Category: Mayor Race

To be, or not to be on the ballot in Chicago; that is the question

Posted by dcrim – January 27, 2011

The Illinois Supreme Court will have to decide if Rahm Emanuel, former congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, is eligible to run for mayor of Chicago. An appellate court earlier this week voted 2-1 to toss Emanuel — the frontrunner by a wide margin— off the ballot, saying he had not met the requirement of living in the city for one year before next month’s election.

Now the high court will get to either side with the appeals court or with the Chicago Board of Elections and a Cook County circuit court, both of which previously ruled that Emanuel was qualified to run.

Of course, as the Chicago Tribune notes in this article, the intrigue is only beginning.

In the Emanuel case, that debate may have been inevitable. Three of the four justices on the court’s Democratic majority were endorsed during their careers by the Cook County Democratic Party. The head of the party’s judicial slating committee is powerful Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, who is supporting Gery Chico in the mayoral race. And Burke is the husband of Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke.

Politics playing a role in a judicial decision? In Chicago?

Quincy mayoral race cost more than $146,000

Posted by dcrim – July 21, 2009

bp536451The two candidates for Quincy mayor spent a combined $146,245.12, according to semi-annual reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. That was down about $14,000 from the 2005 mayoral election.

Incumbent Democrat John Spring spent $90,384.74 and Republican challenger Dave Bellis $55,860.38 for the reporting period of Jan. 1 to June 30 according to reports filed this week.

Spring had $54,852.10 on hand at the beginning of the reporting period and raised an additional $43,861. Bellis had $9,549.04 on hand and raised an additional $46,681.

Spring’s biggest expense was $40,154.75 for television advertising. He spent an additional $11,268.53 on radio advertising and $8,262.46 on newspaper advertising with The Herald-Whig. He paid a combined $15,141.36 to three separate out-of-town firms for polling, most of it with Fako & Associates of Lisle.

Spring had 39 itemized individual contributions totaling $19,070, including $5,000 from Simmons Cooper LLC, an East Alton law firm. He had $13,591 in non-itemized individual contributions and nine itemized transfers totaling $11,200, including $5,000 from the Prairie Political Action Committee.

Bellis paid Larkin Brody Associates of Washington, D.C., $26,564 for four direct mail efforts. He also spent $12,886.66 in television and print advertising, and $5,000 to Marengo Strategies LLC of Washington for consulting.

The Adams County Republican Central Committee provided Bellis with $14,500 in three separate transfers. He listed 45 itemized individual contributions totaling $12,075, and had $20,106 in non-itemized contributions.

Spring and C. David Nuessen combined to spend about $160,000 on the mayoral race in 2005, with $107,000 of that by Spring.