Explore our content

All types | All dates | All authors
Campaign finance
PI Original
by Matthew Blake
3:21pm
Thu Mar 15
3 comments

Money, Endorsements Propel Theis In IL Supreme Court Race

Election 2012

Illinois not only elects its Supreme Court justices, the contenders go through the same process as candidates for state legislature or city council – party primaries that include “slating” by the Cook County Democratic Party, fundraising, big-name political endorsements, and a late-campaign blitz of TV ads.

PI Original
by Micah Maidenberg
3:09pm
Tue Apr 12, 2011
3 comments

Durbin Renews Push For Campaign Fundraising Reforms

Campaign Finance

With "dark money" expected to play a huge part of the 2012 federal election cycle, Illinois' senior U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is pushing for a new public finance system for congressional candidates.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
10:21am
Thu Jan 13, 2011

Stand For Children's Hefty Haul

The rush to revamp tenure rules and reform performance evaluations for Illinois' teachers slowed down a bit this month. At the first hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Education Reform, Chairman Kim Lightford (D-Maywood) told her colleagues that she was in no major hurry to shepherd through the so-called Performance Counts Act (PDF), a controversial package crafted by education advocacy organizations Advance Illinois and Stand for Children Illinois (SFC), among others. (We profiled the platform here.)

While Lightford tabled the debate a few weeks ago, don't expect the interest groups to drop the conversation entirely during the new legislative session, which began formally yesterday. This week, SFC filed its latest campaign finance disclosure form. In just four months between the group's creation and the end of the year (when the state's new campaign contribution caps went into effect), SFC raised a whopping $3.5 million, including six-figure donations from several of Chicago's leading political and financial players. During this election season, the group dumped $650,000 into eight state legislative campaigns, leaving over $2.8 million in the bank to begin 2011. Combined with their high-profile lobbyists and nominal support from both Democratic legislative leaders, this organization will have a primary seat at any education bargaining table.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
3:26pm
Wed Dec 29, 2010

Campaign Contribution Limits On The Books

It seems like an eternity ago that Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a legislative package that overhauls how Illinois politicians finance their campaigns. Starting Saturday, those rules will finally go into effect.

As we noted yesterday, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform has produced a primer (PDF) on the new campaign finance reform measure that's well worth a read. At its heart, the bill attempts to rein in the often-corrosive influence of big money in state politics by tightening some of the weakest donation regulations in the nation. For the first time ever, there will be caps placed on the amount of cash individuals, PACs, and businesses can contribute each election cycle. Illinois' system for disclosing donations will be enhanced, too.

To be sure, the battle for reform isn't over. The law still preserves the ability of the four legislative leaders and the major political parties to dole out unlimited funds during the general election period, a loophole reformers want to close. This coming year, a bipartisan task force will also analyze how the bill functions and will deliver recommendations for improvements by January 1, 2012. House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) have already asked the appointees to "look into how the state might begin public financing of campaigns," which would be enormously significant. We will be following that story closely in 2011.

Quick Hit
by Progress Illinois
2:14pm
Thu Nov 4, 2010

Dark Money Fueled Kirk Victory

The 2010 election was the first campaign following the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial decision that allowed corporations to spend unlimited money on behalf of political candidates. According to a new study by a watchdog group, of the contests that changed hands on Tuesday, no one benefited more from this "dark money" than Illinois' Senator-elect Mark Kirk.

The watchdog group Public Citizen released a report (PDF) showing that of the 74 seats that switched parties on Election Day, Kirk received far more from these shadow outside groups than any other candidate. In the race for Senate, Kirk received over $8.7 million from groups accepting unlimited contributions or not disclosing the source of their money, compared to about $800,000 for Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias.

The biggest chunk of cash was routed through Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a group set up by Karl Rove. According to Public Citizen, Crossroads GPS dumped $5.6 million into ads hitting Giannoulias. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce poured another $1.7 million into Illinois.

The outpouring of support from these groups, coupled with Kirk's vote against the DISCLOSE Act, suggests the state's new junior Senator might be hesitant to support meaningful campaign finance reform in the upper chamber.