Bernard Schoenburg: Local Republican leader critical of Gov. Rauner's 'ambush' at GOP Lincoln Day Dinner
By Bernard Schoenburg
Political Writer
Posted Feb. 17, 2016 at 10:07 PM
Interesting timing, some would say, that Gov. BRUCE RAUNER would pick a video message delivered at last week’s Sangamon County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner to announce his endorsement of state Trooper BRYCE BENTON over state Sen. SAM McCANN in the 50th Senate District Republican primary.
That’s because the Sangamon County party is backing the incumbent — McCann, of Plainview — and that has been known for a while.
Rauner had refused earlier requests to say if he was for Springfield resident Benton.
FRED FLORETH of Springfield, a member of the Republican State Central Committee from the 13th Congressional District, didn’t like the message or how it was done.
A couple of days after the dinner, Floreth sent an email to precinct committeemen and “other Republican friends” with whom he communicates. He quoted ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “Stand with anyone who stands right; stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.” He said that quote was on a sign hanging in the Litchfield High School locker room when he was a Purple Panther playing basketball.
“I stand with Governor Bruce Rauner on his ‘Turnaround Agenda,’” Floreth wrote. “I support him in his efforts to end business as usual in the state of Illinois."
“The governor has every right to endorse whoever he wants,” Floreth added.
But, he said, “His pre-recorded, ambush, endorsement” of McCann’s opponent “was not good.”
“Senator McCann was an honored guest on stage at the event,” Floreth wrote. “Sangamon County Republican Party Chairman ROSEMARIE LONG has publicly endorsed Sam. The governor’s surprise announcement of his endorsement of McCann’s opponent on the Prairie Capital Convention Center’s video screen was needlessly embarrassing to Senator McCann and Chairman Long.
“I have found Bryce Benton to be a sincere young man,” Floreth added. “He has served well on the Springfield Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority board. He is being poorly served, though, by commercials being run by DAN PROFT’s Liberty Principles PAC calling Senator McCann ‘MIKE MADIGAN’s favorite senator.’ Bryce should do the honorable thing and denounce this ludicrous claim.”
Floreth added that McCann “has been a consistent and eloquent conservative voice on social issues. In addition, he is fiscally prudent. He is thoughtfully independent and strives to represent his constituents to the best of his ability. I strongly urge his re-nomination and re-election.”
It was after that statement came out that The State Journal-Register ran a story Monday about McCann having billed his campaign more than $38,000 for mileage in the last year and some added thousands in payments for “grouped expenditures.”
Floreth said he thinks the size of McCann’s district justifies plenty of driving, and he noted that it was campaign funds — not taxpayer funds — that are referenced in the story.
While the anti-McCann ads have been produced through independent expenditures of Proft’s political action committee, Benton continued to link McCann to Madigan in a statement as part of a news release on his campaign’s letterhead.
“Voters deserve better than an unethical state senator working with Mike Madigan to raise taxes,” Benton said in that release. “It’s time to elect an ethical conservative who will fight for us.”
“I think that we need somebody who’s going to tell voters what they believe and not what they want to hear,” Benton told me when I asked about his release. “”When he ran for state Senate initially, he campaigned as a fiscal conservative. I’ve talked to a lot of people around the district who feel like he turned his back on that almost immediately."
Benton said he would have voted against bills to allow state worker contracts to go to arbitration — supported by McCann and what McCann says are the overwhelming number of constituents who contacted him.
“I think that to take the governor and anyone who’s accountable to taxpayers out of that process is not the right way to go,” Benton said.
His release also called on McCann to document “every dollar” of mileage reimbursement and grouped expenditures on his campaign reports.
“I think I have accounted for every dollar,” McCann said. That despite McCann's description of grouped expenditures for the SJ-R story as being for things including mileage, office supplies, and candy for parades. He is quoted there as saying, "I admit bookkeeping is not one of my strengths, but I’m getting better.”
And McCann took issue with statements that link him to a tax increase.
“My opponent’s campaign is characterizing it as a tax increase,” McCann said of his vote to allow arbitration in deadlocked contract talks. “Obviously, that’s a blatant lie because we haven’t voted on a tax increase” since he got in the Senate, he told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register this week.
AARON DeGROOT, spokesman for Benton, said Benton’s campaign doesn’t have “any control over independent expenditures” that are paying for the anti-McCann ads. He also said McCann “has not answered legitimate questions about his unpaid taxes and record of voting with Mike Madigan.”
As of last year, tax liens against two McCann businesses totaled more than $124,000. McCann has said a clerical error on his part caused some problems, and he is still working with the IRS to prove his innocence.
MIKE BIGGER of the Stark County city of Wyoming, represents the 18th Congressional District on the GOP State Central Committee, and is not taking sides in the McCann-Benton race.
Floreth, meanwhile, remains on the March 15 primary ballot himself as a delegate candidate pledged to U.S. Sen. RAND PAUL of Kentucky.
But Paul has dropped out of the presidential contest.
“If, by some unlikely miracle, I am elected,” Foreth said in his newsletter, “I would then attend the national convention as one of the few truly ‘uncommitted’ delegates.”
Benton’s late payments
Sangamon County records show that Benton and his wife, AMY, were late in paying property taxes on their Springfield home four times in recent years, and paid small penalties.
In 2013, they were less than a week late on the first installment, and a month late on the second. They paid a total of just under $39 in penalties plus $10 because the Sangamon County treasurer’s office sent a certified letter as a reminder.
In 2014, they were between two and three weeks late on each installment, and paid almost $40 in penalties plus another $10 linked to a certified letter.
Sangamon County Treasurer TOM CAVANAGH says that while 98,000 property tax bills go out in the county each cycle, about 8,000 generally get to the point where a certified letter is sent.
“For us, delinquent taxes are routine,” Cavanagh said. “I mean, we deal with thousands and thousands of them.”
He said the penalty is 1.5 percent of the amount owed for each month, including any part of the first month.
DeGroot said Benton “has paid everything he owes in taxes,” while McCann is “dodging” tax liens and “milking his campaign account” for mileage reimbursements.
Above is from: http://www.sj-r.com/article/20160217/NEWS/160219600/?Start=3
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