McHenry County Auditor Shannon Teresi on Wednesday announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for state comptroller and the right to take on Democratic incumbent Susana Mendoza in the November general election.
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Teresi, who has held the county office since 2018, referred to embattled former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan as a rationale for her candidacy to oppose Mendoza, who has been in the office since 2016 and was reelected in 2018.
Teresi promised “open communication with the taxpayers and an eagle eye to root out the waste, fraud and abuse our state is plagued by thanks to decades of Madigan Machine politics.”
Citing her standing as a CPA and a certified fraud examiner and certified internal auditor, Teresi said the state “needs a comptroller with real financial experience, not a career politician controlled by the special interests.”
Teresi joins a GOP slate being formed to try to gain the support of billionaire Chicago businessman Ken Griffin and take on Democrats who hold all statewide offices. Her announcement follows those in recent days of Republican state Rep. Tom Demmer of Dixon for treasurer and former U.S. attorney John Milhiser for secretary of state.
A Griffin spokesman had no comment.
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Teresi is the first Republican to formally announce for the comptroller’s office.
In a statement, Mendoza said she looked forward “talking about my lengthy and historic record of accomplishments as comptroller on behalf of taxpayers with voters.”
“As Illinois’ fiscal watchdog, I’ve implemented historic transparency reforms, led our state to its first credit upgrades in decades, delivered the fastest vendor payment cycle in over 20 years, and paid down our bill backlog by over 75% without using federal stimulus funds — in the middle of a global pandemic,” she said.