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Katy Wolpoff / NBC Chicago
Jesse Jackson Jr. won re-election to Illinois' 2nd Congressional district by a landslide Tuesday night, NBC Chicago reported.
CHICAGO — U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., who has made no public appearances since for several months amid illness and who faces a criminal probe into alleged misuse of public funds, easily won re-election to his Chicago-area district on Tuesday.
Jackson, a Democrat who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1995 and who was diagnosed earlier this year with bipolar disorder, won re-election to Illinois' 2nd Congressional district by a landslide, beating his two opponents, Marcus Lewis and Brian Woodworth.
As of 2 a.m. local time Wednesday (3 a.m. ET) and with 99 percent of precincts reporting, Jackson had captured 63 percent of the vote.
"My deep and sincere thanks to the people of the 2nd Congressional District, I am humbled and moved by the support shown today," Jackson said in a written statement. "Everyday, I think about your needs and concerns. Once the doctors approve my return to work, I will continue to be the progressive fighter you have known for years. My family and I are grateful for your many heartfelt prayers and kind thoughts. I continue to feel better everyday and look forward to serving you."
Jesse Jackson Jr. under federal investigation over alleged financial improprieties
Jackson reportedly spent the night at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
August 2012: Former Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy visited longtime friend and colleague U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who is undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder. Kennedy described their mutual struggle with depression in this extended interview with NBC News.
Jackson disappeared from public view before the primary when he left for a treatment center in Arizona in early June. He later moved on to Mayo where he was diagnosed with bipolar depression and gastrointestinal issues.
More stories from NBCChicago.com
In October, federal prosecutors and FBI agents in Washington, D.C., launched a criminal investigation into Jackson involving alleged financial improprieties.
At the same time, a House Ethics Committee continues to look into Jackson's supposed involvement in trying to be appointed to now-President Barack Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate. Jackson has admitted he wanted to be appointed to the Senate, but has repeatedly denied allegations he sent emissaries to offer campaign cash to then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for the seat.
The emissary that he denies sending to negotiate with Blagojevich, Raghuveer Nayak, was arrested on 17 counts of fraud in June.
Once a rising star, the Illinois Representative has not been seen in Congress since early June. Friends and colleagues say Jackson was being treated at a facility in Arizona. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
More election coverage from NBCNews.com:
- Victorious Obama 'more determined' in face of challenges
- Now that he's won, six splitting headaches waiting for Obama
- Democrats retain control of Senate with series of hard-fought wins
- One big winner in Tuesday's vote: health reform
- Romney's English cousin sad he lost, sort of
- Rape remarks sink two Republican Senate hopefuls
- In costliest-ever Senate race, Warren beats Brown for Mass. seat
- Maine's Harley-riding King vowed to 'shake up' D.C.
- Republicans easily maintain control of House
- Colorado, Washington approve recreational marijuana use
- Wisconsin's Baldwin becomes 1st openly gay senator
- Pence in as governor of Indiana; Hassan wins in N.H.
- World welcomes Obama's 2nd term - but many challenges loom
- Majority of voters see American on wrong track
- Top 10 foreign policy issues facing Obama
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Leave a Comment:
Like father like son - - - vote blindly for the name - NOT the individual - AKA Kennedy, etc.
Copy that. Just reading the headline already told me what you wrote before reading the story...
Re-electing a guy that can't do his job! Ha. Seems to be a lot of that going on lately.
Give the voters credit for determining that electing a no-show incompetent is vastly better than electing incompetents who show up to line their pockets and destroy the nation like the current crop of elected officials.
If the man is sick the right thing to do would be to resign, if he had any ambition of higher office thats over with. He is just like so many other politicians in that his personal ambition has a much higher priority than the people he represents. Wished there was a way to force states to make all these congressional districts more competitive so that we wouldnt keep electing extreme left or extreme right politicians.
should we of expected anything less?? This Country is going to hell in a hand basket! Be proud libs, like I said you would vote for Satan if he ran DEM!
