I just re-watched David Hoffman's announcement video and this passage jumped out at me:

As a member of the Illinois Reform Commission, I traveled around our state this year and heard from people who've had it with insiders, scandals, and pay-to-play.  We deserve better.  The people of Illinois want accountability and are ready for a different vision for our state.  That's why I'm announcing today that, after four years as inspector general for Chicago, I'm leaving my post to take our fight to Washington.

Hoffman's emphasis on fighting corruption and improving accountability echoes the first video put out by Republican Mark Kirk's Senate campaign.  And it leads us right back to Chris Wetterich's observation following the Kirk announcement: "Stopping corruption seems like a weird reason to run for U.S. Senate from Illinois."

Indeed, while Hoffman has some real anti-corruption bonafides, it remains unclear what he could do as a U.S. Senator to curb the "insiders, scandals, and pay-to-play" here in Illinois. 

When it comes to this federal race, we at Progress Illinois are more interested in where Hoffman and his fellow Democratic candidates stand on health care reform, the economic recovery, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, education, immigration, etc.  And we're looking forward to learning more from all of them.