Media Guide Fifth Judicial District

Supreme Court Campaign Finance

Elections to state supreme courts have become increasingly contentious over the past decade. Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, and other states have witnessed an escalating volley of televised attack and counter-attack ads. Bar associations in those states have argued that many of the ads misrepresented facts, confused voters, and ultimately undermined public confidence in the courts.

States have also seen a steady increase in the use of third-party and independent expenditures in judicial races, much of it in the form of issue advertising and most of it by groups that refused to follow campaign finance disclosure rules. Interest groups that have not previously taken a major role in judicial elections, like business and labor organizations, have devoted staggering resources to state high court contests. In 2000, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pumped $8 million into state high court races, and in 2002, they upped the ante to $40 million. They pledge to spend $50 million or more on state Supreme Court and Attorney General elections during 2004— some of it, they say, in Illinois. Unions and trial lawyers are expected to spend competing amounts.

Illinois’ History

Since 1990, spending on Illinois Supreme Court races has skyrocketed. The cost of general elections has grown 83%, while the cost of primaries grew 269%, on a per-candidate basis. In the First (Cook County) and Second Districts (which includes DuPage and Lake Counties and stretches across the northern top of the state), the primary election has emerged as the deciding contest for Supreme Court seats. In 1992, a five-candidate field for the Democratic nomination to the First District seat combined to spend $804,000 in the primary. By 2000, a four-candidate field in the First District Democratic Primary combined to spend $2.5 million; more than three times what was spent just 8 years earlier. Click here for campaign fund totals for recent high court elections.

A 2003 statewide survey conducted by the University of Illinois at Springfield for ICPR found that 74.8% of respondents agreed that “courts are a uniquely independent institution of government that should be free of political and public pressure.” Nonetheless, 81.6% said they thought campaign contributions had at least some influence on court rulings. Fully 60.5% said they thought campaign contributions had “quite a bit” of influence. [Full report]

The 2002 Fourth Judicial District in south-central Illinois holds the record for general election spending. Supreme Court Justice Rita Garman and Appellate Justice Sue Myerscough combined to spend in excess of $1.4 million in the general election, not counting an independent expenditure campaign by the American Taxpayers Association, reported to have cost $250,000. The previous record was set in the 2000 Third Judicial District race, in north central Illinois, where Democrat Tom Kilbride and Republican and then— state Sen. Carl Hawkinson combined to spend over $1.3 million on the 2000 general election.

Until recently the vast majority of funding for Illinois judicial races has come from lawyers. However, in order to raise the millions of dollars necessary to compete, judicial campaigns have begun looking to sources of money more traditionally tapped by legislative campaigns: political parties, labor unions and business.

Independent Expenditure Campaigns

The 2002 Illinois Supreme Court race in the Fourth Judicial District saw the first major independent expenditure campaign in an Illinois judicial election. Unlike most other states, Illinois does not limit the amount which individuals, corporations, unions, and associations can give to candidates. As a result, would-be contributors have had little incentive to work outside the candidates’ campaigns; donors could always give more to the candidates, regardless of how much they had previously given. Nonetheless, in 2002 a Washington, DC based group called American Taxpayers Alliance ran television ads criticizing Democratic candidate Sue Myerscough. ATA refused to form a political action committee, and refused to comply with Illinois’ campaign finance disclosure laws. A complaint against ATA is pending before the Illinois State Board of Elections.

In the meantime, the ethics package recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed by the governor enacted a new provision to require any group running ads which name or depict a candidate in the next election, during the weeks immediately before the election, to form a political committee and comply with disclosure laws by disclosing contributions and expenditures of more than $150. If the group refuses to form a committee and comply, any aggrieved party can go to any circuit court in Illinois to obtain a cease and desist order, and the State Board of Elections can assess penalties. The disclosure requirement applies to ads that run during the last 30 days before a primary election and the last 60 days before a general election. In 2004, the requirement applies to ads that run from February 15 through March 16, and September 2 through November 2.

Candidate Disclosure

The two candidates for Supreme Court have both established political committees. These are:

• Citizens for Karmeier (State ID 8502)
• Maag for Justice (State ID 8508)

There may be additional committees involved in the race. To keep up to date on all political funds active in the Fifth Judicial District race, check the ICPR website at ilcampaign.org.

Follow the Money

Illinois’ Election Code requires candidates to disclose the source and size of contributions to their campaigns and report how the money was spent. Both Supreme Court candidates have already hit the state’s trigger for mandatory electronic filing of all reports. The main report is the semiannual D2, which covers all receipts and expenditures in excess of $150 received in a six-month period. Supplementary reports include the Pre-Election forms, covering all receipts and expenditures exceeding $150 beginning the day after the last D2 and ending 28 days before the election. The pre-election report is due 15 days before the election. A-1 reports cover receipts exceeding $500 during the last 28 days of the campaign, and are due within two days of receipt. All three of these reports are filed with the State Board of Elections.

The Board makes these reports available to the public. Reports that are filed electronically are posted on the Internet instantaneously, and paper reports are available at the State Board’s office as soon as they are received. In order to make that information so readily available, however, the Board does not process the data in any way. What the candidates submit is what the Board posts. Too, the Board does not enter reports filed on paper into its on-line database.

The Sunshine Database, available on the ICPR website, and the State Board database, available on the State Board’s website, serve complementary purposes. The State Board database is the most up-to-date, but it can be cumbersome to search. The Sunshine Database can be easier to search, but can also be several weeks out of date. Depending on the type of information you are looking for, one or the other may be the better resource.

Campaign Finance Information on ilcampaign.org

The ICPR website has several sources of information. The main resource is the Sunshine Database, but as Election Day approaches the site also provides analyses and fundraising totals for hot races.

To access the Sunshine Database, click on “Sunshine” from the top line toolbar on the ICPR website (ilcampaign.org). The Sunshine Database is drawn from the semiannual D2 reports. These reports are processed in several ways. Where candidates file on paper, those reports are manually entered into the database, both for receipts and expenditures. Where different candidates reported contributions from the same donor in different ways (eg, ComEd, Commonwealth Edison, Exelon), those names are standardized. All donors are coded by industry or political interest, to better denote the interests behind the money.

The Sunshine Database (ilcampaign.org) lets you search by donor or recipient. Expenditure searches by vendor are also possible. The candidate profiles give a candidate’s top donors and expenditures, by category as well as by entity.

In the final days before the election, the site is updated with running fundraising totals for hot races and analysis of particular donors who are giving at unusual levels. To access these analyses, click on “Campaign 2004” in the left column of the homepage.

Tracking Contributions on the State Board of Elections Website

There are several ways to search the State Board of Elections website. To view all of a candidates’ disclosure reports, click on “Campaign Disclosure,” then on the left hand column click on “Committees,” and input either the committee name, or the state ID.

To search for specific contributors to a candidate, choose “Contributor/Contribution” from the left-hand column, then click on “Search Contributions by Committee.” Using the State ID, you can look for total giving to that committee by a particular donor.

In the final days of the campaign, you will also want to view the A-1 reports. The quickest way to view A-1 reports is to click on “View Latest Electronically Filed Reports” in the left hand column of the home page. A-1 reports are also listed with all of a candidate’s filed documents, available through Campaign Disclosure and searching by committee. All of the information listed in the A-1 and pre-election reports filed during the primary should be included in the D2 for the first half of 2004, and will be included in the database at ilcampaign.org that is updated during the summer of 2004.