Unnatural Election

If Johnsburg was Atlanta and if Schaumburg was Savannah and if Lake County was the State of Georgia then the juggernaut that is the Joe Walsh re-election campaign -- now rolling through the devastated remnants of the Eighth Congressional District -- would be Sherman's March to the Sea. Ha ha, the latest casualty in what all observers agree will be a long war of attrition in the new Lake-County-Free Eighth District is GOP footsoldier Darlene Ruscitti. According to the Daily Herald, Ruscitti, the DuPage Superintendent of Schools, who was ...

expected to be a tough GOP primary challenger for Joe Walsh in the 8th District, has backed out of the race. "Today, after careful consideration with family, supporters and friends, I have decided not to run for Congress in the 8th Congressional District," the statement, released Wednesday afternoon, reads. Ruscitti said her campaign "collected over 4,000 petition signatures, signed up hundreds of volunteers and gained the support of dozens of elected officials -- but my role as a leader within the Illinois Republican Party and a desire to avoid a costly primary outweigh my personal political aspirations."
Ruscitti bows out of 8th District GOP primary

As it goes in warfare so it goes in politics. According to Illinois Election Law those 4000 signatures are regarded as the electoral equivalent to spoils of war, and now all belong to Walsh's re-election campaign. Those same petition signatures will no doubt be summarily dispatched to the Walsh campaign paper shredders. The whereabouts and ultimate fate of the "hundreds of volunteers" and "dozens of elected officials" remains unknown.

Your LakeCountyEye does send a tip of the green eyeshade to Darlene Ruscitti. She volunteered for what is largely regarded a political suicide mission: run as something more than the token GOP opposition candidate in the Eighth District. And then after Walsh decided he wanted all along to be that GOP candidate instead, Ruscitti volunteered again -- this time (in what is also regarded a political suicide mission) to be thrown under the campaign bus. Ruscitti has proven to be more than a good sport for taking one two for the team.