The Rich Whitney campaign for Governor of Illinois showed Greens the value of a hard fought campaign. Unlike Democrats or Republicans, who secure a substantial number of general election votes just because of their party label, smaller party candidates must word hard for every vote they win. Whitney’s campaign, bringing in better than ten of every hundred votes, proved the value of earning votes the old fashioned way, by asking for them.

One of the outcomes of such a success story is others ready to follow your example, and one of those folks is now polling better than 6% in his bid to go to Washington representing Illinois’ 11th Congressional District. Jason Wallace is polling at 6%. A professional poll conducted by Anzalone Liszt Research showed the Green Nominee far behind the Republican and Democratic nominees, but very much in the mix, as was Whitney.

Green Cutip’s blog, Open Minds and Open Hearts brought this news to the Internet, and he reports that this information came first from Real Clear Politics. In addition to this news the blog has links to all the ILGP Congressional candidates.

Does your state have it’s own Rich Whitney? Energy, perseverance, passion and self-sacrifice pay off in spades if the ILGP is any example.