The #1 foreign policy issue this weekend is Afghanistan, the safety of our men serving globally, and the safety of our homeland. Brad robo called me yesterday; topic Israel and inbound rockets. EARTH TO BRAD. We all stand with Israel. What I wished I'd heard was "if I were your Congressman now you would already know that I would be working on a resolution to require the President to accelerate our withdrawal from Afghanistan". It seems Brad the businessman always fails to differentiate himself any way he can, why vote for that when we already have that?

There’s a disconnect in the messages coming from the Brad Schneider campaign.
On the one hand they say “Only a Moderate like Schneider can win this seat away from Dold!”
And then they tell us Schneider is a lifelong “Progressive”!
Now why would they go and say that?
Maybe because the Schneider people know that we in the newly redrawn 10th are looking for a progressive Democrat to represent us. Why else would they be trying to re-package this Bush-tax-cut loving, Kirk-supporting, GOP-voting, barely-to-the-left-of-center, not-all-that-different from-Dold, conservative Blue Dog as:
(according to his mailers)
“A lifelong fighter for progressive causes!” ?
The Schneider campaign has been woefully mismanaged, he is alienating the Democratic base, his debate abilities are sorely lacking.
If Brad Schneider wins the Dem nomination, we will lose in November.

And BTW, Ms Hamos, you are talking about the old 10th.
Have a look at the new 10th. It's different!

Jon Hall - while I agree that Afghanistan may be the #1 foreign policy issue, that doesn't mean that Israel and the tensions with Iran aren't extremely relevant as well.

I am happy to hear that Brad is making calls about relevant issues - the only calls I've gotten from Ilya are extremely negative, and are only attacks. This part of the article resonates with me:
“MoveOn does not understand complex politics of this area,” Hamos said. “This is a very sophisticated, well educated area. There is a long history of ticket splitting.”

It's frustrating to see Ilya naively attack Brad for something that is such a non-issue in this district.

Brad Schneider is a Republican for all I can see. If Steny Hoyer and Melissa Bean endorse him, that confirms the fact. Those two are corporate sell-outs.

Ilya Sheyman is a total lightweight and way too inexperienced. But I agree with his Schneider bashing which has been accurate. If either of these two win the primary, they will go on to defeat in November.

The only viable alternative is John Tree. He is the only one of this group that can defeat Dold in November. Yes, I know the new district boundaries. Study the voting patterns and you will see the new areas are not solid Democratic.

I have received 4 negative robo-calls from Outside progressive groups slamming Brad Schneider -- all very annoying and bothersome to me. I have received 2 negative mailers. From what I can see, Illya Sheyman has outside groups doing a full boar negative barrage on Brad Schneider. I was decidedly undecided before, but in my book, you only go negative if you have nothing positive to say or you are losing. In either case, I'm not voting for Sheyman...not really sure who'll I'll be voting for but not him. A negative campaign in a district this small is completely unnecessary.

Sheyman's argument, that he can beat Dold because he'll get all the Seals votes plus the additional Democrats in the new part of the district, the conservative Melissa Bean Democrats, is fundamentally unsound. Sheyman is not the same guy as Dan Seals and the Democrats in the new part of the District are not in Sheyman's camp. Forget Schneider's Republican donations, he's a Steny Hoyer guy by his own admission, and Hoyer is a very conservative Democrat now under fire from Progressives for his stand against Social Security and Medicare. If you want a good progressive candidate who can run strong against Dold, the answer is John Tree. John Tree can beat Bob Dold, plain and simple. Has a progressive message for the base and appeals to the middle with his business and military background. He's an affable guy who is easy to talk to and he's lived a life with ups and downs and has learned a few things along the way. He's the kind of guy you'd want to represent you because he does represent you.
Tree did great in all the candidate forums and will beat Dold in any debate. Dold won't be able to use the old Mark Kirk arguments that were used against Dan and the pre-Dan candidates because they just don't exist against Tree. Dold can't call Tree weak on defense and he can't call him inexperienced. If you want to win, the answer is John Tree.

Agreed that Tree is an excellent candidate - but he got in the game too late, and doesn't have the name recognition or the organization to beat Dold. A vote for Tree, this time around, is a vote for Schneider. I, too, am offended by Brad's use of the word "progressive", and would respect him if he campaigned as the conservative Democrat that he is.
Ilya Sheyman is a bright, articulate candidate, who had the courage to run for this office and the skill to put together an effective, hard hitting campaign; he has out fund raised his opponents, and has a huge number of volunteers from all over the district. He's a great debater, and knows where he stands on the issues. He's also a good listener, and knows how to compromise to build coalitions. He's the guy who can beat Dold.

I really don't see the charm of Ilya and feel that he's a very weak candidate to put up against Dold, now an incumbent. His only experience was at Moveon, and he's touting his great health care advocacy, now claiming to be firmly a single payer advocate. However, don't have such a short memory. Ilya's Moveon, the local one that he managed, worked very hard against single payer, attacking the Illinois Single Payer Coalition on it's own Yahoo Group. I have asked him about that and he wasn't such a good listener.

Dold's supporters are hoping for a race against Sheyman. They will tear him apart and with his age and inexperience, he's an easy target, far easier than was Dan Seals and look what they did to him. Go on the Republican sites. Tree makes their heads explode because they know he'd be a tough candidate to beat. It is not too late to support Tree. It's just a question of getting past the investment you've already put into a Sheyman. If you can get past it, that will be for the good of the District.

Liz, it's as of yet unclear just how important a ground campaign like Ilya's is to the outcome. Seals had a fantastic ground campaign which ended Julie Hamos' hopes and his loving volunteers cut Footlik and Smith off before they even got started, But, Mark Kirk had almost no ground campaign. Dold only had that goofy bus that made a general traffic and parking menace of itself. Seals won 3 primaries, but no generals. The fun of winning a primary is easily forgotten when the general is lost. Cant even wear the t-shirt again without feeling odd about it.

Let's be honest here... the only reason that Seals stood any sort of chance was because he bore a physical resemblance to Obama. The guy had nothing to offer except the rote party line on the issues. No personality, no substance.... I'm just glad he is not an option in this election because he would be a certain loser come general election time.

Charlie, Ilya's people are dreaming if they think they'll win because their ground campaign is superior to Dan's. If it is true at all, it's insignificantly true. The question is whether a ground campaign really matters all that much. It's not so certain in our district. And Steve, if you think people in the District look upon Ilya better than Dan, you're also dreaming. Dan was an upstanding person with credible credentials, far more credible than Ilya, and the Republicans made him look like a bum. I don't even want to think about what they'll do to Ilya.