This would sure liven up the race to replace Rahm Emanuel in Congress: low-level rumblings have author and labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan mulling a run.
"I'm hearing murmurs that [he] is considering a stab at the seat," Josh Kalvenwrites at Progress Illinois.
Kalven also cites a "Thomas Geoghegan for Congress" Facebook group started this week by author and Geoghegan friend Rick Perlstein (Nixonland).
"Nothing's official yet - let's recruit Tom to run!" Perlstein writes.
The group already had 124 members as of Tuesday morning, including Josh Marshall, Jedediah Purdy, and Jeffrey Toobin.
Seeing as how the " Tom Geoghegan for Labor Secretary" Facebook group has already failed, a congressional seat would be a bit of a consolation prize, but Geoghegan has been a longtime advocate of civic engagement; his book credits include The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life, which documented his own attempts at citizenry. He dedicated that book to former alderman and Richard J. Daley nemesis Leon Despres.
Perhaps best-known among Geoghegan's written works is Which Side Are You On? Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back.
It's not clear that Geoghegan could fight his way through a crowded field of experienced pols and Machine hacks, but theoretically he could try to hitch his campaign to the farflung grassroots of the Obama organization in a test case of its staying power and ability to mobilize in local races. But can "a mensch and a hero" really win in Chicago?
