Did Obama lose a congressional race two years ago in Illinois?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

I read that on a blog that isn't always accurate but if it's true it hasn't been reported in the media and I haven't heard the Clinton campaign bring it up.

Anyone know the answer or details?

A candidate who lost a congressional race recently and only won a Senate race because the opponent was scandalized in the final days isn't a good bet. I'm just sayin.


Update: He lost 60-31 in 2000, here are details:

http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/obama/bfirstcong.html

[MadBadger]

1. Two years ago he was in the US Senate.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Quite a silly OP, no?

:crazy:

[Proud2BAmurkin]

4. Did he lose a congressional race before that?

[MadBadger]

7. Yes, he did. Possibly in 2000.

[CK_John]

21. Yes, not sure of yr. He ran as Barry and Rove mentioned it on TV. n/t

[cali]

26. Did Hillary lose her Health care battle

in 1993? You're going from stupid to stupid. You haven't two functional brain cells to rub together. Idiotic.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

28. Obama won't lose his because he won't wage one.

[indimuse]

46. WOW ! That's relative...hmm OBAMA had expanded access to the ballot box

OBAMA'S '96 BARE-KNUCKLES CAMPAIGN: The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot. Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens. But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.


Chicago Tribune: Obama knows his way around a ballot
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/04/cnn-political-ticker-am_04.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story

It was in this part of the city that an eager reform Democrat by the name of Abner Mikva first entered elected office in the 1950s. And here a young, brash minister

named Jesse Jackson ran Operation Breadbasket, leading marchers who sought to pressure grocery chains to hire minorities.

Palmer served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was

growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and

interviews.

But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her

state Senate seat.

Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.

"I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differently."

His choice divided veteran Chicago political activists.

"There was friction about the decision he made," said City Colleges of Chicago professor emeritus Timuel Black, who tried to negotiate with Obama on Palmer's

behalf. "There were deep disagreements."

Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunting task of taking on an incumbent senator. Palmer's elimination marked the first of

several fortuitous political moments in Obama's electoral success: He won the 2004 primary and general elections for U.S. Senate after tough challengers imploded

when their messy divorce files were unsealed.

In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot."

But the unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had

been set up," Obama recalled.

"To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had

been set up," Obama recalled



"To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had

been set up," Obama recalled

Superdelegates...Fl, MI rules R rules...Right Obama!

[gaspee]

3. It was more than 2 years ago

He tried to take on Bobby Rush - not a good idea.

Edited to add that Rush is now supporting Obama. But I would expect him to. I would be shocked if he didn't.

Rush has a very interesting history.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

5. When was it?

[kurth]

15. 2000

Reporters also pointed out that Obama had said Bobby Rush had spanked Obama in the Congressional race when Obama ran against Rush in 2000.
http://www.nbc5.com/politics/3712293/detail.html

[gaspee]

17. 2000, I think

The article I read say he lost when he took his family to Hawaii and stayed there for most of the campaign season. Add to that that Rush has a long history and his district and I don't think Obama ever had a chance in that race.

[terrya]

9. Yes.

No, Bobby Rush is pretty well established in his seat.

But, as we've seen, it turned out very well in the end for Barack Obama.

[Lautremont]

6. "A blog that isn't always accurate?"

How can that be?

[Tweed]

8. Obama ran against Bobby Rush in 2000; Rush endorsed Obama in late January

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/231872,CST-NWS-obama27.article

Here's some more info. I'm surprised this slipped your grasp.

[Tweed]

13. Clinton helped Rush in that race, giving a rare primary endorsement and cutting 30-second radio spot

From the same link

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/231872,CST-NWS-obama27.article

[gaspee]

It's kind of ironic

That quite a few people the Clintons helped to elect or get reelected have turned on them.

[democrattotheend]

29. Scared of Barack even then, huh?

;)

[gaspee]

37. Oh please

Are you stupid? And no, I'm not a Clinton supporter. I'm not voting for either of them.

But come on, are you stupid? Bobby Rush has a long history and he and Clinton are friends. Obama had ZERO to do with Clinton's support.

Jeesh.

[fishwax]

48. the ;) smiley in the post would suggest the title was ironic or in jest

I think your response was unnecessarily harsh, given that.

[fishwax]

49. welcome to DU, democrattotheend

:toast:

[Jane Austin]

10. No.

Do you know about Google and Wikipedia?

[NightWatcher]

11. weak post. He lost in 2000

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14502364
In March of 2000, Obama, then an Illinois state General Assembly member, made his first run for Congress — and lost.

Obama sought to unseat Rep. Bobby Rush, who by then had served four terms in Congress, in a Democratic primary. Rush had a long history with voters, who knew him as a Baptist minister, a veteran of the civil rights battles of the '60s, and a founding member of the Illinois branch of the Black Panthers, where he set up meal programs and medical screenings for the poor

[TheCool]

12. Heres your answer

In 2000, he made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.

[book_worm]

14. believe it or not Bill Clinton also lost his first congressional race in '74

[Unsane]

27. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush lost Congressional races.

