Wall Street Journal
By Joshua Jamerson
March 21, 2018
Illinois Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski all but cleared the way to re-election Tuesday, narrowly defeating a primary election challenge from an abortion-rights advocate for his House seat.
Mr. Lipinski, one of the few Democrats opposed to abortion rights in Washington, defeated nonprofit executive Marie Newman with a margin of less than two percentage points, the Associated Press reported. Ms. Newman had argued that the seven-term incumbent was out of step with the heavily Democratic district because of his opposition to abortion rights, his vote against the Affordable Care Act and his refusal to endorse Barack Obama in his 2012 re-election campaign. With his primary challenge behind him, Mr. Lipinski is widely expected to defeat his Republican challenger this fall, Reid J. Epstein, Janet Hook and I write.
Meanwhile, in the Republican gubernatorial primary, Gov. Bruce Rauner defeated state Rep. Jeanne Ives. Ms. Ives used her concession speech to continue her scathing indictment of Mr. Rauner’s term as governor and did not ask her supporters to back Mr. Rauner. She had attacked Mr. Rauner for signing legislation expanding access to abortion to Illinoisans on public assistance. Mr. Rauner’s victory sends a signal that voters are willing to accept some deviation from party ideology, particularly from incumbents who have built relationships with them on other issues, Janet and Reid note.
Janet writes into Daybreak this morning: EMILY’s List, the group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, had a lot of candidates – and money – in the Illinois primaries, and the organization may come up with a mixed result. Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, a professional fundraiser, won the nomination to run against Republican Rep. Rodney Davis in the 13th district this November. Lauren Underwood, a former Obama health adviser, was chosen to oppose Republican Rep. Randy Hultgren in the 14th district. But Ms. Newman was defeated by Mr. Lipinski. Kelly Mazeski may yet win the primary fight to run against GOP Rep. Peter Roskam, but that race was too close to call Wednesday morning. If she doesn’t win, that leaves EMILY’s List with just two victories in the five Democratic primaries where it endorsed candidates. It was known that their candidate in the 4th district, Sol Flores, was a longshot against Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in a solidly Democratic Chicago district.
Reid writes into Daybreak this morning: No Labels, which backs centrist candidates from both major parties, claimed Mr. Lipinski’s victory as its own triumph. The group and its affiliated super PAC put $1 million behind Mr. Lipinski. “The political center was left for dead. But this race shows it is alive and well,” said former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the No Labels co-chairman who is despised by progressive Democrats. “And it is not a moment too soon. The ideological purges happening in both parties are toxic for our democracy.”
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