In race for mayor, Paul Vallas’ and Brandon Johnson’s campaign donors are as different as the candidates

Since Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson became the last candidates standing for Chicago mayor, the two have been on campaign fundraising overdrive, collecting nearly $17 million in less than a month.

Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO, has been the clear winner so far in the fundraising game, receiving just under $11 million to the $5.8 million that has gone to Johnson, the Cook County commissioner and organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union.

The candidates’ deep ties to education — and their sharply opposing views on it — are also reflected in their respective contributors, according to state campaign finance records.

While well more than half of Johnson’s cash since March 1 has come from CTU, other teacher union organizations or progressive unions, Vallas has received millions of dollars from Chicago and suburban business leaders. Some have ties to groups that back a state-sponsored scholarship program for private schools as well as leaders with interests in charter schools.

Whomever voters choose as Chicago’s next mayor on April 4 will not just run City Hall but also manage key milestones for Illinois’ largest school district: contract negotiations with the teachers union in 2024; coping with enrollment loss as a moratorium on school closings ends in 2025; and for the last time, appointing school board members ahead of a transition to elected school board representation.

More than $5.4 million of the $9.8 million that Johnson has reported raising since the start of his campaign last year came from political funds controlled by teachers unions, including CTU as well as the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, campaign finance records show. Another nearly $3.4 million comes from various funds affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.

Union members can offer considerable political muscle during the campaign, and the mayor holds substantial sway over citywide labor policy as well as bargaining over contracts for organized workers across city agencies like schools, parks and airports. SEIU, in particular, has members who work for hospitals and other health care agencies, as well as members who work directly for the city, its schools, airports and sister agencies, including maintenance and janitorial workers.

Vallas, meanwhile, is getting significant campaign help from leaders in Chicago’s business community, some of whom live in the suburbs.

Several industry groups endorsed Vallas earlier this month, citing concerns over crime, property taxes and the impact Johnson’s tax proposals would have on the city’s economy, with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce CEO Jack Lavin saying in a statement, “We cannot afford leadership that supports higher taxes and is not committed to keeping our businesses open and our streets safe.”

But many of those business contributors are also big supporters of school choice, which Vallas has been a strong proponent of. A little more than a year ago, in a Tribune op-ed, Vallas called for directing the Chicago Board of Education to use surplus tax increment financing dollars “to provide tuition support for families whose children attend or wish to attend private schools.”

He also applauded the state’s extension of its Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program through the end of 2023. Signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017, the program offers tax credits to those who contribute to Scholarship Granting Organizations, which then give tuition help to students whose families meet certain income requirements to attend private or technical schools.

One of Vallas’ biggest donors is James N. Perry Jr., the chairman of Empower Illinois, who helped lead the charge for Invest in Kids. Perry and his wife also have been major fundraisers for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, whose schools many Invest in Kids scholarship recipients attend. Perry, a managing director at Chicago investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners, has given Vallas’ campaign $400,000. A trust in Perry’s name has given another $250,000.

Empower is one of the largest Scholarship Granting Organizations in Illinois, receiving roughly three-fourths of all contributions — 4,000 totaling $51 million — for the current school year, according to Invest in Kids’ annual report.

Under the program, individuals and businesses can give Scholarship Granting Organizations up to $1 million and receive a 75% income tax credit. A $1 million donation, for example, garners a $750,000 income tax credit. The state can issue up to $75 million in credits annually, essentially meaning the state doesn’t collect that money.

The CTU and others opposed the program, arguing it created a publicly funded private school voucher plan and served as “a tax shelter that will benefit big corporations and billionaire patrons.”

Close behind in contributions to Vallas is John Canning, Madison Dearborn’s chairman and a trustee of the second-largest Scholarship Granting Organization, the Big Shoulders Fund. Canning, of Inverness, has given Vallas $200,000.

The Big Shoulders Fund and Empower have doled out more than 9,000 scholarships, 94% of those awarded through the Invest in Kids program this year.

