The latest from the race to replace Rahm Emanuel in the 5th Congressional District ...

John Fritchey released his second ad last night and it's a serious improvement over the first:

In that first spot, Fritchey depicted himself as purportedly above the negative sniping from Sara Feigenholtz and Mike Quigley.  We and others noted at the time that this was a bit disingenous considering the attacks he had earlier leveled against his opponents. 

Further undermining that image is this new mailer from the Fritchey camp, which is the first fully negative piece we've seen.  It urges readers to "Vote no on Quigley and Feigenholtz" and only mentions Fritchey's name in the disclaimer:

In other news, Capitol Fax is on top of today's fight between the Quigley and Fritchey camps.  The backstory is this: In an earlier mailer, Quigley hit both Fritchey and Feigenholtz for voting in favor of the 2008 CTA bailout which included a .25% sales tax increase.  That original piece specified the amount of the tax hike as well as the purpose.  But as David Ormsby (a Feigenholtz supporter) noted today, in a subsequent mailer from Quigley, the relevant context falls by the wayside.  This is true as well in the most recent Quigley mail piece we've since, which accuses the two state lawmakers of voting "for Rod Blagojevich's sales tax hike that combined with Todd Stroger's sales tax hike [to make] Chicago's sales tax the highest in the nation":

Fritchey expressed his displeasure with the mailers at last weekend's candidate forums and then sent out a release today asserting:

A recent Quigley campaign mail piece attacked Fritchey for supporting legislation that kept the buses and trains running in the Chicagoland area. But at the time the legislation was being considered in Springfield, Quigley actually voted for a Cook County resolution "urging the Illinois General Assembly to take such action as is necessary and appropriate to increase operating funding.” (County Resolution 07-R-310) 

Quigley campaign manager Tom Bowen responded via press release:

"Fritchey is doing what all politicians do when they are in trouble, they mislead the voters. Mike Quigley never voted for the resolution Fritchey cites, nor did he co-sponsor it. Quigley has said consistently that the reason the CTA was in such a dire condition was the direct result of John Fritchey and Sara Feigenholtz voting for budget after budget that shortchanged mass transit, while failing to hold the CTA accountable for the money it was wasting on mismanagement."

So did he or didn't he vote for the resolution? That's what everyone's scrambling to figure out.  

As for the broader issue of the state legislature's failure to adequately fund the CTA, the Quigley camp has got a point there.  But again, that context is nowhere to be found in their latest mailers.

In the Washington Post today, Tom Geoghegan received another strong endorsement from a national political commentator, this time columnist Harold Meyerson:

In the collected works of Tom Geoghegan, the value of social and economic ideas and practices is set by the way they play out on the streets.

There are, by actual count, a gazillion candidates for Emanuel's old seat on Tuesday's ballot, including a number of conventionally liberal pols, some of whom would probably make fine members of Congress. But Congress has no shortage of conventionally liberal or conventionally conservative pols. Of streetwise political intellectuals who've devoted themselves to a career of economic justice it has none.

Meanwhile, the 48-hour filings (for contributions over $1,000) keep flowing in to the FEC.  In the latest round, Pat O'Connor raised over $32,000, Fritchey pulled in nearly $30,000, while Quigley disclosed over $13,000 and Feigenholtz over $8,000.  Notable contributions include $2,400 checks to both Quigley and Fritchey from Illinois Senate President John Cullerton's federal campaign account and a $1,000 donation to Tom Geoghegan from Chris Kennedy (the son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and president of Merchandise Mart Properties, whose has long been rumored to be considering a political career in Illinois): 

The Geoghegan campaign notified us that, as of this morning, their total amount raised was just shy of $300,000.  You can view their latest mailer below:

Full disclosure: The SEIU Illinois Council -- which is the sole sponsor of Progress Illinois -- has endorsed Sara Feigenholtz in the 5th Congressional District race. Progress Illinois will not be endorsing any candidate in this race.