* Press release…

Demonstrating growing strength for his campaign, Democratic congressional candidate CJ Baricevic (Il-12) raised an impressive $279,669 between January 1 and March 31, according to pre-primary and first quarter reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Due to Illinois’ primary election, the first quarter is divided into these two reports.

Despite his advantage as an incumbent Republican Congressman, Mike Bost only raised $273,374.04.

“To out raise Mike Bost clearly shows our campaign is gaining momentum and that Southern Illinois hard working families are looking for a Congressman who represents them—not Wall Street, billionaires, or Washington special interests. This clearly shows voters are looking for a change from Mike Bost who has failed to fight for middle-class and working families,” said Baricevic.

Interesting, particularly since the DCCC wanted nothing to do with Baricevic last year. Maybe it’ll change its mind now. Then again, Bost doesn’t seem especially worried if he only hauled in that sort of cash. He also had about $870K in cash on hand.

* Other stuff…

* DCCC Internal Poll Shows Schneider Beating Dold in Tossup House Race

* Duckworth on Kirk: ‘A lot of attention for doing nothing’

* Playing politics with Israel and Iran in Illinois