* Biss goes after Sen. Laura Fine in his own ad. Press release…
Today, Biss for Congress (IL-09) announced the release of “Not Standing With Us,” a new broadcast and digital ad highlighting the overwhelming amount of AIPAC and Trump donor money powering Laura Fine’s campaign for Congress.
Fine has taken more than $1 million from donors to AIPAC and nearly $60,000 from donors to Donald Trump, raising more money from Trump donors than she did from residents of the 9th District last quarter. Last week, she admitted at a forum that she is the only candidate for IL-09 who is taking contributions from donors to Donald Trump. Laura Fine won’t stand up to MAGA – because MAGA is funding her campaign.
Transcript:
Do you take donations from Trump supporters? [Fine holds up “YES” sign]
Laura Fine’s campaign is bankrolled by MAGA donors and hard-right groups.
Fine accepted over a million dollars from supporters of AIPAC, a Trump-aligned pro-Netanyahu lobbying group.
She’s taken $60,000 from Trump donors and a MAGA-aligned group even called her a fighter of her own.
Laura Fine doesn’t want you to know who’s standing with her because then we’ll know she’s not standing with us.
The Biss for Congress campaign released the following statement:
“Daniel Biss is running for Congress because he understands that this moment needs real leaders with a proven track record of fighting Donald Trump. Laura Fine is running for Congress to be a rubber stamp for AIPAC and her MAGA donors – just like she was a rubber stamp for Mike Madigan and the health insurance lobby in Springfield. Ninth District voters won’t be fooled by these slimy dark money ads, and they won’t allow right-wing special interests to pick our next member of Congress.”
Daniel Biss was one of the first leaders in Illinois to call for Mike Madigan’s resignation – Laura Fine stayed quiet. In 2018, Biss became the first legislative Democrat in Illinois to call for Madigan’s resignation as Illinois Democratic Party chair as sexual harassment allegations. In 2020, Biss was one of 53 Illinois Democratic leaders to call for Madigan’s resignation in an open letter. Laura Fine was notably absent.
The “Madigan-funded super PAC” referenced in AIPAC’s ad was an anti-Trump PAC funded by JB Pritzker, Illinois labor unions, and prominent Laura Fine donors. The PAC the ad attacks spent all of its funds on ads against Donald Trump in 2016. Its largest donors included JB Pritzker and prominent unions while its single largest donor was Michael Sacks (a donor to Laura Fine).
In 2012, Daniel Biss and the state legislature voted to save Medicaid from “the brink of collapse.” State legislators overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan legislative package to protect Medicaid for more than 99% of enrollees by bringing the program in line with other states and passing a $1 per pack tax increase on cigarettes. The National Association of Medicaid Directors said Illinois’ actions were considered “very consistent with what you’ve seen in other states.”
Laura Fine voted to cut Medicaid for 30,000 Illinoisans just last year. In 2025, Illinois passed a budget that eliminated the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, which provided Medicaid-like coverage to immigrants in Illinois. While Laura Fine skipped the final vote, she voted for an earlier version of the budget just two days earlier. This program, which Fine voted to cut, had covered 30,000 Illinois residents.
In Springfield, Laura Fine voted with Republicans to kill health insurance reforms and then took tens of thousands of dollars from insurance and pharma companies. Fine was just one of just a handful of Democrats who split from the party, voting with every Republican and the insurance industry, to block HB 23, a bill to create an independent Office of the Consumer Health Insurance Counsel that would have represented the interests of consumers against health insurance companies. Perhaps that’s why insurance and pharma companies have given Fine tens of thousands of dollars worth of campaign donations.
All the money ads are blending together. Nothing is standing out at this point. An ad has to be really, really compelling to do that and none of the commercials in Illinois are doing that.
Biss claimed 13 point lead two weeks ago. Where did it go? If you are up that much and going negative like this methinks it was a fabrication.
Plus, the attack ad is based on a grainy long distance video in which she raises her sign and then he yanks it down. That’s not very conclusive proof to me. Every campaign on TV right now is saying that their opponents are taking Maga money. I don’t think it resonates.
- Lawyers, Guns, and Money - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:25 am:
I realize that this race didn’t turn out the way that the third place candidate always expected it would. And I realize that she was desperate. But taking a million dollars from a group so fairly associated with Trump was never going to be a winning play. Just like everybody else, IL 9th CD voters share the view that too many members of congress have been bought and paid for by special interests, which is exactly why they are so proud of their outgoing congresswoman who only ever answered to her constituents. And which also helps to explain why she has now endorsed the current front-runner to be her successor — a guy who is so staunchly progressive that a flip-flopper attack was never going to stick.
@48th Ward Heel - I suspect Biss is targeting Fine to try to get the primary voters who would prefer an establish local candidate over perceived carpet bagger and inexperienced candidate Kat. Seems like a more natural fit.
- Montrose - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 8:54 am:
Fine and her lone “Yes” sign in response to Trump donations is a devastating visual for her.
- Steve - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:00 am:
The Biss ad attacking Laura Fine is pretty effective for the 9th. A lot of anti-Zionists live in the 9th.
- 48th Ward Heel - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:01 am:
I’m a solid Biss vote, but that’s a pretty heavy salvo against someone who’s “trailing badly in the polls” three weeks before the election.
- Torco Sign - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:03 am:
All the money ads are blending together. Nothing is standing out at this point. An ad has to be really, really compelling to do that and none of the commercials in Illinois are doing that.
- Evanstonian - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:19 am:
Biss claimed 13 point lead two weeks ago. Where did it go? If you are up that much and going negative like this methinks it was a fabrication.
Plus, the attack ad is based on a grainy long distance video in which she raises her sign and then he yanks it down. That’s not very conclusive proof to me. Every campaign on TV right now is saying that their opponents are taking Maga money. I don’t think it resonates.
- Paul - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:22 am:
Kind of surprised that the ad Steve Kerr cut for Phil Andrew isn’t getting more attention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHJH3I6U9wc
- Lawyers, Guns, and Money - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:25 am:
I realize that this race didn’t turn out the way that the third place candidate always expected it would. And I realize that she was desperate. But taking a million dollars from a group so fairly associated with Trump was never going to be a winning play. Just like everybody else, IL 9th CD voters share the view that too many members of congress have been bought and paid for by special interests, which is exactly why they are so proud of their outgoing congresswoman who only ever answered to her constituents. And which also helps to explain why she has now endorsed the current front-runner to be her successor — a guy who is so staunchly progressive that a flip-flopper attack was never going to stick.
- Homebody - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:35 am:
@48th Ward Heel - I suspect Biss is targeting Fine to try to get the primary voters who would prefer an establish local candidate over perceived carpet bagger and inexperienced candidate Kat. Seems like a more natural fit.
- Keyrock - Monday, Feb 23, 26 @ 9:58 am:
I talked to 2 friends this weekend who had been leaning Fine. The AIPAC stories - and Fine’s equivocation about them - moved them to solid Biss votes.