Others tied to the Big Shoulders Fund include BSF trustee Gerald Beeson of Orland Park, who is the chief operating officer at the Citadel hedge fund, and BSF board members Timothy Sullivan, Wilmette, of Madison Dearborn and Chicagoan James Hoeg of Alyeska Investment Group, who collectively gave Vallas $800,000.

Another Vallas contributor is John Buck, Chicago, CEO of The John Buck Company development firm who pushed for the Invest in Kids program and is now an emeritus board member of both Empower and BSF. He gave Vallas $100,000.

The Tribune identified another half-dozen BSF or Empower board members who gave Vallas between $1,000 and $10,000.

Paul Finnegan, Madison Dearborn’s co-CEO, also gave Vallas $400,000. Finnegan of Evanston is a board member of Teach For America in Chicago. Teach for America over the past decade has been funded by school choice advocates.

Vallas also has been a proponent of charter schools, expanding them in Chicago and in other school districts he’s led, and he’s received significant financial support from charter school advocates for his campaign.

While he has not made charters central to his mayoral campaign and recently said he thinks the current number of charters operating within CPS is sufficient, Vallas has called for lifting current enrollment caps on high-performing charters and empowering communities “to invite public charters to locate in empty or near empty buildings conditional that they serve neighborhood children,” according to his education platform.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ super PAC, INCS Action Independent Committee, has so far spent $617,000 on digital and cable advertisements opposing Johnson during the runoff campaign, campaign finance records show.

Andrew Broy, INCS president and the super PAC’s treasurer, previously told the Tribune that Johnson’s budget plans “would do substantial damage to the city’s economic climate” and that Vallas is “clearly better on charters, on a range of public issues we care about.”

The largest contributors to the INCS super PAC are Alice Walton and James Walton — siblings and heirs to the Walmart fortune who have given nearly $7 million in recent years — and James Frank, a Winnetka resident and founder of the automotive fleet leasing and management company Wheels Inc. based in Des Plaines. Frank is a member of INCS’ board and the chairman of the charter network Intrinsic Schools. He recently reported giving $800,000 more to the INCS super PAC, bringing his total donations to INCS’ political committees to $4.7 million over the years. Frank has given $225,000 to Vallas directly.

David Chizewer, an attorney with Goldberg Kohn and also a member of the INCS board, gave Vallas $1,000. Chizewer told WBEZ: “What’s important to me is that we don’t have someone in office who is biased against charters, or who is going to make decisions about schools based on their own political beliefs, or political power.”

Chicago-based golf course entrepreneur Michael Keiser has given $183,600 to INCS’ political committees and even more — $700,000 — to Vallas. His wife, Rosalind, gave Vallas another $200,000. The Noble Network of Charter Schools listed Keiser as one of its top donors in 2017.

Separately, Keiser is a lead backer of building a controversial 18-hole Tiger Woods-designed golf course along the South Side lakefront on the footprint of two Chicago Park District-owned courses just south of the Obama Presidential Center site. The project has been stalled during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration.

Donald Wilson, founder of the Chicago-based trading firm DRW and a longtime backer of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is another charter proponent who has donated to INCS’ political causes and to Vallas: $25,000 to INCS’ super PAC and $350,000 to Vallas. Wilson is also a Noble Charter Schools donor: DRW College Prep in Homan Square is named for his company.

Another super PAC, Illinois Federation for Children, recently reported spending nearly $60,000 on digital ads supporting Vallas. On its website, the group says it fights “for the rights of students and families against the entrenched education bureaucracy’s stranglehold on education policy in Illinois” and that all students deserve “the same opportunities to seek the education that is best for them — not the one that’s best for school district bureaucracies or teachers’ unions.”

James Walton is among its donors but the vast majority of the group’s funding comes from the American Federation for Children’s Action Fund Inc., a Texas-based group that supports school choice politicians in several states.

Similar to their takes on education, the two candidates also have widely differing visions on taxes and the city budget.

Johnson has repeatedly said Chicago has plenty of wealth to help lift its poorest residents out of poverty. He has proposed raising various taxes: on high-value real estate sales to create a dedicated funding stream for homeless services, on certain financial transactions, and per-employee for large businesses in the city.

