GOPer Weller Announcing Retirement
Congressman Jerry Weller (R-IL) will announce today that he is not seeking re-election, setting up a potentially close race for his swing seat — President Bush carried the district with 53% in 2004, and Weller won re-election with only 55% in 2006, despite not being targeted.
"I need to give my family the time needed to be a full-time father and husband," Weller will say, according to prepared remarks.
And on the subject of his family: Weller is married to Zury Ríos Montt, a member of the Guatemalan Congress from the Guatemalan Republican Front — a party founded by her father, Efraín Ríos Montt. The elder Ríos Montt is a former right-wing dictator who took power in a March 1982 military coup, combatted leftist guerrillas by employing brutal tactics against indigenous peoples — killing tens of thousands — and was himself forced from power in August 1983.
Comments (5)
Daniel wrote on September 21, 2007 2:36 PM:Obviously a huge opening for Dems. They have a lot of open seats to play with. Check these www.campaigndiaries.com.
anon wrote on September 21, 2007 3:20 PM:I will be curious if there is an investigation on Weller, there are some red flags about his real estate transactions, mainly for tax evasion. Also there are some problems if he was using his wife's money to dabble in real estate and didn't report this on his forms to Congress. I don't think this is the end of press stories about Weller and his real estate transactions in San Juan del Sur.
Gary Vincent wrote on September 21, 2007 4:15 PM:Another one bites the dust. Another seat in the Midwest that, barring a Howard Dean screw-up, the Democrats can pick up...and do nothing with. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.
CrookedInc.Com
It gets better: Rich Miller's Capitol Fax Blog (essential for following Prairie State politics) reports that a Weller staffer assaulted two Chicago-area TV reporters:
http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/2007/09/21/weller-thuggery/
There are great stories about Weller and his sketchy connections with Guatemala in the Chicago Reader.
