldon's pro-life stance, and 3. Colleen has much better odds to beat Republican Aaron Schock, who wants to give nukes to Taiwan to fend off North Korea, and IMHO is a scandal waiting to explode.
Hey Markos et all! I know you're busy prepping for Netroots Nation, but could you check out Colleen (again?) - now that she has a solid website, and several appearances - and maybe, just maybe, pick her up for Orange to Blue too?
The IL 18th has had a republican in this office for one hell of a long run - but I don't find the area overwhelmingly republican in philosophy. There are plenty of Democrats in office locally. I think Callahan has excellent prospects and a real chance to win. Thanks all!