Chicago may not have seen a sports champion since the White Sox won the World Series in 2005, but that hasn’t dampened local politicians’ enthusiasm for spending big bucks on our local teams.
The Chicago Current analyzed campaign expenditures from 2009 and found that politicians’ campaign committees spent nearly $360,000 on tickets to see the city’s major league teams.
The White Sox took in the most campaign cash in 2009 with $195,601. The Cubs were second with $89,946. Coming in third were the Bulls, with $37,840, followed by the Bears with $24,453 and the resurgent Blackhawks with $11,760.
The Bulls’ executive vice president for business operations, Steven Schanwald, says he’s not surprised the team was such a draw for politicos.
“The social fabric of Chicago revolves around politics and sports, so it would seem only natural that politicians, like those who have occupations in virtually every other walk of professional life, would enjoy coming to watch the Chicago Bulls,” he says.
Who are the city’s top sports fans? Not surprisingly, they’re some of the most powerful people in Illinois politics.
State Senate President John Cullerton’s campaign committee spent nearly $64,000 on baseball tickets, pitching in $37,895 for Cubs games and $26,099 for Sox games.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s committee spent $19,644 on Sox games and $15,720 on Bulls games.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown says Madigan repays the campaign committee whenever he attends games.
“Whenever he uses the tickets for himself, he pays for them, so largely the tickets are used for supporters, volunteers who help out in campaigns,” Brown says. “They’re kind of a way to help people stay interested in politics.”
Former Senate President Emil Jones’ committee spent nearly $13,000 watching the Bulls.
Mayor Richard M. Daley supported his South Side Sox with more than $11,000 in expenditures. The Daley campaign committee also bought more than $1,600 in Bears tickets.
Despite the mayor’s occasional attempts at claiming neutrality in the eternal Cubs versus Sox battle, his committee has spent no money on the Cubs in recent years.
And then there’s Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, who spent $1,620 on tickets to see the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals at the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla.
It’s unclear if Beavers, who did not return calls for comment, attended the game.
Correction: State Sen. Kirk Dillard's campaign donated $1,000 to Chicago Blackhawks Charities in 2008. An earlier version of this article that appeared online and in the Current's print edition incorrectly stated the campaign purchased tickets from the Blackhawks.