Senate seat a key battleground for parties
The Illinois race for an open Senate seat may be the biggest political battle of 2010, at least when it comes to bragging rights.
It is the seat held by Barack Obama before he moved to the White House and would be a major victory for Republicans to take.
Both primary races are crowded, with six Republicans and five Democrats trying to get their party's endorsement to run in the general election in November.
Republican voters will choose among U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park, Hinsdale real estate developer Patrick Hughes, Springfield activist Kathleen Thomas, former Harvey Alderman John Arrington, Chicago blogger Andy Martin and retired Judge Don Lowery of downstate Golconda.
The Democratic ballot will include Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias of Chicago, Chicago businessman Jacob Meister, Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson, former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman and Burr Ridge radiologist Robert Marshall.
Republican leaders are backing Kirk, a commander in the Naval Reserve and five-term congressman with moderate views on issues like gun control and abortion. Kirk has irked some conservative activists, who believe he has not followed fundamental Republican principles.
Hughes argues that electing Kirk wouldn't be significantly different from electing a Democrat.
"I am running against the establishment pick, a 'Republican' who voted for bank bailouts, cap and trade, and millions in earmarks for his campaign donors," Hughes said. "We cannot forget his votes for partial birth abortions and his 'F' rating from the (National Rifle Association)."
On the Democratic side, Giannoulias has the highest name recognition, but with that has come criticism for his part overseeing an investment program that lost $150 million that Illinois families had set aside to pay for college.
He faces an aggressive challenger in Hoffman, a former prosecutor, as well as Jackson, a candidate with a natural political base in Chicago as the only black candidate in the field. Yet Jackson also was a high-ranking aide to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which has opened her up to criticism.
Meister has presented himself as an outsider, someone who is more in touch with business owners than with politicians.
The race is sure to draw national attention, as the president's party traditionally struggles in midterm elections.
Complicating things even further, this particular Senate seat is entangled in the Blagojevich scandal.
The former governor is accused of, essentially, trying to sell the seat and name the buyer as Obama's replacement. Even after his arrest, Blagojevich went ahead and appointed Roland Burris to the seat. Burris gave conflicting, incomplete answers about how he came to get that appointment, which triggered an ethics investigation and made Burris so unpopular that he decided not to run for a full term.