Fundraising

It's campaign finance report filing day, and the State Board of Elections still sucks.

For some of our local officials, here are funds raised for 1/1/08 through 6/30/08, along with cash-on-hand.

• 103rd House
  • Rep. Naomi Jakobsson: $9,100 / $13,700
  • Frank Calabrese: $2,500 / $2,500
• 104th House
  • Rep. Bill Black:  $46,400 / $54,500 (including investments)
  • Lori DeYoung: $29,100 / $23,100
• 105th House: Rep. Shane Cultra: $13,500 / $228.33 (including ~$35,000 in debts to himself)
• 110th House: Rep. Chapin Rose:  $8,500 / $36,900 (including investments)
• 52nd Senate:  Sen. Mike Frerichs: $37,000 / $74,400
• 53rd Senate: Sen. Dan Rutherford: $219,700 / $274,000
• 55th Senate: Sen. Dale Righter: $79,800 / $262,000 (including investments)

CapFax has the statewides (and prospective statewides) who have filed.

===Benefit Performance for 5.12 China Earthquake Relief on Thursday, June 26===
On May 12th, 2008, an 8.0 Magnitude earthquake hit China's Sichuan province. As of June 17th, the death toll has reached 69,172 and another 17,420 are still missing. About 374,159 were injured and a total population of over 45 million people is affected.

Local Chinese communities in Champaign-Urbana have organized a benefit event on Thursday June 26th for the earthquake relief. Your attendance of this benefit event and donation will make a huge difference for the relief, recovery and rebuilding of the earthquake affected region. Thanks!

Details about this benefit event:
Benefit event starts at 5 p.m (snacks/drinks/artwork sale: 5-7pm;performance: 7-9pm). Features internationally-renowned story-teller Dan Keding, Chinese folk music/dance/Martial arts, English choir, and much more! Free admission. Donations accepted. This is a collaborative effort among several local organizations including CSSA, OCEF, Chinese Heritage Association, Grace Methodist Church in Urbana, Vineyard Church etc.etc.

For the companion benefit sale, we are still accepting donations including all kinds of artworks, handcrafts etc. Please contact Jenny Jiang for the benefit sale donation at 217-218-8818.

This event will take place in the vineyard church's main auditorium (1500 N Lincoln Ave, Urbana, IL 61801).

For more information, contact: Yong Liu, (cell phone)217-721-0461

Rich Miller at Capitol Fax has the scoop (as always!):

So, in 2006, they went ahead and reported a legal debt and said the reason they hadn’t paid it was because they disputed the bill.

In 2007, they didn’t report a debt because they say they disputed the legal bill, but then they reported it in 2008 once the bill was straightened out.

One explanation for two completely opposite actions, and it’s all bull.

...

* Either way, the guv ought to be severely fined for not reporting a very large bill that was submitted to his campaign fund. The bills come in every month, and whether you agree with them or not, they’re supposed to be reported.

I know he likes to ignore the Constitution and the law and all that, but he needs to be called to account on this one.

But, let’s move along…

$2 million in legal fees? Over a million dollars in the past year alone? What the heck?

(Emphasis in original).

The Governor also appears to have fundraising problems.  Go read the whole post.

As a follow up to this post, I wanted to especially point out one of the more interesting fundraising disclosures I've ever seen:

Person	Party	Contributed To	Date	Amount
Mr. James J. Liautaud 2212 Fox Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820 Chairman & C.E.O. @ Jimmy John'S		Rudy Giuliani for President in 2008	Aug 29, 2007	$2,300

This is Jimmy John - a great guy, and the founder and CEO of Jimmy John's (the world's best sandwich shop, IMHO).  As you can see, about a month ago, he gave the maximum contribution to Rudy Giuliani for President, but he's a delegate candidate for Mitt Romney for President, here in the 15th Congressional District.

UPDATE:  Welcome, NRO's Campaign Spot readers (and a big "Thank you!" to Jim Geraghty for the link).  While you're here, please take a look around - we're a mostly locally-focused community blog, but we do sometimes venture into national stories.

