National Republicans badly want to beat freshman Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood, but they’re stuck with a nominee they actively tried to defeat in last month’s Illinois primary. Politico reported on Thursday that the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is the largest spender on House races among outside groups on the Republican side, financed a group called Illinois Conservatives PAC that ran ads against state Sen. Jim Oberweis in the 14th Congressional District.
The CLF spent $911,000 to fund commercials that declared, “Higher taxes, personally attacking President Donald Trump, and comparing pro-lifers to terrorists, that's the real Jim Oberweis.” This expensive effort fell just short: Oberweis defeated fellow state Sen. Sue Rezin 26-23, a margin of just under 1,500 votes.
While the CLF has gotten involved in GOP primaries to protect incumbents, it’s other very unusual to see it intervene in an intra-party battle. However, if there’s one Republican that national Republicans rightly should want far away from a general election ballot, it’s Jim Oberweis. The wealthy dairy magnate has unsuccessfully run for the House or statewide office a grand total of six times beginning with his 2002 primary defeat to take on Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, but his most high-profile defeat came in 2008 for a previous version of this seat.
Oberweis lost the special election to succeed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert in a historically red distinct by a 52.5-47.5 margin against Democrat Bill Foster, and it took no time at all for Republicans to place the blame on him. Oberweis and Foster had won their primaries for the regular November contest months before the special was decided, but Republicans reportedly tried to convince their nominee to drop out.
Then-state Rep. Aaron Schock, who was the GOP nominee for a congressional seat to the south, loudly threw Oberweis under the ice cream truck following his defeat, declaring, “Anybody in Illinois who knows Jim Oberweis knows that was not a referendum on the Republican Party; it was a referendum on Jim Oberweis.” Schock, whose own congressional career would self-destruct the next decade, also volunteered that when it came to Oberweis, “The people that knew him best, liked him least.” Oberweis didn’t listen, and he lost to Foster again 58-42.
The CLF’s staff should know Oberweis quite well at this point, and like him they don’t. But while it’s too late to deny Oberweis the GOP nod (or convince him to run for Congress in Florida), they don’t need to spend to prop him up. Indeed, the CLF announced last week that it had reserved $43 million for fall TV ads in House races across the nation, but it’s first wave of bookings did not include this exurban Chicago district. Still, this 49-45 Trump seat may just be too tempting a target for Team Red even with an unwelcome nominee, and it’s very possible that CLF or its allies will end up airing ads against Underwood.
And for all of Oberweis’ considerable flaws, he may have the personal resources to fend for himself. Oberweis has invested millions into his past failed campaigns, and he self-funded a total of $1.1 million for this race through the end of March. However, he’s raised a grand total of $558,000 from people who aren’t named Jim Oberweis during his more than 13 months of campaigning, so he may need to throw down a lot more of his money if he’s to compete with Underwood: At the end of March, the incumbent held a $2.26 million to $222,000 cash-on-hand lead.
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