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...
The impact of the upcoming trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich is already being felt throughout the halls of the Illinois state Capitol.
While the upcoming trial will no doubt bring negative fallout to state Democrats in the coming months, the federal corruption probe into Blagojevich and his administration has spurred numerous ethics-related developments including the formation of a government reform commission headed by former prosecutor Patrick Collins.
The commission proposed campaign finance reform and a renewed push for term limits. Both provisions were rejected by the Democrat majority in the Legislature. Read more...
Michael Demetrio says that when his wife ran for office, there was one place, and only one place, she turned for money: their own bank.
“We have a fairly firm philosophy,” Demetrio says. “We do not take funds from anyplace else besides us.”
The Chicago attorney pitched in about $125,000 for his wife’s judicial campaign last year. Mary Katherine Rochford won one of three vacancies in the 1st District of the Illinois Appellate Court — taking the concept of judicial independence to a financial extreme. Read more...
Here's an awkward bit of political news.
This morning, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' U.S. Senate campaign ripped Rasmussen Reports, citing how some political commentators have called the polling firm "weird," "controversial" and "pro-Republican."
The campaign was pre-empting figures that it clearly expected would show Republican Mark Kirk beating Giannoulias, the same way it showed the GOP's Bill Brady beating Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Read more...
Call it a post-stalemate boost.
A new, independent poll of likely voters has found that, contrary to a previous survey, Republican state Sen. Bill Brady holds a lead over Gov. Pat Quinn in the general election.
Brady emerged last week from a monthlong waiting period just 193 votes ahead of Kirk Dillard, a fellow state senator and Republican. Read more...
