Race for Illinois 17th Congressional district Heats up
By: Sabrina Santucci
Updated: November 6, 2012
Democratic legislators redrew it after the census to help a Democrat win in 2012. As a result, the 17th Congressional district now includes several counties stretching from the Wisconsin border and parts of
The Democrat picked to challenge the freshman Congressman was Cheri Bustos. Bustos is a former East Moline City Councilwoman.
Schilling, a former pizza shop owner, endorsed the pro-Republican agenda of not raising taxes on the rich and reducing regulation. He actively courted Tea Party support.
Bustos pledged to support the Democratic agenda of raising taxes on the rich and using government programs and investment to help protect the middle-class. Bustos has actively courted labor support.
One poll two weeks before today showed Bustos and Schilling in a virtual 48%-48% tie.
Each candidate spent lots of campaign cash on ads in an attempt to sway what few undecided voters were left. Most of the ads were negative.
Schilling painted Bustos as a tax-and-spend liberal who paid large amounts of tax dollars to build city signs and pave the road from her house to a local country club.
Bustos countered that Schilling supported policies which encouraged the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and threatened Medicare.
