Des Plaines’ Moylan announces 55th House bid

Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan announced Tuesday he will be running in the March Democratic primary for the new 55th District Illinois House seat.

If he wins the party’s nomination, Moylan would likely face incumbent state Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, a Des Plaines Republican who has held the 65th District seat since January 1993, in the November 2012 general election.

The new 55th district includes parts of Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Elk Grove Village and Schaumburg.

Moylan chose to make the announcement at the headquarters of President Obama’s suitmaker, Hart Schaffner & Marx in Des Plaines, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2009 and was under threat of closure.

Moylan and other local, state and federal officials rallied around the company’s roughly 600 workers, calling for the banks to help keep the business open. The company eventually was acquired by an India-based textile giant and a London-based company.

Moylan said he so far has raised $42,000 for the House primary race. He is yet to announce a campaign manager.

“We are concentrating on getting all our petitions,” Moylan said. “We have numerous volunteers from the neighborhoods helping, a lot of my family, and volunteers from previous campaigns. We got real good support from the community.”

If Moylan, 60, wins the general election, he wouldn’t take office until January 2013. Since that’s only a few months before his mayoral term ends in April 2013, he said he wouldn’t step down from the city post early.

Moylan’s announcement could swell interest in the next Des Plaines mayoral race, as was the case in April 2009 when voter-imposed term limits meant there was no incumbent in the contest.