GOP's Schilling in Toss-Up in Illinois

Republican candidate Bobby Schilling is mounting a stiff challenge to Democratic Rep. Phil Hare in Illinois’s 17th congressional district, a seat safely held by Democrats for years. Independent political analyst Charlie Cook rates the race a toss-up, The Hill reports.

Schilling benefits from an endorsement from the, Chicago Tribune the city’s biggest newspaper, and generous cash contributions from the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The NRCC’s independent expenditure arm is putting $350,000 into the fight. Some of the money will go into ads focusing on out-of-control spending in Washington, taking advantage of Hare’s recent comments that the national debt a “myth,” an NRCC source told The Hill.

The district voted 57 percent for President Obama in 2008 and 51 percent for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.