Newman trying to turn progressive energy into votes against the Lipinski brand

March 12--The dueling forces in the nationally watched primary fight between Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski and challenger Marie Newman were on full display when they took the stage for a rare joint appearance.

A live audience of more than 500 people cheered and heckled at the Palos Hills forum last month as Lipinski played the role of the wonky former university professor, largely sticking to policy talking points about transportation and health care. He admonished the La Grange businesswoman and political newcomer for what he called a "fantasy" that she could go to Washington, D.C., and enact the agenda of a "Tea Party of the left."

Newman tried to tap into the progressive zeitgeist, drawing whoops from a throng of young people as she criticized the seven-term congressman's conservative social positions. But when Newman pledged to work for everyone in the district, a Lipinski backer near the stage called back: "Except the unborn!"

The abortion-rights supporter Newman and abortion-rights foe Lipinski are battling in a race that's pointed to as an example of the fight the Democratic Party's progressive wing is waging against moderates and conservatives. The key question heading into the March 20 primary: Can Newman turn progressive enthusiasm into votes in an area Lipinski and his father, Bill, have represented for more than 35 years?

The solidly blue 3rd Congressional District is largely middle and working class, taking in parts of the bungalow belt Southwest Side and stretching out into the south and southwest suburbs. The primary winner is all but assured a seat in Congress because the only Republican candidate in the race is a Holocaust denier with neo-Nazi ties.

Party divide

Newman has been endorsed by high-profile national progressive groups like EMILY's List, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, MoveOn.org and NARAL Pro-Choice America. U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand have backed her, as has feminist icon Gloria Steinem. And sitting Democratic U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston and Luis Gutierrez of Chicago took the unusual step of endorsing Newman against their colleague in the Illinois delegation.

"It's not personal toward Dan, but I felt when we have a strong mainstream Democratic woman willing to stand up and say 'I will represent correctly what this district stands for,' that I wanted to support her," Schakowsky said.

Newman is trying to both capitalize on that energy and avoid being defined by it. It's good to get support and money from high-profile national figures, but she needs to appeal to Democratic voters in places like La Grange, Hickory Hills and the Garfield Ridge neighborhood west of Midway Airport who might not take kindly to what they see as dictates from far-flung liberals.

She points to the major organized labor endorsement of the SEIU Illinois Council as proof she's better prepared to fight for working-class people.

"I chuckle when the media wants to say 'Oh, well, she's pushing this wing or that wing (of the Democratic Party),' when the reality is, I am doing what's right for my district," Newman said. "The district has been completely unaligned with their congressperson for 13 years at least, and possibly before that."

Lipinski, though, also has union backing, including from the state's pre-eminent labor organization, the AFL-CIO, as well as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 and other union groups. He also has support from 30 suburban mayors and village presidents in the district.

Those local officials have known the Lipinski family for decades. William Lipinski was a Southwest Side political powerhouse. He was a Chicago Park District official under Mayor Richard J. Daley, who appointed him 23rd Ward Democratic committeeman in 1975. The elder Lipinski won election to the City Council representing the ward around Midway.

In 1982, William Lipinski won a seat in Congress representing the Southwest Side. Renowned for bringing transportation money back to the Chicago area from Washington, he famously twisted President Ronald Reagan's arm to provide federal funding for the CTA Orange Line to Midway after supporting Reagan with a vote in favor of aid to the Nicaraguan contras.

The elder Lipinski served in the House until he won the 2004 primary and dropped out. Democratic committeemen followed his suggestion to name his son Dan, a University of Tennessee professor, to replace him on the general election ballot. Dan Lipinski has held the seat ever since.

While Newman said the younger Lipinski has "been propped up by the Chicago machine," the congressman said doesn't think the way he got the seat is an issue with voters. "That was 14 years ago, that was a long time ago," he said. "I've been elected six times since then, so people have all made their decision on that."

The issues

Lipinski opposes abortion rights unless a mother's life is at stake and voted against the Affordable Care Act and the DREAM Act to protect young undocumented immigrants. In 2013, he co-sponsored the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act that would have provided tax protection to churches and other non-profits that oppose gay marriage and believe sexual relations should only take place in the confines of a marriage between a man and a woman.

