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

On Monday, Crain's Greg Hinz reported that SEIU Illinois (which sponsors this site) is leaning towards endorsing Sara Feigenholtz, which is what we've been hearing as well. (Feminist Majority PAC also endorsed her this morning.)  Several other unions -- including AFSCME and the Illinois Federation of Teachers -- have gotten behind John Fritchey.  But the SEIU endorsement is particularly important for this reason: Of the estimated 18,000 union members in the 5th District, about half belong to SEIU.

Blogger Jesse Greenberg has a post up today questioning all the labor support for Fritchey.  Specifically, he highlights a Crain's letter-to-the-editor Fritchey wrote in 2005 supporting a "defined contribution" pension plan in the state.  As Greenberg notes, "For organized labor, this very position is a red-line politically.  Labor has long supported the current defined benefit program and decried the defined contribution program." Greenberg goes on to point out that Fritchey also twice voted in favor of school vouchers in 1999, adding that it "seems Fritchey’s record on this matter runs counter to the long-held positions of organized labor and teachers’ unions in particular." (See the update below for more on this.)  He concludes: "At the very least, I believe labor has some responsibility to clarify their endoresements with detailed explainations."  Read his whole post here.

Thanks to the emerging divide among organized labor over the race, the Citizen Action/Illinois endorsement session this weekend is sure to be lively (their board includes numerous high-ranking officials from the unions in question).

In other endorsement news, Capitol Fax recently published a mailer from Mike Quigley's campaign highlighting the endorsement he received from fellow Cook County Commissioner Forest Claypool.  Meanwhile, a CQ article out yesterday quotes the Feigenholtz campaign highlighting differences in Quigley and Claypool's respective voting records. In turn, the Quigley campaign is quoted tying her to Gov. Blagojevich.

Tom Geoghegan also received the endorsement of veteran Chicago political consultant Don Rose:

He gets things done while others hypothesize. ... He is the law partner of former Alderman Leon M. Despres, a father of progressive reform in Chicago, which speaks volumes in itself.

Recently Geoghegan (pronounced gae-gun) won a huge class-action suit against Advocate Health Care that will, according to the Sun-Times, “result in free or reduced-price care for low income patients at Advocate hospitals.”

That was typical of Geoghegan’s successful fight for poor and working people–translating the smart ideas of his books into tangible action. His record and economic ideas might just resonate in the working-class western end of the district.

But then, he may be overqualified for Congress.

UPDATE (6:00 p.m.): Since posting this earlier today, I've received some emails inquiring about the basis for the claim that Fritchey "twice voted in favor of school vouchers."  The underlying bills -- HB 999 and SB 1075 -- were introducted in 1999 and both received the support of Fritchey in the House.  While they were similar in language, only the latter passed both chambers and was signed into law.  That measure created a 25 percent tax credit for families paying at least $250 and as much as $2,000 on school supplies in a year. 

While not technically a voucher program, the legislation was favored by the "school choice" community that regularly pushes for vouchers.  Indeed, both the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and the Illinois Education Association (IEA) opposed the bill, their position being that it held few-if-any benefits for public school parents and therefore incentivized a move away from public education.  Both unions went on to file separate suits, alleging that the statute was unconstitutional.  The IEA's case was eventually heard by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the law.