EQIL PAC PUTS $150,000 INTO CAMPAIGN
TO SUPPORT PRO-MARRIAGE CANDIDATES
CHICAGO (March 13, 2014) – Candidates who supported the freedom to marry in Illinois are benefitting from an unprecedented effort by the Equality Illinois Political Action Committee (EQIL PAC) that has raised and will spend $150,000 prior to Tuesday’s state primary election.
The Equality Illinois PAC, the political arm of Equality Illinois, the state’s oldest and largest advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Illinoisans, committed itself during the battle over marriage equality that it would stand behind officeholders who took leadership roles in the fight.
“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 the Equality Illinois PAC. “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.”
About $120,000 of the $150,000 total was used for direct contributions to legislative candidates in targeted races throughout Illinois. The other $30,000 is being spent on direct mail, events and get-out-the-vote efforts, including phone banks that are making tens of thousands of phone calls on behalf of the candidates leading to the primary on Tuesday, March 18.
The list of candidates endorsed by the Equality Illinois Political Action Committee in legislative and statewide contests can be viewed at www.eqilpac.org.
Last summer, in the heat of the fight over the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, EQIL PAC pledged to spend $250,000 in the 2014 political battlefield to work for candidates who supported the bill.
“With the $150,000 being spent for the primary, the EQIL PAC is more than halfway to its $250,000 goal for the 2014 election cycle, and we are fully confident that we will reach it by the November general election,” said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois. “The LGBT community believes in supporting candidates who did not shy away from fighting for our freedom and who believe that all couples in Illinois should have equal recognition under the state’s marriage law.”