By any financial yardstick for a 29-year-old, U.S. House District 12 candidate Jason Plummer is doing pretty well for himself.
The scion of an Edwardsville-based family with extensive real estate holdings, including office buildings and shopping centers, Plummer, a Republican, has reported a personal worth -- excluding liabilities -- of between $13.6 million and $33.1 million, according to financial disclosure statements filed with the U.S. House.
Plummer's personal income for 2010-11 tallied between $926,000 and $5.1 million, according to the ranges in the statements, known as Form B, that Plummer and four other District 12 primary candidates filed late last year.
Plummer, however, said he doesn't believe his personal wealth will dictate the outcome of the March 20 primary election.
Instead, because of District 12's large size -- it begins with Alton and snakes southward down to Cairo at the state's southern tip -- and diversity, a candidate's ability to work "really, really hard" will be the decisive factor, he said.
"And I am working hard, and I think that's to my benefit," said Plummer, who moved from Edwardsville to Fairview Heights late last year.
Four other candidates -- Brad Harriman, D-O'Fallon; Chris Miller, D-Carbondale; Theresa Kormos, R-O'Fallon, and Rodger Cook, R-St. Libory -- have assets ranging from $255,000 to $15,000, according to the reports.
Two more candidates -- Terri Newman, R-Belleville, and Ken "Bud" Wiezer, D-Granite City -- did not have to file reports because they have not reached the $5,000 mark in campaign contributions.
Kormos, a psychiatric nurse from O'Fallon also running in the GOP primary, disagreed with Plummer. She said Plummer's personal wealth could make a difference in the upcoming election.
"It's a sad thing that politics comes down to who has the most money," Kormos said. "Money buys things. So he has that advantage."
But will Plummer's personal wealth be the decisive advantage? Kormos said she thought not.
"I have the advantage of being the person I think most people can relate to," she said. Kormos said he will impress upon voters her message and her experience.
"I'll just get my message out," she said. "I don't just talk about things. I've actually done them. And no one else can do that."
Harriman was not available for comment Monday, but Hannah Ledford, his campaign manager, noted that Plummer spent more than $1 million of his family's money running for Illinois lieutenant governor in 2010.
"I have no reason to believe that he won't do that again," Ledford said. "But I think Plummer's wrong if he thinks he can move into our district just to run for Congress and buy Southern Illinois votes."
Ledford was alluding to the fact that Plummer, formerly of Edwardsville -- which lies outside the newly drawn 12th District boundaries -- moved to Fairview Heights last fall shortly after announcing his candidacy for the district seat.
Miller, who's running in the District 12 Democratic primary, agreed with Kormos that great personal wealth offers an advantage to a candidate.
Even so, other factors play a big role in winning votes, said Miller, a Iraq war veteran who has held parttime jobs at The Gap and Walmart since leaving the U.S. Army.
"If you have a lot of money to spend, you can obviously get your story out to voters," Miller said. "You can obviously control how your message goes much better. Whereas someone who has less money, someone like me, I'm going to have to go out there and walk a lot of miles and talk to a lot of folks."
Cook said his own lack of personal wealth has made him a better candidate, one who can relate to the everyday concerns of 12th District voters.
"When you have to fight all your life for everything you had, and work hard to prove yourself, sure it makes you a better person," said Cook, who served as Belleville mayor in the mid- and late 1990s. "I know what it's like to say, 'How am I going to make my house payment? How am I going to make my car payment?
"If you never had to face that, then I think you have a big learning curve."
Plummer also touts his experience -- as vice president of his family business, R.P. Lumber in Edwardsville, for which he reported an annual salary last year of $52,902. The rest of his income of between $926,000 and $5.1 million came from a wide range of investments, with the bulk of that money coming from commercial rental income, according to his Form B.
Plummer downplayed the power of his personal wealth. Instead, he focused on the power of personal relationships in winning elections.
"I think it's truly important to have those personal relationships and those grassroots relationships because those are the folks who get out and put up signs and knock on doors and talk to their neighbors and whatnot," he said.
Plummer, the former Madison County Republican Party chairman, won the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in 2010 at the age of 27 after he and his father gave or loaned his campaign more than $1.3 million. Plummer lost the general election.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, who is retiring after 11 terms in Congress, said personal wealth "in some cases does make a difference."
Yet the problems stemming from a candidate's wealth -- such as resulting voter resentment -- has led Costello to conclude that "it can backfire" by breeding voter resentment.
The ability of some candidates to pour large sums of money into their political campaigns, giving them a big advantage over opponents, has evolved into a major concern for Costello.
"I think if there is one thing that we need to change in the system, it's to take the money out of politics," he said.
In early October, Costello stunned political leaders across the metro-east when he announced he had decided not to run for re-election in 2012, signaling the end of a 23-year career in Congress.
Costello's abrupt exit set off a frantic scramble among GOP and Democratic candidates seeking to replace the veteran lawmaker. Starting from square one, these candidates have raced to set up fundraising operations and manage their day-to-day campaign activities.
Under these circumstances, with such a short run-up to the primary election, a huge advantage in time and effort is conferred upon the candidate able to draw on his own personal wealth, according to David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
"On balance the first campaign of a politician is the campaign for money," he said. "Wealthier candidates do have an advantage and that's an issue in American politics."
Candidates can use their personal wealth to sell two messages about themselves, Yepsen said:
"The could show they have some personal business success, the way that Mitt Romney is doing," he said. "And they would argue they are immune to some of the pressures from special interest groups. They don't need to take checks from everybody who walks through the door."
Yepsen noted that non-wealthy candidates "can counter money with shoe leather and organization, but that takes time."
Because of the abruptness of Costello's retirement, "I would submit that Plummer's financial advantage may even be worth more to him here," Yepsen said.
Plummer can buy lots of TV time in the St. Louis market by dipping into his personal coffers, Yepsen said.
"That could give him a hell of a leg up," he said.
