ENDORSEMENT: Mike Quigley for Congress in 5th District Democratic Primary

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley made a bit of national news late last month and, because he’s not a pandering partisan, maybe it carried a little more weight.

Quigley, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, asked the committee’s highly partisan Republican chairman, Devin Nunes, whether the Trump White House had played any part in drafting a committee memo about alleged FBI surveillance abuses. Had the question been asked by an ideological firebrand, it might have been dismissed as more politics. Coming from Quigley, it was an excellent question.

Our endorsement in the 5th Congressional District Democratic primary goes to Quigley because we value his pragmatic refusal to be a partisan flame-thrower, even as he stands firm as a progressive on core issues such as abortion, gay rights and a fair shake for undocumented immigrants. He’s also done a decent job — at least until Donald Trump took office — of bringing federal funds home to Chicago, most notably $1 billion for an extension of the CTA’s Red Line.

Quigley, first elected to Congress in 2008, is opposed by Benjamin Thomas Wolf, an adjunct professor of government and political science; Steven J. Schwartzberg, a former church building and office manager; and Sameena Mustafa, a commercial real estate broker.

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