Rauner and friends spending in Quad City races.
Posted: Monday, February 15, 2016 5:20 pm | Updated: 5:20 pm, Mon Feb 15, 2016.
By Eric Timmons, etimmons@qconline.com qconline.com
ROCK ISLAND — An independent expenditure group headed by conservative talk show host Dan Proft and closely linked to Gov. Bruce Rauner has spent $165,530 to back Brandi McGuire's primary election campaign.
Mrs. McGuire, a Republican, is running against Fyre Lake marketing manager Jordan Thoms for the GOP nomination to succeed the retiring state Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, in District 72. The primary is March 15.
Mr. Thoms donated $55,000 of his own money to his campaign last week, according to the Illinois State Board of Election, but to date does not have the benefit of major backing from an outside group.
The Liberty Principles money has largely gone on a TV advertising campaign for Mrs. McGuire.
Liberty Principles also has spent money producing a newspaper called Rock Island Today that is distributed to local homes and includes favorable coverage of her campaign.
Major donors to Liberty Principles include Richard Uihlein, owner of packaging supply company Uline, who donated $2.5 million to the group in December. Other backers include Super PAC Turnaround Illinois, which gave $1.8 million to Liberty Principles in January and is backed by Gov. Rauner's fundraising committee and Sam Zell, the wealthy investor and former Chicago Tribune owner.
Mrs. McGuire said in an interview Monday she was "thrilled" to get the backing of Liberty Principles, and said she likes the TV commercial the group has funded to promote her campaign. She said she had no foreknowledge of the advertising campaign or the content of the commercial.
Independent expenditure groups are not supposed to coordinate what they do with any candidate's campaign, although the candidates and the outside money organizations often have close ties.
Liberty Principles spending on the District 72 race is an indication that the race to succeed Rep. Verschoore is shaping up to be an expensive proxy war between Gov. Rauner and Speaker Mike Madigan.
Democrats Jeff Jacobs, Mike Halpin, Glen Evans and Kate Hotle are contesting the Democratic primary in District 72. Mr. Halpin and Mr. Jacobs are the front-runners and have raised almost $150,000 between them to date.
Speaker Madigan is officially neutral in the Democratic primary in District 72 but Democratic Majority, a fundraising committee he chairs, has spent about $7,500 on mailers criticizing Ms. Hotle.
It's not clear why Speaker Madigan has trained his sights on Ms. Hotle, a Rock Island alderwoman, although his spokesman called her a "Rauner plant." She said she has no links to the governor and would turn down any campaign money offered by any group linked to him.
The large sums of money being invested in the Republican campaigns for District 72 is unusual, as the seat has been a Democratic stronghold for decades.
In 2014, Rep. Verschoore was unopposed in the general election and in 2012 he took 64 percent of the vote to defeat now state Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Rock Island.
Another local state race that's likely to see Gov. Rauner flexing his financial muscles is the District 71 contest between state Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, and Savanna Mayor Tony McCombie, a Republican. Neither candidate has a primary opponent.
Rep. Smiddy, who receives heavy financial backing from AFSCME, raised $453,000 in the last quarter of 2015 in preparation for what he expects to be a costly campaign. He beat Republican Jim Wozniak by less than 300 votes in 2014 and his seat is likely to be targeted by the governor. Mrs. McCombie has yet to file a financial report.
Above is from: http://www.qconline.com/news/local/conservative-group-bets-on-mcguire/article_a5a861b9-eedc-5421-81e6-99627d2a5d39.html
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