Reflections on My Mom's Campaign for State Representative

As many of you know, my mom, Mary Rita Luecke ran in the open Democratic primary on March 20, 2018, in Illinois’ 17^th state house district. This piece is divided into three sections: 

1. Background on the political landscape and our analysis throughout the campaign
2. The many feelings I felt as a daughter and an organizer throughout the campaign and a paragraph about why organizing is so important
3. My personal takeaways, which is largely me kvelling (Yiddish for bursting with pride) about my mother

The background 

When my mom first floated the idea of running for state representative six years ago, I selfishly wasn’t so excited by the idea. My dad was still in state government, I was organizing around state-level legislation and the idea of having both my parents so intimately connected to my public life seemed less than ideal. My mom interviewed with Mike Madigan’s people and her independence and progressive politics scared them away. They chose Laure Fine to be ‘their’ candidate and my mom didn’t run because she’d agreed that she would not run if they chose someone else.  

Fast forward six years. Sen. Daniel Biss decided to run for governor, thereby vacating his senate seat. Laure Fine decided to run for his senate seat, creating an open house seat. Rep. Laura Fine and Rep. Robyn Gabel called my mom to recruit her to run for Laura’s open state representative seat. After consulting family and friends and people in her public life, my mom decided to go for it. She knew she wanted a grassroots campaign, one true to her values. But given that the outgoing Democratic state representative had recruited her to run, she knew it would be wise to get the blessings of the Democratic Party as well. And so she met with the Democratic Committeemen of the townships included in the 17^th state house district.

Everything was going well until Mike Kreloff, one of the committeemen, learned of her involvement with our synagogue, Tzedek Chicago – a non-Zionist congregation, and Jewish Voice for Peace – an organization that does Palestinian solidarity work and which has endorsed the Palestinian call for BDS (boycott divestment and sanctions) against Israel. Mike Kreloff “jumped ship” and within days announced his support for a new candidate, Jen Gong-Gershowitz from Glenview. Other committeemen suddenly had new excuses for why they couldn’t support my mom, Mary Rita – 2 wanted to wait to see how their organizations would vote in endorsement sessions (this is a good process in my opinion), Lou Lang wanted to see who Mike Madigan would support. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, who has a lot of influence over the political field in this part of the state and who regularly faces challengers who are more conservative on Israel than she is, said she could no longer support my mom because of this issue. 

Two committeemen, without running any formal endorsement processes in their Democratic Party Organizations, lined up their support behind Jen Gong-Gershowitz, a “progressive champion.” After much discussion and debate, my mom decided to stay in the race. She still brought the most experience to the position and had the most progressive credentials. We thought there was a path to victory.

• The district went 40% to Bernie in the 2016 presidential primary.
• Jen G-G was from Glenview; my mom’s base (that elected her to school board in the 2000s) was in Skokie and Evanston.
• Jen G-G was fully funded by Madigan; we knew the district disliked Madigan and with the high support for Bernie, we aimed to capture those progressive leaning Democratic votes. 

Without the Party’s support, my mom would be free to run the campaign she wanted, one that was true to her values, that allowed her to talk about the problems Illinois faces and her progressive solutions. It was also a matter of principle:

• We couldn’t back down just because the Democratic Party uses Zionism as a wedge issue to block more progressive candidates from earning the Party’s endorsement. We wanted to prove them wrong – that you can be non-Zionist and still be elected to office, that in fact Zionist or not, state government has nothing to do with our country’s foreign policy and there are many bigger fish the state legislature needs to fry. 
• We were also angry about the Democratic Party’s reliance on identity politics. Jen Gong-Gershowitz has NO track record of service to her community, she had no public life previous to this race. But she had a great last name – one that might appeal to Jewish and Asian voters. My friend who has been organizing in the Asian-American community in the suburbs for the last decade said she’d NEVER heard of her, despite how the Dems touted her as an immigration attorney. (Turns out she went back to work one year prior to this race.) In contrast, my mom had years of service in the community – she was on every PTA that my sister and I went to, often serving as president; she was elected to the local school board for 8 years (two terms), and her peers elected her president 2 of those 8 years. (A fun fact is that she received more votes for school board than Mike Madigan receives each time he is re-elected as state representative.) She was president of the board at our synagogue. She spent her career as an attorney, first advocating for civil rights, and then building her own practice that focused on representing people who were denied Social Security Disability benefits. (Our family dinner conversations often included the stories of hardship her clients were facing.) I once asked her why she was so involved and she explained that her parents taught her that you should do what you can and give what you can to make things better for everyone. She has stayed true to the value of service.

