Jewish Democratic Incumbent and Republican Challenger Profiles – Jan Schakowsky and Joel Pollak

Linda Berg — June 17, 2010 – 2:37 pm | Democrats | Election 2010 | Republicans Comments (0) Add a comment

Since winning election in 1998 to Illinois’ overwhelmingly Democratic 9^th District, located on the North Side of Chicago, Rep. Jan Schakowsky has never been seriously challenged. She has always won at least 70 percent of the vote in her six elections, and in 2008, garnered 75 percent of the vote.  A close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Schakowsky serves in the House Democratic Leadership as Chief Deputy Whip and as a member of the Steering and Policy Committee.  She is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the House Select Committee on Intelligence.  Schakowsky is a leader in the fight for universal healthcare and a passionate advocate for consumer and women’s rights.  She is a steadfast supporter of Israel and in a speech to the Orthodox Union, said “As a Jewish member of Congress who has unfailingly voted with Israel, I genuinely believe President Obama is entirely supportive of the needs of Israel.”  

This year, Schakowsky faces an unusual opponent.  Joel Pollak, a Tea Party endorsed, Orthodox Jewish Republican lawyer, is challenging her in November.  A former Democrat turned right wing Republican, Pollak was a volunteer writer for the McCain -Palin ticket in 2008. He strongly opposes Obama’s foreign policy particularly in the Middle East and the growth of big government. Pollak passionately defends the Tea Party as a way to “bring people together who feel that their votes have been silenced by the elected representatives,” and denies that the party is racist or homophobic. Married to an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, Pollak touted his endorsement this week by Alan Dershowitz.

Conventional wisdom is that Schakowsky will again have an easy path to reelection. Like all incumbents though, she will not be able to take anything for granted.  A poll just released by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner  which analyzed the voter trends for the period of June 7-10, 2010 found that only 34 percent of voters would vote to reelect their Democratic incumbent.

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