Bean will be the one with the stars Monday, hoping to get a last-minute boost from a rally with Illinois Sens. Barack Obama and Dick Durbin . Polls have consistently shown her leading the race by double-digit margins, but the two most recent surveys put her up by only 3 and 5 points. McSweeney, a former investment banker, added another $400,000 of his own money to the campaign, bringing his total donations to more than $2 million.

There have been few fireworks during the campaign, and both candidates have generally stuck to tried and true talking points. McSweeney frequently raised the specter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, while Bean accused McSweeney of having radical positions on issues such as abortion and stem cell research.

The X-factor in the race is third-party candidate Bill Scheurer, who could steal liberal votes from Bean as the only antiwar candidate in the race and a strong supporter of organized labor. Scheurer has maintained that he is not attempting to be a Bean spoiler, but said he would feel that his campaign had less of an impact if Bean wins over McSweeney. "You look around the country, no single Democrat has paid the price for complicity in the war," he says.

—Will Sullivan