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For veteran Tammy Duckworth, latest fight is for a House seat
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Duckworth is the first to acknowledge that her Iraq experience is what won her a spot in the race. But she tries to move the conversation to other issues - particularly education and healthcare - and her experience prior to Iraq, working at Rotary International and studying healthcare issues as a political science doctoral candidate.
"You'll rarely see me bring up Iraq and the war on my own," Duckworth says, although she is quick to criticize the Bush administration's war decisions. Her refrain is that she was injured "18 months after the 'mission was accomplished,' " according to President Bush. Being a war veteran, she says, "gives you a platform, but that's all it does. If there isn't substance, you'd fall off pretty quickly."
Some of her substance, Duckworth says, comes from personal experiences: the $70,000 in student loans she graduated with, or her own experience needing medical care.
"I was lucky to have world-class healthcare at Walter Reed, but I understand that everyone doesn't have that access," she says, sipping a latte during a break from morning campaigning.
Duckworth also hopes that her lack of previous political involvement will allow her to reach across the partisan divide. "People here are so sick of partisanship," she says.
With a style that's down-to-earth, Duckworth is quick with self- deprecating humor and matter-of-fact references to her injuries. The biggest problem with her injured right arm, she tells some friends after a morning rally, is her inability to use chopsticks when eating sushi. "I lose all street cred!" she jokes.
Later, she chats with a voter in a Starbucks about the upsides of being able to choose what size shoe she wanted for her prosthetic legs, which she now walks on with the help of a cane.
But she's eager to turn to more-serious topics, and comes across as smart and articulate while discussing taxes or the reasons she favors benchmarks, rather than a timeline, for withdrawal from Iraq.
Still, her political inexperience has caused some critics to suggest she is being used by the Democratic Party as an Iraq veteran poster girl, and to question why the party has supported Duckworth over her rival, Cegelis, who has more history in the district.
"If you put the two together, Cegelis has better answers to congressional-level questions," says Professor Simpson, who wrote an op-ed last fall criticizing party leaders' decision to back Duckworth.
For her part, Cegelis is counting on her experience in the district to win the primary. Duckworth "is an amazingly brave woman, but in the end I think the campaign will be about local people and local issues," says Cegelis, an IT professional at a software firm. "I've been in this district and campaigned for 2-1/2 years."
Still, Cegelis says the attention Duckworth's entry has brought - from media as distant as The Times of London - is welcome. "It's elevated the race and has given us a great platform so people can be more informed."
That attention has helped Duckworth get some early name recognition. As she campaigns around Elmhurst - one of the few suburbs in her strip mall- and subdivision-heavy district with a downtown - several voters have heard of her.
"My husband's truck flipped over when he was [in Iraq]!" says Rebecca White, a Riverside resident lunching with her father at Buffalo Wild Wings, when Duckworth stops by her table to give her pitch. She listens intently to Duckworth's thoughts on Iraq and declarations of what a strong advocate she'll be for the troops. Later, she admits she'll probably still vote Republican, out of habit. "But I'm going to have to follow up and do some research."
Rebecca's father, Ron Gandy, whose nephew served in Iraq, is more persuaded: "You have to give a lot of credit to someone who went over there."
The district Duckworth will need to win, in DuPage County and a bit of western Cook County, is a mix of affluent outlying suburbs and middle-class towns, home to the Christian Wheaton College and the more blue- collar enclaves around O'Hare Airport.
Always staunchly Republican, a combination of demographic shifts and disenchantment with the GOP among some voters has made it more competitive. Congressman Hyde's neighbor to the north, Phil Crane, was defeated in 2004 by Melissa Bean, in an area with similar political leanings.
"This is now the most competitive area in the state of Illinois," says Paul Green, a political scientist at Chicago's Roosevelt University. "More people are open to voting Democratic because they don't think it's a wasted vote."
Residents say the change is apparent.
"At the Fourth of July parade this year, people were cheering the Democratic float" instead of the more typical laughing or jeering, says Christine Edison, a young copy editor from Glen Ellyn who considers herself a Democrat. Ms. Edison hasn't followed Duckworth's campaign closely, but she says it has potential.
"I see ribbons everywhere around here saying to support the troops. [Duckworth's veteran status] would have a lot of respect," she says. "I think the mood in this district is changing."
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