From a Friend of McHenry County Blog:
Will big announcement in Senate race happen soon?
A new PAC may give us a clue
IL Senate Republican Nominee Fund 2026.
I heard about this PAC because of a bot on X that finds and posts all sorts of election finances.
Wanting to learn more about the PAC, I searched the FEC’s website.
It was formed on April 28, 2025.
The treasurer is Kayla Glaze from Alabama.
Naturally, I then had to research her.
Glaze is a Certified Public Accountant who works for Crosby Ottenhoff Group.
She is listed as “most recent treasurer” for 143 committees.
IL Senate Republican Nominee Fund 2026 is the most recent.
For the 2026 election cycle, there are already 106 disbursements from committees to Glaze’s employer Crosby Ottenhoff Group.
Some of the work billed is pricey.
The top payment was $25,374.74.
Crosby Ottenhoff Group is doing well.
During the 2024 cycle, it made over 5 million dollars according to OpenSecrets.
Crosby Ottenhoff Group has well-known clients.
See the list below which is also from OpenSecrets.
In the last midterm, 2022, Crosby Ottenhoff Group was paid over 3 million dollars.
Again, there were big name clients.
Payments at the bottom of the list were much smaller.
Some clients paid just a few hundred dollars.
I am guessing it depends on the volume and complexity of the work that the CPA has to do.
Seeing Kayla Glaze as treasurer of this new PAC called IL Senate Republican Nominee Fund 2026 made me think that her employer may be getting a new client.
There are no clues about whose idea it was to start the PAC — it literally is labelled an “unauthorized” PAC — but Glaze probably did not come up with the idea on her own.
Maybe someone told her to do it.
Given that Kayla Glaze and Crosby Ottenhoff Group stay busy with so many popular clients, and given the amount of money being dished out, it appears there is someone in the Republican Party who is taking Illinois’ U.S. Senate race seriously.
Does that mean Republicans have sized up the Democrats and concluded they are vulnerable?
Robin Kelly, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Julianna Stratton are the main Democratic candidates.
They are unimpressive.
Does that mean a star player like Richard Porter is about to announce their candidacy as a Republican?
At least I am told Porter is a star player — I don’t think his name means anything to normal people, but supposedly he would be able to raise a lot of money.
To me, a “star player” would be someone like Todd Ricketts, Brian Urlacher, or Vince Vaughn.
