May 17, 2004

In This Issue
* Medical Malpractice under the Dome
* Payday for Legislators
* A Decade of the Sunshine Project, 1993-2003
* Political Contributions by Zip Code
* ICPR Criticizes Limitless Fundraising


Medical Malpractice under the Dome
ICPR’s latest Issue Briefing looks at the roles of the Illinois State Medical Society and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association as the two groups spar over medical malpractice reforms. While media reports from outside of the Capitol have focused on doctors who are no longer able to afford malpractice insurance and are therefore turning away patients, discussions inside the Capitol revolve around the very different agendas of the ISMS and the ITLA, both perennial Top Ten PAC donors. To read the Issue Briefings, click here.

Payday for Legislators
Community groups have complained for years that payday lenders are parasites on the poor. The lenders respond that they are providing a useful service. Both sides have advocated competing proposals in each of the last three legislative sessions. But the legislature has taken no action. Instead, legislators have preferred to draw campaign contributions without ever taking sides. ICPR¹s issue briefing, Payday for Legislators, tallies up which legislators have drawn the biggest payday from these short-term lenders,click here.

Decade of the Sunshine Project, 1993-2003
The Sunshine Database now covers over a decade of giving to legislative and statewide candidates. ICPR and the Sunshine Project are using this data to create a series of chrats illustrating trends in money in Illinois politics. The first notes the partisan giving patterns of the top 30 political givers over the past decade. Other charts are forthcoming. To see how the two major parties have benefited by the political giving of the largest donors, click here.

Who Gives to Politicians?
Most of the money raised by candidates comes not from individuals but from corporations, unions, and associations. To get an idea of how pervasive giving by non-voters is, we looked at the top 30 zip codes around the state from 2000-2003. The resulting chart suggests both the geography of political giving and the nature of donors. To view the results, click here.

ICPR Criticizes Limitless Fundraising
In a widely-circulated op-ed, ICPR Director Cindi Canary faulted Gov. Blagojevich and legislative leaders for not discussing campaign contribution limits. The governor and the leaders raise enormous sums, especially from state contractors, lobbyists, and other special interests. Whenever insiders can give tens of thousands to decision-makers, the op-ed concluded, voters may suspect that public policy is for sale. To read the full text, click here.

ICPR Spotcheck is a publication of The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a non-partisan public interest group that educates, 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.

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© Copyright 2004. All material.