Equality Illinois PAC, the political arm of LGBT rights advocacy organization Equality Illinois, announced March 13 that it has raised $150,000 to support legislators who voted on behalf of marriage equality in 2013 and now face primary challengers.
"Marriage opponents threatened to unseat incumbents who stood up for what's right, and we promised that we would be there for our supporters at election time," said Jeremy Gottschalk, chairman of Equality Illinois PAC, in a statement. "The EQIL PAC has made our endorsements, and now we are putting the dollars of the LGBT community behind those who made our victory possible and will defend it."
Equality Illinois PAC pledged to spend $250,000 over the course of the 2014 election cycle. Of the $150,000 raised so far, $120,000 has been used for direct contributions to candidates, and $30,000 has gone to direct mail, events and get-out-the-vote efforts, according to the statement. The organization has been running a phone bank at its downtown office and plans to continue to do so through March 18, the day of the primary election.
Among those incumbents Equality Illinois PAC is supporting are State Reps. Christian Mitchell, Jaime Andrade, Toni Berrios, Thaddeus Jones, Kathleen Willis, Ed Sullivan, Jr., and Ron Sandack. The latter two candidates are Republicans who crossed the aisle to vote for marriage equality, as did state Sen. Don Harmon, who is also being supported.
Republican candidates, especially Sandack, have been taken to task for the vote, but the Democratic candidates are facing challenges on the basis of other issues such as their pension reform vote or their connections to entrenched "machine" political interests.