Per The Crypt, the GOP has found a wealthy magnate to take the place of Tim Baldermann.
Illinois Republicans selected concrete magnate Marty Ozinga III to be their nominee for the seat of retiring Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), replacing New Lenox mayor Tim Baldermann on the 11th District Congressional ballot.
….
Ozinga also announced he has raised over $400,000 since he began fundraising earlier this month, significantly closing the cash-on-hand gap between himself and his Democratic opponent, state Senate President Debbie Halvorson. Halvorson reported $673,000 in her campaign account at the end of March.
What piqued my interest was that though Ozinga’s wealthy, he’s not exactly a self funder. Why?
Ozinga told the Associated Press yesterday that, despite his substantial personal wealth, he was unlikely to put more than $350,000 of his own money into the race. He elaborated on those remarks in an interview with Politico today.
“It’s a mistake, a bad strategy to try to put your own money in yourself – it’s the broad base that gets people invested in the thing overall and makes you a better candidate,” Ozinga said.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Ryan Rudominer, meanwhile, attributed Ozinga’s fundraising haul to “cashing in on his rolodex of fellow fat cats who have made a career of gaming the system.”
OK, that may be well and good, but guess what else happens when you put in more than $350,000? You trigger the Millionaires’ Amendment. Methinks that was no coincidence he mentioned that specific amount as the one he didn’t want to break.
And a wag of the finger to the Politico for not catching that and mentioning it in their article.
Now even if the DCCC is correct that it’s Ozinga’s “fellow fat cats” giving to him, the bottom line is that he’s quickly become financially competitive against Debbie Halvorson, who was part of the DCCC’s first round of their Red to Blue program. She’s raised a total of $433,970 since the pre-primary FEC report on January 17, 2008. He’s raised over $400,000 in April alone. Ugh.
So, what can we do? Well, for starters, you can go to her ActBlue page and contribute!