NEW - In a wide ranging interview today, State Sen. Laura Fine told me she intends to support Hakeem Jeffries as leader/speaker in 2027 if elected Look for the full interview later this week #IL09

Chicago Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth has sent a cease and desist to the dark money Super PAC Elect Chicago Women for including her imagine on a pro-Laura Fine mailer last week Manaa-Hoppenworth has endorsed State Rep. Hoan Huynh in #IL09

👀 – A few days after SD-9 candidate Patrick Hanley's letter in the Tribune calling on Cook County State's Attorney, Eileen O'Neill Burke to be tougher on prosecuting crimes committed by feds, Burke's campaign committee transferred $2,000 to Hanley's opponent in SD-9, Rachel Ruttenberg of Evanston

Bushra Amiwala in #IL09 earns Indian American Impact Fund endorsement, a group that "elevates the voices of Indian and South Asian Americans."

Some pretty intense red boxing picking up in #IL09 Fine goes negative on Biss ahead of negative super PAC ads Biss singles he wants "a mix of unskippable messages in weeks 5, 4 and 3" on YouTube for people over 35

Huge revamp of Kat Abughazaleh's website that I just noticed today katforillinois.com

I sat down with Evanston economist @CohenForIL09, a candidate in #IL09 who's trying to pull off an upset in March and focus the races' attention on the economy

Elect Chicago Women, the dark money Super PAC that popped up last week to run ads supporting Laura Fine in #IL09 and Melissa Bean in #IL08 has a Facebook page with 7 followers and a pretty obviously AI-generated logo

NEW – Sierra Club is endorsing Winnetka Democrat Patrick Hanley to replace Laura Fine in SD-09 Hanley will face Evanston Democrat Rachel Ruttenberg in the March 17 primary

Just learned that AIPAC has now jumped into a fourth open seat House race in Illinois, backing Melissa Conyears Ervin with what has been described as a $2.8 million buy (around $500k a week). This is straight up AIPAC, not a shell PAC, through United Democracy Project.

The race for #IL09 is complicated! Happy to break it down tonight on @wgntv.com

Thanks @tahmanbradley.bsky.social and @wgntv.com for having me on to talk about #IL09 Watch it here:

More on this – UDP inquiries filed with the FCC for WMAQ list Melissa Conyears-Ervin as a candidate mentioned in the ads, though it's not clear if its in support or opposition Nothing outside of #IL07 filed by UDP as of tonight

AIPAC-affiliated super PAC United Democracy Project (UDP), which just spent millions on ads to defeat Tom Malinowski in #NJ11, only to end up helping elect an even more progressive candidate, Analilia Mejia, has turned to Illinois The super PAC placed a cable ad buy in #IL07 👇🏼

Evanston Township High School student Ryan McComb built a really cool real-time aggregator site that collects data points on prediction markets, fundraising data and a bunch of other stuff for #IL09 👇🏼 Super cool stuff il9.org

Elect Chicago Women Super PAC now filed, too Fine #IL09: $574,476 Bean #IL08: $579,581

Just in the nick of time, Illinois' new dark money Super PACs "Affordable Chicago NOW!" and "Elect Chicago Women" are starting to file Schedule E reports with the FEC So far only ACN, the pro-Donna Miller Super PAC #IL02 has filed the $365,750 IE Assuming ECW for #IL09 and #IL08 will be next

SD-9 candidate Patrick Hanley in the @chitribopinions: "We call on Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke to follow the lead of Rinehart and others ... to prosecute all crimes committed by federal agents in this county."

Rep. Brad Schneider backing Laura Fine #IL09

I’ve seen some comments about #IL09 potentially mirroring tonight’s #NJ11 result BIG key difference though: Mejia was clearly the one “progressive choice” In #IL09, that lane is being split at LEAST four ways among the top six contenders right now In this graphic alone…

Biss campaign's take on the results in #NJ11 tonight:

More Super PAC spending from Elect Chicago Women dark money Super PAC, tonight in the form of mailers: Still no comment from ECW. I called the number they list with the FEC, and the line went dead immediately (funny note: the photo they used at the bottom includes Biss) #IL09

State Sen. Mike Simmons says the Tribune never invited him for an endorsement interview in #IL09 I asked the Tribune for a response, they said they did reach out but "have heard from the campaign that they did not receive our in-person invitation. So we regret any miscommunication." 👇🏼👇🏼

NEW – Attorneys have agreed to schedule the trial in this case to start May 26, likely extending into the following week of June 3rd or 4th

Back at Dirksen Federal court this morning for a status update before Judge April M. Perry in the federal case against #IL09 congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and five others indicted for their role in protests at Broadview's ICE facility

Inbox - The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union are backing Daniel Biss in #IL09 In the SD-9 race, IFT is backing Patrick Hanley of Winnetka, and CTU is backing Rachel Ruttenberg of Evanston

NEW – @olivia0.bsky.social and I spoke with State Sen. Laura Fine tonight after a candidate forum in Evanston about this Super PAC running ads supporting her She said she "didn't know about those ads until ... this morning," but said she would "love to know who's funding it."

