*** UPDATE *** This story was originally about the bland sameness of the three major US Senate candidates in Illinois. But Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s US Senate campaign sent me the full statement they gave to Politico. She has most definitely shifted…

While I respect and applaud the work that Senator Schumer has done, I also believe it is time for new leadership and new ideas – that’s why I’m running for Senate. Voters have made it clear that they are looking for something different from Democrats, and I think they are right.

Emphasis added.

And Stratton said this to the Washington Post…

“While I respect and applaud the work that Sen. Schumer has done, I also believe it is time for new leadership and new ideas,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, a Democratic Senate candidate in Illinois, said in a statement. “I do not agree with every decision Sen. Schumer has made — particularly his approach to the budget vote in the spring.”

So, I changed the headline.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Late last month, I asked the three major Democratic US candidates if they would vote for Chuck Schumer as the Senate’s Democratic/chamber leader (depending on the outcome of national races). As I told you at the time, I figured there wouldn’t be a whole lot of space between them, but thought there could be a chance that somebody might stand out.

They all blandly dodged the question, as I mostly expected.

* Politico (national, not state) took that an entirely different way…

Chuck Schumer is losing support among a key constituency: The Democrats who want to join his caucus.

In Maine, four of the Democrats running to unseat the GOP’s most vulnerable senator have already pledged not to support Schumer as leader. Three other candidates refused to commit.

In Illinois, the three leading Democrats vying to succeed Schumer’s retiring No. 2 say they’re keeping their options open.

Their answers were similar to what they gave me.

Non-committal may be a news story in DC, but here it’s just a sign that the three major candidates won’t stick their necks out on almost anything. And as long as that continues, the person spending the most money (Raja) has the best shot at winning.

Also, some of the folks Politico talked to were downright hostile to Schumer. Not so here.

This reminds me of the 2020 Illinois House races, when most Democratic candidates just issued bland, non-committal statements about Speaker Madigan. Most every one of them voted for Madigan in the first round, but he came up short because 19 Democrats stood firm and the House wound up with a different Speaker.

* I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the Quad Cities area the past couple of months because I need to be with my parents (for the first time, I’m missing the annual Illinois vs. Missouri legislative softball game at Busch Stadium tonight for that very reason).

Anyway, Raja is all over the TV airwaves here. It’s quite something.

Speaking of which, here’s a Raja Poll…

In a recent survey of 1,143 likely voters in next year’s Democratic primary in Illinois, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi continues to expand his large lead over his closest opponent. Raja heads into October leading the field by 24 points.

All publicly-released polling shows the same trend: Raja is continuing to grow his lead, increasing his margin from 13 points in early June, to 20 points in mid-August, to now 24 points in mid-September.

Raja’s advantage in this race is broad. He leads among men and women, across the ideological spectrum, and both inside and outside of the Chicago media market.

I’ve had this poll for a few days, but forgot to post it. Methodology…

Polling was conducted online from September 17-19, 2025. Drawn from a list of past Democratic primary voters and using Dynamic Online Sampling and SMS text messaging to attain a representative sample, Change Research polled 1,143 potential Democratic primary voters in Illinois. Post-stratification was performed on age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and region. The survey has a margin of error of 3.0 percentage points.