Supreme Court Contributors Rocket to Top of Illinois’ Donors List
Full 2003-2004 Campaign Finance Analysis Posted to ilcampaign.org

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become the largest political donor in Illinois, according to new figures released by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and the Sunshine Project.

The U.S. Chamber, which previously has not made the Donors List, gave $2,050,000 during the 2003-2004 election cycle, edging out last cycle’s leader the Illinois Education Association for first place. Analysis of receipts and expenditures of all candidates for state legislative and supreme and appellate court in the 2003-2004 election cycle is now available on-line at www.ilcampaign.org

“Illinois’ 2004 Supreme Court contest has changed the political landscape,” said Cindi Canary, Executive Director of ICPR. “New groups vaulted to the top of the donor list, all as a result of one judicial election.” The U.S. Chamber gave the bulk of its money to the Illinois Republican Party, which spent the funds on the Supreme Court race.

The 2004 Supreme Court election shattered national records for spending on a high court contest. The race between Republican Lloyd Karmeier and Democrat Gordon Maag generated more than $9 million in spending, more than seven times the previous Illinois record and twice the previous national record. Karmeier won the election.

Other new entrants to the Top Donors List include the Illinois Civil Justice League (#3), a proponent of tort reform, and Justice for All PAC (#4), which supported the candidate favored by trial lawyers and labor unions. Totals are based on giving to legislative candidates and caucuses, state political parties, and candidates for Appellate and Supreme Court.

“Particularly striking is that much of this giving came in the last six weeks of the campaign, including all of the money from the U.S. Chamber,” said Kent Redfield, Director of the Sunshine Project. “The IEA, which had previously topped the List, takes two years to give that sort of money. The U.S. Chamber surpassed them with astonishing speed.”

The Sunshine Database was the first in the nation to put state-level campaign finance data into a searchable on-line format. It now includes hundreds of thousands of individual contributions and expenditures by hundreds of candidates for public office. Unlike the State Board of Elections database, the Sunshine Database standardizes the names of all donors and vendors, codes receipts and expenditures by industry, and includes profiles of the largest donors.

The new data updates the lists of Career Patrons, the top lifetime donors to all six statewide constitutional officers, and to the four legislative leaders. And it includes top individual donors as well as lists of the most expensive elections in state history.

ICPR was founded in 1997 by the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon. ICPR is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest group that conducts research and advocates reforms to promote public participation in government, address the role of money in politics and encourage integrity, accountability, and transparency in government.

The Sunshine Project is based at the University of Illinois at Springfield and is funded by the Joyce Foundation. Its goal is to increase public awareness and understanding of the role of money in Illinois politics.

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