Matt Reichel

Matthew Reichel (born June 7, 1981) is an Illinois politician and activist. A member of the Green Party, Reichel is the party's candidate for the US Congress in Illinois' 5th congressional district in 2010. He was also the party's candidate for Congress in Illinois's 5th congressional district 2009 special election. Reichel previously served as Field Outreach Coordinator for Peace Action's Chicago headquarters until the fall of 2004, when he moved to France to pursue his master's degree at the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy.

Rahm Emanuel resigned the seat effective January 2, 2009.^[1]

Early life

Matt Reichel was born on June 7, 1981 to Paul and Carol Reichel at Skokie Valley Hospital in suburban Chicago. He grew up in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood and attended Joyce Kilmer Elementary School through the 6th grade, before transferring to the Whitney Young High School academic center beginning in 7th grade. Whitney Young High School gained recent notoriety for being the alma mater of Michelle Obama, wife of President Barack Obama.

In 1988, Reichel's parents separated and his father moved to the Albany Park neighborhood. From then on, Reichel divided time between his mother's home, in Illinois's 9th congressional district, and his father's home in the 5th district.^[2]

University Years and Activism

Reichel began attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1999, ultimately graduating with a bachelor's degree in Political Science, with minors in History and Physics.

Throughout his time at the University, Reichel was involved with various left/liberal causes. During his Freshman year, he was a member of the University of Illinois College Democrats of America chapter, which worked to elect Democrats to local political offices.

Beginning in his sophomore year, Reichel parted ways with the College Democrats, preferring instead to work on issue-based causes, specifically related to peace and nuclear disarmament. In the summer of 2000, he began working with Peace Action as an entry-level canvasser, and the following fall he founded the UIUC chapter of the Student Peace Action Network(Student Peace Action Illinois).

During the 2000-01 academic year, Student Peace Action Illinois focused its attention on fighting to divest the university from corporations involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons and the sale of military hardware to human rights violating countries. The organization's prime focus was Boeing, because the company was concurrently planning to move its corporate headquarters into nearby Chicago.

On September 4, 2001, Student Peace Action Illinois and Peace Action together protested the official opening of Boeing's new Chicago location, arguing that Chicago's tax dollars should not go to support a weapons manufacturer.

One week later, the events of 9/11, which ironically involved the use of Boeing commercial jets, changed the focus of the peace movement and Reichel's activist work. From this point, Student Peace Action Illinois shifted its attention to opposing the retaliatory war in Afghanistan and the ensuing war in Iraq.

Together with the greater Champaign/Urbana peace movement, Reichel would help organize numerous rallies, teach-ins and other events, including, on March 20, 2003, the largest anti-war demonstration in the area since the Vietnam war.^[3]

France

In September 2004, Reichel moved to Paris, France and pursued graduate studies at the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy. While there, he was active in several left social movements, including the opposition to the European Union Constitution, and the world-famous general strike against the controversial contrat première embauche.^[2]

During this time, he was also active as a journalist, writing on a range of topics including French and European Union politics, and criticisms of the ongoing American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been published in several periodicals, including CounterPunch, Dissident Voice and Spectrezine, the latter of which is edited by Reichel's master's thesis adviser, Dr. Steve McGiffen.

Kucinich Campaign

In November 2007, Reichel returned from France to work for the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Kucinich disbanded the campaign, Reichel moved to Cleveland to work on the congressman's re-election campaign in Ohio's 10th congressional district.

2009 Congressional Campaign

Reichel announced that he is running as a Green Party candidate in the 2009 special election for Illinois's 5th congressional district upon hearing that Rahm Emanuel would be vacating the seat to work as President Obama's Chief of Staff. The Green Party primary election was held on March 3, with Reichel finishing first of four candidates running for the nomination, receiving 166 votes for 34% of the vote. In the April 7^[4] general election Reichel received 2,269 votes for 7.29% of the vote.^[5] Former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska has endorsed Reichel in his race for Congress.^[6]

External links

• Matt Reichel's Campaign Website
• Campaign Announcement

References

1. ^ Lynn Sweet (2008-12-29). "Rahm Emanuel to resign from House Jan. 2 to join Obama White House;10 candidates already in race. Emanuel has $1.7 million campaign war chest.". Chicago Sun Times. http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/12/rahm_emanuel_to_resign_from_ho.html. Retrieved 2008-12-30. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Matt Reichel for Congress (IL) 5th District". Mattreichel.us. 1981-06-07. http://www.mattreichel.us/meetmatt.php. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
3. ^ Wood, Paul. "Demonstrator's Flood UIUC Campus"; News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana), 21 Mar 2003.
4. ^ "Special Election To Replace Emanuel Set for April 7". Roll Call. http://www.rollcall.com/news/31013-1.html?ET=rollcall:e3608:80052652a:&st=email. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
5. ^ "Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago". Chicagoelections.com. http://www.chicagoelections.com/wdlevel3.asp?elec_code=33. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 
6. ^ Jayne Lattka says: (2009-03-20). "Blog Archive » Mike Gravel Endorses Matt Reichel In Illinois Special Election - America’s #1 Source for Green Party News & Views". Green Party Watch. http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2009/03/20/mike-gravel-endorses-matt-reichel-in-illinois-special-election/. Retrieved 2010-10-18. 

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Name	Reichel, Matt
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Date of birth	June 7, 1981
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