Exclusive to McHenry County Blog by John Lopez

Congressman Bill Foster (D, Naperville) announced on July 5 he would seek reelection to represent the 11th Congressional District in the 119th Congress, which would be his 9th term in Congress should he win in 2024.

On the same day, fellow Napervillian Qasim Rashid, announced a serious progressive/leftist Democratic primary challenge to Foster, complete with a professionally prepared video.

And noticeably absent from Foster’s endorsement list accompanying his day-after-July-4th announcement were two women from the Illinois Democratic congressional delegation, consisting of the two U.S. Senators and the 14 U.S. House Democrats.

Congresswomen Delia Ramirez (D, Chicago) and Lauren Underwood (D, Naperville) were missing from Foster’s endorsement list. Why?

Congresswoman Ramirez, representing the 3rd Congressional District which is the 2nd Hispanic-dominant district the Illinois General Assembly drew in late 2021, is a far left/progressive, as this cued clip from the Netroots Nation panel in Chicago earlier this month, chaired by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D, MN-05) she participated demonstrates. In less than 90 seconds, Ramirez lays out what Rashid wants to accomplish by pulling off the upset of Foster on March 19, and many of the themes Ramirez used are used, word-for-word by Rashid.

Congresswoman Underwood’s refusal to back Foster, is less to do about ideological purity and more to do with the April 4th mayoral election in the city of Naperville, where Underwood grew up and Foster now calls home. The Naperville mayoral seat was open after two-term incumbent Mayor Steve Chirico decided not to seek reelection to a 3rd term. The candidates were Scott Wehrli, who never held elected office in his life and is the adopted son of one of the founding families of Naperville. The other major candidate was two-term Naperville City Councilmember Benny White, a West Point graduate and 22-year career Army officer who served on the Indian Prairie School District 204 school board for a term before being elected to the Naperville City Council 6 years ago. A third candidate was Tiffany Stephens.

Underwood not initially endorsing Foster’s 2024 reelection bid likely her sending her congressional colleague and fellow Napervillian a message critical of Foster staying neutral in the hotly contested Naperville mayoral race. Underwood backed Councilmember White openly and financially, and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D, Springfield), Tammy Duckworth (D, Hoffman Estates) & Congressman Sean Casten (D, Downers Grove) backed White openly.

Foster stayed neutral in mayors race, and made no endorsement, in spite of mayoral candidate Scott Wehrli headlining a Catalina Lauf (R, Woodstock) IL-11 fundraiser in Bolingbrook last fall.

Wehrli won the open mayor’s race by a little over 2,000 votes, and Underwood wasn’t happy.

Neither Ramirez nor Underwood have endorsed primary challenger Qasim Rashid’s campaign against Congressman Foster openly. Rashid, like Underwood, was a vocal and public supporter of White in the Naperville mayoral election.

But if Rashid’s two campaign appearances in McHenry County are any indication of where Rashid’s nearly month-old challenge to Foster progressing, Foster should cruise to renomination on March 19.

As of June 30, Foster has $1,127,115 cash-on-hand so Foster has more then enough to fend off a far left progressive keyboard warrior astroturf primary challenge.

Republicans provide more comic relief for Foster beginning in the Center

McHenry County Blog documented the launch of Dr. Kent Mercado (R, Bartlett) and his centrist campaign for the 11th Congressional District Republican nomination back on June 6.

Recall, Dr. Mercado openly states he’s pro-choice on abortion while touting his medical and legal professional credentials.

Yet when the retired former Naperville business owner filed his 2nd quarter campaign disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) earlier this month, here were the highlights:

• Total raised: $20,011
• Loaned from candidate: $10,000
• Total spent: $6,604
• Cash-on-hand June 30: $13,407

If the lack of right-wing ideological purity on issues like abortion wasn’t enough, more proof Dr. Mercado’s campaign is not resonating with voters self-evident in his fundraising.

In June, Dr. Mercado’s campaign released a campaign video to highlight his campaign for the closing days of the 2nd quarter fundraising to encourage political contributions.

