"US Rep. Luis Gutierrez just announced, at the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Business Expo, that he has reversed his prior retirement plans, and will indeed run for re-election to represent Illinois's 4th Congressional District."
people who've been paying attention have known this for awhile. now in the majority, and with little prospect that republicans will take it back any time soon, gutierrez is enjoying real power for the first time in his career. it was unlikely that he would give that up without some thought.
people close to the congressman have said it all depended on his wife. looks like luis has convinced her that living in d.c. won't be so bad.
i asked each of the candidates who i talked to who were running to replace luis what they would do if this occurred. while all of them said they had talked to luis -- and i believe they had -- and thus were convinced that he'd retire, they all agreed that they wouldn't run against luis. each one of them feels tied to him in some way or another.
this is really good news. luis gutierrez has been a trooper in raising money and public attention for hispanic candidates for a long time. i have run into luis in miami, la, new jersey and iowa (perhaps more), stumping for hispanic and progressive candidates. more than any single member of congress, he has raised money for hispanic candidates running at all levels of government. he would have been sorely missed had he followed through on his announcement to retire.
it also means that the fight for real immigration reform is not over. gutierrez was a key player in the work towards immigration reform.
h/t: capitol fax blog
No comments:
Post a Comment