Rush and Lech Walesa back Adam Andrzejewski

[thundley4]

Rush: Andrzejewski is Illinois's Scott Brown   [Stephen Spruiell]
Rush Limbaugh has thrown his support behind Adam Andrzejewski (pronounced "an-gee-EFF-skee"), a Republican candidate for governor of Illinois. (Audio here.) Tomorrow's GOP primary is crowded with challengers, and Andrzejewski has trailed former state party chairman Andy McKenna in the polls. But he has been riding a surge lately, starting with an endorsement from former Polish president and Solidarity founder Lech Walesa on Friday, and continuing with Rush's declaration that Andrzejewski might be "the Scott Brown of his contest."

"I have not heard Rush’s remarks yet — I’ve spent the day campaigning in Polish neighborhoods all over Chicago — but people I’ve talked to have said his support was strong and very clear, and I’m gratified by that," says Andrzejewski. "When I built my business, I did not hold the CEO card, I held the salesman card, and I went out in my car on nearly 60,000 sales stops. I listened to a lot of Rush over that ten-year period, and I’m deeply touched that he gave my campaign such profile and prestige today."

Andrzejewski says he hasn't had a chance to check the endorsement's impact on donations, but he says: "My personal cell phone has been bombed with calls, texts, and e-mails."

In the middle of our conversation, Andrzejewski has to pause. When he gets back on the phone, I ask him what happened. "We were pulled over by a Chicago police officer who wanted to shake my hand," he says sheepishly. I ask him if he's kidding. He says no, he's not, that this is the kind of attention he's been getting since the Walesa endorsement. (As we talk, his campaign is caravanning from a Polish diner, Staro Polska, in Chicago, to its headquarters, where Fox News is scheduled to show up with its cameras.)

NRO

I'm hoping he pulls it off and my vote isn't wasted tomorrow.

[franksolich]

NRO

I'm hoping he pulls it off and my vote isn't wasted tomorrow.

I'm hoping to have a live thread for this, the first primary of 2010, tomorrow night.

This would probably be the race of the most interest, given two Republican candidates; I don't imagine the Republican and Democrat primaries for the U.S. Senate will have much.

But we'll see.

<<is oftentimes surprised.