Oberweis is swinging hard for Durbin’s seat
This is no David and Goliath battle. Here, “David” has little chance of winning, and “Goliath” has barely acknowledged there even is a battle.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Springfield, a Democrat representing Illinois, is seeking re-election against Republican challenger Jim Oberweis. Polls show Durbin ahead an average of almost 50 percent to 38 percent, and he’s mostly keeping his hands clean in his advertisements while Oberweis goes for the throat.
Durbin was elected to the U.S. House in 1982 and served there until being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996. Durbin previously worked as legal counsel to the late Lt. Gov. Paul Simon and later the Illinois Senate. He has more than $4.7 million available to his campaign, giving him more than enough to outspend Oberweis on ads.
Jim Oberweis, a Republican from Aurora, owns Oberweis Dairy, a regional milk and ice cream company. Oberweis previously ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, Illinois governor in 2006 and the U.S. House in 2008, losing each time and earning him the nickname “Milk Dud.” He finally won election to the Illinois Senate in 2012. Oberweis’ campaign had about $862,000 on hand at the end of June.
Durbin’s campaign has run three TV ads in Springfield, two of which are positive and one of which attacks Oberweis. Durbin also has a handful of positive online-only videos, including a surprisingly sentimental piece saying he’s “honored” to serve the state. Durbin’s negative ad says Oberweis wants to cut taxes “for millionaires like himself” while turning Medicare into a voucher program. The ad concludes that “Oberweis’ Tea Party doesn’t include you.”
Oberweis has one TV ad under his belt, along with several radio ads. His ads frequently attack Durbin’s record, calling Durbin a “career politician.” The Oberweis campaign did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
Oberweis’ most negative radio ad claims Durbin “asked the IRS to investigate a political opponent right as the IRS began illegally targeting American families.” The political opponent Durbin asked the IRS to investigate is the Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies political action committee, which was founded by Republican operative Karl Rove and is registered as a 501c4 nonprofit with the IRS. The “superPAC” raises money for Republican political candidates.
The tax-free nonprofit designation is typically reserved for social welfare organizations and local associations of employees, but some political organizations on both the left and right have used the classification to escape disclosing their donors. Ron Holmes, communications director for Durbin’s campaign, says Durbin asked the IRS to investigate Crossroads and other similar organizations because they don’t match the intended purpose of the nonprofit designation. Durbin’s request came around the same time that the IRS began scrutinizing families who took an adoption tax credit, but the two issues are not related.
The Oberweis radio ad goes on to say Durbin took campaign contributions from a union of IRS employees “and refuses to return the money.” Accepting campaign contributions from unions is legal, and the ad doesn’t explain why Durbin should give them back.
Holmes says some of the contributions go back as far as 2001, during George W. Bush’s first term as president. Holmes says the Oberweis ad attempts to link the political nonprofit issue with alleged mismanagement at the IRS.
“To follow this logic, we would have to assume that Dick Durbin was in a grand conspiracy to conspire with IRS employees under George Bush to one day elect Barack Obama president, only to appoint Lois Lerner, and then only for hard drives to be missing on Capitol Hill,” Holmes said. “It’s really farfetched, but this is the kind of stuff we’ve been dealing with over the course of the campaign.”
The Oberweis radio ad also says that during Durbin’s 32 years in Washington, he has been “putting millions in his own pocket.”
Holmes says Durbin publicly releases his tax returns and discloses financial interests even beyond what Senate rules require.
Available through the U.S. Senate’s Financial Disclosures website, Durbin’s 2013 tax return shows he made $174,000 through his Senate salary that year and received $30,255 from Social Security. Durbin and his wife, Loretta, jointly paid more than $63,000 in taxes, the report shows.
A separate Oberweis mail campaign also accuses Durbin of paying a female staff member less than an equivalent male staff. Holmes says that Durbin’s statewide director, Bill Houlihan of Springfield, and his Chicago director, Clarisol Avila Duque, have different titles and do different jobs, adding that their pay has been nearly equal for about the past year. Holmes also points to a vote in 2014 by Oberweis against ratifying the federal Equal Rights Amendment of 1971. Illinois is one of 15 states that have not ratified the proposed amendment to ban sexual discrimination under the U.S. Constitution. Although passing the measure would have been only symbolic because constitutional amendments must be ratified within seven years to take effect, Oberweis was one of 11 “no” votes in the Illinois Senate against the amendment. It ultimately stalled in the House and was not ratified in Illinois.
“This is a case where we have a candidate who hasn’t offered a single idea about what he’s going to do differently than Dick Durbin, but he’s wasted a lot of money trying to drag our name through the mud,” Holmes said. “Quite frankly, it’s funny, because when we’re traveling the state, his negative ads almost have the opposite effect.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
