SPRINGFIELD (AP) – For the handful of Illinois lawmakers facing hotly contested elections this fall, every day spent in special session with no movement on a state budget is lost time they could spent campaigning.

Democrats control both chambers with wide enough margins that they’re not likely to lose power come January even if the party loses a few seats.

But for individual lawmakers, face-to-face contact with voters can make or break their political careers. With the incumbents stuck in Springfield, challengers and Republican organizers statewide can capitalize on that absence.

“It’s frustrating being here,” said Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton. “I do need to be home in my district.”

Legislators are usually done in Springfield well before mid-July, but this is far from a normal election year.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the four legislative leaders have been unable to agree to a spending plan for the new budget year since the end of May. Negotiations during June made little progress, so Blagojevich called all the legislators back to the Capitol for a special session to turn up the heat. But with no budget deal, the rank-and-file have had little to actually vote on.

Lawmakers met again in special session Tuesday only briefly before adjourning, while Blagojevich and the leaders huddled behind closed doors.

The leaders emerged after several hours saying they had made progress but key questions remained on how to divvy how extra money for schools and on how to deal with $100 million they still disagree on in a $54 billion state budget. Senate President Frank Watson, R-Greenville, said he expected an agreement “pretty quickly” but House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said it would be “later rather than sooner.”

The special sessions, while a problem for some lawmakers’ work, vacation and campaign schedules, apparently haven’t slowed Blagojevich.

The governor, who isn’t up for re-election until 2006, raked in about $5 million from a June 17 event at the Field Museum in Chicago attended by 1,400 people, according to his campaign finance director Kelly Glynn. His next fund-raiser is scheduled for the Democratic National Convention at the end of the month.

Rank-and-file lawmakers have had to do more juggling.

Rep. Bill Grunloh of Effingham and Sen. John Sullivan of Rushville live close enough to the Capitol to go home every day and squeeze in some meetings and door-to-door campaigning. Still, both Democrats say the uncertainty is frustrating.

“If this thing drags on through July into August, it’s going to definitely hamper the campaign aspect of it,” Sullivan said. “Nobody wants to be here.”

Forby’s opponent, Republican Ron Summers, says he’s been out touring the area, focused on telling voters why he should be their senator, not on how often Forby is out of the district.

“There has to be a plus in that, I suppose,” Summers said. “But I’m not doing anything differently than I would be.”

Other Republicans say Democrats look bad because they can’t get a budget deal even when they control both chambers and the governor’s office.

“The longer it goes on, obviously, you can only blame the Democrats for it,” said Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano, an Elmwood Park Republican and political chairman for the House Republicans.

But Grunloh says voters understand.

“Sure, the campaign’s in the back of my mind all the time,” Grunloh said. “But first and foremost is my job, and I have a job here right now.”