Democrat brings Iraq experience to poll
Democrat brings Iraq experience to poll
By Edward Luce
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: September 24 2006 19:31 | Last updated: September 24 2006 19:31
During an election debate at the weekend in the outskirts of Chicago, Peter Roskam, the Republican candidate for Illinois’s sixth district, trotted out the familiar line that his Democratic opponent wanted America to “cut and run” from Iraq.
His opponent, Tammy Duckworth, a former National Guard pilot who lost both her legs in Iraq last year when her helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, was visibly angry at the exchange. “I just could not believe he would say that to me,” said Ms Duckworth, who now walks on artificial legs with the help of a cane. “I have risked my life to serve my country and you cannot question my patriotism.”
One of seven Iraq war veterans on the Democratic ticket for the midterm elections that take place on 7 November, Ms Duckworth is thought to have an even chance of capturing what is a traditional Republican stronghold.
For the past 32 years this district was the constituency of Henry Hyde, a leading Republican lawmaker who played a key role in the 1999 impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
But now opinion polls suggest the Democrats could take control of a district in which all 72 county-level elected positions are held by Republicans. Although it is a relatively prosperous area containing Chicago’s O’Hare international airport, many of its middle classes are feeling squeezed by galloping college fees, the reduction in employer-provided healthcare coverage and – at least until recently – the high price of fuel in a district where you have to get into a car to do anything.
The deteriorating situation in Iraq is also a concern among the suburb’s Republican voters, traditionally conservative on fiscal policy but less prone than other parts of Republican America to social conservatism.
A wealthy trial lawyer, Mr Roskam is a hardline social conservative who opposes the ban on assault weapons, and is against all stem cell research, not to mention abortion even for women who victims of rape and incest.
Ms Duckworth, who calls herself a “fiscal conservative”, stands as a clever riposte to the Republican charge that Democrats are weak on national security.
She recommends a “phased redeployment” of US troops in Iraq rather than – as some Democrats do – a clear deadline for withdrawal. She loses no opportunity to wrap her message in the stars and stripes.
The Republicans, who have raised almost twice the campaign war chest ($175m) as their opponents, have poured resources into the district, which they must hold if they are to retain control of the House of Representatives in November.
Both Vice-President Dick Cheney and Laura Bush, the first lady, have dropped in to raise more than $200,000 each for Mr Roskam. And the Republicans have put out well packaged television advertisements questioning Ms Duckworth’s patriotism.
“I am sick and tired of the Republicans saying ‘Either you agree with us on national security or you are not patriotic’,” says Ms Duckworth, whose campaign has ignited the highest level of volunteer door-to-door support the Democrats can remember in this district. “It is total baloney – in fact I have a better army word, but I can’t use it. We must never forget that it is patriotic and it is American to question people in power.”
Whether Ms Duckworth’s message can sway independents, who account for a fifth of the district’s registered voters, also depends on whether she can persuade them to vote in midterm elections which have a lower voter turnout than presidential elections.
Some are sceptical. “Most of the young generation don’t care about Iraq – it doesn’t affect them,” said George Strejcek, a 62-year-old veteran of the Vietnam war, who is among hundreds working the phones for Ms Duckworth. “America was radicalised by the Vietnam war because there was a military draft. But Iraq only directly affects tiny pockets of the population.”
Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator for Illinois, who recruited Ms Duckworth when she was in rehabilitation at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington DC last year, said the Democrats’ real challenge was to overcome the “fear factor”.
“If in the next six weeks, if it looks like the Dems are going to regain control of Congress, then George Bush will crank up the fear factor over terrorism,” he says. “It has worked every time so far for the president. We must ensure that it doesn’t work this time.”
By Edward Luce
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: September 24 2006 19:31 | Last updated: September 24 2006 19:31
During an election debate at the weekend in the outskirts of Chicago, Peter Roskam, the Republican candidate for Illinois’s sixth district, trotted out the familiar line that his Democratic opponent wanted America to “cut and run” from Iraq.
His opponent, Tammy Duckworth, a former National Guard pilot who lost both her legs in Iraq last year when her helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, was visibly angry at the exchange. “I just could not believe he would say that to me,” said Ms Duckworth, who now walks on artificial legs with the help of a cane. “I have risked my life to serve my country and you cannot question my patriotism.”
One of seven Iraq war veterans on the Democratic ticket for the midterm elections that take place on 7 November, Ms Duckworth is thought to have an even chance of capturing what is a traditional Republican stronghold.
For the past 32 years this district was the constituency of Henry Hyde, a leading Republican lawmaker who played a key role in the 1999 impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
But now opinion polls suggest the Democrats could take control of a district in which all 72 county-level elected positions are held by Republicans. Although it is a relatively prosperous area containing Chicago’s O’Hare international airport, many of its middle classes are feeling squeezed by galloping college fees, the reduction in employer-provided healthcare coverage and – at least until recently – the high price of fuel in a district where you have to get into a car to do anything.
The deteriorating situation in Iraq is also a concern among the suburb’s Republican voters, traditionally conservative on fiscal policy but less prone than other parts of Republican America to social conservatism.
A wealthy trial lawyer, Mr Roskam is a hardline social conservative who opposes the ban on assault weapons, and is against all stem cell research, not to mention abortion even for women who victims of rape and incest.
Ms Duckworth, who calls herself a “fiscal conservative”, stands as a clever riposte to the Republican charge that Democrats are weak on national security.
She recommends a “phased redeployment” of US troops in Iraq rather than – as some Democrats do – a clear deadline for withdrawal. She loses no opportunity to wrap her message in the stars and stripes.
The Republicans, who have raised almost twice the campaign war chest ($175m) as their opponents, have poured resources into the district, which they must hold if they are to retain control of the House of Representatives in November.
Both Vice-President Dick Cheney and Laura Bush, the first lady, have dropped in to raise more than $200,000 each for Mr Roskam. And the Republicans have put out well packaged television advertisements questioning Ms Duckworth’s patriotism.
“I am sick and tired of the Republicans saying ‘Either you agree with us on national security or you are not patriotic’,” says Ms Duckworth, whose campaign has ignited the highest level of volunteer door-to-door support the Democrats can remember in this district. “It is total baloney – in fact I have a better army word, but I can’t use it. We must never forget that it is patriotic and it is American to question people in power.”
Whether Ms Duckworth’s message can sway independents, who account for a fifth of the district’s registered voters, also depends on whether she can persuade them to vote in midterm elections which have a lower voter turnout than presidential elections.
Some are sceptical. “Most of the young generation don’t care about Iraq – it doesn’t affect them,” said George Strejcek, a 62-year-old veteran of the Vietnam war, who is among hundreds working the phones for Ms Duckworth. “America was radicalised by the Vietnam war because there was a military draft. But Iraq only directly affects tiny pockets of the population.”
Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator for Illinois, who recruited Ms Duckworth when she was in rehabilitation at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington DC last year, said the Democrats’ real challenge was to overcome the “fear factor”.
“If in the next six weeks, if it looks like the Dems are going to regain control of Congress, then George Bush will crank up the fear factor over terrorism,” he says. “It has worked every time so far for the president. We must ensure that it doesn’t work this time.”
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