A Republican In “Progressive” Clothing Tries To Hoodwink Voters In Illinois

Ilya Sheyman is the actual progressive running for Congress from IL-10

The Blue Dog/New Dem-type “Democrat” Brad Schneider’s campaign in the Illinois 10th District released a memo Thursday claiming to have a poll that shows him with a dramatic lead over progressive fighter and Blue America endorsee Ilya Sheyman with just over a month to go before the primary election. As we saw in Massachusetts with a phony poll Scott Brown pushed out showing him ahead of Elizabeth Warren, conservatives often resort to trying to game credulous media sources with fake polls.

Predictably, no journalist has seen Schneider's poll, or has any information about what questions were asked or who specifically was in the sample. Why no reporter thought it would be within the normal bounds of due diligence to review the specifics of the poll before reporting it exactly as characterized in the Schneider camp’s press release is beyond me.

So we don’t know what the poll looked like. What we do know is that Brad Schneider has sent a dozen or so mailers to Democratic voters in the past month attempting to brand him as a “progressive,” presumably to inoculate himself against the news, which ultimately will come out, that our buddy Brad has a dirty little secret.

Brad Schneider has spent the past decade pouring cash into the coffers of some of the worst anti-choice, homophobic, war-mongering Republicans Washington has to offer. Yesterday, Sheyman Campaign Manager Annie Weinberg gave the following quote to Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet:

"Brad can try to mislead Democrats into thinking he's a progressive because his conservative ideas can't win. But whatever his poll says, the real number you need to know is 79.

"That's the percentage of voters who said in a recent Lake Research poll that Brad Schneider's history of funding far right-wing, anti-choice Republicans raised serious doubts about his candidacy.

"We've just launched an aggressive television and mail program, we've outraised Brad over the past two quarters, and with 12,000 individual donors, 500 volunteers, and a true progressive as our candidate, we've built a campaign to win that Brad can only dream of."

So why isn’t the Sheyman campaign spending it’s significant cash on hand to spread the word about Brad’s love affair with right wing Republicans?

Weinberg says the campaign is “really focused on spreading a positive message about Ilya, since he’s the only candidate in the race with a proven track record of standing up and fighting for the progressive values and policies that built the middle class in this country.”

But, when pushed, she conceded that the Lake Research poll did indicate that "Brad’s most damaging negative is not just his numerous donations to Republican Mark Kirk over the course of several election cycles, but his long history of funding far-right Republicans year after year. These are politicians who want to privatize Social Security, defund Planned Parenthood, and end Medicare as we know it. We know that when voters hear about Brad's history of donations to these people it gives them serious reservations about voting for him. I mean, wouldn't you question the sincerity of someone who claims to be progressive but donated thousands of dollars to help Republicans take back Congress?”

Yeah, I have a funny feeling Brad’s little poll last week didn’t ask the voters that question.

Meanwhile, Ilya is pumped up as they go into the last month of campaigning. "We’re still waiting for the final count from our finance director, Erica, but it looks like we’ve just wrapped up our strongest week of fundraising yet-- with an amazing $100,000 raised in just 10 days, and have now crossed 12,000 individual contributors!" That's what a successful grassroots campaign looks like. Schneider is running around digging up endorsements from corrupt corporate shills like defeated ex-Congressmember Melissa Bean, while Ilya engages with the community. "We're proving again and again," he wrote, "that ours is the only campaign with the broad, energized base of support it'll take to carry our progressive message through the primary election and on to defeat Republican Bob Dold. Being a community organizer, I know that elections come down to numbers, so here are a couple more I wanted to share about the unstoppable people-powered campaign we've built together:

52,000 Voters

We’ve already reached an amazing 52,000 voters at their doors, on the phones, and in their living rooms-- through dozens of coffees, meet-and-greets, and community service days-- discussing the hopes, fears, aspirations and demands for your next member of Congress.

550 Volunteers

With 31 days before our March 20th primary, we have not only launched an aggressive mail and television voter contact strategy, but we’re hitting the ground with our 550-strong team of volunteers to talk to tens of thousands of voters and get them to the polls.

His purpose has been the same since he first declared for the seat-- to "put the American people back to work, restore fairness to our economy, and invest in America again." If you'd like to help Ilya win the primary next month and go on to beat Dold in November, please consider contributing to his grassroots campaign here at the Blue America ActBlue page.