Melissa Bean

U.S. House, IL

A perennial target, a costly race. Since staging one of the most dramatic upsets of 2004, Illinois Rep. Melissa Bean has become a perennial target for Republicans eager to win back this GOP-leaning seat. Her 2006 challenger spent over $5 million, augmented by $2.4 million from outside interests — making this the second most expensive House race of the year. Bean overcame him, despite being outspent by nearly $1 million, but now she’s gearing up for another tough fight.

An extremist GOP opponent. Republicans have found another self-funding right-winger to try to unseat Bean in 2008. Former hockey player Steve Greenberg is pro-gun, anti-gay rights, and anti-choice. A multi-millionaire, he says universal health care would give “45 million uninsured Americans a one-way bus ticket to the land of dependency.” He has placed no limits on spending and makes no secret of his desire to be one of the GOP old boys in Congress, saying “I very much want to be a part of their locker room.”

A role model for newcomers. Bean is an energetic member of Congress who tends carefully to the needs of her constituents. She’s helped make the internet safer for children, protect the Great Lakes from oil drilling, and secure funding for transportation projects. A businesswoman and mother of two, Bean is a good fit for this suburban Chicago district. But Republicans think this seat belongs to them and will attack her viciously to try to get it back. She needs strong support from EMILY’s List members to help raise the $4.5 million she needs to keep this seat in Democratic hands.

More About Melissa Bean

In 2004, Illinois Rep. Melissa Bean scored the most dramatic political upset of the year when she unseated the longest-serving Republican in Congress in this suburban Chicago district. Since then she’s been a target for defeat by Republicans anxious to win the seat back. They failed in 2006, when party leaders recruited multi-millionaire David McSweeney to challenge her and augmented his $5 million campaign fund with an additional $2.4 million in independent expenditures attacking Bean. It was a vicious campaign, but Bean fought back, edging McSweeney by nearly seven points in spite of being outspent by almost $2 million in the second-most expensive campaign of the election.

This year, Republicans recruited another right-wing multi-millionaire challenger: businessman Steve Greenberg, whose conservative views are far outside the mainstream of this district. So a battle-tested Bean is getting an early start to ensure she raises enough to fight back against another costly campaign of mudslinging and attack ads.

Voters in this GOP-leaning district re-elected Bean because she understands their priorities and is committed to making sure their voices are heard in Congress. An energetic member of Congress, Bean fought to increase federal funding for transportation projects in her district, advanced legislation to make the internet safer for children, and joined a bipartisan group of legislators to protect the Great Lakes from oil drilling. In its endorsement of Bean’s 2006 re-election, the Chicago Tribune wrote, “In 2004 the Tribune endorsed Melissa Bean, … She has delivered. … She has charted a moderate, independent course and earned the support of Republicans and Democrats.”

A high-tech entrepreneur with 20 years’ management experience, Bean serves on the Financial Services and Small Business committees. Her background as a successful businesswoman drives her commitment to holding corporate and political leaders to a higher standard of fiscal accountability. But her initial decision to run for office also has personal roots. “My primary reason for entering politics was to create a better future for my children,” Bean says. “Quality education, a safe environment, a growing economy, and affordable health care became even higher priorities for me after my children were born.”

The Political Situation

GOP recruit Greenberg originally talked about using his fortune to finance a U.S. Senate bid against Democrat Dick Durbin in 2008. Congressional Republicans were delighted when he decided to challenge Bean instead, knowing that his money will have a much bigger impact in a congressional race than in a statewide campaign.

Greenberg is a former hockey player who, when his pro career stumbled, went into business with his father. Soon he went out on his own, building his wealth by importing discount goods from around the world, including countries lacking labor and safety standards, and relying on his father’s company as a key client. He has never held public office, so has no record to defend — but his expressed views on a number of issues place him well outside the mainstream in this moderate district. He is pro-gun, anti-gay rights, anti-choice, and opposed to universal health care, which he says would give “45 million uninsured Americans a one-way bus ticket to the land of dependency.” Greenberg makes no secret of his desire to become part of the “old boys’ network” in Congress, telling the Chicago Daily Herald, “I very much want to be part of their locker room.”