Petition season began and another woman entered the race – Candance Chow. This was more of a threat. Candance is from Evanston, is currently elected to the same school board my mom served on, and had served as president for one year. She would cut into my mom’s base of support in Evanston, affecting our path to victory. Their similar track records also made it hard to distinguish between my mom and Candance. But on top of that, Candance was independently wealthy. My parents launched my mom’s campaign with a $5,000 loan. Candance, in contrast, launched her campaign with a $95,000 loan. 

The playing field was now steeply stacked against my mom – with the Democratic Party’s resources backing Jennifer plus Candance’s independent wealth. Those two women ran a very negative campaign, sending dozens and dozens of mailers, slamming each other with attack ads. We had wanted the campaign to focus on my mom’s progressive vision, but Candance made the race about Madigan and painted herself as the anti-Madigan candidate. This provoked significant fire power from Madigan and his machine. Attack ads flew back and forth between the two women. And Candance sent misleading mailers suggesting she’d received endorsements that she didn’t receive. 

Two other people ultimately joined the race. Alexandra Eidenberg, from Wilmette, and Peter Dagher. Alexandra focused on voters in Wilmette and Glenview. Peter focused on the Assyrian community and didn’t actively campaign judging by his participation at many of the events in the district.

My parents, sister and I on election day
after my parents voted.

In the end, Jen Gong-Gershowitz won. On election night, when it became clear that we didn’t win, but it was still neck and neck between Jen and Candance, I said to people: I can live with losing, I can’t live with Candance winning. Jen only won because of Madigan’s money and political machine. But he, at least, understands power and has organized a tremendous amount of it for himself. I can hate Madigan, but I respect what he’s built. I can’t respect people who are independently wealthy and think they can just buy themselves their seats in government. (I know it’s more nuanced than that. And it raises questions about how do we fight back against Madigan’s Democratic Machine that’s interested in maintaining the status quo. Our governor’s race is a prime, unfortunate example of two men who are trying to purchase the governorship. But on election night, this was how I felt.)

So that’s the background.

How did all of it feel?

I am so proud of her for running. And even though she didn’t win the most votes in the end, there were so many other victories and lessons-learned. I’ve organized this by the many emotions I’ve felt since election day.  

• 

  Collecting petitions together in
  Sept. 2017.

