Mark Pera is trying to unseat incumbent and fellow Democrat Rep. Dan Lipinski (link) (D-IL) in Illinois' 3rd district. I strongly urge voting for anyone other than Pera, due to his links to a few interesting groups. While Lipinski might have his problems (link), I doubt whether they rise to Pera's issues. Those include receiving help from a Mexico-linked group, receiving money from immigration lawyers, and receiving the endorsement of a racist linked to the Mexican government.

I'm going to send an email to Pera asking him whether he's going to reject the support of these groups, but I suspect he won't:

1. Via Howie Klein [1] we learn that the Mexico-linked Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has been working on his behalf. That group's president, Juan Salgado, has a few links to the Mexican government.

2. From this: ...Carlos Heredia of the Latino Organization of the Southwest criticized him for being a no-show at two neighborhood meetings called to discuss comprehensive immigration reform... the Mexicans for Political Progress yesterday announced their support for Lipinski's chief opponent, democrat Mark Pera. Members of the group --among them Juan Salgado, president of the ICIRR board; Fabian Morales, advisor of the Institute for Mexicans in the Exterior (IME); and Salvador Cervantes organizer of Resurrection Project – said MXPP endorses Pera because of his support of pro-immigrant proyects, such as the Dream Act...

The IME is part of the Mexican government, and, as discussed at his name's link, Morales said this recently:

"Because the enemy is not at home, but outside, he is of white complexion, he thinks differently than us, they are the Minuteman, and those are the ones that we should attack."

Note also that the "Mexicans" part of "Mexicans for Political Progress" should be a misnomer, in that "Mexicans" can't vote (in the U.S.), only "Mexican-Americans". Obviously, they don't see it that way. Even MALDEF uses "Mexican-American" and LULAC has "Citizen" in their name.

3. Pera has received money from Immigrants' List, a group whose board members are all immigration attorneys.

4. "ICIRR sponsored a voter's forum with over 400 Mexican and Muslim immigrant leaders that was attended by Pera and another challenger, but not by their own congressman." [1]

5. The Mexican and Muslim communities have collaborated on fundraising for the Pera Campaign, bringing in thousands of dollars locally and using the money to open a second campaign office and to hire two experienced immigrant organizers to mobilize Mexican and Muslim voters. [1] (as above, "Mexican" isn't the same as "Mexican-American", and I suspect Klein means it the way he wrote it)

6. The Campaign for Community Change (associated with the Center for Community Change) sent out a mailer attacking Lipinski. [1]

[1] downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/01/pissing-off-immigrant-community-in.html

Note that Klein's Blue America PAC has also collaborated with the ICIRR before on another project, and thus he and they have an indirect link to the Mexican government.