Thursday, November 3, 2011

Today's Edition of 'Calling in Favors' (or, if you like, 'Launching a Missile to Kill a Mouse')

I saw with some amazement today that the Daily Herald blog has noted that U.S. Senator John McCain is coming in to headline a fundraiser for investment banker David McSweeney, who is running for the GOP nomination for former State Rep. Mark Beaubien's seat in the 52nd legislative district. Sweeney is running against former house GOP staffer Kent Gaffney, who was appointed to fill the Beaubien vacancy when Beaubien passed away suddenly this summer.

Interestingly, I did not find what I expected when I reviewed the FEC.gov website, which was that I expected to see a lot of McCain contributions from McSweeney during McCain's presidential run. But, either I'm not looking in the right place, or McSweeney hasn't contributed to McCain in the past. McSweeney definitely throws a lot of money around to various Republicans, though, so it's safe to assume, I think, that Senator McCain is more than simply interested in finding a good Republican nominee to take over the legislative duties in the Barrington area.

2 comments:

8(soon to be 14th) District Committeeman said...

McCain came in for McSweeney when he ran against Bean a few years back. Don't recall whether he did a fundraiser but I was able to sit in on the press conference and got a picture with McCain. Apparently there is some kind of connection somewhere.

Anonymous said...

1. you're right that this is rare. mccain never came in for any statehouse candidates during the kirk era. McSweeney doesn't need the money and it will hurt dold because it dilutes the power of a mccain fundraiser for him here. Winning a congressional seat is more important to the party than a state rep primary. This is selfish and unnecessary.

2. you're wrong about the support mcsweeney has given him. It doesn't show up in news clips or fec reports, but my guess is that over the last 25 years mcsweeney has probably hosted fundraisers for mccain in chicago where his friends and business associates have probably given to mccain. Cory booker was just in chicago in a fundraiser held by some of the crown heirs. On his fundraising sheet it will say he raised #5 k from the crowns but unless you saw the invite or were there you wouldn't know he raised $35 k from the people that the crowns got to show up.

FOKLAES