Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Who's Giving, Who's Getting

It's one of our favorite days of the year!  Political Geek Christmas!  Yes, today is the deadline for the candidates to report their donations and expenditures (D-2 Reports) for the first half of 2010.  Read who's giving to them, how much they're raising, and what they're spending it on... all from the ease of your electronic device.

We'll concentrate on the Aldermanic races:

In the 48th Ward, Mary Ann Smith raised $6,727.56 from 1/1/10 to 6/30/10, bringing her to an end amount of $19,043.83 in available funds.

In the 46th Ward (in the order in which they filed their reports):
  • James Cappleman raised $57,566.00, leaving him with $57,464.38 total funds available.
  • Helen Shiller raised $18,480.00, leaving her with $18,951.45 total funds available.
  • Michael Carroll raised $5,932.04, leaving him with $7,477.77 total funds available.
  • Molly Phelan raised $41,450.00, leaving her with $41,450.00 total funds available
  • Don Nowotny raised $113,554.29, leaving him with $96,163.61 (and $84,000.00 in debts! Yikes)
  • Gerald Farinas - No gay Asian Republican Alan Keyes-supporting alderman for the 46th this time around.  He's officially stepped out of the race.
  • The oh-so-enigmatic Jesse Wilson - MIA, as usual.

32 comments:

  1. Molly Phelan filed at 11:54am - $41,450 raised from 60+ distinct donor. $5750 of that raised from herself and from what appears to be family.

    http://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/D2Semi.aspx?id=406157

    All raised in June 2010. Would be that not many challengers anywhere in the City did better.

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  2. I find it odd that Northalsted Area Merchants Assoc. donated to Shiller's Campaign. I understand her connection, but come on. What about supporting one of the people that actually is in the Gay Community? Always an eye opener to follow the money.

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  3. Also not to quibble, but Cappleman RAISED $41,500 in the past 6 months. The $57,566 is what he has on hand includes a balance left over from previous campaigning. That recent fundraising includes a $20,000 donation by himself to his own campaign.

    So we seem to have at least a fundraising dead heat between two challengers.

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  4. Joe, how did you find that report? There are 18 Phelans listed in the website's candidate search box, and none of them are Molly or Mary Anne.

    Added her totals, including the amended report at 12-something.

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  5. It's interesting to see that Cappelman pulls in a lot of 46th Ward RESIDENTS, while Shiller has a lot of downtown friends and a few 46th ward business "hold-outs."

    The majority of Uptown clearly does not want her in office anymore. Now if we can only get the everyone to vote...

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  6. The new phone books are here!

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  7. Impressive work from the challengers. Viva la resistance!

    In news from the status quo...

    Apparently Daley was in Uptown today to open the new Target. Here are his remarks regarding police, TIFs and silence. I used to get angry about this kind of inanity but its now bordering on the absurd. I find myself only able to gawk. Truly, in this next election....if you are not ready for a change you are simply not paying attention.

    [From the Chicago Tribune]

    "The city needs to hire 100 more police officers, Mayor Richard Daley said today, but should not fund their salaries from a tax program reserved for promoting economic development."

    Call it what you will but it is tax dollars. First and foremost, tax dollars should be spent for the direct public welfare of the community. You can get fancy when you've got extra. We don't have extra.

    "'You have to hire a hundred new police officers,' Daley said at a news conference to open a new Target store in the Uptown neighborhood."

    Actually, the difference between the budgeted amount of officers and the actual amount is hovering around 2,300.

    "But hiring more officers will only partially address the problem of crime in Chicago, Daley said. 'The issue dealing with violence is not just dealing with police officers, it's silence. You cannot have silence in the community when anything takes place,' he said."

    I nearly fell off my chair when I read that last comment. Any chance Moosh was out there with the camera to catch Helen's reaction? :)

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  8. At first blush of Helen's haul (as much as it is), I do find it interesting that there were no contributions from Walsh Construction or Truman College this go 'round.

    Guess they got everything they needed.

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  9. i'll remember that northhalsted donation to helen next time i'm going to the northhalsted market days and someone there tries to shake me down for a $7 "donation." it's one thing when they say the money is going for streetscaping and to bring talent to the faire but it shouldn't go toward political contributions.

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  10. Well a cursory look at the numbers tells me both Cappleman and Phelan are doing well money wise.

    Cappleman's donations seem to largely be from himself and people in the ward. That bodes well for him in terms of grassroots support. I'm looking at about 40 donations from 46th Ward people.

    Phelan's are mostly from out of ward people and secondarily people named "Phelan" who are also not of the ward. I'm guessing most of her out of ward donations are from friends or business associates. It looks like she has about 8 donations from people in the ward. Some of the donations are from blocks close to ward boundaries and I'm too lazy to look.

