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LaHood will seek re-election

Posted July 09, 2007 11:00 pm

MOLLY PARKER

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood is not going to apply for the Bradley University presidential post and will seek an eighth term in Congress instead.

"People like the job I'm doing," he said Tuesday, explaining his decision. "They like to have me as their congressman … People like the job I'm doing. That's certainly some of the feedback I got."

LaHood released a short statement outlining his decision just shy of one week after the Journal Star ran a story in which sources familiar with Bradley's presidential search indicated that finalists were being interviewed, and LaHood was not one of them.

"I have based this decision on the information I have heard from these community leaders and people familiar with the search process," the statement read. "I have not based this decision on media reports regarding the search nor on reports of potential finalists for the job."

LaHood said he will make an official announcement for re-election when he begins circulating petitions for candidacy in August, a process that starts earlier this year because the primary was bumped from March to February.

LaHood is generally considered a lock for re-election in the Republican-leaning 20-county district. A GOP congressman has held the seat in the 18th Congressional District since Everett McKinley Dirksen took office in 1933.

But that didn't stop the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from taking a shot at LaHood's job search.

"We're dealing with serious issues, such as the need to change course in Iraq and to hold President Bush accountable for his failed policies, and the people of Illinois' 18th District deserve a representative 100 percent committed to them, not someone chasing the latest job opportunity," Ryan Rudominer, spokesman for the committee's Midwest region, said in an e-mail. "Since Lahood's done with his job search, at least for now, hopefully he will finally match his sound bytes on Iraq with his vote."

Two years ago, LaHood considered giving up his congressional seat and running for governor. After months of fundraising and traversing the state, LaHood declined and announced he would instead run for his seventh congressional term.

Not even halfway through his current term, LaHood announced in early June that he was considering applying to become Bradley's next president, the post vacated by David Broski at the end of June.

He spent just more than one month considering the decision.

If named, LaHood would have been the first president of Bradley without a doctoral degree since the school's founding in 1897.

Molly Parker can be reached at (309) 686-3285 or mparker@pjstar.com.

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