PoliticalBase.com has a great new site that maps Federal political contributions onto google maps. You can search by race type, candidate, party, ZIP, and a bunch of other stuff and then embed the maps or tables in a blog post.  For example, here's all the 2008 Presidential donations for ZIP Code 61820:

Person	Party	Contributed To	Date	Amount
Sharon Aday 502 W Hill St #105 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Not Employed @ Not Employed		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Jul 5, 2007	$25
Sharon Aday 502 W Hill St #105 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Not Employed @ Not Employed		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Aug 5, 2007	$25
Sharon Aday 502 W Hill St #105 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Not Employed @ Not Employed		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Sep 5, 2007	$25
Ms. Dorothy A Baker 6 Litchfield Ln Champaign, Illinois 61820 Retired @ Not Employed		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Mar 1, 2007	$1,000
Melina Barona 211 W Beardsley Ave Champaign, Illinois 61820 Academic Professional @ Uiuc		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Jul 27, 2007	$200
Mr. David W. Barr 1710 S. Neil Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Barr Real Estate		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Aug 31, 2007	$500
Mr. Leslie Barr 1710 S. Neil Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 Information Requested Per Best Effo @ Information Requested Per Best Effo		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Sep 26, 2007	$1,800
Elizabeth Barstead 602 Haines Blvd Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Hendrick Dorms Inc.		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Apr 5, 2007	$1,000
Elizabeth Barstead 602 Haines Blvd Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Hendrick Dorms Inc.		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Jun 28, 2007	$2,000
Elizabeth Barstead 602 Haines Blvd Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Hendrick Dorms Inc.		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Jun 28, 2007	$700
Elizabeth Barstead 602 Haines Blvd Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Hendrick Dorms Inc.		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Jun 28, 2007	$-700
Mr. David C. Eades 5 Lyndhurst Place Champaign, Illinois 61820 Retired		Rudy Giuliani for President in 2008	Jun 11, 2007	$1,000
Mr. Jeffrey Hartman 505 S. 5th Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 Apt. Owner/Investor @ Self-Employed		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Sep 13, 2007	$2,300
Stanley O Ikenberry 1310 S 6th St # 347 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Regent Professor @ Univ.111@Urbaaa-Champaign		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Aug 10, 2007	$1,000
Gina A Jackson 907 N 5th St Champaign, Illinois 61820 Retired @ Not Employed		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Aug 10, 2007	$1,000
Pauline Kayes 712 S Prairie St Champaign, Illinois 61820 College Professor @ Parkland College		Hillary Clinton for President in 2008	Jan 22, 2007	$250
Pauline Kayes 712 S Prairie St Champaign, Illinois 61820 College Professor @ Parkland College		Hillary Clinton for President in 2008	Sep 7, 2007	$300
Don Kleinmuntz 2001 S 1st St Ste 200 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Executive Vice President @ Strata Decision Technology		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Feb 21, 2007	$250
Mr. James J. Liautaud 2212 Fox Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820 Chairman & C.E.O. @ Jimmy John'S		Rudy Giuliani for President in 2008	Aug 29, 2007	$2,300
Mr. Xi Lin 401 E Chalmers Apt 320 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Teaching Assistant @ University Of Illinois At Urbana-Ch		Rudy Giuliani for President in 2008	Apr 18, 2007	$250
Ms. Jeanette Mccollum 409 W Hill St Champaign, Illinois 61820 Professor @ University Of Il		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Sep 21, 2007	$50
Mr. Carlos A. Nieto 6 Taylor Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 Owner @ Self-Employed		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Sep 12, 2007	$2,200
Michael Richards 409 W Columbia Ave Apt 2 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Information Requested @ Michael Richards Consulting		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Jun 8, 2007	$2,300
Yvette Scheven 107 N Elm St Apt 202 Champaign, Illinois 61820 Information Requested @ Information Requested		Barack Obama for President in 2008	Aug 10, 2007	$250
Mr. Rodrick L. Schmidt 1605 S. Statesuite 112 Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Royal Properties		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Aug 31, 2007	$2,300
Mr. Jeffrey B. Wampler 627 E. Greenp.O. Box 1098 Champaign, Illinois 61820 President @ Sterling Management		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Sep 18, 2007	$2,300
Mr. Joseph D. Wampler 701 Devonshire Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820 Information Requested Per Best Effo @ Information Requested Per Best Effo		Mitt Romney for President in 2008	Sep 26, 2007	$500

This is cool stuff - as voters and citizens and bloggers, we need more tools like this and less crappy, heavy-handed unconstitutional regulations like McCain-Feingold.

Go check it out.

I thought this was really interesting:

For example, what percentage of Bush’s donors who gave more than $1,000 in 2000 do you think gave to the President again in 2004? I would have guessed in the neighborhood of eighty percent, but the CFI study found that only 31 percent gave again in 2004. For donors of $200 or more, it dropped to 30 percent. What’s more, only 24 percent of Gore donors from 2000 and 21 percent of Bradley donors in 2000 gave to any Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.