    Carroll better start studying for the Police Sergeant Exam. Sorry, Mooshie.

    Shiller's donations are anemic.

    I'll be interested in seeing who gave money to Nowatny.

    My take:

    Shiller ain't running.

    Carroll needs to step up his game.

    Cappleman and Phelan are raising a similar amount, but Cappleman is raising more from Ward residents.

    Farinas and Jesse Wilson are missing in action.

    Nowotny?

    Tune in later for more incisive analysis brought to you by Villa May Pizza and Guinness.

    I used the pizza to wash down my Guinness

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  11. I'm guessing when Daley says 'silence' he is referring to the unwritten neighborhood 'dont be a snitch' type of silence. I doubt he is referring to the thunderous silence coming from the 46th ward office anytime we have shootings or gang fights around here. imho.

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  12. Sassy,

    I could be wrong but I'm not sure the "silence" thing was directed at Shiller. Again I could be wrong, but I think he may have been referencing the "no stitch" BS that seems to go on with the youth today.

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  13. Shiller lists over $10,000 in expenditures paid to her good buddy George Atkins at First Decade Consulting. I'm sure he'd love to see her run again so that gravy train can keep running.

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  14. Yes. I agree it was in reference to the no-snitch thing. That is his favorite talking point on the subject: place blame on the community and never on anything he can be held responsible for. If you watch closely, he started repeating that one sometime after Weis made a comment to that effect when Derrion Albert was murdered.

    I just found it ironic that he would actually say that---in this ward---and not even realize how much we all feel that their silence is a large part of the problem.

    Anyway... that's about all I have to say. Now that the grand opening is profiled in the next thread, this conversation is more appropriate there.

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  15. Well Don Nowotny has still not filed yet.

    In searching for it I did find something interesting.

    Here is his history of campaign donations.


    He had donated to Blago, Greg Harris, the 46th Ward democrats and the Cook County Democrats.

    $1500 to Blago! Well they both have interesting hair!

    Nowotny, Donald
    5000 N. Marine Drive #14B
    Chicago, IL 60640
    Occupation: Streets & Sanitation
    Employer: City of Chicago $1,500.00
    2/9/2002 Individual Contribution
    Friends of Blagojevich
    Nowotny, Donald
    4300 N Marine Dr.
    Apt 1503
    Chicago, IL 60613 $200.00
    9/23/2008 Individual Contribution
    Cook County Democratic Party
    Nowotny, Donald
    4300 N Marine Dr.
    Apt 1503
    Chicago, IL 60613 $200.00
    9/26/2008 Individual Contribution
    Cook County Democratic Party
    Nowotny, Donald
    4300 N. Marine Drive #1503

    Chicago, IL 60613
    Occupation: Ward Superintendent
    Employer: City of Chicago $1,000.00
    10/21/2005 Individual Contribution
    46th Ward Democrats
    Nowotny, Don
    4300 N Marine Drive

    Chicago, IL 606131550
    Occupation: Ward Superintendent
    Employer: 46th Ward $150.00
    7/29/2008 Individual Contribution
    Citizens for Gregory Harris

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  16. Anyone know what this expense is on Shiller's list?

    -$200 to Aquilla Ali for "community outreach - funeral expenses"

    I'm disappointed to see El Mariachi giving money to her campaign. I was a fan of their restaurant

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  17. F&L, one of Aquila Ali's twin sons passed away a few months ago when he [allegedly] swallowed the drugs he was [allegedly] selling in Rogers Park rather than be arrested with them. Ms. Ali has been a friend and consultant for Helen for many years.

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  18. Shiller didn't really reel in the big bucks compared to what she's helped to hand out.

    Baskin, CCDC, S. B. Friedman & Company, and Tattoo Factory are all TIF recipients.

    Also, what's with the returned donation to Jeremiah Joyce? Did someone jump the gun showing Da Mare's hand for the second half of 2010? Or, is Da Mare sitting this one out?

    Joyce is a big time fixer on the Southside.

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  19. Paying to help dispose of Aquila Alli's thug drug dealing cop beating son's body to me is an acceptable use of our terrible Alderman's campaign funds. I would rather see the two legitimate aldermanic candidates in the 46 th ward use their funds to promote what they feel and envision for the 46 th ward.

    I do not think that either James Cappleman or Molly Phelan will be paying for gangbangers funerals out of their campaign funds anytime soon.

    If one of them does I will choose the other.

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  20. I'm disappointed to see El Mariachi giving money to her campaign. I was a fan of their restaurant

    I was a fan, too. Until last Novemeber when there was a fund raiser/congratulatory hooplah tossed in Helen's honor for her "ascention" to the chair of the city's human rights commission.

    Yeah. I know. The jokes writes itself.

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  21. Having a lot of money in the campaign is great, but what speaks more is how much of that was contributions from ward residents. That signals a person who can connect with the ward constituents, especially during these rough economic times.

    I'm curious to see how Don does with that. I know how the others fared.

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  22. Well I'm sick of waiting for Donny's report to pop up at the state site.

    Thpppt to him.

    These two songs go out to James Cappleman and Molly Phelan who both have an impressive showing money wise.

    Cappleman wins the early money war based on the number of donations from local residents,but Molly has a cooler campaign song.

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  23. Yo thanks for that additional piece of info, I didn't know that. My other problem with them was when they kept making my vegetarian girlfriend's burrito with meat....took three times in the kitchen to get it right.

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  24. Nowotny didn't do as well as either the Capplemaniac or Good Golly Miss Molly.

    He did take out $84,000 in loans for his campaign. Most of which came from himself.

    He made a respectable showing, but still is far behind in fundraising.

    One couple gave him $10,000.

    They must dig the ponytail. I mean really dig.

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  25. John Lankford a campaign consultant and Nowotny's biggest campaign expenditure so far ($8500 since April 1st). I think this is the same guy who was political director for Justin Oberman's state treasurer campaign. Oberman was the candidate who, memorably, trumpeted his work at the TSA as a qualification for office.

    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-lankford/14/918/316

    Also interesting is that Dan Nowotny has also spent almost $4800 on 'Progressive Solutions Consulting' since his campaign filed on April 1st. Which is good because that company only incorporated on April 12th. Owners are listed with Jesse White as a Kimberley A Luckey and a Julie A Kerouac.

    Willing to bet the first one is a current (recent?) policy director for Gov Pat Quinn's office. They both were on the payroll of Oberman for Illinois as well.

    I'm sure they're nice and probably competent people but Olberman did get waxed by about 130,000 votes in his primary.

    So Ward Superintendent Nowotny has loaned himself a ton of money, and hired consultants, just not ones who appear to have led a recent winning campaign. At least we can all look forward to mailboxes chock full of campaign mailers this holiday season.

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  26. Well it looks like I mocked Gerald Farinas into dropping out.

    Gerry babee, an Alan Keynes loving, Hawaiian raised gay man was just not gonna win this ward. You did realize Alan has a wee bit of a problem with homosexuality, right? I mean he reacts to gays like Mel Gibson reacts to the mother of his most recent kid.

    I mean 46th Ward politics is bizarre, but not that bizarre.

    I would like to encourage Gerry to support Don Nowatny for Alderman. Don needs someone with that type of mojo to put his campaign even further into debt.

    Right now minus loans Cappleman and Molly both have high 30 thousands in funds available.

    Nowatny has about 12 grand and Carroll is in single digits "thousands" wise.

    Unless Nowatny and Carroll step up their game quickly it's gonna be a two person race.

    I was forecasting a Cappleman, Nowatny, Phelan, and then Carroll race.

    Right now I'm thinking Jimbo Versus Molly Go Lightly.

    Of course others may join the fun. I'm still holding out hope that Shiller will run.

    Of course her disclosure shows her giving money back to Jeremiah "I'm Daley's brain" Joyce.

    I wonder what was behind that?

    Did Jeremiah was a Bullfrog deliver a dead fish in a newspaper to her? A gift from "da mare"?

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  27. In case you were wondering who floats Don's campaign...

    35000 from down to earth, nonstakeholders, in the overpaid government worker scheme.

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  28. "The field is too crowded and our good message is being drowned out by well-funded veterans of Chicago ward politics with massive appetites for the title of “Ward Boss” and deeply entrenched divisions among neighbors." - Farinas

    Is it just me or is this message rubbing anyone else the wrong way? Why put a slang label on the position you wanted? Why point out a "deeply entrenched division" among neighbors? Just kinda feels like he's trashing the role/race and blaming the ward for his inability to win.

    Gerald - a little suggestion for the future - rather than try to shift blame, point out the problems and divisions among the populous, maybe you can take responsibility, fight to fix them and unite a community? Obviously you aren't ready for the role of alderman.

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  29. Gerald is deeply delusional and just loves being cast as the long-suffering underdog.

    I floved his characterization on one of his blogs of Helen and James living in a world of limousines and briefcases, while, Gerald, poor lil underdog, has to work for a living and take public transportation.

    He is so convinced that he's the sole Working Class Hero that he can't see that there are no patricians in the race. Think what you will of the candidates, and I do, but none of them lives in a world of rarified air.

    My opinion of Gerald is that he loves to hear himself talk and that is his sole qualification to be a politician.

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  30. This Nowotny report seems like an indicator that Shiller is done.

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