Norm: I've got news for you. All politicians are in the game to line their pockets. They do what is best for their own self interest and don't give a damn about the people who voted them in. If you think it's only one party, you've got a lot to learn buddy.
Ronkomkoma Chet: Not sure why you assigned a party designation to my comment. Read it again and please point out where either party is singled out.
This is one reason Chicago has all the problems they have.
This area is in need of redistricting. The lines need to be redrawn with people with brains..........
The witch hunt is over and the American people Spoke, the GOP hate attacks comes to an end for a better Chicago !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
crazy jjj wanted to suspend the constitution.and they want him in.he had a mental collapse and they want him back in.wtf is wrong with people.jjj needs to be put out to pasture.maybe a nice pasture that daddy stole for him.james earl ray was a bad shot.
Gerrymandering is already a problem ..... and you want to exacerbate it by defining a district that encompasses one fourth of the state, one house per block.
I am not trying to be funny here and I shouldn't be surprised but I am, ARE PEOPLE THIS STUPID to reelect him? This country is in big TROUBLE.
norm: Jackson won because he was a Democrat regardless of the fact that he is totally useless. You made a comment that you would rather have a worthless piece of crap win the election than other incompetents who show up to line their pockets and destroy the nation like the current crop of elected officials. Jackson is in that current crop and is facing criminality charges. He ran against a republican and an independent. He has proven he is lining his own pockets. So for you to say you would rather see him win over the other candidates insinuates party affiliation. The other candidates may or may not be incompetent or be self serving; but Jackson has already proven he is both. So your support of him has to be based on the fact he is a Democrat.
Another victory for a "taker" and not a "maker".
No big secret how Jackson or Obama won now is there? Promises and giveaways without contributing nothing back is the new recipe for financial freedom.
@DenverBill Please stop "exacerbating" on the vine. The drool gets tiring to the eyes....
Hey Chicago! Good luck with THAT you big dopes! You messed up people deserve your messed up government to go with your messed up state. Ignorance is, as ignorance does.
tontosh - Yes, hard to believe but people really are that stupid. The masses are a$$es.
The reasoning that got Jackson re-elected is the same reasoning that got O'Bama re-elected. Both are total failures but they got re-elected because of their Skin Color and NOT their job performance I wish them luck and hope they at the very least meet the minimal expectations and complete their time in office.
Tontosh - Ever seen "Idiocracy"? It's here and now, my friend.
blacks vote for blacks ....they care not the truth....how could you vote for someone who has been hiding in a hospital for months and is being seriously criminally probed for selling seats...
people who can vote themselves a check surely will...
This is exactly why chicago is the @!$%# HOLE of america
The voted him back into office. They deserve whatever they get.
What a bunch of idiots. Let me guess, blindly voting because of race?
Because they are racists!
they would vote for wayne williams if he could run.
No surprise. He's from Illinois, just like Feisty.
No, no, no...you got it all wrong. Whites are racist. You can tell by the percentage of the black vote Romney got (0% as of late last night). <sarc>
But Latinos can vote for multi-race OBAMA!
...as long as no one asks them for ID.
The folks that support a person of this character don't get hung up on things like criminality. In fact, they value it.
Agreed. Marion Barry is living proof you can get re-elected after being filmed smoking crack with a prostitute ...... and again after you complete your prison term.
"The only way I can lose this election is if I get caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy." ---Edwin Edwards
Seems Illinois has a lot of criminals that are elected officials, what's up with that?
Jack: I think you need to be a criminal to get elected nowadays. The people don't vote these guys in based on race, they vote them in based on credentials. And it seems to be a positive if you are a criminal.
If I could live my life over again I would be a criminal and run for office. You have to give the people what they want. But it's too late for me now. Too bad.
Very unimpressive Chicago, we get the government we deserve.
Wrong. We get the government we vote for. Very seldom is it the government we deserve.
Chicago is a cesspool of corruption they will continue doing themselves no favors.
I didn't vote for him and I'm still stuck with him.
evidently the people there like higher tax's and higher unemployment. and more regulation.