  Loss. This campaign took up so much time and energy for my family. And while it was exhausting and time consuming and stress-inducing, I loved nothing more than going out and talking to people, hearing their stories, and persuading them to vote for my mom. Not just any candidate, my mom! Someone I know so well, and yet someone I had to learn about in new ways in order to speak about her public life. I was sad when I realized I wouldn’t be going out every weekend to talk to voters anymore about why my mom is the best candidate in the race. 
• Relief. Sure there is some relief in losing. I suddenly have more time available to attend to other parts of my life. We don’t have to keep campaigning for the next 7 months. We don’t have to worry about losing to a Republican in November. There will be fewer intersections between my private life and public life now. I selfishly look forward to having my parents back, to talk about our lives again and not only the campaign. 
• Pride. I am so proud of her for making such a brave bold move, especially at the age of 69 when she should be retiring and relaxing. Instead she was taking on the biggest challenge of her public life. I am also proud of her for staying committed throughout, even though we knew what an uphill battle this campaign would be.
• Gratitude. There were so many people who gave so much to this campaign. Money. Time. Their energy. There was the guy who decked out his car with her yard signs and drove around with his bullhorn out the window declaring why she was the best candidate (perhaps not the most effective tactic, but it certainly caught people’s attention and made a lot of people smile). Neighbors and friends who stuffed envelopes, entered data, did the behind the scenes work. People who volunteered for the first time on a political campaign through this campaign… The energy during GOTV (get out the vote) weekend was incredible. There was a constant buzz in the office of volunteers making calls, getting trained, turning in their walk sheets. There was a steady flow of the people the final four days of the campaign. My mom reflected that the campaign brought together so many people from different parts and times of her life. It was beautiful.
• Anger. I am so angry about the influence money has on our political system, angry about how much money is necessary to run for office these days, and how inaccessible it is for everyday people to run. I am angry that so much money was spent on this race. Madigan and his people dumpedover $403,000 into Jen Gong-Gershowitz’s race the Friday before Election Day. All in all, my mom’s opponents collectively spent $800,000-$900,000. My mom, by comparison, raised roughly $90,000 from grassroots donors and received $35,000 from the Illinois Education Association (a teacher’s union). It is nearly impossible to win without big money and that is such a threat to our democracy. I always knew this intellectually. But after this race it became personal. The fundraising we did couldn’t compete with the big money she was up against. Money allows you to communicate your message to voters en masse. Voters were receptive to her message and vision, the problem was they didn’t know her name, meanwhile they’d received dozens of mailers from Candance and Jennifer. And while we had the best ground game (volunteers talking to voters face to face, which is the most effective way to persuade them to vote for your candidate), we now know we didn’t have nearly enough volunteers to reach the number of people we needed to win. I am also angry that neophytes to the public arena are who the Illinois Democratic Party prefers to be their candidate. Jen Gong-Gershowitz has no base, no experience, no track record. And don’t get me wrong, she’s a lovely, kind woman from the 5 minutes I talked with her. But Illinois doesn’t need more spineless people taking up space voting as Madigan tells them to with no vision or agenda of their own. I lobby those people in Springfield, they’re a total disaster for our state. We need progressive champions who understand power and know how to organize and who have a vision for what our state could be if we interrupt the status quo. I am angry that in the world we live in, the best candidate often doesn't win. (There were times during the campaign when a small part of me hoped she wouldn’t win the primary so that we could all get back to our regular lives, but then I’d think about how badly we as a state need people like her in office, and the fire in me would reignite to get her elected.)
  
• I also felt angry that the labor unions didn’t have my mom’s back. She was always known as labor’s ally when she was on the school board. She had all the right credentials. But many of the unions are under Madigan’s control and others chose not to weigh in at all, so as not to piss off Madigan. (Again, I admire what he’s built, but I’m angry about how it means labor ends up backing candidates who likely won’t support unions as soon as Rauner is out of office and Madigan doesn't need them anymore.) Union support early on would’ve made a significant difference in terms of fiscal and volunteer resources. The IEA endorsement didn’t come in until the last 2 weeks of the campaign, and while the money they gave was important, it was too late at that point to turn the tide. 
• Power hungry and focused. On election night, after the campaign party, I took a short walk in my neighborhood to decompress. I felt so crystal clear that we (the movement) need more people. And the people are out there. There are SO many people who are struggling, who know the status quo doesn’t work for them. There are so many people who share our values but who don’t know what to do our how to take action, who feel hopeless, who don’t believe things will ever change. We are up against a lot, but organizing people is our ONLY solution. We will never win the things we want if we don’t go out and fight for it, if we don’t organize our neighbors to fight for it. Things will NOT get better in this country on their own. Things will get better in this country and this world ONLY because organized people force it to get better.
• Impatient. I lose my patience more and more for the people who don’t think it’s their responsibility to take action, who shy away from the political arena because it makes them uncomfortable. Especially those of us who are blessed to have work, and have roofs over our head and are not in an immediate crisis. Trust me, I see many people in crisis who are building power and are clear on what’s at stake for them if they don’t organize, so I don’t fully see crisis as an excuse to not take action either. But it’s people (largely those of us in the middle class) who read the news and talk politics and complain about Trump but who won’t go out and knock doors for progressive candidates that make me the most frustrated. To those people, I say if not you, then who? Whose responsibility is it to stop Trump, to make sure we fund public schools, to make sure women have the right to choose, to make sure workers have the right to unionize, to ensure we don’t melt this one and only precious planet we have? 