“It turns out there’s a lot more churning in the system than the political professionals normally expect,” Malbin said. “We picture a candidate going back to the old list, going to the same old, same old again and again, but not that’s really the way it works. People are constantly coming in and then leaving the pool of donors. Today, there are a lot of old donors who haven’t given yet – and who may not give at all.”

Those kinds of statistics have interesting implications for the debate about campaign finance restrictions.

At this point four years ago, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was in the midst of an unparalleled fundraising binge, raising almost $15 million for his 2006 re-election campaign.

Has pressure from Federal investigators caused him to postpone or eliminate a similiar fundraising effort this year, in preparation for 2010?

Scofield told me the same thing when I called him about this over a month ago. He also claimed that Blagojevich had put off his annual funder because of the overtime session fights. So far, though, I haven’t heard of any major fundraising activity yet.

The governor has shown time and time again that he can raise lots of cash at the drop of a hat, so I’m not sure this means too much. Then again, the longer he waits to raise money, the more speculation will abound that he may not be running for a third term, which will make him a lame duck in some minds.

First, the GOP Straw Poll:

Cast Your Vote in the first-ever Illinois Republican Presidential Straw Poll
Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair
August 16, 2007
Director's Lawn  - Illinois State Fairgrounds
801 Sangamon Avenue
Springfield, Illinois

Schedule of Events
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM - Straw Poll Voting (Located on Director's Lawn)
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM  - Luncheon on Director's Lawn (Anticipated program, with elected officials and presidential candidates, starts at approximately 1:00 PM)

4:30 PM - 5:30 PM - Announcement of Straw Poll Results - (Beverages will be provided)

Straw Poll Voting Eligibility

• Must be an Illinois resident at least 18 years old by Feb. 5, 2008 (Primary Election Day)
• Must have a valid Illinois driver's license OR government-issued photo ID with current Illinois address

Straw Poll voting is free of charge

Second, we've been working on our first fundraiser for the 15th Congressional District Republican Committee, a party-building group that we've been working to get organized throughout the 22 counties of the 15th Congressional District.

15th Congressional District Republicans Fundraiser
Wednesday, Aug. 15 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
112 W. Cook Street - Springfield
$50 per person

If you're going to be in Springfield on Republican Day, I hope to see you at one or both events.

In a nutshell, this is an excellent analysis of the First Quarter fundraising numbers for the GOP contenders:

The ever important figures for Cash on Hand are starting to come in and the shape of the race is adjusting accordingly.

Giuliani today reported $15 million raised (as previously reported) and $12 million on hand.  That’s a substantial figure that could actually put him in first place in the money game.  Romney’s people have said they’ll report more than $11 million, but we won’t know how much more until we see the report.  In addition to his high COH amount, Giuliani reported very little debt (about $90k).

If McCain, who raised only $12.5, has a burn rate closer to Romney’s (48%) than Giuliani’s (32%), he will come out of the first quarter with a COH in the mid-single digits.  That’s a bad place to be.

On another piece of news, the number of contributors to Rudy’s campaign is around 28,000.  That’s only about 5,000 fewer than Romney, but those 5,000 raised $6 million more (an average of $1,200 per person).  That gives you a further indication that much of Romney’s donor stable is tapped out and unable to give more.

Here's more regarding Giuliani's numbers:

The full report can be found here, but the basic details are as follows:

- Primary Election Cash on Hand: $10,814,834 (91%)
- General Election Cash on Hand $1,134,900 (9%)
- Total Cash on Hand: $11,949,734
- Total Receipts: $16,623,410 (includes $1,850,000 transferred from Friends of Giuliani)

Campaign manager Mike DuHaime said there were 28,000 total contributors in Q1 and the campaign raised nearly $1 million of its total over the Internet...

DuHaime pointed out that the campaign got off to a slow start (only $200K raised in January and about $3 million in February) before hitting its stride in March raising the vast bulk of funds ($11.5 million).

In response to a question about the number of fund raising events to be put the schedule in the future, DuHaime said they expected to keep a "March-like pace" throughout the rest of the year and right into the primaries.

One thing to also remember about Fred Thompson.  While it's certainly not to late for him to jump into the race, he's already $10 million behind Rudy and Mitt, and as Rudy and the other candidates will tell you, raising money does take some infrastructure and some time.

