Tammy Duckworth says we should support the troops, but “Going to Iraq was a mistake.”
Interviewing her now.
UPDATE: Duckworth claims she and her husband made the decision to run back in August/September. “I know the speculation out there is that the DCCC reached out to me, and that’s not the case.”
UPDATE 2: On the speculation that she was asked to run: “Nobody’s drafted me for anything I’ve done in my life.”
UPDATE 3: “We need an aggressive plan based on benchmarks for bringing our troops home. There’s one out there now that for every Iraqi battalion that stands up we bring an American battalion home” […]
“I think the administration has failed to come up with a plan to aggressively train the Iraqi troops.” […]
On reading blogs, and the vitriol in comment sections directed at her: “It’s been kind of interesting to sit there and read and not be able to get back on there and say anything. It’s been very frustrating for me to sit on my hands…
“The negative attacks and stuff, that’s not me, that’s not who I am. I think it’s great people are expressing their opinions, that’s why I became a soldier… Ultimately we’ll let the voters decide…
“I would never ask anybody to drop out of the race just because I was in it, and I certainly wouldn’t want anybody to ask me that I should drop out of the race.”
(She said she regularly reads three blogs, mine, Daily Kos and DuPage blogger Wurfwhile.)
On her residency: “I think that I can certainly adequately represent the district without living in it. Voters are going to decide who shares… their value system… I think I’m that person… My identity is with the 6th District. I live in the Village of Hoffman Estates. Part of Hoffman Estates is in the 6th, part is in the 8th.”
I’ll have more later this weekend, but I need to go Christmas shopping now.
UPDATE 4: I intentionall tossed in several local issues questions to see how she’d respond. She did pretty well. I’ll post those answers Sunday afternoon/evening.
I’ve interviewed a lot of political novices in my day, and she did better than most. Her talking points were evident, but they didn’t overwhelm the conversation. You can’t coach that or create it out of whole cloth. It’s an innate talent and she’s obviously got it.
Meanwhile, the Daily Herald has a pretty good Q&A on their site. Not much in the way of local stuff, though, so this blog may be the only place to find it tomorrow.