Womp womp: Dems stuck with CJ Baricevic in IL-12
Womp womp. With filing closed in Illinois, Democrats are officially stuck with CJ Baricevic in IL-12. Baricevic is such a letdown in the eyes of national Democrats that Politico included IL-12 in their list of biggest recruiting “holes” for the DCCC nationwide. From Politico:
It’s already too late for Democrats to recruit anyone else in Illinois’ 12th District, where freshman GOP Rep. Mike Bost is running for reelection and Obama won with 50 percent of the vote in 2012. The state filing deadline passed Monday, and national Democrats aren’t enthused about C.J. Baricevic, a young attorney and the party’s only candidate. In 2012, Democrat Bill Enyart succeeded longtime Rep. Jerry Costello, but he lost to Bost last year and said he wouldn’t run again.
The DCCC tried to recruit Rick Wilson, the St. Clair County sheriff, over the summer, but Wilson decided not to run.
“This is a district that we held for a long time to a large degree on the strength of Congressman Costello’s record and last name,” the DCCC source said, adding that the downstate Illinois district had “moved away from us in a pretty dramatic way.”
CJ’s candidacy has always been too little, and now the DCCC is officially too late.