Kiyoshi has the scoop on the fundraising numbers for the 52nd District Senate race.

Myers also has received more individual contributions since January 1, summing to $96,308.50. Frerichs lists $63,747.04 in individual contributions in the same time period, a $32,561.46 difference.

However, Frerichs received more from the Illinois Senate Democrat Fund than Myers received from the Republican State Senate Committee. The ISDF has contributed a total of $568,494.70 so far in transfers and in-kind contributions to Frerichs. Myers has received $513,278.50 of the same type of contributions from the RSSC, a difference of $55,216.20.

When I wrote that Frerichs' early attack ads were obviously paid for by Chicago Democrat money (despite protestations by Frerichs to the contrary) his campaign supporters tried to argue that I was lying.

Clearly, I was right: Senate President Emil Jones will spend anything and say anything in order to elect another compliant downstate legislator. And have you seen anything in Mike Frerichs' record that indicates he's capable of being "tough and independent" after receiving $550,000 in campaign contributions?

Don't allow Jones to buy another vote for pension raids, pay-to-play, pork and deficits. Please volunteer or contribute to Senator Judy Myers' campaign here.

(DISCLOSURE: I work for Senator Myers' campaign.)

At least now, Mike Frerichs and his supporters can no longer pretend that his largest campaign contributor isn't Senate President Emil Jones.

Jones' Illinois Senate Democratic Fund gave $47,000 to Frerichs today.

The Illinois Senate Republicans have been supporting Senator Judy Myers, but we've not tried to pretend otherwise.

Why has Frerichs been avoiding the appearance of accepting support from Jones?

• Perhaps it's because Jones threatened to cut funding to the University of Illinois because of his dislike of Chief Illiniwek?
• Perhaps it's because Jones once "compared Chief supporters to segregationists?"
• Perhaps it's because Jones is currently blocking a special Legislative session on utility rates?
• Perhaps it's because Jones championed two budgets that relied on $2.3 billion in pension raids?
• Perhaps it's because Jones refuses to distance himself from indicted Blagojevich fundraiser Tony Rezko?

Are these the kinds of friends the 52nd District really wants our State Senator to have?

(DISCLOSURE: I work for Senator Judy Myers' campaign. To volunteer, please go here.)

This is mildly surprising:

The Republican Governor's Association is targeting races in the following six states: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Oregon.

At first blush, I'm suprised to see Wisconsin missing from the list. If you believe the polls, Mark Green seems to be in a much better position of scoring an upset than Topinka in Illinois or Hutchinson in Arkansas.

Will it matter?

The Chicago Tribune has been looking closely at Democrat candidate for Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias:

Many of the biggest donors to Democratic state treasurer candidate Alexi Giannoulias also received millions of dollars in loans from his family's Broadway Bank--some making their campaign contributions within weeks or months of receiving the loans, a Tribune analysis shows.

Giannoulias has received nearly $300,000 in campaign contributions from 19 donors who held a combined $200 million in bank loans, according to campaign disclosures and other records. They were among the 42 donors outside of his family who gave at least $5,000 each as of June 30.

No banking or campaign laws prohibit Giannoulias, Broadway's vice president and senior loan officer, from turning to his bank's borrowers for donations.

Giannoulias said Monday that he had "absolutely not" pressured any of those borrowers to donate. "There's no correlation between these loans and the state treasurer's office," he said. "They're not contributing because they want to do business with the state."

Just a coincidence, really.

UPDATE:  Here's another poll - the CNN/USA Today/Gallup - with President Bush's approval rating climbing to 44%, and with the generic Congressional ballot evenly divided.

Since this post generated so much discussion, I thought I'd revisit it from time to time. I'll briefly quote myself to set the table as to what I thought of the national political landscape:

A lock? I had thought that the number of competetive House districts was small enough (numbering in the 30s, if I remember correctly) that the Democrats would have to sweep nearly all of them win the majority.

In the intervening three weeks, I've been bookmarking articles to renew the discussion. This post is going to be long, so click on "Read more..." for the rest.

Consecutive governors in Illinois have raised Pay to Play to an art form. You can make your own determination as to whether the circumstances below put Ms. Rietz and Mr. Frerichs in the Blago mold or the Paul Simon mold. Last night, as I blogged, Julia Rietz announced that we were switching law firms to handle negotiations on the mold in the nursing home. We previously had been using a Chicago firm, but she decided to move the contract to Phebus and Koester. Lo and behold, I have received an email about a fundraiser. Here is the text.

