corrente

Never let it be said Kerry had no coattails:

(via AP via NYT)

CICERO, Ill. (AP) -- Michelle Chavez didn't plaster the town with campaign signs. She didn't hold fund-raisers, hand out leaflets or even bother responding to a reporter's questionnaire before the election. But she was on the ballot as a Democrat, and apparently that was enough for voters in this Chicago suburb to elect her as a state representative over the Republican incumbent.

"I can't think of an instance when someone ran such a low-scale candidacy and won,'' said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. ``It's kind of like a virgin birth in the General Assembly.''

The Cicero Democrat believes Chavez was a ``shill candidate'' put on the ballot by her opponent's supporters to prevent legitimate candidates from running. The only problem, he said, is that rather than go down to defeat, Chavez caught a wave of support for presidential candidate John Kerry and other Democrats on the ballot.

``It's obvious people just pulled the Democrat ballot,'' Sandoval said. ``They didn't know who Michelle Chavez is.''

Chavez, an administrative assistant with a local janitorial company, dismissed such a suggestion, saying ``nobody put me to run against anybody.''

Leticia Chavez, the candidate's niece and campaign manager, said the reason Chavez won was because she and an extended family of close to 30 took the campaign trail door-to-door.

Damn but I wish I had thought of this. I need a job.

Leaving my personal problems out of the matter, I never again want to pick up a paper on the day they print the ballot for the upcoming elections and see ANY seat occupied by a person with an R at the end of their name, and a blank space where an opponent's name should be.