Supreme Court Spending Explodes
The Illinois Supreme Court chamber in Springfield.
A federal Super PAC run by a former U.S. Senate candidate is dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars into the two hotly contested Illinois Supreme Court cases, and there could be more than $1 million in additional spending in the works.
Fair Courts America PAC, run by businessman and 2014 Senate candidate Doug Truax of Downers Grove, is placing TV ads into the 2nd and 3rd Supreme Court district races.
Incumbent Justice Michael Burke, who was redistricted into the new 3rd district, composes of DuPage, Will, Kankakee, Iroquois, LaSalle, and Bureau counties, faces former Democratic State Representative and Appellate Justice Mary K. O’Brien. Both sides have been airing aggressive attack ads, with O’Brien even making baseless claims about Burke’s abortion position.
In the new 2nd district, Democratic Lake County judge Elizabeth Rochford faces Republican former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran. The redrawn district includes Lake, McHenry, Kane, Kendall, and DeKalb counties.
Both O’Brien and Rochford have been boosted by union money, trial lawyers, donations from Governor JB Pritzker, and outside spending from a PAC run by a former aide of Senate President Don Harmon.
Citizens for Judicial Fairness, which led the campaign to defeat Justice Tom Kilbride’s retention in 2020, has used millions from billionaire Ken Griffin to prop up Burke while attacking O’Brien and Rochford.
Enter Truax.
His new ads target Rochford and support Burke. Financial disclosures have not been filed, but industry sources say the total buy is somewhere near $400,000 for the week. The PAC has already been spending money on digital ads supporting Burke and attacking O’Brien and Rochford.
The sudden influx of money appears to come to the group from billionaire businessman Richard Uihlein. The PAC has not reported a large contribution yet, but sources say Uihlein has given the affiliated “Restoration PAC” an additional $2 million. Uihlein gave Restoration PAC around $6.2 million between January and the end of June.
Pro-abortion rights group Personal PAC is also jumping into the race, with $700,000 slated for television ads supporting O’Brien and opposing Curran.
A Republican source says polling is very close between Burke and O’Brien while a Democratic source says Rochford’s lead over Curran has been “narrowing.”
It could lead to record spending in the two races over the next two weeks.