NRA ally Debbie Halvorson could win Jesse Jackson Jr.’s Chicago seat

A white ex-congresswoman with an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association is the front-runner to replace former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in a majority-black Chicagoland district with inner-city neighborhoods wracked by gun violence.

At first glance, Debbie Halvorson should have no business winning the Feb. 26 special election. The former Democratic congresswoman was crushed by Jackson in a primary last year. She’s a white Democrat seeking to represent a district in which 54 percent of voters are African-American.

And she’s an unapologetic Second Amendment backer —She enjoys a narrow but critical base of support in the suburban and rural parts of the sprawling district, which stretches from the South Side of Chicago to rural Kankakee County about 50 miles to the south. The former congresswoman doesn’t need to win a majority: The crowded Democratic field means it could take as little as 20 percent of the vote to clinch the Democratic nomination, which is tantamount to winning the seat given the district’s liberal makeup.

Halvorson received 29 percent against Jackson last year.

Now, black leaders — concerned about Halvorson’s position atop polls — say they’re prepared to make gun control the central issue in the contest. The goal is to paint her as an NRA ally who’s too conservative for the seat and insensitive to Chicago’s rising tide of gun violence.

“The NRA gives Debbie Halvorson an ‘A’ rating,” said Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest and gun control activist in Chicago who is supporting one of Halvorson’s opponents. “That tells me she should not be the representative from the 2nd District. If she gets an ‘A’ rating from the NRA, she gets an ‘F’ from me.”

Though she has described herself as a conservative Democrat, Halvorson voted with her party more than 90 percent of the time in Congress. She backed a cap-and-trade bill as well as President Barack Obama’s health care and economic stimulus measures. The onetime cosmetics saleswoman is pitching herself to voters as an experienced hand who can hit the ground running in Washington after Jackson’s long-running troubles that ended with his resignation in late November.

But it’s her stance on guns that’s drawing the most attention.

Though her primary rivals haven’t attacked Halvorson head on — in a 17-way primary, they have to focus on promoting themselves — the campaign’s heavy focus on guns is seen at least in part as a way to draw a contrast with the front-runner.

Last week, Alderman Anthony Beale held a news conference to attack the NRA. State Sen. Toi Hutchinson is promoting legislation she sponsored to ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazine clips. And on Friday, Robin Kelly, the Cook County chief administrative officer who has made gun control the central plank of her campaign, released a radio ad vowing to back stringent gun control measures if elected to Congress. All three are running for Jackson’s old seat. with endorsements from the NRA in two of her previous congressional campaigns — despite an outpouring of concern among voters and her campaign rivals about gun violence.

Yet there’s reason to think Halvorson could eke out a win. She is a known entity in much of the district thanks to her time in Congress and earlier rise to state Senate majority leader — the first woman to hold the post. Sixteen other candidates are vying for the Democratic nod, and all of her formidable competitors are African-American. That creates a real possibility that the black vote will splinter, opening a path for Halvorson.

She enjoys a narrow but critical base of support in the suburban and rural parts of the sprawling district, which stretches from the South Side of Chicago to rural Kankakee County about 50 miles to the south. The former congresswoman doesn’t need to win a majority: The crowded Democratic field means it could take as little as 20 percent of the vote to clinch the Democratic nomination, which is tantamount to winning the seat given the district’s liberal makeup.

Halvorson received 29 percent against Jackson last year.

Now, black leaders — concerned about Halvorson’s position atop polls — say they’re prepared to make gun control the central issue in the contest. The goal is to paint her as an NRA ally who’s too conservative for the seat and insensitive to Chicago’s rising tide of gun violence.

“The NRA gives Debbie Halvorson an ‘A’ rating,” said Michael Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest and gun control activist in Chicago who is supporting one of Halvorson’s opponents. “That tells me she should not be the representative from the 2nd District. If she gets an ‘A’ rating from the NRA, she gets an ‘F’ from me.”

Though she has described herself as a conservative Democrat, Halvorson voted with her party more than 90 percent of the time in Congress. She backed a cap-and-trade bill as well as President Barack Obama’s health care and economic stimulus measures. The onetime cosmetics saleswoman is pitching herself to voters as an experienced hand who can hit the ground running in Washington after Jackson’s long-running troubles that ended with his resignation in late November.

But it’s her stance on guns that’s drawing the most attention.

Though her primary rivals haven’t attacked Halvorson head on — in a 17-way primary, they have to focus on promoting themselves — the campaign’s heavy focus on guns is seen at least in part as a way to draw a contrast with the front-runner.

Last week, Alderman Anthony Beale held a news conference to attack the NRA. State Sen. Toi Hutchinson is promoting legislation she sponsored to ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazine clips. And on Friday, Robin Kelly, the Cook County chief administrative officer who has made gun control the central plank of her campaign, released a radio ad vowing to back stringent gun control measures if elected to Congress. All three are running for Jackson’s old seat.

more here: Politico