In 2002 , Crane clinched with 55 percent of the vote. In 2004, Crane's allies must not be as confident.

Rep. Phil Crane (R-Ill.), the most senior Republican in the House,is skipping the Republican National Convention next week in New Yorkto focus on his rematch with Democrat Melissa Bean.

The 8th District campaign is the biggest House race in Illinois,and Crane's campaign is sure he will be returning to Congress. It's aquestion of how much he is going to win by," Crane campaign managerDennis O'Sullivan told me.

In 2002, Crane clinched a 19th term with 55 percent of the vote toBean's 43 percent. That was closer than it should have been for a manof Crane's seniority with a choice seat on the Ways and MeansCommittee.

Crane was first elected to the House in 1969 -- in a special voteto fill the vacancy created when a young North Shore lawmaker namedDon Rumsfeld was tapped for the Nixon administration.

In 2004, Crane's allies must not be as confident as his campaign.

An arm of a Republican-aligned group, United Seniors Association,has been bankrolling spots on Chicago television this month tobenefit Crane.

USA was formed in 1991 as a conservative alternative to AARP andhas been involved in the debate over providing drug benefits toseniors -- taking the Republican side. The group has taken money froma top trade group for the drug industry called PhRMA, thePharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

In blunt political terms, USA is often regarded as a front fordrug companies when it comes to policies having to do with drugs andseniors.

The USA spending for Crane is an independent expenditure and isnot supposed to be coordinated with a campaign. The parent group USAInc. is based in Fairfax, Va., and is organized as a 501(c)4, areference to the Internal Revenue Service code that governs itsactivities. A 501(c)4 is not obligated to disclose its donors to thepublic.

O'Sullivan said he was pleasantly surprised when the ads startedrunning."

According to tracking done by the Bean campaign of the ad buys,the seniors group spent at least $142,000 on spots that startedrunning on Aug. 9, mainly local cut-ins on national cable channels.

Crane, who ran for president in 1980, has debated Bean twice inrecent weeks, and he says that's enough.

The lawmaker has been getting a boost from the Bush White House,which has been sending in officials to bolster Crane. In July, JennaDorn, chief of the Federal Transit Administration, came in for Crane,followed by Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickock earlier thismonth. Wednesday, James J. Jochum, assistant secretary for importadministration at the Department of Commerce traveled to Des Plainesto appear with Crane at a Hart Schaffner & Marx facility.

Crane is chairman of the Ways and Means trade subcommittee, theconsolation prize he secured in 2001 after he failed to becomechairman of the committee after an intense lobbying drive thatincluded wooing fellow members at the 2000 GOP convention inPhiladelphia.

New Illinois money group

Jeff Davis, who held the No. 2 spot in Republican Jack Ryan's ill-fated Senate race, filed papers with the IRS Friday to create what hehopes will be money pots aimed at electing more conservatives inIllinois. He formed the Empower Illinois Media Fund as a 501(c)4 (asmentioned above) and a related fund called Empower Illinois,organized as a 527 -- another section of the IRS code -- which cancollect unlimited amounts of unregulated soft money.

Are we going to talk about Barack Obama?" Davis said of theDemocratic Senate candidate. I am sure we will."

Drug import politics

Watch for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to betalking more about legalizing prescription drug imports, said Kerrymedia adviser Bill Knapp. Drug importation from Canada and othercountries has become a national agenda item because of Gov.Blagojevich and U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.).

"If it's not a big part of the advertising when we start talkingabout it, I'd be surprised," said Knapp. Knapp is Blagojevich'sgeneral strategist.

No keynote Keyes

I asked Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-electioncampaign, if Illinois GOP Senate candidate Alan Keyes should get aspeaking slot at the convention. Wanting to sidestep the matter, hesaid, "I haven't made a recommendation yet." Obama keynoted theDemocratic Convention in Boston last month.

Putting Keyes on the dance card means bringing up at the GOPconvention the sad situation Republicans face in Illinois, hardly astory line that helps President Bush.

No convention for Crane with Bean on the brain