Kadner: Super PAC in campaign aims to defeat Jackson

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Updated: March 15, 2012 8:10AM

A super PAC is taking sides in the congressional race that pits incumbent Jesse Jackson Jr. against former congresswoman Deborah Halvorson.

Both are liberal Democrats running in the 2nd Congressional District in the March 20 primary election.

But the Campaign for Primary Accountability, financed primarily by wealthy Texans with conservative political leanings, is supporting Halvorson, of Crete.

Super PACs were created after a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that said certain kinds of political action committees could be created with no limitations on fundraising or campaign spending as long as they are run independently of a candidate’s campaign.

There’s been a lot written about super PACs and their operations in regard to the Republican presidential campaign, but there hasn’t been much activity yet in the Illinois races.

But Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a Houston-based group with more than $1 million cash on hand, has targeted three congressional races in Illinois, including the Jackson-Halvorson contest.

According to the PAC’s website, “Citizens from across the political spectrum have come together to level the playing field in primary elections through the Campaign for Primary Accountability’s Equalizer Campaign ...

“Incumbents usually have a ‘message monopoly’ during primaries; they raise more money (mostly from lobbyists and special interests) and use those funds to tell voters all of the ‘wonderful’ things they have done. But they never speak of earmarks, pay raises, junkets and generalized corruption that have infected politics in Washington, D.C.

“Our goal is to bring true competition to our electoral process, to give voters real information about their choices and to restore fair, not fixed, elections.”

The two founders of this super PAC are Houston construction mogul Leo Linbeck III, who has described himself as a “conservative communitarian,” and Eric O’Keefe, chief executive of the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance, which organizes citizen activists.

O’Keefe, a Wisconsin businessman, also created an organization that campaigned for term limits. He and Linbeck joined forces behind another group that’s trying to undermine President Obama’s national health insurance plan.

According to the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization, Linbeck contributed $775,000 to the Campaign for Primary Accountability, Joe Ricketts (patron of the family that purchased the Chicago Cubs) donated $500,000 and O’Keefe gave $100,000.

Curtis Ellis, spokesman for the super PAC, claims the group is nonpartisan and has carefully picked candidates throughout the country who have a chance to defeat long-term incumbents.

“We do polling, and if a large number of constituents indicate they are dissatisfied with their representation, we consider backing the challenger in that race,” Ellis said.

I asked Ellis to provide the polling data that indicated Halvorson could defeat Jackson, and he said he would try to get back to me but did not by press time.

In addition to Jackson, the Campaign for Primary Accountability has targeted Republican U.S. Reps. Judy Biggert, who’s running in the new 11th District, and Donald Manzullo, who’s running against another GOP incumbent, Adam Kinzinger, in the new 16th District.

Ellis said the super PAC has so far limited itself to making robocalls and knocking on doors in the 2nd District “just to let people know there’s a primary coming up, and it is important that they vote.”

Ellis said most Americans don’t vote in primaries, but “in 90 percent of the congressional districts in this country, the election is decided during the primary because there is no effective competition in the general election. And those are the districts we target.”

In coming weeks, he said, the super PAC will send out mailings and emails to voters in the 2nd District, spelling out the reasons they should vote for Halvorson.

Asked if the mailers might also contain negative information about Jackson, Ellis said, “Giving voters the information they need to make an informed decision is what we’re all about.”

Ellis emphasized that the PAC has not been in touch with Halvorson, and “nobody in our organization has ever met the woman. We can’t coordinate our campaign with her campaign. That’s the law.”

Halvorson has stated that she’s opposed to super PACs.

“That just demonstrates how nonpartisan we are,” Ellis said.

In a news release Tuesday, Jackson denounced the super PAC as “anti-Obama, anti-labor, anti-health care reform and no friend of Democrats.”

“I call upon Debbie Halvorson to actively and strongly denounce them and ask them to go back to Texas,” Jackson stated.