State Senator Dave Koehler (D) to run against Bobby Schilling (R) for US House seat

[rpannier]

State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, has announced his candidacy to represent Illinois' 17th District in U.S. Congress.

The seat is held by Bobby Schilling, R-Colona, who beat Phil Hare in the November 2010 election. Mr. Hare said last week he does not plan to run again. The seat will come up for grabs in November 2012.

snip

"We've seen an extreme agenda coming from Congress that isn't fair to ordinary families and goes against common sense. My wife and I have made tough budget decisions in our small business just like Illinois families and other small businesses, and it comes down to priorities. It's clear from the radical partisan proposal to end Medicare instead of ending tax breaks for millionaires and powerful special interest groups that some in Washington don't share our values, and Illinois families do not have a voice.

link:
http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=547047

I was disappointed when schilling beat Phil Hare. I liked Phil.

Some of Koehler's donors The Good, The Bad and the Meh:

Operating Engineers Local 649 (36K)
Illinois Laborers (25K)
Illinois Federation of Teachers (22K)
Illinois Education Association (22K)
Illinois Pro-Choice (21K)
Steamfitters Local 353 (10K)
Illinois Auto Workers (14K)
Deep Blue Illinois (2k)

AT&T (5k)
Comcast (5k)
Telemax Management (Payday Loans) (5k)

Illinois Credit Union League
Associated Beer Distributors

His two largest donors by Industry are Unions: 1. Private 2. Public

link:
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/uniquecandidate.phtml?uc=7840

Koehler is a retired minister in the United Church of Christ
He worked National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM) from 1972 to 1978
He became executive director of the Peoria Area Labor Management Council (PALM) in 1985, and president of its Labor Management Cooperative Health Programs in 1992.
Koehler was elected to the Illinois Senate in November 2006
He was re-elected uncontested in 2010

[jaxx]

1. That's good news to me as Schilling is my rep.

Koehler sounds like he is going to be for the people, not the teabaggers.

[rpannier]

3. What's amusing about the tea baggers is they claim Schilling as 'their' guy

Yet they didn't support him in the primaries

I would be curious as to how many elected house reps there are that got support from the tea baggers in the primaries and how many they've included after the fact

[Rosie1223]

2. Isn't Aaron Schock from Peoria too?

How is the redistricting going to affect this race?

Schilling is my rep, too, but I'm not in the same district as QC if the map on the below thread is adopted.

See: http://blogs.sj-r.com/podcasts/wp-content/uploads/sb1178-cong-proposal.pdf

[murielm99]

4. Good!

I live near the 17th district, and attend a lot of their events. You guys have a very vital Democratic organization there. He should be able to win.

[adds76355]

7. self-delete

[Rochester]

5. Good, send that guy home before he gets entrentched

[murielm99]

6. Mike Boland is also exploring the possibility of a run

in this district. He was the 71st District State Rep for a long time.

I saw him in Carroll County today, and he may be starting a listening tour soon. My husband and I will help him out if he decides to run. Mike is a good guy.