By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Republican Bryan A. Drew is running for Illinois Comptroller in the Nov. 3 general election on a pledge to make state spending more transparent. Drew faces Democratic state Rep. Margaret Croke of Chicago for the seat being vacated by Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is leaving the office to run for Chicago mayor.
Drew, a trial attorney and founder of Drew Law Group in Benton, says the office should do more than cut checks for the state — it should catch problems before the money goes out the door.
Drew has run Drew Law Group and other small businesses in southern Illinois for 26 years, including more than 25 years of personal-injury and civil litigation work. That experience, he says, shapes how he would approach the comptroller’s job. “I’ve run multiple businesses for 26 years. So every Friday I’ve had to make payroll,” he says. “I know what these taxes do.”
Drew describes the comptroller’s office in plain terms. “It’s the checkbook of the state,” he says. He argues the office has treated that job too narrowly. “The goal shouldn’t be like it currently is — get the checks written, get them out the door as fast as you can,” he says. “We need to be making sure those checks should even be written to start with.” He wants the comptroller to serve as what he calls the state’s “first line of defense for fraud, waste, and abuse,” reviewing payments for problems rather than simply processing them.
Drew points to the state’s public spending website as an example of what he wants to change. He says a search for “NGO” on the site turns up no results, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in state payments to nongovernmental organizations each year. He argues that gap makes it difficult for taxpayers to see where their money goes, and he has built his campaign around closing it.
Drew contrasts his private-sector background with that of Croke, saying she has held only government positions and has described herself as an ally of Gov. JB Pritzker. He gives Mendoza credit for occasionally breaking with Pritzker during her tenure but calls the comptroller’s current website “a missed opportunity” for transparency that he intends to fix if elected.
Drew ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He and his wife, Christen, also own Café Bloom in Benton and have worked on restoring historic buildings downtown. Election Day is Nov. 3. More information on Drew’s campaign is available at drewforillinois.com.