Greenberg’s ability to self-fund means spending in this campaign will once again be a free-for-all. He has placed no limits on spending, saying, “We’re going to put as much capital in as we have to to achieve our goal of getting our message out there.” And, just as in 2006, special interests eager to defeat Bean — including the National Rifle Association and the National Right to Life Committee — will likely weigh in with their own spending. This will again be one of the costliest campaigns of the cycle. Bean is trying to raise a campaign budget of at least $4.5 million to combat yet another self-funder and keep this seat in Democratic hands in 2008.

The Issues

“My top priority from the day I decided to run for Congress has been to provide responsive, accessible representation to my constituents,” says Bean. “I have worked hard to reach out and listen, respond quickly and comprehensively, and demand accountability from the federal government. I will continue to fight for policies that reflect the priorities of most Americans, including the families I represent.”

Bean opposes imposing arbitrary goals on public schools without providing local governments with the funding to meet them. She supports giving middle-class families greater access to student loans and Pell Grants for higher education, and is fighting to ensure that the federal government meets its obligation to adequately fund special education. Bean also supports efforts to recruit talented teachers and to reduce class sizes in public schools. To help families balance work and home responsibilities, Bean supports expanding access to and funding for quality after-school programs. “I support tax credits and other incentives to encourage companies to adopt policies that improve their employees’ quality of life,” she says.

Bean favors trade initiatives that open foreign markets to American products, “to help strengthen our economy, create jobs, and expand families’ opportunities for financial security and prosperity,” she says. However, she believes trade policy must ensure American companies are not put at a competitive disadvantage for adhering to fair labor and environmental standards. Calling small and mid-sized companies “the primary engines of job creation in our economy,” Bean supports providing tax benefits and other incentives to encourage companies to create jobs with good pay and benefits. “The federal budget should responsibly reflect our nation’s values, and help ensure a quality education, a clean environment, civil rights, a strong national defense, and our historical desire to ensure every American’s rightful opportunity to succeed,” Bean says. She voted for Democratic legislation re-establishing pay-as-you-go budget rules, so that tax cuts and spending increases do not increase the national debt.

The nation’s most pressing foreign policy concerns are repairing our relationships with our allies and backing a robust effort to rid the world of international terrorism, Bean believes. “We must adequately fund our nation’s defenses to provide the strongest possible national security, but we should do so in a way that eliminates the waste, fraud, and abuse inherent in much of the government spending process.”

Bean supports strong laws to prohibit workplace discrimination, and aggressive enforcement of laws that guarantee civil rights for women and minorities and ensure equal pay.

To ensure public safety, Bean believes the federal government must provide adequate funding for first-line responders like firefighters, paramedics, and police officers — people who “are in need of the proper equipment and training to prepare for and respond to the unique terrorist threats confronting our communities,” Bean says. She supports renewing the ban on assault weapons and restoring community policing programs that demonstrably reduce crime.

“Health care costs can be reduced by improving efficiency, eliminating waste and bureaucracy, and instituting reforms to reduce errors,” Bean believes. To expand access to insurance and lower costs, she favors allowing individuals to create purchasing pools that spread the risks and costs over a larger group. “I support more funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and expanding CHIP to include parents of eligible low-income children,” she says.

“Education, child care, and other assistance can help those struggling to escape poverty find and follow the road to self-sufficiency,” Bean says. “As a member of the Financial Services and Small Business committees, I have been working to improve access to capital for women who own small businesses; to change pension rules that make it harder for families who own small businesses to save for their retirement; and to enact other measures that provide economic opportunity for hardworking Americans, particularly women.”

Bean supports establishing strong environmental protections and rigorously enforcing them. “Air and water quality should not be sacrificed to the corporate polluters, who have worked to gut the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and have opposed raising fuel efficiency standards, establishing stricter arsenic standards in drinking water, and a host of other measures,” Bean says. “I support these and other reasonable efforts to protect the health and safety of our children and that of future generations of Americans.”

“I support a woman’s right to choose as defined and protected by the landmark Roe v. Wade decision,” Bean says, “and I will oppose any efforts to weaken or undermine those rights. Reproductive freedom, including women’s access to family planning information and options, is a right that must never again be diminished or taken away.”