Peter Roskam’s million-dollar war chest a reality check for Democrats

WASHINGTON — Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., targeted by Democrats for defeat in 2018, has stockpiled $1.1 million in his campaign warchest, raising $833,243 in the past three months, his campaign said on Friday.

It’s the largest fundraising quarter ever for Roskam, according to Roskam campaign consultant Cam Savage, a co-founder of Limestone Strategies, sending a message to a litany of Democrats who are looking to unseat him.

Roskam, a Wheaton resident, is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which helped Roskam build a substantial base for fundraising.

Roskam is a top 2018 Democratic target because, in 2016, Hillary Clinton won his west suburban 6^th district over Donald Trump, 50 percent to 43 percent.

But even though Clinton won the district in 2016, Roskam defeated Democrat Amanda Howland, a Lake Zurich attorney, getting 59 percent of the vote.

Still, Clinton’s win has given rise to a large Democratic group of contenders, though no one familiar with the district expects them all to end up on the March 20, 2018, Illinois Democratic primary ballot.

No major-name Democrat has surfaced yet.

Howland is running again. Carole Cheney, a former district chief of staff for Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., joined the crowded Democratic primary field this week.

Cheney worked for Foster from 2013 until earlier this year. She is a former attorney at Kirkland & Ellis.

Also running are Barrington Hills Planning Commission member Kelly Mazeski and Suzyn Price, a Naperville district 203 School Board member.

Mazeski raised $118,648 from 536 donors in six weeks and loaned her campaign $90,000, to put her haul at $208,648, according to her campaign consultant, Peter Giangreco.

Roskam stepped up from the Illinois Senate to Congress after he beat Tammy Duckworth in 2006 in his closest vote to date, 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent.