Gloves come off in 14th District debate
The gloves really came off when 14th Congressional District GOP frontrunners Jim Oberweis and Chris Lauzen met at an hourlong debate Tuesday night at Aurora University.
In his opening statement, Oberweis brought up Lauzen's decision last month to return a $100,000 campaign contribution from a convicted felon whose company was under investigation by the Illinois attorney general. Oberweis said he doubted Lauzen's claim that he didn't know about the issues surrounding donor John Burgess and his company, International Profit Associates, until recently despite numerous media reports over the past few years.
"The question is, why'd you take it in the first place?" said Oberweis, a Sugar Grove businessman.
Responding to the accusation later in the debate, Lauzen accused Oberweis of "trying to destroy my reputation."
"In my entire career, I have never asked for nor taken anything that doesn't belong to me," said Lauzen, a state senator from Aurora. "My desire is to serve you well. When I've been confronted with a problem with a campaign contributor, I've sent the money back without being told or even asked. … For my opponent to say otherwise is cruel and a politically motivated lie and conduct unbecoming someone who wants to represent us in any public office."
Later, both candidates addressed an attack piece from the Lauzen campaign charging that Oberweis "makes a fortune from mutual funds that include investments in Chinese companies that pay low wages and unfairly compete to take away American jobs," a claim Oberweis dismissed as "totally ridiculous."
When asked their views on actual issues, the two were largely in agreement, opposing automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants, decrying additional government regulations that would hurt American businesses and affirming their pro-life viewpoints.
Also running on the Republican side is dark horse Michael Dilger of Evanston, who did not appear at the debate and has yet to campaign publicly in his bid to replace former U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert, a Plano Republican who retired in November
The winner of the GOP primary Feb. 5 will face the winner of the Democratic primary. Running on that side are Bill Foster, a former Fermilab physicist from Geneva; John Laesch, a carpenter and a Navy veteran from Newark; St. Charles lawyer Jotham Stein; and Geneva resident Joe Serra.