* This is heartening news for Republicans…

Republican Senate candidate Steve Sauerberg has loaned his campaign $1 million to help take on Democratic incumbent Dick Durbin. Sauerberg calls it “a down-payment on my commitment to voters.” Money is likely to be a problem for Sauerberg, a doctor from Willowbrook. He got only about $250,000 worth of donations for the primary election and might have trouble raising money to face a popular Democrat in a Democrat-leaning state.

Nobody believes that Sauerberg can win. The idea is to avoid being completely blown out of the water. If Obama wins the presidential nomination, the Republicans will need to slow - or at least not increase - the Democrats’ momentum as voters move down the ticket. If Durbin beats Sauerberg by a lot more than Obama wins the state, down-ballot Republicans are in even more trouble.

* Sauerberg still has a long ways to go, however…

Sauerberg easily won the GOP primary in February. But he came under criticism from some fellow Republicans for not running a more aggressive media campaign to introduce himself to Illinois voters. Sauerberg acknowledged his uphill battle against incumbent Durbin and vowed to step up his fundraising and marketing efforts. Sauerberg called the million-dollar loan “a down-payment on my commitment” to beat Durbin.

Federal campaign finance reports show that Durbin has raised more than $6.6 million. A Durbin spokeswoman said Durbin’s fundraising activity has not been as aggressive in recent weeks, but the Democrat still has about $7 million on hand.

Durbin will undoubtedly have more than $10 million to spend this fall.

* And this is an interesting development. The Illinois Review types are up in arms about Sauerberg, who had been positioning himself as a hardline conservative…

IL GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Steve Sauerberg stunned social conservatives last week when he announced the addition of a homosexual rights activist as his campaign’s new press secretary. Christopher Barron, 36, was point man for the Log Cabin Republicans in their 2004 campaign against President George W. Bush’s effort to add a federal marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. […]

“It is inconceivable that Steve Sauerberg would so needlessly alienate the pro-family conservative base in Illinois by hiring a veteran homosexual activist for his campaign,” said Peter LaBarbera, founder of Republicans For Family Values.

LaBarbera is not exactly what you would call a mainstream conservative, or even a mainstream ultraconservative. It won’t hurt Sauerberg much to get on LaBarbera’s bad side, and it might even help a tad.