(CNN) – Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said Monday that a special election will be held to fill the congressional seat vacated by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who stepped down last week amid an ethics probe and ongoing health problems.
Quinn said a primary election would be held on February 26, which coincides with an already-scheduled local primary election, and proposed setting April 9 as the date for the general election to coincide with another previously-scheduled vote.
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Chicago, Illinois (CNN) - Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois resigned from office Tuesday, ending months of speculation about his future. Jackson has not been seen in public since he took a leave of absence in June to get treatment for severe bipolar depression.
In a resignation letter submitted to House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, Jesse Jackson said, “for the past several months, as my health has deteriorated, my ability to serve the constituents of my district has continued to diminish.”
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(CNN) - Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is no longer being treated at the Mayo Clinic for what he described last month as "several serious health issues," clinic spokesman Nick Hanson said Tuesday.
The Illinois congressman had returned to the center in September for what Hanson described as a "follow-up evaluation to ensure he is on the path to properly manage his health." He won his bid for a tenth term in the U.S. House last week despite making no public campaign appearances and having been out of the public eye since May.
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(CNN) - Rep. Jesse Jackson spoke out Saturday on the circumstances surrounding his months-long absence from the public eye, saying in a recorded phone call to his Illinois constituents that he has "undergone medical treatment to address several serious health issues."
"Like many human beings, a series of events came together in my life at the same time and they've been difficult to sort through," he said in the call, which was obtained by CNN affiliate WBBM. "I am human, I am doing my best, and I am trying to sort through them all."
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(CNN) - Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, a longtime friend of President Barack Obama, said Tuesday the president was "surprised" in last week's debate against Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
"He was shocked and surprised, many of us were. Mitt Romney came on that set at the first debate and said things which completely contradicted what he'd said in the campaign before. I think it caught the president a little bit by surprise. He won't be surprised again," Durbin said on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien."
Washington (CNN) – Sometimes in politics, things are black and white – like the historically wide gulf between the black community and the conservative movement.
But a new effort by FreedomWorks, a conservative organization associated with the tea party movement, aims to change that. And a prominent African-African progressive activist says he thinks the outreach effort is premature, misguided and, therefore, not likely to be successful.
With an event Wednesday evening in Pittsburgh, FreedomWorks is launching its national "Black and White Tour," an explicit, unapologetic effort to lobby African-Americans on economic policy issues at the core of the agenda of many fiscal conservatives involved in tea party activism.
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Washington (CNN) - Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who hasn't been seen on Capitol Hill since late May, hopes to return work Monday after checking out of the Mayo Clinic where he was treated for bipolar depression, his office said.
Monday is the first day back for Congress after summer recess.
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Chicago (CNN) – President Barack Obama congratulated Paul Ryan Sunday for being selected as Mitt Romney's running mate, but cut short the plaudits to blast the Wisconsin congressman's economic proposals.
"I know him. I welcome him to the race," Obama said at a fund-raiser in Chicago. "Congressman Ryan is a decent man. He is a family man. He is an articulate spokesman for Gov. Romney's vision. But it's a vision that I fundamentally disagree with."
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(CNN) – At the start of a campaign event Tuesday, Mitt Romney held a moment of silence for victims of the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin earlier in the week.
"The tragedy is even more profound because the Sikh religion and the Sikh people are such peaceable, loving individuals," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said.
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(CNN) – The wife of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. detailed to a Chicago newspaper her husband's "collapse" and his last two months getting treated for gastrointestinal and mental health issues, saying he's still "very depressed" though showing some progress.
Sandi Jackson, an alderwoman in Chicago, talked with the Chicago Sun-Times shortly after returning from visiting her husband at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, with their two children.
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