Progress Illinois

In a race where local issues have taken on national significance, 17th congressional district Democratic challenger Cheri Bustos spent Election Day travelling throughout the region in a last ditch effort to encourage more voter turnout in her bid to unseat first-term, Tea Party-backed incumbent U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling.

In one of the state’s largest districts geographically, Bustos, a former journalist and alderwoman of East Moline, spent the early morning hours of the day in the city of Rockford, meeting with voters at several stops before driving across the state to the Quad Cities in order to cast her own vote.

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If tomorrow’s six extremely close (see recent polls here and our voter guide here) Illinois congressional races were solely determined by outside spending, that is money poured into the races that the candidates themselves did not raise, the Republican candidates would win by a landslide.

In the 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 17th district Congressional races, Republicans are getting millions of dollars more from Super Political Action Committees and “dark money” groups. Read more »