The federal government's treatment of veterans looms large in one of the fall's toughest Senate races.

An Illinois judge set a court date Thursday in the lawsuit pending against Rep. Tammy Duckworth over her alleged mistreatment of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where the Democratic Senate candidate served in high-level positions from 2006 to 2011. Duckworth is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in this state this year.

When the eight-year-old case returns to court in early October, it will come just a few weeks before voters decide whether to send Duckworth's rival, Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, back to Washington.

Kirk has made the whistleblower lawsuit a focal point of his campaign. Last week, the embattled incumbent hit the Chicago airwaves with a 30-second ad that featured the plaintiffs' grievances against Duckworth.

According to court filings, two former VA employees from the Anna Veterans Home accused Duckworth of papering over problems at the facility and punishing whistleblowers who tried to expose them.

One former VA staffer said she was fired by Duckworth in 2007 for complaining to the inspector general about mismanagement. Emails show Duckworth, then the director of the Illinois VA, later admitted she "screwed up in firing" the woman and sought "documentation...to justify my decision to fire her."

The other VA whistleblower alleged Duckworth had warned her to "keep [her] mouth shut" or risk losing her job.

Both whistleblowers had repeatedly raised concerns about Patricia Simms, then the director of the Anna Veterans Home, and Simms' poor treatment of both veterans and VA employees.

They claim to have complained directly to Duckworth about Simms' behavior in the months before the Illinois VA fired Simms over manipulated wait lists that prevented many veterans from receiving care. More than 100 VA facilities around the country were caught fabricating wait lists when the practice, first discovered in Phoenix, was exposed as a national scandal.

Court documents obtained by the Washington Examiner show Simms was terminated by the Illinois VA for manipulating wait lists in 2010 after six veterans died trying to gain admission to the Anna Veterans Home under her purview. Simms was later permitted to resign instead, provided she never again seek employment at the agency.

However, Duckworth had given Simms two "acceptable" performance reviews in 2007 and 2008, when much of the alleged misconduct was taking place at the home.

The Illinois attorney general is defending Duckworth against the VA whistleblowers. Duckworth's campaign directed requests for comment to the attorney general's office.

Although the state attempted to settle the politically awkward case in June by offering the whistleblowers $26,000 in taxpayer funds, the plaintiffs rejected the award.

Duckworth's campaign accused Kirk this week of "cynically recruiting" the women to star in his ads and bash the Democratic Senate candidate, escalating a battle over their allegations that has become one of the central issues of the Illinois race.

Democrats view Kirk's vulnerable seat as one of their best chances to pick off a Republican on their quest for a Senate majority. As GOP candidates log gains against Democrats in Ohio, New Hampshire, Indiana, Florida and Nevada, their hopes have dimmed in races once viewed as promising for their chances of breaking the Republican hold on the Senate.

Duckworth still leads Kirk by 3.5 points, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

While Hillary Clinton is still expected to coast to victory in Illinois — a state President Obama carried by 17 points in 2012 — recent polls have shown the presidential race tightening there as Donald Trump closes the gap with voters around the country.

The looming status hearing for Duckworth's VA lawsuit could present her with uncomfortable questions just a few weeks before she hopes to graduate from the House to the Senate.

Kirk's campaign certainly hopes the failures at the Anna Veterans Home — and the transgressions of the now-imprisoned Democratic governor who appointed her to lead it — will reflect on their opponent.

"Tammy Duckworth is a war hero. But these veteran deaths are yet another tragic reminder of Tammy Duckworth being a terrible public servant," Kevin Artl, Kirk's campaign manager, said in a statement to the Examiner. "Since [former Illinois governor] Rod Blagojevich picked her to to be his Veterans Affairs Director, Duckworth has consistently put partisan politics and her own political aspirations ahead of the best interests of the people she was hired to serve."

One of the veterans who died waiting to get into the Anna Veterans Home had been on a list from 2004 until his death in 2009 despite having applied twice for admission. Three other veterans filled out the paperwork to receive care at the home but died before their names were ever placed on the waiting list.

The Illinois deaths were just a few of the dozens that occurred at VA hospitals around the country before 2014. As many as 40 veterans died waiting for treatment at the Phoenix facility, for example.

Kirk is not the only Republican Senate candidate to capitalize on frustration with the VA in a tight race.

A political action committee supporting Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin aired ads earlier this year that featured VA whistleblowers accusing his opponent, former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, of ignoring warning signs about the infamously dysfunctional Tomah, Wisc. facility. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey has also touted his fight against VA failures in a close contest for the Keystone State seat.