Vallas has argued Johnson’s proposed measures would destroy the local economy, and contributors from the investment, finance and real estate industries have donated heavily to him.

Vallas’ labor contributions are mostly from trade unions that have typically backed pro-development candidates. He’s received $500,000 from the Chicago Land Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC, $400,000 from the LiUNA Chicago Laborers’ District Council PAC, and a combined $500,000 from committees representing union laborers, electricians, and engineers.

Johnson has used their differences to drive home questions about Vallas’ Democratic bona fides because he takes campaign cash from individuals who also have given to Republicans. Among the contributors Johnson has highlighted: Keiser and the Gidwitz family, who have also given to former President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates running for office across Illinois.

Scott, Ron and James Gidwitz have given Vallas just over $55,000. Ron Gidwitz, a longtime Republican whom Trump appointed ambassador to Belgium, told the Tribune in 2006 that he and Vallas became friends when Gidwitz ran the Illinois State Board of Education and Vallas headed CPS.

Though he has not donated to him, Republican megadonor Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, has voiced support for Vallas’ mayoral bid. Employees of his firm have together given Vallas more than $800,000. Griffin cited violence in Chicago as a reason for moving the hedge fund’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami.

Previously asked by the Tribune why Republicans contributed to his campaign, Vallas said, “Because the city’s in trouble (and) crime is out of control.”

Vallas also pointed out many of those same contributors have also given to Democrats. Madison Dearborn Partners’ Canning, for example, contributed to Lightfoot, Emanuel, and former House Speaker Mike Madigan.

A major donor to Republican causes, Craig Duchossois, has given $760,000 to Vallas, and was a major supporter of Richard Irvin’s gubernatorial run in 2022 and in opposing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax. On the campaign trail, Johnson has expressed support for another attempt at instituting a statewide progressive income tax. Duchossois was also a supporter of Emanuel.

Aside from the more than $2.4 million Vallas has gotten from employees of Citadel and Madison Dearborn Partners, he’s also received more than $1 million combined from employees of investment and financial firms Linden Capital Partners, Delaware Street Capital and Endurance Asset Management.

Joe Mansueto, the founder of investment research firm Morningstar and owner of the Chicago Fire soccer team, recently gave Vallas $250,000.

Since the start of the election, super PACs have spent about $1.3 million either supporting Vallas or opposing Johnson. Known officially as independent expenditure committees, super PACs and the candidates they support are barred from coordinating with each other but can raise and spend unlimited funds.

The vast majority of the super PAC spending — $1 million — has been since March 1. Aside from the more than $600,000 spent by INCS and Illinois Federation for Children, a new group established March 10 called Priorities Chicago has spent $320,000 opposing Johnson. It has received funding where the source is unknown or heavily obscured, also known as dark money.

Priorities Chicago PAC received $170,000 from an entity involved in the first wave of the mayoral election, Better Chicago Future Inc., and $275,000 from Priorities Chicago, an entity that shares the same Chicago-based address as the PAC.

Priorities Chicago is led by Chicago-based Resolute Public Affairs founder Greg Goldner. Goldner was long tied to Emanuel. A separate super PAC, New Leadership for Chicago, was also backed by Resolute. It spent more than $380,000 supporting U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García’s failed bid in the first round.

Another dark money group active in this year’s race is the Chicago Leadership Committee, which spent $225,000 on television ads supporting Vallas in the first found. Though the fund still has $40,000 in the bank, according to state records, it hasn’t spend money in the runoff.

The fund faced questions about its independence from Vallas’ campaign when state records showed the committee paid $165,000 to Mad River Communications, a Maryland-based firm registered under the name of Vallas campaign adviser Joe Trippi. Trippi previously told the Tribune he took a leave from the group when he signed on with Vallas in September.

That committee also received all its money from Better Chicago Future Inc., which shares the same Philadelphia-based P.O. box as the political committee it donated to.

No super PACs have spent in support of Johnson or against Vallas.

aquig@chicagotribune.com