Lawyers' and Law Students' Fundraiser for:

After several discussion with 15th Congressional District Republican State Central Committeeman Jerry Clarke, several GOP County Chairmen and other local activists, we decided to take the next step in building and rebuilding the Republican Party in the 15th District.

Douglas County Chairman David Albin (as Chairman) and I (as Treasurer) have formed the 15th Congressional District Republican Committee.  The Committee's main purposes will be to both be a resource and provide resources to local County GOP organizations and candidates in the District.  We're hoping to raise some money, provide some training and guidance, and focus our efforts on electing Republicans in tight races.

This is not an unusual concept (Rep. Tom Ewing's old 15th District Committee is still active, for example, and here's the Committee for the 19th District), although we hope to be significantly more active than most of the other similar organizations around the state.

Also, this is a State Committee, which means that Federal candidates cannot raise money for this committee, nor receive funds or in-kind contributions from it in excess of $1,000.

If anyone has any questions about this Committee or suggestions for things we can do to help grow the Republican Party, or if you'd like to contribute, please email me or post in comments.

Today at 11:59 PM is the deadline to file the required campaign finance disclosure forms for state and local candidates. You can browse the latest filings here, or search for specific committees here.

Candidates who have raised for spent in excess of $10,000 are required to file electronically, making thier information available immediately.

Of local note, neither Senator Judy Myers nor Mike Frerichs nor Rep. Naomi Jakobsson had filed as of this posting. Rex Bradfield filed on paper, here.

Neither Gov. Rod Blagojevich nor Judy Baar Topinka have filed.

The County Democrats filed two weeks ago (with multiple amendments) with about $45,000 in available funds and investments. The County Republicans filed this morning, with about $150,000 available in cash and investments, much of it from the sale of the Republican headquarters building.

I will probably not have time to update this today. If you are nosing around and find something interesting, post it in comments.

Tom Kacich has a blurb on his blog about Democrat Senate candidate Mike Frerichs and the AFL-CIO.

The campaign disclosure numbers are out for the first six months of this year for the Illinois AFL-CIO political action committee, and they don't show any money going to Mike Frerichs, the Champaign County auditor and the Democratic candidate in the 52nd Senate District. He's running against former state Sen. Judy Myers, a Republican from Danville.

But Frerichs has been endorsed by the state AFL-CIO (the labor organization didn't endorse any Republicans for any Senate seats) and he said today that he has been assured both financial and in-kind support. "They want to be very involved," he said.

(Disclosure: I work for Senator Judy Myers' campaign.)

Consider this an open thread on the 52nd Senate District race.

We read a couple of interesting quips from Mike Frerichs in Tom Kacich's Sunday News-Gazette commentary. The first was his fancy-schmancy connections of contributions from Yalies in New York and Dallas: “I hit the easy, low-hanging fruit first-my friends.” Wow, I bet those friends would appreciate that analogy.

Full disclosure here: I understand I may not be qualified to comment about Mike's education or campaign. I only graduated from the University of Illinois--with honors, does that help?-- but only in Education and not German Studies. Bitte verzeihen Sie mir. Even worse, I'm only 5' 3".

Second, in the “who does he think he's kidding” category, we have “I'm running a campaign based on the assumption that I'll be funding most of it myself. I appreciate any help I can get from the state party but I'm not going to count on it.”

So, Emil, put your checkbook away and target those tens of thousands elsewhere. Mike isn't going to be needing it, thank you.

My thoughts on the Frerichs/Myers fundraising reports.

First, Myers’ fundraising of $64,000 is stunning, especially since she did not become a candidate until the first week of November.  It is incredibly difficult to raise money in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so she really had only about three weeks to do any prime fundraising activities.

Second, the Frerichs total number appears on its face to be not bad, especially for a Democrat.

Third, the disparity between in district and out of district contributions for the two campaigns is incredible. Just 9% of Frerichs’ contributions were disclosable from people in his district.  Myers on the other hand received 71% of her contributions from disclosed people in her district.  

Fourth, Myers raised $3,600 from people in Champaign-Urbana.  Frerichs raised just $890.  A slow start for Myers.  A nonstart for Frerichs.  Considering Frerichs has been running for this position for three years, it’s amazing that he can’t muster more support in what should be his fundraising base.

Fifth, in just a few short weeks, Myers outpaced Frerichs is smaller contributions under $150,  $7,095 to $5,210.  It looks like Myers is establishing a better base of grass roots supporters.