This year’s race for state senate in the 5th District has received much more attention than is usually given to a legislative seat on Chicago’s near West Side – due in no small part to the contentious tone the campaigns have taken in recent weeks, which included a much-publicized war of words between the incumbent and the Illinois Secretary of State.

The ongoing fight between the two camps continued this morning when challenger Patricia Van Pelt Watkins held a press conference calling on U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to launch an investigation into whether the incumbent mishandled legislative scholarships and related funds. On Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that between 2003 and 2009 incumbent, State Sen. Annazette Collins gave legislative scholarships to students who lived outside of the 10th district, where she served as representative for 11 years prior to her appointment to the state Senate last March.

Van Pelt Watkins is also alleging that some $7,000 in campaign contributions associated with the scholarships could have been given to Collins "through questionable no-interest loans from her campaign committee," according to a press release.

But amid all of the talk and controversy of a race featuring two well-known candidates in Collins and Van Pelt Watkins – a longtime community activist who received recognition after running in last year’s Chicago mayoral race - there lies a senate district where much of the community has seen its share of social and economic problems over the past decade.

In a vast area that includes parts of more affluent neighborhoods such as Bucktown and Wicker Park, the bulk of the 5th District is made up of people residing within the neighborhoods of North Lawndale, East Garfield Park and West Garfield Park – communities that have experienced for much of the past two decades some of the highest rates of unemployment and crime of any neighborhood in Chicago, as well as some of the lowest graduation rates from its schools, according to U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

With proposed statewide budget cuts to Medicaid and many social services, it will likely be the constituents of the 5th District – where the median household income is around $33,000 – who will feel the impact of those cuts, along with other low-income Illinois residents.

With much at stake for the neighborhoods within the 5th District, maybe it is not that surprising that beyond the bad blood that has seemingly developed between the opponents and their respective supporters, both Collins and Van Pelt Watkins seem to share many of the same views regarding the main problems facing their district.

Both candidates can agree state pension reform is needed; though neither was in favor of making changes that would reduce current payment obligations.

“We have these pensions that have to be paid, and I don’t know how we pay these pensions - looking at the way they are projected to grow - and we have to,” Van Pelt Watkins said. “We’re going to have a very large poor population because it’s not like a person who has been working all these years can then just go and get another career.”

Collins felt creating more jobs was the way to ensure the state would be able to continue to meet its obligations to retirees.

“I don’t believe that we can take the pensions away of people we already entered into a contract with," Collins said. “For those people who were expecting to get a pension when they retire, they should get their pensions, and we have to figure out a way to get people back to work so we contribute into the pension system.”

In terms of the greatest challenges facing their district, Collins and Van Pelt Watkins both stressed the need for a more extensive approach toward helping ex-offenders re-integrate back into their communities so to reduce the rate at which so many end up becoming repeat offenders.

“When people can’t take care of themselves or their families, then you’re going to have crime,” Collins said. “And we have to have a state that allows people to make a mistake, rectify their mistake, and then allow them to go back to work.”

Collins said her plan if re-elected would be to introduce a bill extending the tax credit small businesses receive for hiring ex-offenders from one year to five years.

Van Pelt Watkins also stressed that re-integration of ex-offenders back into the workforce should be a main priority, saying it was a matter of public safety since, for many, having access to job opportunities played a pivotal role in whether they were more or less likely to commit another crime.

“When a person comes back [to the community] with a felony record, the majority of them cannot be the breadwinner in their houses, they cannot be the protector of their families,” Van Pelt Watkins said. “So they are stuck in this position and it affects all of us.”

Both candidates say the single biggest issue on the minds of most residents – as in seemingly every other district - was an economy that has yet to get a significant number of people back to work for an area where unemployment has been systemic for years. In West Garfield Park, for example, unemployment was as high as 24 percent in 2009, according to Census data.

“Jobs are primary – without being said jobs are the most important thing we must have,” Van Pelt Watkins said, who advocated improving the efficiency of the Chicago-area’s freight rail system to promote the creation of more manufacturing jobs within the region.

Van Pelt Watkins also proposed providing more tax incentives for small businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as having the state implement the sale of social impact bonds – government investments made by third-party entities where the money raised is used to improve a social issue.

“It’s a win-win situation for the philanthropists that want to help solve social problems, the state that needs to deal with the social problems but don’t have enough money to put upfront, and it’s also a win for the communities that will benefit in the end,” Van Pelt Watkins said.

Collins cited her work in forming the state’s Urban Weatherization Program, which provides job skills for ex-offenders through training to weatherize, as an example of her record in promoting job growth. Future plans called for more incentives to help small businesses by making loans, grants, and tax credits more available to help launch more start-up companies and encourage growth among existing businesses.

“If we can find a way to open up more and give tax credit and allow them [businesses] to expand, then we can have a lot of people hire other people,” Collins said.

Despite the common ground both candidates seem to find on the most pressing issues, the race between Collins and Van Pelt Watkins has heated up as of late, with allegations being made most notably by Illinois Sec. of State Jesse White that Collins has engaged in unethical behavior, a charge Collins has vehemently denied. White, a one-time supporter of Collins when she was appointed to her senate seat last March, has endorsed Van Pelt Watkins.

“I respect the Secretary, and he has a right to his opinion,” Collins said of White’s remarks. “But he does not have a right to scandalize my name. The Secretary has always been a supporter of mine; he has changed his mind in this race and we don’t know why and that’s okay, but at the same time it doesn’t give him the right to just outright lie.”

White’s remarks aside, the race has pitted an array of local and state elected officials on opposite sides in their support, with Collins receiving endorsements from Gov. Pat Quinn, State Senate Pres. John Cullerton and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.

In addition to White, Van Pelt Watkins has received endorsements from Alds. Robert Fioretti (2nd) and Walter Burnett (27th).

Van Pelt Watkins has enjoyed a monetary edge throughout the campaign over her opponent, out fundraising Collins by almost double by the end of last year according to fundraising accounts listed with the Illinois Board of Elections. Since the beginning of the year, Collins has steadily outraised Van Pelt Watkins, yet the momentum has still remained with the challenger.

An Illinois Manufacturers’ Association poll (PDF) released in January showed Van Pelt Watkins leading Collins 25 percent to 11 percent with 64 percent undecided. Van Pelt Watkins recently received the endorsement of the Chicago Tribune.