Unlimited funds can flow in state’s attorney, Board of Review, Circuit Court clerk races
Retired Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke has opened the door for unlimited cash to flow into the Cook County state’s attorney primary, making that race the latest county contest without contribution limits.
Candidates can also rake in as much cash as they want in the Circuit Court clerk and the county’s Board of Review races. The busted contribution limits are thanks to the personal wealth of the candidates or in one case, their main benefactor.
Taken together, the Democratic candidates and PACs involved in those contests have already raised a combined $4.4 million since the start of 2023. With three weeks until Election Day, the number could rise substantially.
Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois, a good government group that tracks political spending and is pushing for campaign finance reforms in Chicago, said this year’s fundraising largely tracks with the last election, which represents a problematic “normalization of cap-busting and big spending. It’s happening in more and more races, and it’s no longer limited to obviously high stakes races like governor or Chicago mayor.”
While the state’s current self-funding rule “can genuinely help a non-wealthy candidate level the playing field with a wealthy opponent, or help an insurgent candidate without establishment support get off the ground,” in Illinois it has mostly driven up the cost of running for office and boosted “the power of wealthy donors and special interests,” Kaplan said in an email to the Tribune.
“Candidates with talent and good ideas shouldn’t have to depend on their own bank accounts, rich friends, or special interests to run competitive campaigns — that’s not the way our democracy should work,” she said.
O’Neill Burke filed paperwork with the state Tuesday morning notifying the state Board of Elections that she and her husband, attorney John Burke, had contributed a combined $106,900 to her campaign. If a candidate or immediate family member gives a total of $100,000 or more to a campaign within a 12-month span, that lifts contribution caps, allowing unlimited dollars to flow to all candidates in the race.
The contribution caps are also removed for her Democratic primary opponent, Clayton Harris III, and the lone Republican in the race, Bob Fioretti.
O’Neill Burke has reported raising $1.05 million — loans from both the candidate and her husband included — since the start of her campaign. Harris has raised $618,000. If O’Neill Burke wins the primary, the limits would remain off for the general election contest against Fioretti and Libertarian candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski.
Contribution limits have similarly been removed in the race for Circuit Court clerk since Democrat Mariyana Spyropoulos loaned her campaign $875,000 on Valentine’s Day. She loaned herself another $384,420 two days later.
That move allowed Spyropoulos’ opponent, incumbent Clerk Iris Martinez, to also amass unlimited funds, though she has considerable catching up to do: Spyropoulos has raised $1.4 million — her loans included — since the start of 2023, while Martinez has raised less than $300,000 in the same span between two of her campaign funds.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s recent spending spree to support Larecia Tucker, a Democratic candidate for the Board of Review, also ended the caps in that race on Feb. 22. The change was triggered because spending from an independent expenditure committee — better known as a PAC — exceeded $100,000.
The PAC Kaegi funded, Stop Tax Corruption Cook County, has so far spent nearly $200,000 on digital ads and mailers supporting Tucker and opposing incumbent commissioner Larry Rogers. It has raised $385,000.
Kaegi previously declined to get involved in board races to preserve the independence of its decisions. But told the Tribune Tuesday that Rogers’ conflicts — including his family’s involvement in appeals and his acceptance of campaign contributions from attorneys arguing in front of the board donations —was an “exceptional situation.”
As for Rogers’ criticism that Kaegi’s involvement is unethical and hypocritical, Kaegi said “It’s interesting to hear Larry Rogers suddenly thinks donations have a corrupting influence on the Board of Review.”
Kaegi referenced a nearly identical effort in 2008, when then-Assessor Jim Houlihan funded a reform-minded candidate to take out then-Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios. Houlihan believed a Berrios defeat could help reform the board’s slant toward commercial property owners.
“The assessor then recognized what the problem was and he tried to make sure that Berrios was defeated and it didn’t work. The debate then was the same debate we’re having now. Unfortunately, Berrios won and that led to the unfolding of huge wealth stripping and making the system even more inequitable,” Kaegi said.
Tucker offers the opportunity to turn the tide and implement ethics reforms such as a ban on campaign contributions from property tax attorneys and more transparency in board operations, he argued.
As for how he can afford to chip in so much, Kaegi said he was “very successful in my work as an investor” and it is “more impactful and meaningful and special” to support someone who can deliver structural reform to a system that is “stacked against so many.”
Kaegi — a former asset manager — reported several stock assets worth more than $10,000 on his 2022 county statement of economic interest. Rogers — also a trial attorney at the firm Power Rogers — also reported income from half a dozen real estate properties as well as unnamed stocks.
Rogers has raised $525,000 since the start of last year. Tucker, meanwhile, has raised less than $100,000, though about $39,000 is from Kaegi or his family.
Rogers’ own self-funding likely would have lifted the caps — state records show he loaned himself $100,000 on Feb. 16 and another $150,000 on Feb. 22. He did not file paperwork declaring it, but would face no penalty from the state board of elections.
