The Tribune's David Mendell takes a closer look at the Supreme Court's decision yesterday striking down the so-called "millionaire's amendment" and discerns that it wouldn't have any real effect on federal races here in Illinois this election cycle:
The amendment might have been triggered in the U.S. Senate race, in which incumbent Democrat Dick Durbin is being challenged by Republican physician Steve Sauerberg. The GOP candidate has given his campaign $1 million of his own money, but Durbin has raised $7.5 million. And because the amendment is implemented under a sliding scale formula, Durbin’s healthy campaign fund might have kept the amendment from kicking in. It would have allowed him to raise more than $2,300 from individuals, the current federal limit.
In the 14th Congressional district, Republican Jim Oberweis and Democratic Rep. Bill Foster each have dropped more than a $1 million of personal wealth into their campaigns, making the amendment a wash.
What Mendell fails to mention, however, is Marty Ozinga's vow not to spend more than $350,000 of his own money on his GOP bid for the 11th District congressional seat. That's the amount that would have triggered the amendment, allowing his Democratic opponent, Debbie Halvorson, to accept larger individual contributions.
It'll be interesting to see whether the Supreme Court's decision ultimately changes his thinking on the matter.
UPDATE: The Tribune talks to the Ozinga campaign and they indicate that the SCOTUS decision isn't going to have much of an effect on Marty's initial statements about how much he'd be willing to spend:
Wealthy southwest suburban congressional candidate Martin Ozinga III no longer has to worry about triggering the millionaire's amendment after the Supreme Court tossed that provision out of federal campaign finance law earlier this week.
But don't expect him to open up the vault and go on a spending spree in his 11th Congressional District bid to replace retiring Republican Rep. Jerry Weller.
"He's not planning to spend a ton of money out of his pocket. The honest answer to that question is, he has not made a decision on how much exactly he is going to spend," said Andy Sere, Ozinga's campaign manager, on Friday.
That mostly tracks with what Ozinga said when he launched his campaign in the spring, even if it's not what the Illinois Republican Party honchos were hoping for.
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