Congressional Hopefuls Make Final Effort

Calm returned to the seat currently held by as candidates scramble to rally their supporters for Tuesday’s primary.

After two weeks of charges and counter charges, candidates were exhorting their supporters to make last minute phone calls and knock on their neighbors’ doors to secure the margin of victory in a race both and expect to be close.

“This is how we’re going to win,” Sheyman said to a group of people Sunday in Glencoe who were canvassing for him. “Three doors knocked, six asks per phone call that’s 1 ½ voters per precinct,” he added letting each of them know they can make the difference between victory and defeat.

The two other candidates in the race are and .

Sheyman’s volunteers—the candidate said he has 600 people helping him—expressed enthusiasm as they returned from talking to neighbors. “People here are really fired up for Ilya (Sheyman),” Joan Berman of Glencoe said.

While Sheyman was making the rounds of his volunteer bases—there are eight canvass centers and four phone bank locations throughout the District—Schneider’s team of supporters were doing the same.

In Deerfield Saturday, Schneider was persuading one voter at a time while his supporters fanned out over the 10th District doing the same. Todd Karner of Deerfield, out for a bicycle ride, was one of the people Schneider convinced.

“The problem is you can’t be all Democratic or all Republican,” Karner said. “If you want a realistic chance of getting anything done Democrats and Republicans have to be able to work together.”

Karner was referring to advertising which has flooded the District the last two weeks from groups like MoveOn supporting Sheyman criticizing some donations Schneider mad made to Republicans. “This is what I want to see in Congress,” Karner said. The ads swung Karner to Schneider.

Tree brought former Adm. and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) to Vernon Hills to motivate his supporters to help him get out the vote but he could not attend.

Tree’s mother-in-law, Roz Brown, died Thursday in Florida and he attended the funeral Sunday. He left Saturday and returns today.

“I chose to attend her funeral in Florida today to comfort my wife and her family,” Tree said in a statement about the family loss. “I appreciate Admiral Sestak and all of my supporters’ faith in this campaign and in my candidacy.”

Dozens of people were at the rally enthusiastically preparing to help Tree, according to campaign spokesperson Stacy Racker. Sestak did not disappoint.

“John Tree has the experience and the leadership skills that are sorely needed in Congress,” Sestak said. “While, I am sorry for his family’s loss, I was proud to come out here and celebrate his campaign with his supporters.”

While the Democrats were making last minute campaign efforts, Dold got a head start marching in a Lake Villa parade, according to spokesperson Kelley Folino. He also attended a function at the VFW Hall there.