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Money race begins for Congress next year

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering showed some fundraising skills in the opening months of her bid for Congress, raising nearly $366,000 in the first quarter of the year toward her Democratic primary bid against Brad Schneider of Deerfield.

The two are set to run for the nomination in the north suburban 10th District, which Schneider represented in the last Congress. He's making another run to try to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Dold next year.

Schneider's fundraising report showed no income, but his campaign said that's because he announced early this month and the latest reports cover the period through March 31.

Rotering's report shows she has loaned her campaign an additional $90,000 of her own money, too.

Dold, meanwhile, raised about $605,000 in the first three months of the year and has $632,000 in the bank toward his re-election, records show.

In the end, the 10th District will be a big one nationally next year, which means lots of outside money is likely to stream into the district.

The big race

Lisa Wagner of Wheaton will lead the fundraising effort in Illinois and several nearby states for Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.

Wagner got her start raising money for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Plano. She met Bush at a DuPage County event a few years ago and has since become a backer of the former Florida governor.

While it's too early to know whether Illinois will be a primary state of note in the 2016 race, having big supporters here can help in the big picture.

Leftovers

Former Democratic state Rep. Keith Farnham, whose state pension was stripped this week after a child pornography conviction, reported having nearly $24,000 left in his campaign account as of the end of March.

Records show his last big expense from the account was $10,000 last October to Ekl, Williams & Provenzale, the firm that represented him in the case.

Aside from his legal fees, Farnham can spend the money on political activities or give it to charity.

Helping out

College of DuPage Trustee Kathy Hamilton loaned her campaign $28,400 in the closing days of the local election, then loaned the same amount from her campaign to the slate that helped elect three like-minded trustees April 7.

The four now have a majority on the college's board and have called for President Robert Breuder to at least take a leave of absence.

Roskam plan gets moving

The U.S. House this week approved U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam's Taxpayer Bill of Rights Act of 2015. It includes 10 points Roskam says aim to make sure people get a fair shake from the IRS.

"In light of our new majority in Congress, I am confident we can finally send these common sense protections to the president's desk," he said.

Rauner sounds off on challenges ahead

Kirk raised $1 million; Duckworth $522,000

Farnham's state pension stripped after child porn conviction

Nancy Rotering
Brad Schneider
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