How Dold, Seals stand on the issues

Could this be the year the Democratic Party finally wrestles the 10th Congressional District seat away from the Republicans?

Democratic candidate Dan Seals sure hopes so.

Or will the GOP hang onto the post, maintaining the hold it's had on this suburban seat since 1980?

That's the goal of Republican nominee Robert Dold.

Seals and Dold will face off for the post on Nov. 2. It's the third Election Day showdown for Seals, who lost in 2006 and 2008 to Republican Mark Kirk.

But Kirk is giving up the post to run for U.S. Senate, and Dold is the GOP's nominee this time around.

Dold, a pest-control company executive who lives in Kenilworth, has been trying to paint himself as a fiscal conservative and social moderate, a combination that was a success for Kirk in this independent-minded district.

But his campaign has been dogged by support he's received from some conservative groups, including the Illinois Federation For Right to Life. He's taken traditionally Republican stances on other social issues, too, such as his opposition to gay marriage.

Seals, a business consultant and university lecturer from Wilmette, has moved away from some of his more liberal stances of the past in his own quest for votes from those voters who don't strictly follow party lines. But he, too, has been criticized for some of his party-line leanings, such as his support for the controversial health care reform legislation that was made law this year.