Long Grove mayor short on campaign cash in Bean challenge
She may be regarded as the Republican Party's best chance to unseat Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean in the suburban 8th Congressional District, but Maria Rodriguez hasn't done much to fund her campaign, new federal reports show.
Rodriguez, the two-term Long Grove mayor, raised $22,425 between July 1 and Sept. 30, according to documents available at the Federal Election Commission's Web site, fec.gov. That's a fraction of the roughly $624,410 Bean's campaign had in the bank as of June 30, the end of the last quarter.
Bean, of Barrington, had not filed her FEC report for the latest quarter as of Thursday afternoon. A spokesman declined to comment.
Rodriguez said she hasn't tried to do any significant fundraising yet. The cash received represents donations from her family and closest friends, she said. Rodriguez also loaned her campaign $100.
"It's the Christmas card list," she joked. "We knew that was going to be low."
Thursday was the deadline for congressional candidates to file campaign finance reports for the quarter.
Rodriguez was the only one of the three declared GOP candidates to file campaign financing paperwork, which covers donations received, loans and spending, on Thursday.
The other two Republicans are Greg Jacobs of Mundelein and John Dawson of Barrington.
Candidates who do not raise or spend $5,000 do not need to file FEC finance reports. Jacobs said he didn't meet the threshold and didn't file a report. Dawson could not be reached for comment.
Rodriguez said she has a campaign manager and fundraiser on staff now, and she feels fine about her team's fundraising ability looking forward.
"We're just getting the campaign up and going," she said.
Rodriguez is the most politically prominent of the three Republicans. Jacobs is a retired Cook County sheriff's deputy, while Dawson is a former Crystal Lake High School District 155 board member who owns a home building company.
A few other area Republicans have been mentioned as potential candidates, especially in light of Rodriguez's lackluster fundraising, but no one else has entered the GOP race.
Repeat candidate Bill Scheurer has said he plans to run for the seat as a Green Party candidate. He has not filed an FEC report, either.
Bean, who's in her third term, is the lone Democratic candidate so far. She defeated a primary challenger two years ago.
The 8th District includes parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties.
The 2010 primary election is scheduled for Feb. 2. The 2010 general election is Nov. 2.