[Congressional Quarterly lists five Democratic House members “facing serious primary challenges”. Is it a coincidence that three out of these five are consigners onto H. Res. 333 to impeach Vice President Cheney and a fourth is its author, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio? Is the Democratic Party nationally conspiring with Republicans to keep Cheney and Bush from facing justice?]



CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE [daliy e-mail subscribed to by IFP]

Monday, Oct. 1, 2007

FIVE HOUSE DEMOCRATS FACE SERIOUS PRIMARY CHALLENGES



Despite public criticism of Congress as a whole, few incumbents are

defeated in general elections, and even fewer lose primary races against

members of their own party.

But primary contests can be the only meaningful outlet for voter

discontent in congressional districts that are gerrymandered, as so many

are these days, to ensure that one party or the other will always win the

general election.

Such lopsided districts dominate the list of 16 across the nation

identified by CQPolitics.com as featuring contests for 2008 in which U.S.

House incumbents face unusually vigorous primary challenges.

There are five Democratic incumbents facing serious primary challenges.

Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., has not one but three primary challengers in

the 3rd District, which includes chunks of Chicago and its Cook County

suburbs to the west: Palos Hills Mayor Jerry Bennett, Cook County

prosecutor Mark Pera and local attorney and Army reservist Jim Capparelli.

Rep. Albert R. Wynn, D-Md., is in a 4th District rematch against lawyer

and political activist Donna Edwards, who took 46 percent of the vote

against him in 2006 in a black-majority Democratic stronghold just outside

Washington, D.C. There is a third candidate in the race as well: real

estate broker George E. Mitchell. Last year, a different third candidate

took just under 4 percent of the vote.

Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., who represents the Brooklyn-based 10th

District, could face a challenge from Kevin Powell, who filed a statement

of organization with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in early August

but has not officially announced as a candidate. Powell identifies himself

as “a political activist, poet, journalist, essayist, hip-hop historian,

public speaker, and entrepreneur,” and was a cast member on the first

season of the MTV reality-television show Real World.

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is making his second longshot

presidential bid, faces a contest closer to home in the 10th District,

which encompasses west side Cleveland and its suburbs. Challenger Rosemary

Palmer says Kucinich has missed too many important votes in his quixotic

bid for the White House effort.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., is in a faceoff with airline executive Nikki

Tinker, who came in second in the crowded, 15-person 2006 primary contest

in the Memphis-based 9th District. Cohen is white, while the district is

majority black. Although Cohen has liberal views and a history of

receiving support from African-American voters dating to his long state

Senate tenure, some black activists argue that black representation should

be restored to the 9th District, which Harold E. Ford Jr. held before his

unsuccessful bid for the Senate last year.