Ilya's inexperience and far left views are the perfect foil for Dold to cement himself in the minds of voters as a moderate. Sheyman is the WORST choice for Democrats who care about wining in November. Schneider is the only one I see who has a shot.

FYI, while I respect your passion, when your argument is that your candidate debates better than the other guy, you're in serious trouble. Debates don't matter.

Alex,
Schneider would be the worst possible candidate to go up against Dold.
If he’s smart (and I have no reason to doubt that he is), Dold will use Schneider’s past support of Kirk and other Republicans to drive a wedge between Schneider and the voters.
First wedge will be between Schneider and the Democratic base (I am including here Dem-leaning “Independents,” who might not vote in primaries, but tend to support Dem candidates in the general.)
How will Dold do this?
Easy. All he has to do is inform people that Brad contributed 3 times more money to Mark Kirk over the years than he (Dold) gave to ANY GOP candidate (other than himself) his whole life. Or he might tell them Brad contributed just shy of $6000 to GOP candidates, which makes Dold’s little $1000 contribution (to Mark Kirk in 2010—same year Dold was running for Kirk’s old office) pale by comparison.
Second wedge will be between Brad and the rest of the “Independents.”
Dold merely has to say, “I’ve never been anything other than a Republican; you’ll always know where I stand.” Plenty of people vote “on character,” and they want someone who can demonstrate that they are firm in their convictions. With Brad, you never know—one minute he’s supporting right-of-center Republicans, the next minute he’s declared himself “a lifelong Progressive.”

Liz -

I respect your arguments, but I do disagree. Remember, most voters in the Tenth like Kirk. Brad's support of Kirk will help independents trust him as someone who can think for themselves and not blindly follow an ideology or a leader.

This is Dold's one chance to recast himself as a moderate after running as a Tea Party Republican two years ago. Ilya gives him the perfect foil to run against. He will portray himself as an experienced, centrist leader, which we all know isn't true. If Dold is successful, it will be a LONG time before we can get a Democrat into this seat.

Alex,
a.) You’re looking at the old map
b.) Most of the people who “like Kirk” are Republicans
c.) Ilya is Dold's "one chance to recast himself as a moderate"? Dold will recast himself as a moderate no matter who he runs against. That is how he won in 2010, by selling himself as a Moderate. No reason to think he won’t do so again.
d.) By **selling himself** as “a lifelong Progressive” instead of the Blue Dog that he is, Schneider appears downright untrustworthy, even sleazy.
e.) All this noise about whether or not Schneider is a true Democrat will not go away after the Primary. If Ilya’s team hadn’t dug it up, the Dold people would have.
f.) Yes, Ilya worked for MoveOn. So what? He’s damned proud of it. He has the endorsement of MoveOn, DFA, Progressives United. So what? Ilya’s a proud Progressive, these are Progressive organizations!
g.) Come to think of it, why isn’t Brad expressing outrage that MoveOn, DFA, and Progressives United didn’t endorse him?

I hear you. I hate that kind of polling. And I'm really starting to hate this primary. All the sniping about who's "the real progressive" is every bit as idiotic as the Republicans arguing about "the real conservative." Next Tuesday can't come soon enough.

Amen. This is increasingly frustrating, especially because the attacks, robocalls, and polls are clearly coming from the Sheyman camp. Next Tuesday can't come soon enough - Schneider all the way.

Schneider people, don’t get all huffy and holier than thou.
Early in the primary season we were “polled” by some outfit that wondered if we would still vote for Sheyman if we knew he was only 25 and had worked for the extremist group, MoveOn.
Yes!, we said, but we understood that the pollster was trying to convince us NOT to vote for Ilya.

SH,
“Sheyman's attacks have no factual basis”?
So you’re saying Brad Schneider never made any of those donations to Kirk, Bennett, Johanns, Rogers, or Mark Kennedy? You’re saying Brad Schneider never voted in a Republican primary?

again:
Schneider people, don’t get all huffy and holier than thou.
Early in the primary season we were “polled” by some outfit that wondered if we would still vote for Sheyman if we knew he was only 25 and had worked for the extremist group, MoveOn.
Yes!, we said, but we understood that the pollster was trying to convince us NOT to vote for Ilya.

Pot calling the kettle black, SH.
It is a distortion of the truth, if not an outright lie, to have Brad claiming to be “a lifelong Progressive.”
I have asked you a ba-zillion times already—do you (or anyone else on the Schneider campaign) even know what a Progressive is?
Here, this might help:
As you and I am sure Brad are aware, there are a lot of ways of being Jewish, from secular on up to Ultra-Orthodox.
Brad’s claim of being a Progressive is akin to a person claiming to be Orthodox while eating a shrimp cocktail. In the car on a Saturday morning.

Tell us more about Brad's business career. Does he have a resume like Torelli? Who has he worked for, when, what did he do for them? What's behind the consultant facade?

Ilya spent less than four years getting people "organized" on the internet. That hardly qualifies as political experience. Starting with little money, maybe. No establishment connections, I call foul. This kid worked for MoveOn and DFA. Like it or not, those are two of the biggest political establishments in the business AND those are the two main bankrollers of his candidacy. Of his 16k claimed contributors, less than 5% come from the district.

Its amazing how a 25 kid who's only "experience" has been jobs working for special interests in DC, comes home to run for Congress, and funds his nearly entire campaign with direct help from his old employers. Those same employers then decide to spend a hundred thousand dollars in Independent Expenditures to help him win his primary, by establishing a purity test and falsely accusing the other candidate a member of the opposing party.

If this was the Tea Party, Club for Growth or another right wing organization people would go bananas. But since it is MoveOn and DFA, its ok?

Incredible.

Let me ask this. A vote comes up in the House. The district, being more centrist leaning than Mr. Sheyman, wants him to vote for a compromise and pass the legislation. MoveOn sees an opportunity to make a political statement and wants him to vote against it.

Who is Ilya loyal to? His friends, former employer and the group that has funded and controls 95% of his campaign cash, or the voters of this district?

“The district, being more centrist leaning”
Alex,
Oooooo, kinda begs the question:
WHY didn’t Brad Schneider run as a Centrist?

It's all in the turnout, and your voters aren't excited about the top of the ticket. You're PO-ing a lot of women who may turn out against you, and your dolt has signed too many pledges influencing how he votes to be trusted. Good luck with that.

He signed pledges to do things he believes in. Dold is clearly pro choice. Try finding a real criticism.

Hopefully not.
Aren't enough Indies in this district to make up for the Dem deficit that will occur if Brad runs in the fall. Dems, by and large, do not trust Brad. Might have something to do with the little Truth-in-Advertising problem he’s having with his message. You just can’t say, “I gave money to Kirk,” and then turn around and say, “I am a lifelong Progressive!”
When people hear these two statements coming from the same mouth, well, they just know what to believe anymore.
Go away, Brad. You were a detriment to your Party when you chose to support Kirk over Seals or whoever the Dems were running in election after election from 2002 thru 2008, you were a detriment to your Party when you chose not to rally your fellow Kirk-Democrats to help get Seals into office in 2010, and you continue to be a detriment to your Party when you misrepresent yourself--“I am a lifelong Progressive!”--and then have your minions throw insults at us (“Liar!”) when we call you out on it.