Congressman Sean Casten is best known as a Democrat who can easily duck and dodge major issues without making the voters in his district feel much discomfort.
He does that by hiding behind the extremism of the Republican Party and only doing enough as a congressman to avoid controversy. In other words, he survives on the principle of “Political Relativity” — it’s not that he wins elections, but that his foes lose the elections.
The truth is, Casten has been AWOL, failing to speak out against the nation’s polarization and allowing others to address it on the frontlines of that political war, thinking that he is avoiding any political scars.
But Casten is vulnerable, and he can easily be defeated in the 6th District. But it will take a challenger who has a better grasp of regional politics and who can also better address the needs of the people, and the principle of “Political Relativity.”
Right now, I am not sure Republican challenger Niki Conforti is capable of understanding or doing that.
While Casten is deeply embedded in the failures of the national Democrats to bring relief and much needed change to the American people, Conforti is pandering to the local “perception headliners” of her party who elevate themselves by screaming about issues and rely on political disruption, but who fail to do anything that benefits the taxpayers.
Conforti is ignoring the fact that the Republican Party in Illinois is a disaster, and instead of trying to address that, she’s taking the easy and safer route to instead follow the hard right playbook, hanging with the people who have fueled the Republican Party’s deterioration.
Among those leaders are failed Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, who ran and lost to Casten in 2022. But Casten didn’t “win” that election. Pekau “lost” it. It’s called “Political Relativity.”
“Political Relativity” is based on a simple premise: The winner didn’t win the election; the “winner” benefited from the fact that their opponent lost the election. In the election, Pekau stressed partisan politics and ignored the non-partisan needs of local voters, failing to address the real issues.
Another is Palos Township Committeeman Sean Morrison, a bundle of failed leadership and controversy who stepped down as County GOP Chairman in April.
Morrison is a political has-been, the poster child of the failed Illinois GOP. Not even a political face-lift can change that. He is a “loser politician walking,” meaning his political career is already over, and he just doesn’t know it.
Under Pekau’s and Morrison’s failed leadership, the Republican Party in Cook County has become more dysfunctional and irrelevant.
Instead of leading a GOP revival, Conforti is taking the “safe route,” pandering to the old, failed GOP guard.
Casten can easily be beaten. In reality, he is not that strong. His strength is fake, based on the polarized world in which we live, where the people around him spend more time fearing the far-right Republicans and thriving in national political schizophrenia.
Casten beat Conforti in 2024 by about the same number of votes as Pekau.
There are constituents in the 6th Congressional District who are unhappy with Casten, but feel they have no other choice because they dislike many of the so-called leaders who are on the other side.
Instead of addressing substantive issues, Conforti is addressing the political issues. She’s not connecting with voters. She is connecting with the political party “leaders,” the failures who have led the GOP to collapse in Illinois.
Don’t credit the Democrats for decimating the Republicans. Blame the Republicans for not having good leaders. Maybe Cook County GOP Chairman Aaron Del Mar can change things. He needs to be more imaginative in leadership and must break from the old ways of failed GOP personalities.
Del Mar needs to come out of the dark GOP shadows and redefine the party in a way that better connects with voters, and instead of pushing a conservative agenda, push a common sense and moderate agenda that provides solutions.
Conforti needs to do the same thing. She’s not going to win on the path she is on today. She needs something more dramatic. She needs to break with her closeness with Pekau, an election albatross, and redefine herself.
She has a choice. Be popular among the leadership remains of the Republican Party, the easy path, or, pursue the more difficult path, which would demonstrate real leadership, carve a new route to success by addressing the issues like a leader, not a pre-defined partisan candidate.
Read more on this at Hanania.com.