For the first time publicly, Daniel Biss pressed Laura Fine directly about AIPAC support of her campaign in response to a question about Israel/Palestine relations, saying the group is supporting her because she "supports a blank check to Israel" #IL09

In Evanston tonight for a candidate forum hosted by the Central Street Neighbors Association #IL09

NEW: The @chicago.suntimes.com and @wbez.org have published a 12-minute excerpt of our interview with Marimar Martinez, in which she describes being shot by Border Patrol in Chicago. You can find it here: youtu.be/mCO4vI_KH1w?...

NEW – Super PAC ads hit the airwaves in three congressional races this morning. But who's behind them? 👇🏼

NEW – 3.14 Action Fund placed another IE today for Daniel Biss in #IL09 for mailers, bringing the grand total YTD to $309k

NEW - Kat Abughazaleh's campaign says it has surpassed $3 million raised with 4,500 new donors in 2026 She reported $2.7 million through the end of 2025 #IL09

TONIGHT – Evanston's Central Street Neighbors Association is hosting a candidate forum for the 9th District with the following attendees: - Kat Abughazaleh - Bushra Amiwala - Phil Andrew - Daniel Biss - Jeff Cohen - Laura Fine - Hoan Huynh 7:30p at Northminster Church in Evanston

Full interview here:

Super-PAC Elect Chicago Women goes positive in its first ad supporting Laura Fine in #IL09 Also Melissa Bean in #IL08 and Donna Miller in #IL02 via "Affordable Chicago Now" (below) (Fine's ad, you'll notice, uses the same b-roll as her own campaign ads)

Biss’ team out tonight with a press release calling the Elect Chicago Women Super-PAC a “right wing dark money Super-PAC” backed by AIPAC Also goes after Fine for her Q4 financial disclosures being nearly all out of state and $50k+ from GOP previous Trump donors >>

Interesting thing to notice here: the Tribune social accounts literally never post threads like this seemingly explaining their reason for endorsements and detailing how they view each candidate They don’t do it in IL7 yesterday and I’m not sure I’ve seen a Tribune twitter thread like this before

Scoop - A newly formed Super-PAC called Elect Chicago Women is supporting Laura Fine in #IL09 and reserved six-figures of Chicago broadcast TV space starting tomorrow, two sources tell me Unclear if the ads are positive or attack ads. Fine may not be the only candidate it backs

Biss team’s response to these poll results:

Kat Abughazaleh's response to the Tribune's endorsement: (reminder, she didn't attend the endorsement session last week, criticizing the board for "mainstreaming right-wing talking points" while overshadowing journalism that Trib reporters do...unsurprisingly, the e-board didn't seem to like that)

Scoop – State Sen. Laura Fine's campaign is out with an internal poll by GBAO Strategies that shows her tied with Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss at 21% in #IL09 Kat Abughazaleh is in third at 14%, per the polling memo. The poll was conducted Jan. 26-29.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board is endorsing Laura Fine in #IL09

The Skokie Village Board will vote later tonight on new regulations for vacation rentals, as Evanston will consider its own limits on short-term rentals later this month. A breakdown on how both plans compare here (gift article): evanstonnow.com/skokie-consi...

Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) endorsing Biss in #IL09

Daniel Biss' 2025 large-dollar contribution map is really just Illinois, with New York and Mass. both well under $100k total Cook County includes ~$1.47m of Biss' $1.6m raised in Illinois, with the next closest county being Lake County at $71k, followed by Middlesex, MA at $38k

I mapped Laura Fine's as well. She's reported raising ~$1.84 million in large-dollar contributions since launching her campaign in May #IL09 Cook County and LA County are her top two counties Top four states: Illinois: ~$533k California: ~$375k Florida: ~$174k New York: ~$160k

Inbox: Biss' team also on offense this morning against Fine, saying they found "more money in the fourth quarter from donors who previously gave to Donald Trump than from donors living in the 9th District." #IL09

Inbox: State Sen. Mike Simmons goes on offense against his colleague State Sen. Laura Fine after Q4 numbers are released The campaign listed 14 of Fine’s #IL09 donors who have supported GOP campaigns