Sorry to hear that meh. JJ2 is one of the many reasons I moved from the south burbs to the north several years ago. Voters don't care who they vote for in that area as long as there's a (D) after the name.
OHHH the irony IA.scootertramp !
LACK of regulation IS the reason for our current high unemployment
Ohhh the irony in a name. Perhaps you should try religion, since rationality (or at least rationality backed by facts) is apparently not your strong suit. The top ten nations for lowest unemployment rate in the world are:
Papua, New Guinea -- 1.8%
Cuba -- 1.6%
(tie) Guernsey, Kuwait, Liechtenstein -- 1.5%
Thailand -- 1.2%
Tonga -- 1.1%
Belarus -- 0.7%
(tie) Monaco, North Korea -- 0.0%
Apparently (by your logic) all hotbeds of environmental and manufacturing regulations.
Cuba and North Korea at full employment? Reminds me of the old saying from the employed workers in the former Soviet Union:
"We pretend to work and our government pretends to pay us."
What good is "full-rmployment" when the economic system fails to provide basic goods and services to it's people?
I woke up in another world this morning.
Everyone in America has gone insane.
actually viewer its no different then yesterday or tomorrow.sad country indeed.
give it six months and gas will be over $5.00 a gallon forcing double figure inflation, and double figure unemployment as well as a surge in SSD aps. and those higher tax's ...? get use to em. your about to get hammered America.
Who knows ? about six months after that a FEW of the libs may even figure out what just happened, of course it wont be their messiahs fault, or any of the dems for that matter, just those "greedy company's" or "speculators"
You forgot "it's Bush's fault".
We all have to live with the hand we are dealt now. I didn't vote for Presidnet Obama but now that he is re-elected I hope he is able to do all he promised he would do. The time first he was elected he made a statement that if he couldn't fix the economy in his first term he didn't deserve a second term. Now he is saying he is close and needs an additional 4 years. Well he is going to get his chance but from this day forward we shouldn't hear any more excusses that it is Bush's fault. Mr. Obama asked for 4 more years and told everyone we were headed in the right direction so IF things go bad it can only be his fault. After 4 years Bush shouldn't even be brought up in conversations any more when the Dem's try to deflect why things are going wrong. I wish good luck to Mr. Obama, for the sake of the country I hope is able to deliver what he promised but the time for bashing Bush is gone and so are any more excusses. It is time to put up or shut up.
Jackson's re-election should never have happened but it demonstrates how fearful people are of house republicans.
Same with Teirney in MA.
I doubt it has very little to do with house republicans.... they were going to retain control despite the 2nd district outcome.
Democrat or Republican, I cannot believe someone who has not worked for months due to depression is granted a landslide victory against opponents who are ready to work on day 1.
Pathetic.
Certainly they were going to retain control but I think the fact the Brown was denied re-election even though he was fairly bi-partisan is evidence that people will vote for anybody (at least in some states) that isn't republican.
I hope republicans understand that and begin employing the "C" word (compromise).
Mark - Maybe you should be talking to Harry Reid, remember he and the Democrats control the Senate. When is the Senate going to do their job and pass a budget? When is the Senate going to allow a vote on the House jobs bills?
The biggest question of all is, when is Obama going to learn that he was elected, and reelected, to be President, not a King or Emperor? Presidents are not, and should not, be given everything they want or think they need. It takes leadership to forge a consensus and Obama has not yet showed he has any leadership.
This wasn't about fear. It was all about Black support for Blacks--nothing else. Too bad so many white people fear being labeled a racist that it obscures their decision making ability.
Mark" YOU" are an idiot..... Blacks vote for blacks. They can be criminals, they can be incompetant, they can be total failures and attempt to destroy what once was a great nation but between the "Weak Minded Sheeples" and the blacks they will vote color and the Democrat party. In the democratic party Mark..The C word is "Criminals" and the blacks and the democraps love them!!!!!!!
is this for REAL!!!
am I dreaming???