[MADem]

30. John Kerry did too, back in the dark ages, in Lowell when he was still married to his first wife. NT

[karynnj]

41. Do you care to add that Chuck Colson supplied the dirty tricks?

The Nixon administration was not joking when they spoke of wanting to destroy him. The fact that the hatred generated from that led to rocks being thrown through his windows - one nearly hitting his baby certainly didn't help his marriage.

[MADem]

42. No. He lost Lowell because he was a carpetbagger, and his opponent was not.

It had nothing to do with dirty tricks. He rented an apartment right before he filed.

And he didn't even HAVE any kids when he made that run--there was no "baby" to be hit by any rocks. His first child was born in 73--that defeat happened the year earlier.

It's not illegal to do (look at Mitt Romney, he had to pay full real estate taxes, instead of the Utah "homesteader" discount he'd been getting on his jazzy Utah house, when he decided to run here--after the Boston Globe pointed it out). But even though it isn't illegal, people don't like it.

He also spent too much time looking for votes and donations in the half of a rich town that was included in the district (it's an odd shaped thing, as many are) and not enough time down on the sidewalks in the urban areas.

I remember that campaign very clearly. Here's a chunk of a larger GLOBE piece that deals specifically with those day: http://boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061803.shtml

[karynnj]

44. There are extensive accounts of the dirty tricks

Kerry himself acknowledges that the fact that he was not from there hurt when the dirty tricks started as he was not known to people, but he had already won the primary in spite of not having been from there. The atmosphere of hate lasted beyond the election and that story was told by his first wife to Brinkley.

[MADem]

47. Read the link. He HAD no children when he ran that race.

There was no "baby" to be hit by rocks or anything else.

And the "dirty tricks" were happening within his own campaign organization--his brother certainly wasn't any help to him.

You're confusing his Senate run with his Lowell House run.

[Unsane]

16. Thanks. Now go play with your blocks.

[MADem]

18. It isn't a crime to lose a Congressional race. IIRC, it was against a popular incumbent, in a

PRIMARY.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14502364

In March of 2000, Obama, then an Illinois state General Assembly member, made his first run for Congress — and lost.

Obama sought to unseat Rep. Bobby Rush, who by then had served four terms in Congress, in a Democratic primary. Rush had a long history with voters, who knew him as a Baptist minister, a veteran of the civil rights battles of the '60s, and a founding member of the Illinois branch of the Black Panthers, where he set up meal programs and medical screenings for the poor.

During the race, Obama sought to introduce himself in order to boost his name recognition, which registered at just 10 percent when he announced his candidacy.

In 2000, Rush campaigned on experience and on better times coming. "We're on the verge of a tremendous turnaround in the district," Rush told NPR that year. "We're right at the precipice. In the next few years you're going to see an economic renaissance."

[terrya]

24. And to be fair, Bill Clinton lost a congressional race.

In 1978, I believe.

And then he went on to bigger and better things.

Losing a Congressional race is hardly the political kiss of death.

[MADem]

34. Kerry too. NT

[Hippo_Tron]

36. Bill Clinton also lost his second election for Governor

And believe it or not he lost the election for Georgetown Student Body President. They have a tendency to tell that story when people go visit the campus.

[Blue State Bandit]

19. Lost to Bobby Rush

a Clinton friend whos now endorsing him.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/231872,CST-NWS-obama27.article

[Thrill]

20. So what if he did?

[democrattotheend]

22. 8 years ago

in 2000, against incumbent Bobby Rush in the primary. Why would the Clinton people bring it up?

[NJSecularist]

23. Name me one president who hasn't lost a political race

[Hippo_Tron]

38. If you ask a Republican they will tell you George W Bush, but he lost in 2000...

Eisenhower never lost a race but he wasn't a politician until he was President. I don't think JFK ever lost a race but I could be wrong.

[NJSecularist]

40. Bush lost in 1978

in the midterm elections for the House seat in Texas.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

25. in 2000 he lost to an ex black panther party member US Representative Bobby Rush in Chicago

[blogslut]

31. ...

[Vinca]

32. Since we are enjoying yet one more meaningless post,

is it true Hillary was president of the college Republicans? Anyone know the answer or details? A candidate who served as president of the college Republicans can't possibly be a good bet. I'm just sayin.
:sarcasm:

[Danger Mouse]

33. you're not just reaching, you're desparately grasping.

:puke:

[Hippo_Tron]

35. Yea cause Rick Lazio was such a tough opponent

:eyes:

Obama had his Senate race handed to him when the Ryan scandal broke. Hillary had hers handed to her when Giuliani was diagnosed with cancer.

Both hail from blue states and both are very good candidates so this is not unusual.

[terrya]

39. Christ, Obama was running against Alan Keyes

Barack Obama is a good candidate, but come on.

And as you said, Hillary ran against a basic non-entity.

Neither were exactly nail biters.

[Occam Bandage]

45. Because the Republicans knew they didn't have a chance.

[rateyes]

43. You mean just like Abraham Lincoln?