In a move that raised eyebrows among political prognosticators across the board, the National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday released a poll showing GOP challenger Esther Joy King closing in on Democrat Rep. Cheri Bustos in Illinois’s 17
th District (Rock Island-Moline).
According to the just-completed Lance Tarrance poll, four-termer Bustos has 48.5%, Moline attorney and businesswoman King has 44.2% and 7.3% are undecided.
What makes this race so interesting and increasingly watched is that Bustos is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and therefore the campaign manager for her party’s effort to maintain and increase its majority in the U.S. House.
Political newcomer King, who is also a JAG officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, has used Bustos’ national persona as an issue.
''Illinois families are struggling, yet Washington ignores us," blares King’s fourth and latest TV spot, underscoring her issue that Bustos has ''gone Washington'' and votes with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ''100 per cent of the time.''
The 17th has been in Democratic hands for all but two of the last 38 years — 2010-12.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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