With less than 24 hours until Election Day, gobs of money continues to flow to campaigns for the Illinois statehouse. Only a fraction of races for the Illinois state House and State Senate are really competitive. But those that are - are throwing a lot of money toward TV ads.
On Chicago’s Northwest Side, incumbent Republican State Representative Michael McAuliffe brought in $232,000 just in the last week. That’s almost $100,000 more than his Democratic opponent Merry Marwig.
Four years ago, when the race wasn’t nearly as competitive, McAuliffe brought in $2,200 in the final week of the campaign.
A lot of McAuliffe’s money can be traced back to Governor Bruce Rauner. And Marwig’s getting a lot of support from labor unions and the Democratic Party.