Progress Illinois

We noted earlier this week how GOP Rep. John Shimkus was the most aggressive of the Illinois opponents of the comprehensive energy bill passed by the U.S. House Tuesday night -- going so far as to vote twice to adjourn the chamber before a vote could be held.

Well, it turns out that his pro-coal rant on the House floor wasn't just ridiculous (case in point: "Speaker Pelosi hates coal.  Hates it!"), it was also false.  Shimkus said during his floor statement, "There's nothing in the Democrat [sic] bill that advances coal use.  Nothing.  Zero.  No oil shale.  No coal. No oil sands.  Nothing."  But as Alison of PhilosopheForum noted in our comments section, the bill did in fact advance coal use.  From Speaker Nancy Pelosi's summary:

Carbon Capture & Sequestration.  Advances the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to come up with a cleaner way to use coal.

Here again is video of Shimkus' performance on the floor:

Yesterday, the U.S. House passed the Democrat-sponsored Comprehensive Energy Security Act by a 236-189 margin.  The bill would release 70 billion barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, allow offshore drilling over 50 miles from the U.S. coast, roll back tax breaks for the five largest oil companies, provide tax credits for renewable energy development/conservation, and require utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from alternative sources.

All 11 Illinois Democrats voted in favor of the measure, as well as GOP Reps. Mark Kirk and Ray Lahood.  Meanwhile, the six remaining Illinois Republicans -- Peter Roskam, Judy Biggert, John Shimkus, Don Manzullo, Tim Johnson, and Jerry Weller -- opposed the bill.

Despite taking part in the GOP's "drilling is the only answer" antics in August, Roskam explained his nay vote this way: "Any bill that ignores nuclear, anti-idling conservation and basic research is no comprehensive energy bill." Biggert toed a similar line, emphasizing the bill's exclusion of nuclear power in a press release yesterday.  (Could we be witnessing the start of a "Nuke Baby Nuke" movement?)

Yet Rep. Shimkus' response really takes the cake. 

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The Illinois Republicans appear to have put on quite a display at the state fair this year.  We already noted the ramblings by 18th District GOP congressional candidate Aaron Schock (above left) about Barack Obama's "level of socialism."  Meanwhile, as has been noted on numerous other sites, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna (above center) also put his foot in his mouth, saying that if Abraham Lincoln "were here today, he would have to tell a story of a house divided that’s even more outrageous than the one that lived in his time," referring to the political climate in Springfield these days. The Rockford Register-Star's Aaron Chambers rightly skewers McKenna's suggestion that the current standoff between Illinois Democrats is somehow "more outrageous" than the fight between the North and South over slavery.

But it doesn't stop there.  Earlier in the week, Rep. John Shimkus (above right) took to the stage on Agriculture Day and railed against the Democratic leadership in Congress for not allowing a vote on offshore drilling prior to the August recess.  Maybe it was all the hay laying around, but Shimkus couldn't resist building a strawman.  Check out his suggestion that his favored energy proposal is "in conflict to those who say, 'Let's do nothing'":

Internal mp3

But who has said we should "do nothing" about the energy crisis?

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Republican congressional candidates here in Illinois have plenty of reason to worry about their fate this November, particularly with Barack Obama on the top of the ticket. Over the course of the spring, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expanded its list of targeted races in the state to include Judy Biggert's 13th District and the 18th District seat being vacated by Rep. Ray LaHood. Another race worth keeping an eye on is the 19th District, represented for 12 years by GOP Rep. John Shimkus (who last year, for those who may have forgotten, compared the Iraq war to a Cubs-Cards game).

His 27-year-old opponent, Daniel Davis, was profiled in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

At 27, Daniel Davis has no elective experience, little money, and, it would seem, little chance of unseating incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Shimkus in a three-way race this fall.

But Davis, a Democrat, is spending the next several months trying to persuade Southern Illinois voters to give him a shot in Congress, instead of sending Shimkus back to Washington for a seventh term. [...]

Davis has no paid staff — only volunteers — and has been staying with siblings and other family members who live throughout the district when he travels. He acknowledged that he is at a disadvantage in fundraising and name recognition, and he is putting the focus on a grass-roots approach to try to compensate.

"A lot of it is getting around talking to people … sitting down talking to people and saying, 'What's your story?'" Davis said.

To be clear, Davis is just as the Post-Dispatch headline labels him: a "longshot." But depending on the mood of the electorate as the general election season progresses -- not to mention the turnout improvements spurred by Obama's 50-state voter registration drive -- there will very likely be some longshot victories come November.

Check out the numbers in the 19th:

During the competitive primary in 2006, 33,390 voters in the district cast ballots for one of the two Democratic candidates (on par with Democratic participation in previous primaries there). Later that year, Shimkus won by just under 50,000 votes. But during this year's primary, 68,158 district residents pulled Democratic ballots -- more than twice the number in 2006.

That surge can be attributed to a mix of newly registered Democrats, Republicans-turned-Democrats, and Democratic voters who generally skip primaries. The respective percentages are unknown. But clearly the Democratic enthusiasm and energy seen across the country this year is to found downstate as well.