I've also contributed to these candidates' campaigns. Yes, everybody this year is a Democrat. The Republican Party has fucked itself so badly that almost none of their candidates for state or federal office deserve your vote. (And to be fair, there's some Democrats that sold us out too. You want to talk about banking deregulation, you start at Barney Frank's (D-MA) office.) Anyways:

Dan Seals (IL-10): IL-10 includes Northbrook. Mark Kirk has been a strong ally of Shrub's, and he knows that's such a liability he's downplaying his party affiliation. Dan's a good guy and will represent my old home district better.

Al Franken (MN-Sen): Few Republicans in Congress today deserve any respect, and Norm Coleman certainly isn't one of them. Al Franken is good enough, smart enough, and doggone it (good) people like him. The late Paul Wellstone held this seat, and Al cites him as a strong influence. He stepped away from a comfortable entertainment career to move back home and try to do some good there.

Darcy Burner (WA-8): Darcy popped up on my radar when her house burned down several months ago. The call went out on DailyKos to contribute, as she wouldn't be able to campaign for a couple of weeks. Her opponent, Dave Reichert, is a starfucker. He claims responsibility for capturing Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, but reports say he was an impediment to the original investigation, and Ridgway was caught by circumstance through DNA evidence. Burner, on the other hand, put herself through Harvard to get a degree in CS and Economics. She hacked code for Lotus and later joined the Empire as a program manager on .NET (which I won't hold against her. :P ) She's good on issues and a class act.

And if Obama wins the presidency, Iraq veteran helicopter pilot Tammy Duckworth is your lady to take his seat in the senate. If Rod Blagojevich wants to be remembered for one good thing before Pat Fitzgerald gets his indictment, it would be to appoint Tammy.