Fresh poll numbers show a newly tightened race for Illinois’s 8th Congressional District. That could present a chance for Republicans to pick up a Democratic seat.
The Daily Herald/ABC 7 poll shows that Republican David McSweeney has pulled statistically even with Democrat Melissa Bean. The survey puts incumbent Bean over her challenger 42 percent to 39 percent - within the margin of error. Independent Bill Scheurer polled eight percent.
Other recent polls had been showing Bean with a growing lead - including a Tribune poll earlier this month that gave Bean a 19-point advantage.
McSweeney says some of the earlier polls came out before his messages were on TV.
“Melissa Bean has run about four weeks now of negative ads on me, and we’ve had an opportunity to get up and set the record straight, and I think that’s why this is a close race at this point,” he says. “But also, people are starting to focus on this race.”
The Bean campaign would say only that they’re comfortable with their support. A spokesman challenged McSweeney to produce internal poll numbers to back up the new Daily Herald/ABC 7 figures.