Of course its chicago and you expected?
SAD!!!!!!!!!!!
FORWARD...........off the cliff...........
Lemmings on the march - forward! and then follow each other off the cliff!
Let the constituents reap ; let America weep. Isn't it bad enough that Chicago is now the murder city of the US; that crime (including the sting of local officials) is rampant, and that their Representative is missing and presumed NUTZ? Come on --impeach the bum. If he is really sick; there is disability. If he is feigning insanity and mental disease; then that is a disability that can likely be discredited. If he is hiding out from being charged criminally--then he should take his punishment like a big boy. He should not be dragging his constituents into the fracas--although these are likely the 47% that no one SHOULD give a rodent's rectum about. So maybe it is even after all.
Just absurd!! Never should this have happened. I have to hand it to minorities though...they stick together like glue and got each others back.
Regardless of how incompetent, sleazy and lawless one of them is or becomes.
What it also says is that as big a schmuck as Jackson is, they don't want more republicans in the House.
Republicans ignore that message at their own peril.
Mark--don't you have celebrating to do? Don't even get me started on compromise. All I can say in another 4 years when the middle class is gone because of ACA loss of jobs, because it will happen, (small business was waiting to see who was elected), our joke of a Prez will FINALLY have to OWN IT!!
Just calling it as I see it Pls.
The worst thing anyone can do is blame other people for their own failures. It virtually ensures they will fail again and again and again until they see their failures as their own.
like I said maybe your Prez will FINALLY own it. He is a failure.
try that with your eyes OPEN.
Republicans won't admit that this isn't so much about Jackson as it is about republicans.
Put another way, if a republican of the same caliber as Jackson won instead of an honest democrat, I, as a democrat, would be looking in the mirror and not at the electorate.
Im not a die hard Republican or Democrat. However, Democrats are no longer actual Democrats....they Liberals. Republicans are no longer actual Republicans...they are Democrats.
It's funny, if you look back in time, you can see the shift the country has made. JFK was not a Republican...he was a Democrat. It's funny many people think he was (R). His ideals and political mindset would be considered "hard right" these days.
I can tell you one thing. I have lived in 6 different states and traveled the world with the military. I see far more freeloaders and people willing to take than they are willing to give. Im sure you know many of them too. People take pride in getting something for nothing.
It will all implode. It's unsustainable. Period. End of story. America as a superpower or global leader is OVER!!
Rob-- well said, America is toast! At least half of Americans were smart went they went to the polls!
Probably not gonna happen. Most (certainly not all, as is shown by the results) Republicans wouldn't vote for someone of Jackson's caliber .... they prefer the big guns to the Saturday night specials.
In either case, if self-knowledge, and awareness of (and commitment to) what really constitutes the public good were a prerequisite for voting, we would not be having this conversation.
BTW, "honest democrat (read, in fairness, "politician")" is an oxymoron.
Mark.....i know bills comment used way to many big words and i don't have time to explain them all but;
Oxymoron ;
hope that helps.......
I know I'm trolling here and I agree that if Jackson is found guilty of the charges he should be removed or remove himself.
BUT isn't War "Legal murder" ?
The short answer is "Yes." The somewhat longer answer is that murder is, by definition, always illegal. However, not all killing is murder. What's your point?
Mark Let me remind you "You are a weak minded Sheeple and an "Idiot" You comments prove that fool!!!!!
I have to agree. The fact that the local electorate would vote this man back into office, when he is both a) plainly emotionally incapable of performing his job and b) under criminal investigation, is highly disturbing.
But the victory of Jesse Jackson Jr. and Barrack Obama are not connected.
Obama won because he ran a smart campaign, and because Romney's candidacy was fatally crippled by the arch-conservative views he was forced to embrace to win the nomination.
...and by his propensity to put his foot in his mouth.
dman, sad to say it, but you are right. It would seem that the black community, in this instance, looks only at the color of a person's skin, not what they bring to the table or try to take from the table.
ever hear the term...straight party ticket?...........or has the "under the bus" campaign started already?
