North Cook News

Katy Dolan Baumer, the 44th District Republican House candidate, said a recent report that a large union is behind House Speaker Michael Madigan’s gifts to Democrats indicates he is “building a super war chest.”

Baumer’s comments came after the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) traced a $768,000 donation from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) to Madigan.

She fears the large sums of money could be used to defeat newcomers like her.

Rep. Fred Crespo

“Shouldn’t we be voted upon based on our qualifications, based on what the people in our communities demand of their government?” she told the North Cook News. “I think so.”

AFSCME was on the losing end of this summer’s Janus case before the Supreme Court. The court ruled public-sector unions could not charge agency fees to non-members even though they benefit from the union’s collective bargaining activity.

“I think they (the AFSCME) fear that their membership is waking up to a new day of choice and freedom from an institution that was dragging them along, unwillingly,” Baumer said of the large donation to Madigan. “This certainly takes away any semblance of independence that he may voice.”

Madigan’s team approached Baumer more than a decade ago to run as a Democrat, with the entire campaign to be funded by Madigan, Baumer said.

“And what would I have to do for that?” Baumer recalls asking. “Their response was, ‘just a few favors … and no one would know that you are a Republican’.”

Baumer said she declined the offer of a bought-and-paid-for campaign.

“I have never and will never take money from Mr. Madigan,” she said. “Even my Democrat friends and family … feel he dirties the party.”

Baumer is running against incumbent Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates) in the general election. The 44th District includes Bartlett, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg and Streamwood.