McSweeney out-raising, outspending Beaubien in 52nd House District race
Republican David McSweeney, whose primary race was the state's third most expensive legislative contest in the spring, is showing no sign of slowing down fundraising efforts in his bid for the 52nd House District seat.
McSweeney out-raised and outspent independent challenger Dee Beaubien by a ratio of about 4-to-1, quarterly reports filed this week with the Illinois State Board of Elections show.
Business leaders nationwide helped build the Barrington Hills financial consultant's coffers, with McSweeney receiving $89,175 in individual contributions between April and June.
Contributions of $5,000 or more came from electric and gas delivery firm Ameren Illinois, manufacturer Maclean-Fogg Co., and top executives at MidAmerican Energy, Bank of America, Otto Engineering and Uline.
McSweeney, who ran for Congress in 1998 and 2006, also received support from several conservative political action committees, including $10,000 from We Mean Business, a new PAC focused on pension reform.
Meanwhile, Beaubien, who didn't announce her candidacy until late April and is facing an objection by McSweeney to her nominating petitions, raised just $2,650 in individual contributions.
The Barrington Hills retired mental health professional said she's been focused on forming a staff and literature, and that fundraising will come next. She personally loaned her campaign $10,000 and received $15,000 from the campaign committee for her late husband, former GOP state Rep. Mark Beaubien.
Beaubien also received in-kind contributions from Personal PAC and Equality Illinois PAC, which respectively advocate for abortion rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered equality.
In total, Beaubien raised about $28,000 and spent $21,000, while McSweeney raised $113,000 and spent $87,000. Beaubien had $8,000 cash on hand at the end of the period, compared to $39,000 for McSweeney.
Though McSweeney's petition challenge asserts Beaubien is ineligible to run as an independent because she affiliated herself with the Republican Party, he said a $500 contribution by state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, is further proof of her alliance with House Speaker Michael Madigan. Beaubien hired Mike Kasper, a Democratic attorney with strong ties to Madigan, to fend off McSweeney's petition challenge.
“I'm not a political insider, but I know enough about Illinois politics to confidently say that liberal Democratic Rep. Lou Lang wouldn't contribute to Dee's campaign and Mike Kasper wouldn't work for Dee without the explicit approval of Speaker Madigan,” McSweeney said.
Should she remain on the ballot, McSweeney believes that “voters of this area will reject the Madigan/Beaubien policies that will result in higher property taxes, less jobs and more debt.”
Beaubien said she hired Kasper because he's the best at what he does, not as an indication of what she might do after the election. She also sees the contribution from Lang, who she described as a good friend of her and late her husband, as a positive.
“Mark worked across the aisle and I will too,” Beaubien said. “You can't run a government without talking to each other, and if all you care about is who's a Republican and who's a Democrat, then you're missing the point.”
The 52nd House District covers parts of Algonquin, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Cary, Crystal Lake, Fox River Grove, Island Lake, Lake in the Hills, North Barrington, Oakwood Hills, South Barrington, Trout Valley and Wauconda.