Schneider shifts stance on super PACs, says he’ll take support if Dold does

A Democratic candidate for Congress in the suburban 10th District has shifted his position on accepting campaign support from controversial political groups called super PACs.

During a candidate forum in Deerfield on Saturday, Brad Schneider told a standing-room-only crowd he would accept help from super PACs if Republican incumbent Bob Dold does so.

“I’m not going to fight this fight with one hand behind my back,” Schneider said.

That’s a new tack for Schneider. He criticized super PACs in a candidate interview session at the Daily Herald’s Lake County office in January, and he did so again in a Feb. 9 email to the newspaper.

In that email, Schneider criticized the “distorting, shadowy influence of super PACs” and said he would ask them to stay out of the primary race.

After being asked about the comments he made Saturday and how they differed from his earlier remarks, Schneider said in a new email, “There are no moral victories in elections.”

“Unlike (in) 2010, Democrats should fight back to make sure right-wing groups and their special-interest friends can’t buy a seat in Congress,” he said.

“I am committed to make sure we beat Bob Dold this fall.”

Schneider is among four Democrats who will appear on the March 20 primary ballot for the 10th District seat. The others are Ilya Sheyman, John Tree and Vivek Bavda.

Dold is running unopposed in the GOP primary.

Super PACs legally can accept unlimited amounts of money from corporations and people, unlike traditional political action committees, and use that cash to promote or oppose candidates through TV ads or other means.

But they cannot coordinate with candidates, so all a politician opposing them can do is ask the groups to stay out of a race.

Sheyman has promised to refuse political support from super PAC groups. At Saturday’s forum, he said he would oppose super PAC campaign assistance even if Dold is backed by such a group.

Bavda has said he would refuse super PAC support only if Dold made a similar promise, and he repeated that pledge Saturday. Without such a bipartisan agreement, Bavda has said he would seek out super PAC help.

Tree wasn’t asked about super PACS during Saturday’s forum.

In a follow-up interview with the Daily Herald about the issue, Tree said he will discourage super PAC involvement in the race if he is the Democratic nominee, even if a group independently forms to help his campaign.

But he acknowledged his power to stop super PACs from buying ad time is limited.

“I can call for them to stay out of the race. I can ask Bob Dold to make the same request. But I cannot control them,” Tree said.

A fifth Democratic candidate, Aloys Rutagwibira, is running a write-in campaign. He did not participate in Saturday’s forum or in Daily Herald interviews.

The 10th District includes parts of Lake and Cook counties. It stretches from Lake Michigan into the North and Northwest suburbs.