Biggert will run; Cunningham might be on ballot, too

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Jack Cunningham

Updated: November 28, 2011 10:08AM

U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert will run for re-election to Congress in 2012. She just does not know where yet.

And her primary opposition might include Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham, who ran for Congress almost 40 years ago.

Biggert, the longtime representative from the 13th District, has made no official announcement. She, like fellow Republicans, is awaiting the outcome of a legal challenge to a new Congressional map drawn by Illinois Democratic.

But when asked by members of the media, by friends or by supporters at fund-raising events, Biggert has said she definitely will run again, in whatever district she ends up in, according to a campaign spokesman.

Biggert, who lives in Hinsdale, is passing nominating petitions for both the 13th District proposed by Republicans in their lawsuit, and for the new 11th District.

If the Democratic map is upheld, she will run in the 11th District, even though she does not live there, the spokesman said.

The district she would end up in under the Democratic map would encompass about 1 percent of the district she currently represents; the new 11th District would encompass about 48 percent of her current district.

The 11th District has no incumbent. It will include Aurora, Naperville, Joliet and portions of Will, DuPage, Kane and Kendall counties.

Biggert joins Grundy County board member Chris Balkema and Aurora alderman Richard Irvin, who have previously expressed an interest in running for the Republican nomination.

Former congressman Bill Foster; Orland Fire Protection District President James Hickey and former Aurora Township clerk Juan Thomas have said they will run in the Democratic primary.

This week, Cunningham, of Aurora said he is interested in running in the new 11th District, although he, too, stopped short of making an official announcement.

Cunningham said he is circulating nominating petitions, and already knows that Dennis Wiggins, former Aurora Township supervisor and one-time Kane County Republican chairman, will be his campaign chairman.

“I’m taking a hard look at it. I’m meeting with people,” Cunningham said Wednesday.

“With my background in public service, banking and business, I’m certainly qualified. Other candidates are not exactly coming out of the woodwork.”

Cunningham is an attorney and a businessman who has several land developments in central Illinois, in addition to being Kane County clerk. Cunningham last ran for Congress in 1972.

“It just goes to show you I don’t give up easily,” he said.

Cunningham said if he runs, he will run on the same conservative values he ran on in 1972, including a pro-life stance and support for private gun ownership rights.