I've heard of it. It's what people do when they don't want to actually have to think and would rather just "rah rah rah (bah bah?)" for their favorite team.
It is what every group when it is struggling to attain political power. Boston Mayor James Michael Curley was supposedly once elected while in prison. His Irish constituency was incredibly loyal, or perhaps they just hated the Anglo establishment that much.
This is a classic example of how truly moronic people are. To re-elect a politician who is facing many criminal charges and has not been around is simply asinine. Same goes for Marion Barry and Charlie Rangel. I don't want to hear squat about how bad crime has become or how kids are not learning. Chicago deserves to be the cesspool it has become. Way to go morons.
Perhaps he was re-elected BECAUSE OF the criminal probe, not in spite. Maybe people like the idea of him never showing up for work at the Capitol (they prefer no representation to bad representation.) Maybe they are trying to support his income so he will have enough money to buy a quantity of drugs that will finish him off.
It's HILARIOUS that people that most-likely re-elected the lying-est, most corrupt, inept and ignorant president, that put us in the biggest financial hole ever and sent us to war with the wrong country 8 years ago want to now question peoples' motives and rationale for electing a LOCAL official.
He didn't have the decency to inform his electorate about his personal problems and just left office.
Then he didn't have the decency to show up for months even though his absence had been outed.
He hasn't even said whether he will return to office soon
And they STILL voted for him!
I guess that's one thing wrong with America that will not change soon.
its official now - Illinois voters are IDIOTS.
i think you're the idiot illinois 2760913.glad to see your little pea brain if you have one lumps all illinois voters into one voting bloc. many people in illinois didn't vote for obama or jjj but were stuck with them. i think you need to put 13 knots in a good sturdy rope and do mankind a favor.
innocent until proven guilty- is tht not the premise this country was built on- notice he did not get any endorsements from the Prez though
This is the new face of America. A journalist made a statement last night I believe to be true. In 2012 and beyond the white vote will be non-existent and the repubs will be no more. All you libbers will laugh about that and say a big hooray but who will fill your entitlement coffers then?
This just proves how STUPID and CORRUPT Chicago really is. Most are on welfare so they only care if their representative is black. - I like the phrase - New Face of America - so true
Do they actually hold elections in Chicago or are the people there that stupid?
Idiots cointinue to rule. Communist turd in the White House Again and a criminal ELECTED in Illinois. Time to get out of this country, as it's going to implode.
Feel free to leave whenever you like. And take your mullet with you.
LOL Cappy right on !
Don't let the door hit ya ..............
Ohhh all the butt hurt baggers crying so bad. Parroting the same doom and gloom nonsense they did in '08. And simply ignoring the fact that their guy, GW, left after overseeing an economic collapse the likes we haven't experienced in 80 plus years. Then trying to blame the incumbent !
I commend President Obama's job so far with the past and current Republican obstructionism he has and still is facing.
What did he run against a broom? I was traveling in Chicago on time a few months after an election and I heard a story on the radio that some guy apparently had a stoke6-7 months before the election. No one saw him for 7 months, but you guessed it they re elected him. Right after the election was over he came out and told everyone that he wouldn't be able to complete his term and by rule he got to name his successor. He named his son. You can't make this stuff up
Do you have names? Or are you actually making this stuff up?
Cappy! Where have you been this last year or two? Jesse went AWOL on his constituents and would not even give an honest answer why he disapperared. What the hell was the name of the Governor who is going to prison for trying to sell Jesse a seat in the Senate? Independent is right on......
A black racist with chronic depression, under criminal investigation just won political office in the US. Now that I finally realize the gutter level standards and requirements for said office and the people that vote for them I can understand how obama was re-elected. At least we do not have to worry about cleaning up the White House yet.
Of course he got Re elected, he's Black isn't he? Blacks vote Color, nothing else. Shows the "Intelligence" of voters. In a year or so it's going to be nearly impossible to have someone Admit they voted for Obama, Blacks excluded.