6th District race draws international attention

October 17, 2006 (WLS) -- With the election just three weeks from Tuesday, we're taking a look at the candidates and the issues in some of key races in Illinois. One of those is in the 6th Congressional District in Illinois, in Chicago's western suburbs. The race there to replace Henry Hyde is one of the most closely watched in the country. Democrat Tammy Duckworth and Republican Peter Roskam are running.

The race between Republican Peter Roskam, a lawyer and state senator from Wheaton, and Tammy Duckworth, a business administrator and former National Guard helicopter pilot from Hoffman Estates, is generating media interest around the world and political star power from President Bush, who was in town raising money for Roskam last week, and Senator Barack Obama who cut a new TV ad for Duckworth that starts running Wednesday.

In the ad Obama talks about a Roskam ad that allegedly distorts Duckworth's position on immigration reform.

"I do not support amnesty. I do not support giving Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants," said Tammy Duckworth, (D)-6th District candidate.

"I stand by my television commercials. Everything that is in those commercials is factually accurate and not a misrepresentation," said Petere Roskam, (R)-6th District candidate.

Roskam says he favors fines and penalties for illegals and the businesses that hire them. Duckworth says that she supports eventual citizenship for illegals who meet certain requirements. Immigration is the hottest but certainly not the only disagreement in a west suburban congressional race that's considered a toss up.

On social issues, Roskam opposes abortion rights, embryonic stem cell research and a ban on assault weapons, all of which Duckworth supports.

She wants the president to start pulling troops out of Iraq in 2007. He won't commit to a timetable.

On taxes, Roskam wants to make all of the president's tax cuts permanent, while Duckworth favors tax relief for the middle class but not the wealthy.

"People want their taxes cut and this is an area where my opponent and I have very different views," said Roskam.

"He can not be a fiscal conservative and think it is okay to spend $300 billion to give Paris Hilton another tax cut," Duckworth said.

The campaign is getting so intense that Duckworth's allies in the Democratic party are paying for a new ad that says Roskam wants to keep kids from reading books by popular children's authors like Dr. Suess and Laura Ingalls Wilder. The reality is That Roskam proposed a bill in the state legislature more than a decade ago that would have given parents a say in what their kids read in schools and libraries. His campaign calls the ad a "gross distortion."

Welcome to the end of a toss-up campaign in a district that may determine which party controls congress next year.

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