Several of my friends live in Illinois' fine 5th congressional district and so I wanted to talk a little bit about the election we've got coming up really quick.  This is a special election to replace Rahm Emanuel who's now working as Chief of Staff for the Obama administration.  So there's going to be two votes coming up.  The primary on March 3rd and then the general election will follow on April 7th. 


Voting

If you're a registered voter in the district you should be getting a card in the mail from the election commission if you haven't already.  It tells you about polling places, etc.  There is early voting available in a limited number of polling places so if you're not able to get to the polls on election day, you have that as an alternative. 

The Primary

Something to keep in mind about this congressional district is that it's one of the most deeply Democratic districts in the country.  Barring meteors from the sky crushing them, the winner of the Democratic primary will win the general election.  So ultimately if you want a say in this election, you should get out and vote in the primary as that's going to be the real election. 

Now or Never

If you're not sure you really care to get involved in this election, realize that this is a seat that's likely to be quite permanent.  This was the seat previously held by Rod "My Hair Loves Me" Blagojevich and, like I said, Rahm Emanuel.  Because of the strong Democratic leanings of the district, once a candidate wins the seat, they are likely to keep it until they leave or get caught touching little boys.  So basically if you don't vote in this election, don't expect to be voting for a new congresscritter for a couple decades unless they run for Governor or get picked to be Chief of Staff.

My Take

Everything up to this point has been general information about the election.  I encourage everybody to get out and vote even if you're going to vote for people I don't like.  I love Democracy and I think it's important for people to participate even if they are total wackaloons :).  However I've got my opinions of course and I wanted to go into that a little bit.  I'll put it behind a cut so I'm not spamming LJ too badly, but I encourage you to research the candidates and find the one you like best.  There's plenty of info out there if you google it and there are candidate forums going on throughout the district if you want to meet people in person. 

This is not a comprehensive list, I'm merely going to comment on the candidates I know or think have a chance.  I'm not going into the Republican or Green candidates because I don't know them and they haven't a chance in hell :).
 
( Meet the candidates... )