IL-14: John Laesch (D) for Congress!

Democrat John Laesch campaign for Congress is no longer flying under the national media radar. With his appearance on CNN, NBC, Fox News, Univision, National Public Radio, Chris Matthews’ Hardball and scandals of Republican Foley & House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and the rest of the GOP leadership his Yorkville, Illinois headquarters is much more of an energized place.

.. phones at Laesch’s Yorkville, Illinois headquarters have been ringing so often that he’s installing two new lines. Emails fly in faster than his volunteers can read them. People mob his office with $100 checks and requests for yard signs. Some $20,000 streamed in over the weekend alone and Laesch’s handful of staff hasn’t had time to tally the rest. They’ve brought on so many new volunteers over the past four days that they’re having a hard time keeping track of them. “I called the office a couple of minutes ago looking for a staffer and talked to someone I’ve never spoken to in my life,” Laesch spokeswoman Lisa Bennett said yesterday. “It was like, ‘Oh, who are you, and can you find me someone I recognize?’”

Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones profiles Democratic John Laesch campaign to unseat House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. The article gives a brief history John Laesch, what lead him to the Democratic Party and why he is running against the number third Republican in the Nation.

Looking for adventure and a challenge, Laesch joined the Navy in 1995 and rose to a post in Bahrain as an intelligence analyst. His job included monitoring video footage from Iran. At the time, a popular parade route in Iran had been painted with American and Israeli flags so that soldiers could trample them when they marched past. But after Iran’s moderate president Mohammad Khatami came to power, Laesch noticed the flags were removed. He saw the move as an opportunity for rapprochement which was later dashed when President Bush dubbed the country part of the Axis of Evil. “Our actions create an equal and opposite reaction on their side,” he says. “And this is why terrorism is growing.”

Honorably discharged in 1999, Laesch studied history and political science at Illinois State University and was drawn to politics. In 2004 he talked with men who worked at a Maytag factory that was shuttering in the town of Galesburg and moving to Mexico. “That bothered me,” he says. That year Laesch managed the congressional race of Democrat David Gill, a doctor running for the 15th district of Illinois on a health care platform. He felt under qualified for the job, but even so, Gill turned in a strong showing. The next year, when Laesch’s brother, Pete, was sent to Iraq a week after his wife gave birth to a child, the munitions sergeant urged his brother to run against Hastert. “It hadn’t even realistically crossed my mind,” Leasch says, “But when Pete got his orders to Iraq, I said, ‘I’m gonna do it.’”

Go read the article.

John Laesch (D) for Congress!

If you're reading this, you know that it's time. It's time for government to represent the real values of the American people. It's time for government to put the American Dream back within reach of all Americans.

I believe strongly that America is a country based on mutual responsibility: our government must serve the interests of the people, and we must in turn let government know when we are dissatisfied.

It is our responsibility to our families and our fellow Americans to ensure that our elected representatives share our civic duty, both to support our great nation and question its leaders on decisions and actions that conflict with our moral values.

It is our responsibility to our nation to ensure that American families are put first. For many Americans, working hard at one full-time job is no longer enough to pay the rent and feed their families. Access to a living wage, quality health care, education, and a healthy environment should be enjoyed by all Americans that work hard to support their families. It is not solely a question of economics: it is a moral priority that all hard-working Americans are provided access to the tools with which we can build the American Dream.

I am running for Congress to put American families first. I am running for congress to give true representation to the people of the 14th district. I am running for congress to re-open the doors of opportunity so that every American can achieve the American Dream.

Standing together as Americans, we can achieve anything!

Sincerely,

John Laesch
Democratic Congressional Candidate (IL-14)