Before was sworn into office in January, ) decided his 10th Congressional District seat was one it could win in 2012.
Nearly five months later, , a community organizer from Waukegan, has formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to oppose Dold. Bradley S. Schneider, a business consultant from Deerfield, has also expressed interest.
Last week they both went on an educational field trip with the DCCC.
Special schooling from Plouffe, Pelosi
Sheyman and Schneider were two of 34 congressional candidates to receive special schooling at a training session conducted by the DCCC in Washington. The national party has made the district one of its 12 top tier races, according to Sheyman.
“We heard from leaders like David Plouffe,” Sheyman said of his training sessions. Plouffe is a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and was the manager of the president’s 2008 campaign.
“It was good to see the coordinated effort between the administration and the DCCC to help us take back the House," Sheyman said. "We’re not just going for 25 seats but many more districts. This is healthy for our party.”
The Democrats need a net gain of 25 seats to become the majority party in the House of Representatives.
Sheyman and Schneider met with people such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former House speaker and current minority leader, as well as labor leaders and technocrats to help prepare them to wage effective campaigns.
Redistricting process still under way
All this is happening even though the The state legislature will vote on the redistricting process by the end of May, according to
Sheyman, who thinks the 10th District will stay the same when the new map is complete, explained that it was important to get an early start to his campaign, even if that means campaigning before all of his potential constituents are known.
"We need to have a serious discussion about the issues and we need to have it now," he said.
Dold is busy introducing legislation in Washington——and conducting to report on his efforts to the citizens. He, too, is not concerned about the state’s remap effort.
“Illinois' 10th District is a classic swing district,” Dold said. “We have a large number of independent voters and it will likely always be targeted by both parties.”
, the head of the Illinois 10th Congressional District Democrats, is pleased to see the DCCC taking the race so seriously and that several candidates have already begun campaigning. Sheyman, for example, has opened an office in downtown Waukegan and is actively fundraising and holding events.
“He is a candidate who is putting together a real campaign," Gash said about Sheyman.
Schneider has yet to take those steps, but told Patch he would be ready to discuss his ideas in more detail soon.
Bush-era tax cuts
Sheyman and Dold agree that strengthening the economy, creating jobs and slashing the federal deficit are the most pressing national concerns, but differ in their approach. Dold opposes raising taxes, while Sheyman would like to eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts.
“Revenue is at its lowest point in the last 40 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,” Sheyman said. “The Bush tax cuts are the biggest reason."
Dold, on the other hand, thinks reducing the deficit means spending less.
“I believe that we must make cuts before raising taxes,” he said. “Every federal department needs to be cut and every program needs to be reviewed.”
Sheyman agrees spending must be reduced, but wants part of the reduction to come from eliminating tax breaks for corporations like oil companies and increasing taxes for the wealthy. He's a fan of Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (D-Evanston) proposal, introduced in March, which would increase taxes for people earning more than $1 million a year.
“[Schakowsky's] proposal is a good idea for the people at the very top to pay more,” Sheyman said.
Dold wants to see revenue grow through increasing the number of people employed and paying taxes rather than increasing the burden on those who already have jobs. He also puts a high priority on spending less.
“I believe we must stop out-of-control spending and focus on private sector job growth,” Dold said. “We must grow revenue by putting more people back to work."
I'll give you a hint, her name rhymes with fancy. Last I checked it was the House that usually introduces most legislation....and they and Pelosi have spent us into the ground. Unions this, unions that. Today's unions are far different than when people in unions were HAVING to fight tooth and nail for basic rights, sir. And it's kind of hard for unions to have any kind of influence on the economy when most are loaded with corruption and are a small percentage of the workers in America today, especially with the millions YES millions of illegal immigrants taking people's job's away by the dozens. Worst part is, because they are here illegally, or anchored here with kids, no one will take their wage increase requests seriously, because unions aren't going to hire illegals. So not only is your argument totally flawed and backwards, but the Democrats you support like Pelosi WANT illegals here and to give them all amnesty so they can keep taking American jobs, thus further reducing ANY bargaining power your prescious unions once has, simply because there are so many people out there willing to do labor cheaper than a real living wage.
And David, if you truly believe "Nancy Pelosi even by the moderate conservatives has been considered a great speaker", you must have been in a coma during the election last November. No "moderate conservative" in their right mind thought Pelosi was a "great speaker", and her name was so toxic that even 19 card-carrying House Democrats voted AGAINST her for Speaker this time around, including our own Dan Lipinski of Illinois. That's got to some kind of record for oppositon against an incumbent speaker in your own party. Pelosi is less liked in America than Newt Gingrich.
Dold and Judy Biggert made a big dog-n-pony show over voting against an amendment to "defund" health care for women. Bob "I'm more conservative than I let on" Dold made a big stink, yapped on the House floor and sent out lots of press releases to say he was protecting Planned Parenthood. ...BUT... when push came to shove on the final bill Dold still voted to defund Planned Parenthood in the bigger package that the right-wingers rammed through. You (and what passes for reporters this day and age) ought to try looking it up. And then maybe you can ask Dold why he thinks America will get any new jobs by defunding women's healthcare, redefining rape, making the IRS go after women when they talk their doctor about their lady parts, AND killing off Medicare as we know it. Oh. That's right. Dold has a fancy do-nothing "Jobs Opportunity Kouncil of Executives Richy-riches" ("JOKERs"). Dold put the head lobbyist for Abbott Labs on his do-nothing "jobless" board the week after Abbott announced they were firing 2000 Americans. Brilliant! (Dold got a big donation from Abbott though so it's all cool. Nothing to worry about all you out of work 10th district citizens!)
How about doing your job and solving the country's problem's like you were elected to do. SICKENING.
Even funnier thing is the Dems didn't take over in 2004. The Republicans controlled Congress AND the White House AND the Supreme Court in 2004. Oopsies. The rest of your fib-fueled rant is just as wrong Andrea. There are FEWER illegal immigrants in America under Pres. Obama and he has been cracking down on both illegal immigrants AND the immoral business owners who hire them by an order of magnitude higher than Bush ever bothered to do. Do me a favor. Turn off Fox and the right-wing radio for just a week. Don't read the conservative media websites for just that one week. Doesn't have to be this week or next week. I'm not saying stop being conservative. I'm not saying give up everything you believe in and all the morals you value. Just pick a week and go talking head free for those 7 days. Then come back and you'll see pretty quickly how much they've been feeding you a line of BS in order to get you to hate your fellow Americans from "that other party."
Americans send them a huge message by voting for a Dem in one of the reddest most conservative districts in the US and Cantor says we can't help the tornado-ravaged folks in Missouri until we cut funding for senior citizens and the middle class. It's sick and disgusting that conservatives would even think about how they cynically can use the worst natural disaster in memory as a way to screw over middle class Americans. Here's a clue Andrea - Nancy Pelosi and the Dems don't need to "screw the Republicans over." The red party's idiotic policies of holding tornado-ravaged counties hostage and killing Medicare for old people to pay for rich people's mega tax cut windfalls are all the screwing over the formerly grand ol' party needs and it's your radical Republicans doing it to themselves.
I can write one heck of a lot better than anything you've posted, not to mention I don't sit around seven days a week with no life like you doing creepy things like following other people's posts around all the time.