Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., has filed paperwork to run for both Cook County Board President and for re-election in 2010, as the 2010 candidate filing deadline closed Monday at the Illinois Board of Elections.

Davis, who has said he will pick a race by the Nov. 9 deadline to withdraw petitions, was one of several candidates who filed to run for Congress in his district in the Feb. 2 primary by the Monday evening deadline.

Several Democrats who are interested in running for Davis' 7th District seat also filed, including a couple of elected officials: Chicago Alderwoman Sharon Dixon, Chicago Alderman Bob Fioretti, former state Rep. Annazette Collins, state Sen. Rickey Hendon, Cook County Recorder of Deeds Darlena Burnett and 2006 candidate Jim Ascot. If Davis runs for re-election, he is expected to keep his seat.

Monday's filings also showed every announced candidate for Senate submitted signatures for the race. Former Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Robinson Jackson, a Democrat, was the last of the major candidates to file her signatures Monday. Her spokeswoman said Jackson wanted to ensure she was last on the ballot.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Debbie Halvorson, whom Republicans are targeting for defeat in the 2010 election, on Thursday got some fundraising assistance from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

According to a press pool report, Biden appeared with Halvorson before about 150 supporters at a Chicago restaurant. Halvorson's 11th District takes in some outer suburbs south of that city and some rural territory closer to Peoria and Springfield.

"We cannot afford to lose this seat," Biden said. "They're going to come at her."

If there's any state that might need a breather from politics, it's Illinois.

But the state that ejected Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on corruption allegations earlier this year has the first-in-the-nation 2010 primary on Feb. 2, and Tuesday was the first day that prospective candidates could ask voters to sign nominating petitions to place them on the primary ballot.

Yes, you read that correctly: just seven months after the 111th Congress convened and 15 months before the November 2010 elections, Illinois incumbents and candidates have to make their political plans now. The candidate filing deadline is Nov. 2.

Here's a look at some of the Illinois races CQ Politics will be watching most closely:

• Governor: Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, a former lieutenant governor who became Illinois' chief executive after Blagojevich was ousted, probably will be opposed in the primary by state Comptroller Dan Hynes. More than a half-dozen Republicans are planning to run.

The campaign arm of Republicans in the U.S. House is using this week's legislative recess to criticize some Democrats who backed a climate change bill the House narrowly passed last week.

The National Republican Congressional Committee's advertising campaign consists mainly of low-cost radio advertisements and telephone calls against 14 Democrats, most of them from conservative-leaning districts, who helped provide the winning 219-212 margin in the June 26 vote. Eight Republicans also backed the climate change bill, which most Republicans described as a massive "national energy tax" on consumers.

A top target of the NRCC campaign is first-term Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello, who broke with most politically vulnerable Democratic freshmen in backing the bill. The NRCC is airing a television ad in Perriello's south-central Virginia district that urges viewers to "tell him he was wrong to vote for the [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi energy tax."