Dear Friends,
I want to thank you for all your help and support. Unfortunately, we came up short tonight, but that was not a reflection on your efforts.
Two months ago, I launched this campaign because I was greatly concerned with the growing economic contraction and the impact it was having on working Americans. I wanted, as my former law-partner Leon Depres said, simply to make politics my law practice.
I am astounded at what we’ve accomplished in just two short months. We raised over 325 thousand dollars, put together an operation that reached thousands with phone calls and knocked doors. You made a relatively unknown labor lawyer a contender.
Most importantly, we helped influence the political debate of this country. We pushed Democrats to understand we don’t need to save Social Security, we need to raise it to a livable public pension. We can have a single-payer universal health care system. We must stop the bailouts, nationalize insolvent institutions, and cut interest on credit cards to begin getting people out of debt.
It is time for a new progressivism and I’m determined to help bring it about. So, I thank you once again for all your help and support. This isn’t an end, its just a beginning.
Thank you,
Tom
HOW TO FIND YOUR POLL
If you are a Chicago voter, type your address into the search engine on this page. The address of your polling place will be listed.
(Note: If nothing comes up the first time you enter the info, try again. The program, for example, seems to recognize “N.” or “N” in street names, but not the word “North” spelled out).
If you are a Proviso or Leyden township voter, click on to this page. On the righthand side of the page, you’ll see a box titled “Suburban Cook Voter’s Toolkit.” Click on the “Voter Guide” tab, and type in your address. The address of your polling place will be listed.
(Note: if nothing comes up, try again, because the program does not recognize certain abbreviations. For example, it does not recognize “North” or “N” in street names, but it does recognize “N.”).
It is rare in any election we are given a clear choice for change, not just on a specific issue, but a philosophy. Tom has been endorsed across the Internet and Progressive community. “The Nation” magazine endorsed him early. Tom Frank wrote a excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal, and Joe Conason just wrote another strong endorsement in “Salon.”
Why have Progressives united around Tom? He’s the only one who understands the tough economy we’re in. Tom doesn’t want to give more bailout money to the banks, he wants to help people get out of debt. Tom wants the banks to cut their interest rates on credit cards and cancel the outrageous charges and late fees. And if we’re going to be forgiving the banks their debts, let’s start forgiving some of the student loans graduates are saddled with and lessen their debt.
Tomorrow, you have a real Progressive choice. Let’s elect Tom to Congress.
“While a lot of Democrats are still busy complaining about George Bush, and a lot more are absorbed by the work of cleaning up the mess that the former president left behind when he helicoptered out of Washington, Geoghegan is knocking on the doors of bungalows and telling retirees they need a raise. This candidate is not proposing to “save Social Security,” he wants to expand it — providing recipients with a raise and creating a real national pension program.”
“Geoghegan does not propose to tinker with a broken health care system. He wants to “re-enact” Medicare — for everyone,” arguing that, “We should take our single-payer health-care system and just make it wall to wall.”
“Banks and bailouts and the credit crunch? Geoghegan starts with the basics: stop foreclosures and put a cap on abusive interest rates.”
And:
“He has attracted the support of those Democrats who recognize the need not just talk about change but to demand it — Dr. Quentin Young, the Chicago physician who has led the charge for national health care; former Chicago Councilman Leon Depres, the “liberal conscience of Chicago” who took a young Tom Geoghegan on as a law partner decades ago; brilliant Chicago political strategist and activist Don Rose, who with Geoghegan recognized the promise of Harold Washington’s transformative Chicago mayoral campaigns; as well as the appropriately radical reformers of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee and Progressive Democrats of America.”
“No matter how this race finishes, Tom Geoghegan has begun to outline that new paradigm that, ultimately, will prove not merely to be visionary but to be necessary for the future of a political party and a nation that will not be repaired or renewed with half-steps and compromises.”
Read the whole piece.