According to Dr. Mercado’s FEC filings, his campaign is using Axiom Strategies and likely responsible for the above video.

Dr. Mercado’s, in my honest opinion and from the desk of John Lopez, should be using more substantive discussions of the issues, like he displayed in an October 12, 2017, interview with Chicago Morning Answer with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson and the “practitioner’s perspective” on the Affordable Care Act, as shown on this cued video from over 5 1/2 years ago. Whether that will help his campaign fundraising in the “strong/safe Democrat” district remains to be seen.

Enter the Far Right Candidate(s) in the Republican Primary Field

On July 13, Susan Hathaway-Altman filed with the FEC her Statement of Candidacy for the 2024 election cycle in IL-11.

Hathaway-Altman, 57 of unincorporated Geneva, was the 3rd runner up in the 2022 Republican primary to Catalina Lauf. The twice-married/divorced single mother of 3 is making her 2nd run in the IL-11 Republican primary.

Given how Dr. Mercado launched his campaign trying to appeal to the centrist, mainstream Republican primary voters, a social conservative candidacy was inevitable.

Last week, Altman (and it appears for her 2nd campaign, she’ll not be listed on the ballot by her legal name of Hathaway-Altman) formally launched her campaign on Facebook, and through a far-right fledgling blog, The Illinois Republican which is run by self-described grassroots leader Val Ojeda.

For more on Mr. Val Ojeda’s views, his op-ed from April 6 reveals much. Ojeda is editor-in-chief of The Illinois Republican.

But another problem could plague Hathaway-Altman’s fledgling campaign apart from utilizing elements of the far right. Another Susan Altman is already running for Congress, in the toss-up rated NJ-07 where freshman Republican Congressman Tom Kean will defend the seat he flipped last fall.

Susan “Sue” Altman (D, NJ-07) announced her candidacy on May 31, and in her first month as a candidate, the 41-year-old progressive activist raised an impressive $217K, per her FEC campaign disclosure filing.

If Illinois’ Altman goes through and brands her 2024 campaign under the “Susan Altman” name, confusion with her brand may become an unitentional issue, apart from her campaign brand was launched last year under the Hathaway-Altman name, including the primary endorsement she received from the Chicago Tribune.

But will the 2nd time be the charm for the chief sales officer of AmTrav, a job she landed right after her primary loss to Lauf last year?

But there’s possibly more Republican candidates running in IL-11.

Island Lake (McHenry County) resident Alec Martin, a recent transplant from North Carolina, filed FEC paperwork earlier this year, but to date, has shown no signs of any serious campaign launch.

And there’s the rumor-mill stating 1 or possibly 2 more runners-up in last year’s IL-11 Republican primary will try again. There will be rumors flying around until candidate filing concludes in early December, and petitions for the 2024 primary (apart from presidential petitions) can be circulated starting September 5.

CONCLUSION

Congressman Bill Foster turns 68 in October and has over $1.1 million in the middle of 2023. If his challengers across the political spectrum, from progressive Democrats to centrist and far-right Republicans, continue their comic campaigns for the rest of the year, then the 8-term incumbent has received an early birthday present or two.

To these challengers and their supporters, want to stop being comic relief to Bill Foster? Make sure your 3rd quarter campaign disclosure filings are well into 6-figures, including cash-on-hand. Take a lesson from New Jersey’s Sue Altman and raise that money like there’s no tomorrow, because the truth, there’s no tomorrow for a congressional campaign if your candidate can’t raise significant (at least $250K) amounts of campaign cash.

Can’t raise that kind of cash? You needn’t bother filing petitions this fall.

Within McHenry County, the IL-11 includes all of Grafton, Coral, Riley, Marengo, Seneca, Nunda and Dorr townships and parts of McHenry, Greenwood and Hartland townships.

The entire 11th Congressional District includes parts of 8 counties including McHenry and also DuPage, Kane, Will, Boone, Lake, DeKalb and northern Lemont Township in Cook counties.

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