DuPage County keeps federal lobbyist

DuPage County Board members have agreed to pay a lobbying firm up to $96,000 to represent county interests before Congress and federal executive branch agencies for another year.

The county will retain McGuireWoods Consulting for $8,000 a month. The firm has been representing the county at the federal level for the past year.

Greg Bales, senior vice president of McGuireWoods, previously worked for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin as senior adviser in the Democratic lawmaker’s government office and as Durbin’s campaign manager for his reelection in 2020, according to a firm bio. Bales also served as the Illinois state director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.

The lobbying firm has “gotten us $1.1 million in stormwater management projects, $250,000 in infrastructure and mobility work, $300,000 in flood reduction, plus they track all of the federal grant and funding opportunities for DuPage County,” said Dawn DeSart, chair of the board’s legislative committee.

In December, Bales wrote a message to the county touting the firm’s work, including getting congressional approval for more than $1.5 million in fiscal 2025 federal funding through the “Congressionally Directed Spending” or “Community Project Funding” program — better known as earmarks.

There is an asterisk on that, Bales explained at a legislative committee meeting last month.

“The current CR funds the federal government through March 14,” said Bales, referring to a continuing resolution.

" … But we’ve passed the first important hurdle, which is getting the members of Congress to pick those projects and for the appropriations committee to approve them,” Bales said.

The firm, Bales wrote, also monitors and advocates for the county’s federal policy priorities “that include, but are not limited to firearm safety, federal budget and appropriations, and homeland security.”

“I personally try to find things within your priorities that those members and their staff are more interested in and try to highlight them because you have a very robust legislative agenda,” Bales told board members.

Before hiring McGuireWoods, the board used BGR Government Affairs as a federal lobbyist.