It isn’t often that an incumbent state legislator faces a primary challenger backed by a governor from his own party, but this isn’t a typical election year.
Republican state Sen. Sam McCann of Plainview is fighting to keep his seat representing part of Springfield after crossing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on union-backed legislation. The race is a test of how much Rauner’s outsized war chest can influence the Illinois Statehouse.
McCann was first elected in 2010. The 50th Senate District which McCann represents covers southern and western parts of Springfield, then stretches west to the Mississippi River and south to just outside St. Louis. McCann’s challenger, Bryce Benton, 33, of Springfield, is endorsed by Rauner and supported by large sums of money from Rauner allies. Benton is an Illinois State Police trooper and a member of the Springfield Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority, to which he won election in April 2015.
Benton’s challenge to McCann is partly a result of McCann’s vote during the fall 2015 legislative session on a bill which Rauner opposed. The bill would have required arbitration over the state’s employment contracts with public employee unions if an agreement isn’t reached within 30 days of the current contract’s expiration. Rauner prohibited his fellow Republicans in the Illinois General Assembly from voting for that bill, along with several others he opposed. The governor promised to back a primary opponent against any Republican lawmaker who defied him. McCann was the only Republican who voted in favor of the bill.
Benton, a trooper with the Illinois State Police, says he would have voted against the arbitration bill because it gives unions “too much of an out” to push disputes into arbitration. Police in Illinois don’t have the right to strike because of the threat to public safety, so police contract disputes automatically go to arbitration. Benton says it’s not unfair for him to potentially vote against other state employees having the benefit of arbitration that he and his fellow police enjoy.
“Public safety unions can’t strike obviously for public safety reasons,” he said. “While the other union jobs in the state are obviously very important, and they serve the people in this area well, the public safety implications aren’t there in general. I think that’s why my union and other similar unions have the provision that they do.”
Benton says the arbitration bill isn’t the only reason he’s running against McCann.
“I think people in this district deserve a consistent conservative representative,” Benton said. “I think Senator McCann started off on that path, and that’s what he campaigned on in 2010, but I think he forgot about the promises he made when he originally ran.”
Although Rauner hasn’t directly contributed money to Bryce Benton’s campaign, the governor’s Turnaround Illinois political action committee (PAC) did transfer $1.8 million to the Liberty Principles PAC. It’s run by conservative suburban radio host and past gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft, who has spent more than $1.3 million on television ads slamming McCann. Benton’s campaign benefited the most by far of any candidate supported by Proft’s PAC this election. One TV ad run by Liberty Principles calls McCann “Madigan’s favorite,” referring to the Democratic Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.
The incumbent candidate is under fire for allegations of unpaid business taxes, lawsuits for unpaid credit card debt and poorly documented mileage reimbursements in his campaign fund. Benton’s campaign seized on the mileage issue in particular, calling it a scandal and saying McCann’s tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements to himself are “potentially fraudulent.”
In 2015, McCann claimed $38,300 in mileage reimbursements, according to his itemized expenditures filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. That total excludes mileage claimed by McCann’s assistant.
McCann claimed no mileage at all in the first quarter of 2015, but he claimed $12,300 for mileage during the second quarter. What changed? It’s possible that McCann knew he would have a primary opponent by the time the Senate voted on the arbitration bill on May 30 and began campaigning constantly in preparation. McCann himself didn’t vote on the bill on May 30, but he did vote to override the governor’s veto on Aug. 19. McCann could not be reached for comment before publication, but he did attempt to contact Illinois Times for this article.
Tom Newman, director of the Division of Campaign Disclosure for the Illinois State Board of Elections, says the agency has received a complaint about McCann’s mileage reimbursements.
A poll conducted in early February by We Ask America for the Capitol Fax blog showed Benton at 43 percent to McCann’s 41.4 percent among likely Republican voters. However, the poll’s 3.9-point margin of error means the race could go either way.
McCann is certainly ahead in fundraising, however. At the start of 2016, McCann reported having $110,700 in his campaign fund, and he has received $540,178 since then, including $480,100 from unions or labor-affiliated groups. One of those groups is the Illinois Police Benevolent & Protective Association PAC, which gave McCann $2,500.
By comparison, Benton has reported just $58,500 in campaign donations, $25,000 of which came from the conservative Illinois Liberty PAC. However, the large independent expenditures by Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC mean Benton doesn’t have to spend much money on advertising.
McCann has run at least one TV add trying to counter the attacks from Proft’s PAC – a feel-good spot featuring several people saying they’re glad McCann voted “the way people here wanted him to.” The ad refers to Liberty Principles PAC indirectly as “these Chicago big-money people.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2016.
