McSweeney releases negative ads in 52nd House race

What's been a largely positive, issues-focused campaign in the 52nd District House race has taken a turn as the three Republican candidates enter the homestretch to next Tuesday's primary.

Barrington Hills financial consultant David McSweeney last week released his second TV ad, this one accusing state Rep. Kent Gaffney of running a negative campaign to "cover up his liberal record."

It also states that Gaffney, who worked as the House Republicans budget director for a decade, bragged about being the go-to guy for state spending, the result being bigger government, higher taxes and $8 billion in unpaid bills.

Meanwhile, a new McSweeney mailer is out calling Gaffney an appointed state bureaucrat with a record of financial irresponsibility. The ad features pictures of trash next to a broom with a message about it being time for some spring cleaning.

Neither ad mentions Tea Party candidate Danielle Rowe, an Island Lake marketing executive making her first run at office.

Gaffney, appointed last summer to succeed the late Mark Beaubien, responded in a statement that McSweeney is the first in the race to go negative, resorting to "attack ads in his desperate attempt to save his failing campaign."

Gaffney, of Lake Barrington, said McSweeney's ads are blatantly false and full of outright lies attempting to link him to Gov. Pat Quinn and higher taxes. He said he opposed "Blagojevich/Quinn borrowing and spending sprees" and worked to unite GOP legislators against the 67 percent income tax hike.

He also pointed out that he's the chief sponsor of legislation to repeal the tax increase, and broke with House leadership this month as one of only a handful of Republicans to vote against a new revenue estimate because it's $500 million more than last year.

"David McSweeney must have been too busy with his negative campaign to notice my vote against more spending," Gaffney said.

But McSweeney's campaign manager, Jim Thacker, said Gaffney was the first to go negative, In January, Thacker noted, Gaffney called for McSweeney to withdraw from the race, saying his opponent "disgraced himself with shameful, untrue accusations against my campaign" during challenges to both his and Rowe's nominating petitions.

Thacker said McSweeney's actions were appropriate because while the State Board of Elections ruled Gaffney could stay on the ballot, it did strike some signatures from nominating petitions.

Thacker also refutes Gaffney's claim that McSweeney is the only candidate who has voted to raise taxes, referring to his tax levy votes as Palatine Township trustee between 1995 and 2000. The same issue came up when McSweeney ran for Congress in 2006, and it was found that the levy rose about $84,000 his first two years, but fell more than $300,000 overall in that five-year span.

The bottom line, Thacker said, is that Gaffney can't take credit for playing a prominent role as his caucus' budget director and then distance himself from the budget crisis.

"Gaffney can't have it both ways," he said. "You can't say you're this big player in Springfield and then say it's the Democrats' fault and you didn't have control over anything."

Rowe said McSweeney calling himself the only proven conservative in the race is "blatantly dishonest," and that she was a fiscal conservative in the Tea Party movement long before she decided to run. She also said she's more conservative on social issues than her opponents, being the only candidate who opposes abortion without exceptions.