Super PAC to spend half-million on Biggert ads
Sun-Times Media September 26, 2012 6:14PM
Judy Biggert
Updated: October 29, 2012 6:39AM
A pro-gay rights Republican super PAC reportedly plans to spend $500,000 on ads in support of Republican U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale.
American Unity PAC, founded by New Yorker Paul Singer, will run ads ripping Biggert’s Democratic opponent in the Fox Valley’s new 11th District — former Congressman Bill Foster of Naperville — on his “reckless” spending history, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
Singer’s support for Biggert appears to be driven by Singer’s position as an influential fiscal conservative, not because of the candidates’ stance on gay rights. Both Biggert and Foster have voted for stricter sentencing for anti-gay hate crimes and to ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
About $437,000 will be spent on cable TV ads and $70,000 on web ads, Crain’s reported.
Singer founded a $19 billion hedge fund called Elliott Management.
Described in a recent Fortune magazine profile as “a quiet force in the Republican party,” Singer has given nearly $9 million since 2001 to non-profits that support gay rights and spent another $1 million on New York’s successful effort to pass a same-sex marriage law. One of his sons, Andrew, is a gay doctor in Massachusetts.
Forbes portrays Singer primarily as an anti-regulation activist who has railed that the Obama administration has unfairly “vilified” the nation’s wealthy.
