Dan Seals

Democrat Dan Seals said Tuesday that he is launching a third consecutive bid in Illinois’ 10th Congressional District — a suburban Chicago district, represented for five terms by centrist Republican Mark Steven Kirk , that in recent years has taken on an overall Democratic lean.

But there is a big difference between the 2010 contest and Seals’ competitive but losing challenges in 2006 and 2008: Kirk will not be the Republican nominee in the 10th District House race, as he on Monday confirmed his plans to run for the U.S. Senate.  

Seals, who will face stiff competition for the 2010 Democratic nomination, in fact had made his candidacy contingent on Kirk leaving the House seat open to run statewide.
Seals, a business consultant, took 46.6 percent of the vote against Kirk as a first-time candidate in 2006, and 47.4 percent in their 2008 rematch.