Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth will face trial before the November general election because of a workplace retaliation lawsuit that accuses her of ethics violations during her time leading the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
On Thursday, an Illinois judge shot down the government lawyers’ desire to have the 7-year old lawsuit tossed out and the judge set an August court date, as the Associated Press reported.
The issue has become a hot-button topic on the campaign trail for Duckworth, as her Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Mark Kirk, has made it an issue. Kirk unveiled an ad earlier this week previewing Duckworth’s legal problems, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee released an ad on Thursday immediately following news of her looming court date.
Duckworth, however, has long disputed the lawsuit’s claim. In her successful 2012 bid for Congress from Illinois’ 8th district, former Republican congressman Joe Walsh raised the issue in a debate. Duckworth responded that the claims in the civil suit were “not true.”
The Illinois Senate race is one of several Midwestern races that could determine the balance of power in the upper chamber come 2017. While Kirk is the incumbent in the Land of Lincoln, he’s an underdog in November, when Donald Trump will presumably sit atop the Republican ticket nationwide. Kirk has announced his intention to skip the GOP convention in Ohio and has used the phrase “riverboat gamble” to characterize Trump’s candidacy.
