WAR CHEST ADVANTAGE
Illinois House Republicans in big races hold huge fundraising leads over Dem rivals
WASHINGTON — The Illinois House members with the biggest November races — Republican Reps. Peter Roskam, Randy Hultgren, Rodney Davis and Michael Bost — have significantly more cash on hand than their Democratic rivals, new Federal Election Commission reports show.
Democrats have been trying to create a “blue wave” heading into the mid-term elections, and Illinois Democratic voter turnout jumped in the March primary. It’s hard — and this is true for candidates in both parties — to translate that into a green cash surge when running against an incumbent getting fundraising help from special interest political action committees.
Financial details on the big Illinois races are below; before that, some fundraising highlights:
8th Dist. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of Schaumburg, is sitting on the biggest war chest of any Illinois House member, $4,362,699, a stunning amount since he faces a nominal GOP rival for his 8th Congressional District seat who has reported no cash on hand.
17th Dist. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., of Moline, is next, with $3,124,574 in the bank; she faces nominal GOP competition.
11th Dist. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., of Naperville, has the third-largest balance, $3,014,061 and also has only nominal GOP competition.
What Krishnamoorthi, Bustos and Foster have in common: After facing tough races in the past in districts that are not totally safe for Democrats, the big cash advantage serves to make potentially strong challengers think twice before taking them on. The strategy worked for them in 2018.
While Hultgren and Bost have plenty of election cash stockpiled, their rivals, Lauren Underwood and Brendan Kelly, out-raised them in April, May and June.
In the 3rd Congressional District, the Republican nominee, Arthur Jones of Lyons, an admitted anti-Semite, Holocaust denier and white supremacist, reported to the FEC taking in zero money. Candidates who raise less than $5,000 do not have to file. While Jones is running a minimal campaign in a Democratic district, his candidacy attracts attention ironically because of his reprehensible views. Democrat Rep. Dan Lipinski has $478,519 cash on hand as of July 1.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., is almost out of campaign money, reporting only $24,298 cash on hand in the July quarterly report, the smallest war chest in the delegation.
Here’s a look at second-quarter FEC reports for the three months prior to July 1 for the major Illinois House races.