FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 26, 2003

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

Illinois Candidates Receive A- on Occupation/Employer Reporting
Dart receives a C; Birkett Earns a D
Meeks, Shaw, Jacobs, and Others Receive Failing Grade

Overall candidates for Illinois legislative, executive, Supreme Court and Appellate seats reported the occupation and employer of donors contributing in excess of $500 almost 92% of the time. According to analysis of campaign finance reports filed for the period through December 31, 2002 by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and the Sunshine Project, the vast majority of candidates submitted perfect, or near perfect campaign disclosure reports. Of the 3168 contributions reported that were in excess of $500, only 246 were reported without information on the donor's occupation and employer.

On the other end of the achievement scale 15 candidate committees and the Senate Democratic Committee received a failing grade for reporting the employer and occupation of contributors fewer than 68% of the time. Most of those receiving failing grades for not reporting occupation and employer only had 1 or 2 contributors of $500 or more and noted that their investigation was still pending.

"It is important to know who is funding the campaigns of candidates for public office in Illinois. The more information citizens have, the more informed their votes will be on Election Day," said Kent Redfield, Director of the Sunshine Project. "The high level of compliance with the law speaks very well for the vast majority of candidates for public office in Illinois. But is still disheartening to see a few candidates either ignore the law or fail to take it seriously."

As in years past the employer and occupation of several well-known individuals was reported as unknown. Kris Cohn, the unsuccessful candidate for Secretary of State, failed to fully identify Chicago City Colleges Board President Ron Gidwitz. Senator Denny Jacobs listed the occupation of State Representative Joel Brunsvold as unknown and Gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan reported that State Senator Dick Klemm's occupation and employer remained under investigation. Senator Dan Cronin failed to fully identify N. Riverside Mayor Richard Scheck, and former Senator Bill Shaw neglected to provide full information on Yesse B. Yehudah, director of Forum, Inc. who last year was accused of misappropriating state grant funds.

Some losing candidates appeared less inclined to secure and report occupation and employer data. Unsuccessful Treasurer candidate Tom Dart failed to report occupation and employer on 18% of his contributors and losing candidate for Attorney General Joe Birkett failed to report employer and occupation on 31% of his donors. Particularly striking in Birkett's case was that he failed to provide employer and occupation information on the donors of several extremely large contributions, including Raymond Fauber of Peoria who gave $100,000 and Anthony McMahon of Park Ridge who contributed $55,000 to Birkett.

"While we understand that it may be impossible to secure employer and occupation information for every contributor, " said Cindi Canary, director of ICPR. "It boggles the mind that the occupations of prominent Illinois legislators like Dick Klemm and Joel Brunsvold were reported as unknown, or that Joe Birkett wasn't significantly curious to track down employer and occupation data on a $100,000 contributor".

Both the Sunshine Project (located at the University of Illinois at Springfield) and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform are non-profit, non-partisan projects that work to increase public awareness of how political campaigns are funded in Illinois. For additional information on campaign fundraising in election 2002, please visit www.ilcampaign.org.

Detailed expenditure data and a fully searchable database of campaign contribution activity through 12/31/02 will also be available on the site in the coming weeks.

Copyright ©2003 by The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. All rights reserved.