A few months ago, Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) was an obscure backbench Democrat in a safe House seat, in the president’s home state. With each passing day, however, it becomes clearer and clearer that his big government voting record and apathy toward the Constitution has led to a real race.

First Congressman Hare was caught on video confusing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and saying the Constitution ‘doesn’t matter to me.’ Then he calls questions about the Constitution ‘silly stuff.’ He had already earned an ‘F’ on the Liberty Central legislative scorecard. And now comes word that he has filed an FEC complaint against a group of veterans:

“The collusion between Bobby Schilling and ‘Veterans for the Constitution’ is not only unethical, it’s illegal,” Moody said in a statement…

In the news release announcing the complaint, [Rep.] Hare said Schilling should “emerge from the shadows and demonstrate the courage to challenge me directly.”

Schilling and the veterans group denied wrongdoing.

Bill Albracht, treasurer of Veterans for the Constitution, said the complaint is a sign it’s having an effect.

“We have taken the fight to Hare, and I see this as retaliation and intimidation,” he said.

The group Hare is targeting has raised just $6,000.

Furthermore, I’m told by a source on the ground that Congressman Hare’s supporters have prodded the City of Canton, Illinois, to try to force  Schilling’s supporters to remove a legal billboard that highlights the importance of the Constitution – Hare’s statements notwithstanding. Hare is apparently nervous enough about his race to resort to attacking groups whose resources are so limited -a few thousand dollars here, a billboard there – that they have negligible influence. At least, they had negligible influence – until Congressman Hare elevated them.

As Jim Geraghty has pointed out, at least one poll shows Hare trailing his Republican challenger by a margin of 45%-32%. Hare’s panicky reactions to these small groups suggests that poll may be right. After all, a confident incumbent would have shrugged off this opposition. Instead, Hare has given them more attention than they ever could have gotten for their $6,000, and he’s done so in a way that makes him appear vindictive and petty.

Cross-posted to Liberty Central