Yesterday’s Daily Herald reports that Robert Schillerstrom has decided not to seek statewide office this campaign season. The DuPage County Board Chairman, with a campaign chest of almost $1.5 million, has raised more money than all of the GOP gubernatorial contenders recently except Ron Gidwitz.
Bob Schillerstrom’s recent fundraising exploits beg the question ‘what the heck was he doing?’ I don’t know that I have a good answer - but I tend to think he wasn’t serious about running for higher office any time this year. The evidence for him not seriously running, much of it known in September 2004 and confirmed in February 2005, is this:
- Veteran GOP political consultant Glen Hodas stopped working for Schillerstrom and switched to Ron Gidwitz’s campaign in January 2005.
- The (now indicted) ghost of John E. Glennon haunts Bob’s political prospects. Also haunting Bob is his appointed Water Commission Chair and chief fund-raiser Michael P. Vondra (and here), who hired Victor Reyes to help the water commission. According to the Daily Herald’s Eric Krol, Reyes
“was working both for and against the DuPage Water Commission in 2003 — for the agency as it tried to resolve a water pressure-related conflict with the city of Chicago and against it as Schillerstrom successfully wrested $75 million in savings from the water agency to balance the county budget.”
Yes, it’s that Victor Reyes (see also this background).
- Schillerstrom gave a number of public pronouncements suggesting he felt ambiguity about a statewide run, he wasn’t raising much money in the last six months of 2004 and he reduced his public appearances.
- DuPage power struggles over the DuPage County Coroner likely left some intra-party hard feelings. Perhaps more importantly, the Water Commission money raid, broke ties and made political enemies at the town/city level. GOP alienation made Schillerstrom’s timing to run in a primary less than optimal.
So what’s with the money raising surprise the first six months of 2005? Some things are a given. Bob’s money scares away GOP competition for his safe seat (something former County Chair aspirant Patrick O’Shea noted in the Daily Herald article). Financial resources also make Schillerstrom a financial player in the GOP, buying the influence you can get with large campaign donations - a not insignificant issue with no DuPage gubernatorial candidates (save the ‘running for something else’ Joe Birkett). The money helps reinforce Schillerstrom’s kingmaker status on the DuPage County Board. It also makes it easier for Bob to extend his DuPage County political influence - something that has been challenged by other DuPage GOP leaders.
Beyond buying back into good graces and reinforcing and extending his DuPage power base does Bob Schillerstrom have something else afoot? I don’t know - but I wouldn’t rule it out. A lot depends on how things develop with Bob’s friend and supporter John E. Glennon and another Republican, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
A final note. Maybe some of the money that came to Bob chased him (and he wasn’t chasing it). The recent federal transportation bill has a lot of contractors seeing lots of green. Bob has often benefitted from road construction money. Lately, as Eric Krol observed at the end of March, companies with their sights on O’Hare and the Western route expansion have found their way to Schillerstrom’s campaign coffers.
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