Show them the money

Lane needs some cash.

Freshman Rep. Melissa Bean of Illinois, a Democrat from a Republican-leaning district, already has raised nearly $1 million in contributions for a 2006 re-election campaign in which her seat so far is the No. 1 target of the national GOP apparatus.

The Barrington businesswoman's campaign fund had about $735,000 cash on hand after raising about $460,000 during the quarter that ended June 30, according to Bean spokesman Brian Herman. Combined with the previous quarter, she raised $965,000.

Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Bean is at the top of the list of what GOP strategists view as the most vulnerable Democratic congressional incumbents nationwide.

Rep. Ray LaHood, a Peoria Republican who has said he expects to announce in August whether he will run for governor, reported about $718,000 on hand last month, after taking in about $496,000 in the last quarter.

Other quarterly reports, filed with the Federal Election Commission, showed Chicago Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr. with $1.05 million and Belleville Democrat Jerry Costello with $1.17 million in campaign cash on hand as of June 30. Each raised nearly $400,000 during the year's second quarter.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert had about $496,000 left in his personal campaign fund, after the Yorkville Republican collected about $719,000 in the quarter.

Freshman Sen. Barack Obama, the Chicago Democrat who captured rave reviews last summer after delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, reports his campaign fund has $506,000.

Meantime, Rep. Lane Evans, a Rock Island Democrat, in his third decade of congressional service, had about $80,000 left in his fund. Debts totaled $185,000 -- the amount in civil penalties his campaign recently agreed to pay to settle FEC charges that he set up a second campaign fund and improperly used it to help him win re-election in 2000.