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Truax blasts Oberweis over pre-primary Florida trip

State Sen. Jim Oberweis is catching heat from his U.S. Senate opponent for being in Florida a week before Tuesday's primary election.

Downers Grove businessman and political rookie Doug Truax released a scathing statement after NBC 5 first reported Tuesday his Sugar Grove GOP opponent was in the sunshine state.

Oberweis and Truax are bidding for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in November.

“I have said from the beginning of the primary that Jim Oberweis is the wrong guy to take on Dick Durbin and he just demonstrated why,” Truax said in the statement. “We need a warrior to take on Durbin, not a timid snowbird.”

Oberweis has a condo in Florida, and his wife both lives there part of the year and voted there in 2012.

Oberweis said in a statement that it shouldn't be surprising he'd have to travel across the country to raise money for a primary bid against Durbin.

“I have currently traveled to Florida for two reasons,” Oberweis said. “First, to fulfill a promise to my wife to spend a few days with her in Florida for her birthday, and second, to raise money for my U.S. Senate race.”

Oberweis finished second in the Republican primaries for U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, as well as second in the primary for governor in 2006. He won his seat in the Illinois Senate in 2012.

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