He has tacked toward the left since Newman began her challenge, co-sponsoring a bill to raise the hourly minimum wage to $15 over seven years as well as legislation to give so-called "Dreamers" work permits and temporary relief from deportation.

Still, Newman is hitting him hard on the issues, declaring that Lipinski is out of touch with an increasingly liberal district and attempting in ads to tie him to President Donald Trump at a time when Democrats are looking to tap into their voters' anger at the president.

"It really is a perfect storm," said Democratic Will County Board Member Jacqueline Traynere of Bolingbrook. "She did not know, per se, where this was all going to go. She just wanted to stand up for the people of this district, and the national politics caught up with that. So Marie's genuine about it, and people respond to that."

Voters can't respond to a candidate, though, if they don't know who she is. Newman raised more than $1 million to help pay for advertising, signs and campaign apparatus. She out-raised Lipinski in the first two months of 2018, $533,875 to $226,950, according to campaign finance records.

But Lipinski started off with a big cash advantage to go with his well-known name. He started with $1.28 million left from the 2016 campaign for this go-around, and he's raised another $928,000 since, records show.

Also animating the contest is nearly $1.5 million worth of attack ads and mailings from outside groups as of early March. About 57 percent of that money has gone toward helping Newman, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

Last week, Lipinski went on the attack after the Tribune reported that Newman and husband James went into the restaurant business with a felon who spent time in federal prison for his role in a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme. Newman said she and her husband didn't know about their partner's criminal conviction and started taking steps to end their involvement after they found out.

"If my opponent is willing to go into business with a convicted felon who hurt seniors and working families, how can we trust her to demonstrate sound ethics and judgment in Congress?" Lipinski said in a statement.

The Bernie factor

Results from the last election show a progressive streak among the Democratic primary voters in the 3rd District. In 2016, the top five vote-getting delegates for the Democratic National Convention were Sanders supporters. In the Southwest Side 11th Ward, Sanders got 54 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Clinton.

"I don't think a lot of that Sanders vote transfers (to Newman)," said John Daley, the 11th Ward committeeman. "Bernie Sanders was a strong candidate, and lot of people voted for him because of his work on behalf of unions and industrial jobs. Those are areas where Dan Lipinski has a strong record and a lot of support."

Daley, who doubles as a Cook County commissioner, also said some Democratic presidential primary voters simply didn't like Clinton, and went with Sanders as the alternative or as a protest vote.

Daley said Lipinski is well-liked for his responsiveness to constituent concerns. And Daley highlighted Lipinski's standing as the longest-serving Illinois Democrat on the House Transportation Committee as important to bringing federal money for infrastructure projects -- and construction jobs -- to northern Illinois.

While it has been several elections since Lipinski has had such a tough challenge, it's hardly the first time he has faced an attack by a primary opponent claiming his father handed him the seat or railing against his conservative social views.

Lipinski was perhaps most vulnerable in 2006, his first Democratic primary. With William Lipinski's act of political nepotism fresh in voters' minds, Cook County prosecutor John Sullivan challenged Dan Lipinski on that issue. But there was another Irish-named challenger on the ballot, John Kelly, and he and Sullivan split about 46 percent of the vote while Lipinski got 54 percent to win.

Kelly's campaign was run by Mike Joyce, son of 19th Ward political powerbroker Jeremiah Joyce, and Sullivan charged Kelly was a shill the Joyces were running to dilute the anti-Lipinski vote. Kelly, who had briefly filed papers to run for the seat as a Republican in 2004 before dropping out, denied he was a Democratic machine put-in candidate in 2006.

The political machine tactic of getting so-called "same name candidates" on the ballot to undercut a legitimate challenger to the party's chosen standard bearer is now under scrutiny in federal court in Chicago. Jason Gonzales is suing Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, alleging the veteran Southwest Side lawmaker to put up "two sham candidates with Hispanic last names to split up the Hispanic vote" in order to defeat him in the March 2016 primary for Madigan's House seat, according to a ruling in the case.

Lipinski has had it progressively easier since then, and those contests show that Newman faces challenges in overcoming the longtime incumbent, even in an election year when her candidacy has taken on a higher national profile.

"She certainly seems like a viable candidate against him," said Lyons Township Assessor Barbara Weyrick, a Lipinski backer. "But there are just so many people who don't deal with their congressman on a day-to-day basis that if there's nothing negative about him and they recognize the name, they'll just go with that."

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