Mark Pera is putting his money where his mouth is.
The president of the Lyons Township High School District 204 School Board is challenging incumbent Congressman Daniel Lipinski in the Democratic primary for the Third Congressional District, which includes Riverside and Brookfield. Now he has loaned his congressional campaign $86,261.86, according to a recent filing with Federal Election Commission.
Of that, $65,000 came from a home equity loan on his home in Western Springs that Pera received from the Northern Trust Bank. Pera also received $54,335 in campaign contributions during his first quarter of fundraising. Together with his own loans to the campaign Pera managed to raise an impressive total of $140,696.86 suggesting that he will have the ability to mount a vigorous challenge to Lipinski, a two term incumbent, who took over the Congressional seat from his father in 2004.
“I’m very happy with the fundraising,” said Pera. “We will raise a substantial amount of money to win this race.”
Pera said he does not expect his campaign to be able to pay back his personal loan until some time after the February 5 primary. Candidates often loan their campaigns money with the hope of being able to pay themselves back after they win. If they lose it is often very difficult to raise the money to pay back a personal loan to a campaign.
But Pera said he has no qualms about putting so much of his own money into his campaign. He said it was not hard to convince his wife to go along with the decision.
“It wasn’t a difficult decision at all,” said Pera. “We believe in the campaign. We believe very strongly we’re going to win. We see it as an investment in the future.”
Despite his impressive fundraising, Pera still has less than half as much cash on hand as Lipinski does. Lipinski raised $198,432.21 from April 1, 2007 through June 30 according to federal filings. As of June 30, 2007 Lipinski reported having $268,734.76 cash on hand compared to $115,560 for Pera.
As an incumbent Lipinski was able to raise $97,630 from political action committees (PACS) while Pera did not receive any contributions from PACS. Lipinski’s federal filings reveal a long list of contributions from union PACS as well as corporate and lobbying PACS.
For example the filings show that Lipinski received $5,000 from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association PAC, a $3,000 contribution from the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League, $3,000 from the Norfolk Southern Corporation Good Government Fund, and $2,000 from EXELONPAC (Exelon is the parent company of Commonwealth Edison).
Pera’s contributions came from individuals.
But Pera said that his fundraising is continuing to go well and said that he is confident that he will have enough money to compete with Lipinski.
“We expect to raise substantially more money,” said Pera. “All I know is that we will have more than enough financial resources to win this campaign.”
Pera has already raised almost as much money as Lipinski’s best funded opponent in the 2006 primary John Sullivan managed to raise in his entire campaign.
On Aug. 10, nearly six months before the primary, Pera will become a full time candidate. He will use approximately six weeks of accumulated vacation time from his job as the supervisor of the Environment and Energy division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and then will take an unpaid leave of absence from his job until the primary.
He is about to open a campaign office at 7061 Willow Springs Road in LaGrange. He has a campaign team in place with a campaign coordinator, a deputy campaign manager, a full time fundraiser, a researcher and a web design person. His niece, a recent graduate of Arizona State University, will be joining the campaign full time after Labor Day Pera said.
Meanwhile Pera is working to build a network of volunteers and supporters. He has been reaching out to liberal activists who opposed Lipinski’s views on the Iraq war and Lipinski’s pro life views on abortion.
Friday Pera attended a candidates’ reception at a McCormick Place convention of liberal political bloggers from around the nation, the YearlyKos convention. Pera is counting on support from antiwar activists from all over to support his campaign.
“We are recruiting volunteers, literally on a daily basis, with groups throughout the district and throughout the Chicago area,” said Pera.
