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. Read more...
A report issued today by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Better Government Association chronicles corruption in Cook County, calling the county “infested with conflicts of interest.”
In addition to naming about 150 convicted county politicians and employees, it outlines a five-point plan for curing the county of corruption.
“Cook County has become Crook County,” said UIC professor Dick Simpson, one of the report’s authors, at a press conference today outside County Board President Todd Stroger’s office. “This pervasive pattern of corruption must be changed if county government is to provide honest, effective, efficient and transparent government that taxpayers can afford.” Read more...
Trailing his opponents in fundraising, incumbent County Board President Todd Stroger has brought in about $140,000 in campaign contributions in the last week.
After raising only $14,000 for the last half of 2009, the campaign was helped last week by a $100,000 donation from longtime Stroger backer and former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones.
Subsequently, the campaign received an additional $40,000 in donations. That’s still far behind what Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien have raked in, but it’s a positive development for Stroger. Read more...
Incumbent County Board President Todd Stroger’s most recent fundraising report, filed this morning, confirmed what many have believed for weeks: The campaign’s fundraising is running on fumes.
In reports detailing fundraising for the second half of 2009 filed with the state board of elections, Stroger’s campaign shows it raised just $54,127 for the last six months of 2009.
At the end of 2009, it had $152,544 on hand. In the July filings, showing the cash flow for the first part of 2009, the campaign had $640,000 in the bank. Read more...
Cook County Board president Todd Stroger's struggling reelection campaign received a $101,000 cash infusion this week from former state Senate president Emil Jones.
The whopping donation comes after Stroger's office in August hired Jones' daughter into an $84,000 a year, high-level job.
Jones has been a longtime backer of Stroger. His stepson's company, Synch Solutions, has been criticized for botching a contract that cost the county nearly $800,000. Read more...
