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Hot-button issues in a hot race By Ed Fanselow Daily Herald Staff Writer Posted Thursday, September 14, 2006 Editor's note: This is the first in a weekly series of issue stories on the 8th Congressional District campaign. While immigration and the Iraq war dominate other top congressional campaigns, the debate over abortion and stem-cells is front-and-center in the northwest suburban 8th District race. Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean and Republican challenger David McSweeney quickly are moving to paint each other's views as outside the mainstream in a contest likely to be decided by thousands of middle-of-the-road voters. McSweeney, for instance, criticizes Bean for voting against parental notification laws for teens seeking abortions, while Bean accuses McSweeney of "stopping scientific and medical progress" by opposing federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. Independent candidate Bill Scheurer, meanwhile, is trying to skim voters away from both foes with his difficult-to-pigeonhole views. Here's a closer look at how these and other traditional hot-button issues are factoring into the 8th District race: Abortion, stem cells McSweeney, an investment banker from Barrington Hills, would like to see a federal ban on abortions except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. He criticizes Barrington's Bean - who is seeking her second term in Congress - for her vote last spring against a measure that would have required doctors performing an abortion on a minor to first inform her parents. "There's no way she can call herself a social moderate with views like that," McSweeney said. Bean said she supports "reasonable" parental notification rules for girls 16 or younger, but said the bill in question was "convoluted and poorly written." "I do think parents should be involved in decisions about their kids' health," she said. "He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade," Bean said. "I don't think that's by any means representative of this district." The two also stand at opposite ends of the related debate over stem cell research. McSweeney would vote to extend President Bush's ban on government funding of embryonic stem cell research, while Bean has voted twice to overturn that edict. McSweeney maintains such research can be done just as well with stem cells from bone marrow or umbilical cords, a claim that Bean derides as "false science." Scheurer, a magazine editor from Lindenhurst, supports a nationwide ban on abortions with some exceptions, but he also backs the use of embryonic stem cells that would be otherwise discarded. Gun control Bean says she would have voted to extend the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons Congress let expire in 2004. McSweeney opposes a new ban and supports allowing people to carry concealed weapons with a permit. He also said he wants to toughen laws against people who use guns to commit crimes. "We should put criminals behind bars and leave law-abiding gun owners alone," he said. Scheurer favors re-thinking gun laws in terms of drivers licenses, saying that gun-owners should be subjected to different levels of training for different classes of guns. Gay rights In July, Bean joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers to defeat a House resolution that would have banned marriages between same-sex partners. McSweeney says he would have voted in favor of the ban. "I consider myself very tolerant of people's lifestyles," he said. "But marriage is and should always be between a man and a woman only." Bean says that rules about marriage should be left to individual states. Scheurer, meanwhile, would have voted with Bean, calling the failed proposal "sanctioned discrimination" against gays. "It's a question of civil rights," he said. [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn