In Schaumburg and Elgin, mayoral candidates are raising large sums of money to hire consultants, conduct polls or send out direct-mail advertising.
In Crystal Lake and Rolling Meadows, the modest amounts raised by mayoral candidates are being used mainly to produce bumper stickers, signs or brochures.
No matter how sophisticated or simple the approach, Monday’s deadline for candidates to report campaign contributions and expenditures shows that mayoral hopefuls in the northwest suburbs have built up their war chests in preparation for the final two weeks of the election.
As candidates filed campaign reports with the Illinois Board of Elections, meeting the last filing deadline before the April 4 election, records showed that the Schaumburg mayoral race continues to outdistance all other campaigns for fundraising, with the two candidates having collected a combined total of almost $92,000.
Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson has more than twice the funds of challenger Judith Pietrucha, but she has spent more than four times as much, mostly on mailings, a political consultant, a computer system and surveys to acquire information on voters.
“We have startup costs that an incumbent doesn’t have,” Pietrucha said Monday. “We’ve got two weeks left, more mailings to do. Those, of course, cost a lot of money. We want to make a good shot at winning, whatever it takes.”
Pietrucha, 40, said she did not intend to send the mailings to all 33,000 registered voters in the village. The last municipal election had a turnout of 5,800.
Larson, 56, who reported receipts of only $110 so far in 1995, has $56,599 left to spend. He has spent only $4,545 so far this year, of which the largest single amount was $2,456 for postage.
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“I don’t have a hired campaign staff, I have volunteers,” Larson said. “She’s got some pretty professional stuff out there-brochures, slick glossy stuff. I don’t even have any signs yet.”
About half of Larson’s money is a balance carried on his reports since his re-election to a second term four years ago. The other half was collected in the last six months of 1994 and included money from leading politicians, businesses and developers in the area.
Pietrucha raised $35,155 from Jan. 30 through March 5, and spent $19,433. The two largest contributions came from Schaumburg Auto Sales, $12,500, and Jeep/Eagle of Schaumburg, $2,750, both on Golf Road.
In the contest for an open seat for mayor of Elgin, Kevin Kelly, 35, has spent $6,500 in 1995 and had $8,873 left in his campaign coffers on March 5, the end of the current reporting period.
“The amount of money we have received reflects a broad base of support for what we are doing,” Kelly said. “These are educated people who know it takes money to run a successful campaign.”
Judith Browne, 52, has loaned herself $5,847 and raised an additional $361 in 1995. She has spent $5,686 this year on the campaign and had about $521 left at the end of the reporting period. Browne said a few thousand dollars had been collected since then.
On Monday, Browne said she had deliberately not raised much money because she “did not want to be beholden to any business or individual.” Browne said she has about 50 volunteer campaign workers.
In Crystal Lake, incumbent Mayor George Wells, 60, has raised $4,972 and loaned himself $800 this year, and so far has spent $2,236 on his re-election drive. Wells has $3,536 left.
Challenger Robert Wagner, 40, has raised $3,149 and has loaned himself $930 and has spent $3,482.
“I’ve raised more money than I ever have before,” Wells said. “I expected it would take $6,000 to run a good campaign.”
Wagner denied charges by Wells that he had not reported all his contributions and expenditures.
In Rolling Meadows, mayoral candidate Thomas Menzel had raised $4,745, spent $1,860 and had $2,885 left to spend.
Challenger Glenn Anderson, however, formed a political action committee in February, but a statement of his contributions and expeditures could not be found Monday at the Illinois State Board of Elections in Chicago.