WHERE DOES ALL OF THAT MONEY GO?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 9, 2002

CONTACT:
Cindi Canary, ICPR
312-335-1767
Kent Redfield, Sunshine Project
217-206-6572

WHERE DOES ALL OF THAT MONEY GO?
CAMPAIGN SPENDING PATTERNS REVEALED

IL Candidates report $75.2 million in election spending and $13.6 million in non-election expenditures between 1/1/01 and 6/30/02

You've seen the candidates' television commercials and read about the high cost of campaigning. Now, you can see exactly how much they're spending to get their messages into your homes and win your votes.

For the first time, Illinois candidate spending has been analyzed and the recipients of the largest expenditures have been identified. Utilizing this information, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and the Sunshine Project have created a candidate expenditure profile for every Illinois statewide, legislative, Supreme and Appellate Court candidate. These expenditure profiles are available at www.ilcampaign.org, the web site of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR).

The expenditure data reveals that Illinois candidates have spent over $75 million on election related expenses since 1/1/01. Of this $27.1 million bought television, radio and newspaper advertisements; $12.8 million was spent on staff salaries and consulting; another $12.8 million was spent on campaign literature; and $6.6 million was directed to fundraising activities. Another significant category of electoral expense was political giving from one campaign committee to another, which amounted to $3.75 million, excluding political party transfers.

Total non-electoral expenses, such as constituent services, charitable giving, and office support was reported at $13.6 million during this period. This includes $5.66 million which candidate PACs have invested in CD's, the stock market or real estate, as well as funds spent on entertaining, flowers, and gifts, including an astonishing $209,467, spent by candidate PACs on sports tickets.

"A lot of attention is paid to where candidates get their money to run for office and rightly so," said Kent Redfield, the Director of the Sunshine Project and a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "But it also is important to look at how that money is spent. How much is filtered to other candidates and party organizations? How much is devoted to staff and advertising? And how much is spent just to try to raise even more money?"

The Sunshine Project and ICPR analyzed 75,000 campaign finance reports filed with the State Board of Elections for the campaign period between January 1, 2001 and June 30, 2002. The researchers categorized and coded expenditures, allowing them to calculate how much each campaign has spent on radio and television advertising, staff and operations, campaign literature, fundraising and direct contact with voters.

"Clearly, the cost of the 2002 Gubernatorial, Attorney General and legislative races will set new records for Illinois," said Cindi Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "Now, everyone can see how the candidates use that money both to wage their campaigns and to support other non-electoral activities, ranging from constituent services to attending sporting events."

The Sunshine Project and ICPR plan to make the expenditures database, which supports the individual expenditure profile pages, publicly available on the website in early 2003.

"We believe that these profiles will shed new light on expenditures, which have been an under-examined aspect of the campaign finance issue. Ultimately, we hope to provide the public with direct access to the database, giving them the ability to search specific expenditures or patterns of spending by Illinois political committees," explained Canary. "As far as we know, a standardized expenditures database of this type is a first."

In addition to the new expenditure analysis, the ICPR web site includes extensive information about the contributors to each candidate's campaign, as well as the identities of the top contributors throughout the careers of each major candidate. The web site also includes the searchable Illinois Sunshine Database, which has been updated with contribution information from the first six months of 2002.

Together the Sunshine Project (located at the University of Illinois at Springfield) and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform have created the Illinois Sunshine Database and the Illinois candidate campaign finance profiles, which are posted at www.ilcampaign.org. Both organizations are non-profit, non-partisan projects that work to increase public awareness of how political campaigns are funded in Illinois.