Tammy Duckworth up big in internal poll of Illinois House race

Illinois House candidate Tammy Duckworth (D) has a huge 59 percent to 17 percent lead over Raja Krishnamoorthi, her primary opponent, according to an internal poll shared with The Hill.

Duckworth and Krishnamoorthi are vying to take on freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) in a new Democratic-leaning district. Walsh has been tarred by an ongoing court case seeking to resolve if he owes more than $100,000 in unpaid child support to his ex-wife, and the bombastic Tea Partier faces a steep uphill battle against either Democrat.

Duckworth, who has close ties to President Obama, has been endorsed by Obama senior adviser David Axelrod and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Until recently she served as assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is her second run for Congress — she lost her first race in 2006.

"Tammy has built a strong campaign," said Josh Levin, Duckworth's campaign manager, "She has raised over $1 million dollars to date, and won endorsements from Senator Durbin, EMILY’s List and over a dozen local and national labor unions. There's no questions she’s the best positioned to beat Tea Party darling Joe Walsh in November."

Krishnamoorthi's campaign pushed back hard on the poll. "This campaign has barely begun," said Deputy Campaign Manager Mike Murray. "If polls two months out predicted elections, Hillary Clinton would be the President, and Rick Perry would be the Republican nominee. Leaders in our district have overwhelmingly endorsed Raja as their choice and I'm confident that when voters get the chance to hear from both candidates, they'll make Raja their nominee."

Krishnamoorthi and Duckworth have both had strong fundraising numbers, and he's had some traction with liberal activists in the district. But if these poll numbers are even close to correct she will have little trouble winning the primary.

The poll of 400 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted from Jan. 10-12 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.

This post was updated at 4:40 p.m.