McKenna Banks on Business Experience
Steve Rensberry
December 1, 2009
Chicago businessman and former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna was in Edwardsville Wednesday as his campaign to win the party’s nomination for gubernatorial candidate in the Feb. 2, 2010 Primary election heats up.
McKenna, 52, was one of the last among seven Republicans to announce that he was seeking the nomination, making it official a little more than four weeks ago.
In differentiating himself from the others, McKenna cited his experience as a leader and businessman and said his campaign has been one of the most aggressive.
Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross also came out with an endorsement of McKenna last month, which bodes him well as does the fact that Illinois Senator and Lt. Governor hopeful Matt Murphy is running on the same ticket, he said. Murphy is an attorney and lives in Palantine.
“That collaboration will be important not only to running an effective campaign but being governor,” McKenna said.
McKenna is president of the family-owned Schwarz Supply Source, which specializes in the manufacturing, packaging and delivery of paper products.
He also is involved in a number of civic endeavors, a founding co-chair of both the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and the group Rebuilding Together, as well as director with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, according to campaign literature.
In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.
In stepping down from the state’s top Republican Party post in August, which he had held since 2005, McKenna released a statement saying he was doing so with the knowledge that the party had raised more than $16 million in the previous four years and was well positioned to achieve numerous election victories in 2010.
He was replaced as chairman of the Illinois GOP by former federal prosecutor Pat Brady.
Given the state’s track record with governors and budgets, he’s also cognizant of the challenges.
Early on his wife, Mary, told him that if he enters the race he’d better be prepared for only one term, he said.
“I’m OK with that,” McKenna said. “Illinois wants someone to clean up the mess.”
McKenna defines himself as a fiscal conservative and has a platform which lists support for more charter school options, fighting corruption in government through increased transparency, support for term limits, balancing the budget without tax increases and enacting tort reform to reduce “frivolous lawsuits.”
“It’s not a fiscal rainy day, it’s a Katrina in Illinois,” McKenna said.
To stimulate job growth he’d not only hold the line on spending and push for the kind of transparency evidenced by the Illinois Taxpayer’s Sunshine Commission, but focus on doing what other states are doing to make Illinois more attractive to businesses, such as providing technical assistance to new start ups along with tax incentives and various forms of public/private investments.
“Illinois is just way behind the curve on new ventures,” McKenna said.
He cites a state budget which grew from $24.7 billion in 2004 to $32.2 billion in 2009 as a big part of the problem and criticized the current administration under Illinois Governor Pat Quinn for spending money the state doesn't have.
“I think it’s wrong to be spending above your means and not let people know where it's going,” McKenna said.
He is competing for the nomination against fellow Republicans Adam Andrzejewski, Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard, Dan Proft, Jim Ryan and Bob Schillerstrom. Gubernatorial contenders in the Democratic primary include Gov. Pat Quinn, Dan Hynes, Ed Scanlan and William Walls. Others include Constitution Party candidate Randy Stufflebeam, Green Party candidate Rich Whitney and Independent candidate Michael White.
McKenna is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He and his wife have four children.
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