So what can you do? Organize. Donate your money to progressive candidates and organizations. Grassroots candidates desperately need cash to compete. Get involved with a community organization. Knock doors. Talk to your neighbors. Bring people together. Get people to act together in unison. That’s how we have power. We need power. No ifs ands or buts about it.  The people we hate – Trump, the Koch Brothers, Madigan, Rauner, conservative, wealthy CEOs – have all figured out how to organize and act in unison and invest their money in candidates and organizations that advance their values. It behooves us to figure it out too. There are more of us than there are of them, we won’t compete with their extreme wealth, but we always have the potential to have more foot soldiers. We have the ability to have deep and meaningful conversations with people to connect their life experiences to the political process and show them a path to create meaningful change. I know this is not an original thought. And I’m not the first person on the left to go on this rant. But I felt this sentiment so deeply and so clearly throughout my mom’s campaign. 

My personal takeaways

There were many positive outcomes from this campaign. But my favorite outcome is on a personal level. Prior to this campaign, I’d always thought of myself as my father’s daughter. I was emotionally closer with him growing up; I look just like his sister; he works in healthcare, my first organizing campaigns were about healthcare; we’re both night owls -- he’d stay up late working while I finished my homework in high school; he’s stubborn, I’m stubborn. For better or for worse, I am my father’s daughter. But this campaign helped me feel that I am also my mother’s daughter. Almost every person to whom I handed campaign literature would look at her photo, look up at me and say, “You look just like her!” On a deeper level, I came to appreciate my mom in an entirely different way. I saw how tirelessly she worked on this campaign. And not just the campaign work, which was difficult and grueling in of itself, she performed so much emotional labor for many of the people in the inner circle of her campaign too, especially the men.

My mom and me circa 1988.

And while I regret that I felt this way growing up, she was always ‘just my mom.’ She fed me, clothed me, made sure I got up for school every morning and that I did my homework at night. I took all that she did for me for granted and never fully recognized or appreciated the career and the public life she also had on top of all her family duties. Through the campaign, I learned more about all of these other accomplishments of hers and got to proudly share them with every voter with whom I spoke. 

This campaign showed me that my mom is fierce as fuck! (Forgive my language.) She is brave and relentless, compassionate, empathic, smart, and deeply committed to her values. Many of us wanted her to go negative against her opponents at times during the campaign; she refused because she wanted to stay focused on the issues, conveying a positive message and vision. Everyone in Illinois would have been so lucky to have her smarts and her experience working for us in Springfield. My mom has paved a path now for me. I commend the many, many women who are also mothers in office and those who run for office (including 3 of her opponents, all of whom had young children). But now I’ve seen my own mother run, making that path a little easier if/when that feels like the right choice for me.  

I don’t regret a single minute or dollar that I invested in this campaign. I am so glad she did this. The personal benefits are invaluable and she moved the conversation in this race to the left. She forced Madigan’s candidate to support progressive policies, like the graduated income tax, instead of only running on a pro-choice, anti-gun platform. Running for office is a brave thing to do and we need to support the people in our networks who make that choice. And we all need to organize, year-round. Not just during election season. Day in and day out. We need to know our neighbors, share our stories, politicize our experiences and create opportunities to take action collectively. This is the only way we will win a world that reflects our values and that is the world in which I want to live.