No surprises among congressional filers
SPRINGFIELD — Candidates for Congress began to make their bids official Friday, setting the suburbs up for a handful of hotly contested races in the March primary election to represent the 18 congressional seats drawn to reflect 2010 census figures.
As announced earlier, Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh of McHenry is avoiding a primary campaign against fellow Congressman Randy Hultgren of Winfield by filing in the 8th District, instead of Hultgren’s 14th. But Walsh will have a primary battle in the 8th against Republicans Richard Evans of Wheaton and Robert Canfield of Palatine.
On the Democratic side in that district, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Hoffman Estates filed Friday. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates hasn’t filled yet, but is expected to.
The 8th District includes Carpentersville, Elgin, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg and Roselle and stretches south past Addison to Lombard.
Hultgren does not face a primary opponent so far in the 14th district. Nor does Democrat Dennis Anderson, who has filed to run in that district as well.
The 14th includes most of McHenry County, northern Lake County, much of Kane County including St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva, and runs south past Aurora and Yorkville.
The 11th District has three-way contests on both sides already.
Republican Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale faces challenges from John Cunningham of Aurora and Diane Harris of Joliet.
Former Democratic Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville will square off against Jim Hickey of Orland Park and Juan Thomas of Sugar Grove.
They’ll fight for control of the 11th District’s expanse of Aurora, Naperville, Bolingbrook and Joliet.
Four Democrats have lined up for an eventual shot at U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton in the 6th District.
Leslie Coolidge of Barrington Hills, Geoffrey Petzel of Lake Zurich, Tim Ritter of Cary and Maureen Yates will fight for the Democratic nomination in March. Whoever wins would face Roskam, the House’s chief deputy whip.
The 6th District includes the southeast corner of McHenry County, the Barrington area, Inverness and Palatine, and snakes south through eastern Kane County and on to West Chicago, Wheaton and Downers Grove.
The Democratic race in the 10th Congressional District is a big one, a four-way battle so far between Vivek Bavda of Mundelein, Brad Schneider of Deerfield, Ilya Sheyman of Waukegan and John Tree of Long Grove.
On the Republican side, incumbent Rep. Robert Dold of Kenilworth is running unopposed so far.
The 10th encompasses central and eastern Lake County, then runs down into Cook County, including Buffalo Grove, Wheeling, Northbrook and Des Plaines.
Candidates can resume filing on Tuesday. After that, the petition signatures they filed to get on the ballot could be challenged, but the field will be mostly set for the March primary.
The recently redrawn Congressional map, drawn by Democrats, originally was predicted to reduce the number of Republican Congressman by pitting incumbents against one another in primary battles. But through internal negotiations, Republican officials have appeared to resolve almost all primary challenges — with the exception of a battle between GOP Reps. Don Manzullo of Egan and Adam Kinzinger of Manteno in the 16th District.
Ÿ Daily Herald politics and projects writer Kerry Lester contributed to this report.