Schneider reports more than $400,000 in new fundraising
Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Deerfield is continuing his fundraising dominance in the 10th District, collecting more than $400,000 in the last quarter of 2021, federal reports show.
No other 10th District candidate reported raising or spending enough dough to meet the $5,000 threshold for filing a quarterly fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission.
A Schneider spokesman declined to comment.
For the last decade, the 10th District has included much of Lake County and a portion of suburban Cook County. But district boundaries were redrawn for the 2022 election, and the 10th now will include part of McHenry County, too.
Schneider is in his fourth term in Congress. He serves on the House Ways and Means committee, a subcommittee on health, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and subcommittees covering a variety of national security and foreign policy concerns.
Schneider handily won reelection in 2018 and 2020 and held a huge fundraising advantages over his GOP rivals those years.
For this year's contest, two challengers have filed organizational paperwork with the FEC: Democrat Andrew Wang in Winnetka and Republican Joe Severino of Lake Forest. A third potential challenger, Democrat Kim Nowak, no longer intends to run.
Year-end reports covering fundraising and spending between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 were due to the FEC by Jan. 31. They can be viewed at fec.gov.
The Schneider for Congress committee started October with more than $2.5 million in the bank, and collected nearly $410,354 in donations during the period.
Of that latter sum, about $266,004 came from individuals and $144,350 came from political action committees representing a variety of companies, industries and interests. They included:
• The Bank of America and Goldman Sachs financial companies, each of which gave Schneider $1,000.
• Aerospace and weapons manufacturers Boeing and Lockheed Martin, each of which gave $1,000.
• CVS Pharmacy, which gave Schneider $1,500.
• The Baxter Health Care Corp., which gave $2,000.
• The AbbVie pharmaceutical company, which gave $2,500.
Team Schneider spent about $213,309 in the quarter - roughly 52% of what it took in during the period. Expenditures included $50,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the premier campaigning and fundraising group for House Democrats. The campaign also made smaller donations to candidates in Illinois and across the nation, including the committees for:
• U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Lauren Underwood of Naperville and Sean Casten of Downers Grove.
• Lake County Board members Carissa Casbon and Marah Altenberg.
• Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim.
Schneider reported $142,245 in typical campaign operating expenses, too.
The group finished the year with more than $2.7 million saved and reported no debt.
Severino launched a campaign Facebook page in 2020 and has been meeting with community and political groups for months. When asked about his campaign finances and the lack of a year-end report, Severino said his team has been focused on outreach and circulating nominating petitions, not fundraising.
"We have pledges from donors that are willing to invest what's necessary to win this race and will start reporting contributions soon," he said.
The primary election is June 28. The general is Nov. 8.
Candidates will make their campaigns official by filing nominating petitions with the state in March.