Oberweis likely on his own in November

The Republican Party's congressional war chest, which flooded the suburbs with mailers and TV ads on behalf of Jim Oberweis this month, may back out of the coming rematch with Bill Foster.

Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said Thursday it seems "highly unlikely" the National Republican Congressional Committee will chip in for the general election.

An NRCC spokeswoman declined to say whether the woefully underfunded organization will help Oberweis financially. But she said they still hope he wins the seat once held by veteran House Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert.

"We definitely expect this to be a possible pickup opportunity," Betsy Andres said.

The NRCC spent about $1.2 million in the 14th Congressional District to try to prevent Foster from winning the seat in a special election March 8. That amounted to nearly a fifth of the NRCC's total bankroll at the time.

The Democrats' congressional campaign wing spent about the same amount to help Foster. That committee has more than $30 million to spend on congressional races to expand the party's House majority.

Foster won the district, which stretches from Aurora west to near the Iowa border, by 5 percentage points.

Pascoe said that given the NRCC's financial situation, he expects the general election rematch to get bumped down on the priority list. After all, Foster will be taking on Oberweis as an incumbent in the fall.

The absence of NRCC cash, however, is not expected to tame the race.

The special election was top-heavy with negative ads, robo-calls and feisty mailers from both sides. It also drew outside support from Barack Obama, who cut a TV ad and mobilized volunteers for Foster, and John McCain, who rallied the troops at a campaign stop for Oberweis.

The expensive campaigns were largely funded by the wealthy candidates.

Oberweis, who owns the ice cream and dairy stores under his name, spent about $2.3 million of his own money. He raised $500,000 more from donors.

Foster, a former Geneva physicist who founded a lighting company, spent about $1.3 million of his own money and raised another $600,000.

Pascoe said Oberweis may be prepared to spend another $2.5 million of his own cash in the general election. But he will also rely on donors.

"We have built a pretty good fundraising operation, and we will continue with that," he said.

In his previous failed bids for U.S. senate and governor, Oberweis was also mostly a self-financing candidate.

Foster spokesman Andrew DuPree declined to say what their funding plans are for the general election.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee declined to say what the organization might spend in the fall, but the race remains a target for retention.