The tale of the till
The Quad City Time's Ed Tibbetts provides the low-down on campaign cash for the Jacobs/Rumler and Boland/Lack races, and unsurprisingly, the incumbants have their usual nearly insurmountable edge when it comes to raking in the bucks from various groups.
Tibbetts' piece provides some interesting disection of recent reports filed with the Illinois Board of Elections.
- As of the end of 2007, Jacobs had spent ten dollars for every one dollar expended by Rumler, $64,731 to Rumler's $6,458.
- Boland continues to enjoy the support of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Tibbett's article reports Boland having received just over $6000 from him so far, though this figure omits a $1,874.30 contribution made the day the article was published which brings the total contributed from the Speaker to $8,073.49.
- Boland received $500 from East Moline mayor John Thodos.
- Jerry Lack has received $5100 from Pat Verschoore's election committee and over $1000 from Denny Jacobs and his lobbying outfit.
- Mike Jacobs received $20,000 from the Illinois Senate Democratic Fund, $7,500.00 from AFSCME Illinois Council 31 which represents government workers, $6000 from the Associated Beer Distribiuters of IL PAC, $5000 from the Illinois State Medical Society PAC, $2,500 from Citizens For John Cullerton, $2,500.00 from Illinois Hospital Association PAC, $2,000.00 from Manufacturers PAC, and many more thousands from a slew of insurance industry PACs.
Finacial reports can be found at the Illinois Board of Elections site.
Jerry Lack
Mike Boland
Paul Rumler
Mike Jacobs
posted by The Inside Dope @ 1/26/2008
15 comments
15 Comments:
Jacobs got UAW money. Intersting... Does Mr. Rumler know that?
Got a mailer from Mr. Lack this morning. He sure has a lot of local support - even the states attorney.
I have noticed that Huckabe may have to get our of the presidential race because he is running out of money. I find it ironic that Jerry Lack has more money than Paul Rumler. It Is not a badge of courage to have nobody want to support you.
Anon 9:56
Care to explain the "irony" you see in Lack having more money than Rumler? Just curious.
Jerry Lack has only been at this for a few months. Rumler has been at this for three years.
Jerry Lack has only half of the district that Rumler has.
Money is the root of all politics.
Huckabe will have to drop out because of lack of money.
From what I can tell in the financial stuff that was available at qconline Lack did not even receive any money from Lane Evans, though he does appear on a mailer I received. Looks to me like Lack has political support while young Rumler has family support. Financially speaking.
I also think the fact Pat Verschoore is so heavily endorsing Jerry Lack financially says volumes. We expect Denny Jacobs to support anyone running against Boland. Mr. Verschoore on the other hand has a first hand knowledge of how Mr. Boland operates "on the job".
As someone else stated here, money from the UAW went to BOTH senate candidates. I found that to be very intersting indeed.
But the most surprising aspect is the fact that Boland received money from Midamerican Energy.
What happened to CUB?
I have to add that the only thing I know about Rumler is from the numerous articles that the Argus and Dispatch seem to be running on him.
He seems very negative and I'm sure that hasn't helped him raise more money from people other than rich individuals from Rock Island and Bettendorf. I know one of them is our poor deceased Bob DeJaegher's son-in-law and the other from a couple of republican business men.
I am sticking with Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Boland, though I hope by voting for Boland I am not making a mistake.
The most intersting race to me at this time is the Rock Island Coroner's race. It's like a small B movie or better yet, a mini series. I am torn between 2 of the candidates and am not sure how I will make my decision when the date arrives.
Lack could have come into this yesterday... the fact remains that Lack is the establishment candidate and gets all the loot that comes with automatically. Rumler has no party support at all, so it's no surprise whatsoever that he trails in funds.
Vershoore has put as much money into Lack's campaign as the Speaker has put into Boland's coffers, but nobody's following the money to see where it's coming from. Here's what might be called the "inside dope" on that story . . .
Did anyone notice how a big utility company gave $2500 to Verschoore and then 4 days later Verschoore passes that exact contribution along to Jerry Lack?
You still see Lack and Jacobites attacking Boland for accepting a couple hundred dollars from utilities like Ameren, while they turn around and accept ten times that amount themselves.
These aren't made up poll numbers, everything I've presented here can be found at www.elections.state.il.us
Follow the money TID . . .
Isn't it interesting to see good "union man" Jerry Lack purchasing his campaign supplies at famous ANTI-UNION giant WAL-Mart???
Here it is straight from his report -
Sam's Club 3887 Elmore Drive
Davenport, IA 52807 $112.09
9/8/2007 Expenditure
Friends of Jerry Lack promotional items
Friends of Jerry Lack
Sam's Club 3887 Elmore Drive
Davenport, IA 52807 $120.98
9/16/2007 Expenditure
Friends of Jerry Lack fund raising - food
Friends of Jerry Lack
Jerry also purchased his signs in Iowa, and word on the street is they were really made by Scott County Republican Steve Grubbs.
Can anyone really honestly tell the public that Jerry couldn't find appropiate vendors that are in Illinois and actually contribute to our state's economy?
I didn't think so . . .
I've provided the links to campaign finance reports for all the candidates. I'm hoping that readers will investigate and draw their own conclusions.
Obviously you spotted something which needed to be pointed out. Good work.
The only daunting thing for an average person trying to decipher the reports is that many of the PACS are listed only be acronyms. I've found that if you google these acronyms you can usually find out who and what they represent.
There's just tons of insurance, health care, and pharmaceuticals involved, which shows voters just how big a chance we have of any of the receipients of this big money actually representing OUR interests rather than the corporations who want to prevent any sort of reform.
Jacobs has been lauded for openly acknowledging his pursuit of cash nearly anywhere rustle it up, which begs the question of just what he's willing to agree to or promise in exchange.
I only suggest that people become aware of where the enormous amounts of campaign money comes from, and ask themselves just why these nearly entirely corporate donors feel that their money will be well spent.
When you wonder why we haven't gotten any sensible health care system in this country, reading even local politicians financials tells you all you need to know.
If these huge corporate powers are donating this much cash to a few local state legislators that couldn't be any more insignificant in national terms, imagine the hundreds of millions they spend nationwide!
And they spend even more than that in D.C. with an army that numbers dozens of lobbyists for every single person in congress.
Think maybe something ought to change?
Edwards represents this change. Obama at least says he does.
Anyone see the irony of these legislators supporting Obama and his effort to drastically curtain lobbying while grinning and grabbing cash from these same sources at the same time?
It's important to remember that Madigan and a number of other prominent IL Dem politburo members / leaders have no real love for Barack, Obama’s shadow may very well stand in the way of their own personal ambitions.
However they are not total dolts and know quite well that Obama will win Illinois by a “landslide” - certainly more than the 10 point “landslide” we hear about from the Jacobites concerning their last primary defeat of Rumler - how does one actually define landslide anyway?
Their greatest hope is that Obama becomes the Dems Vice Presidential candidate. Most VP’s end up playing the role of “Mr Irrelevant”, and nothing would please Madigan more than seeing Obama in D.C. instead of Illinois.
The feud between Madigan and Blagojevich is really about the future of Lisa Madigan, the failure to pass a Capitol budget is a direct result of Madigan’s desire to “starve the beast” and prevent Rod from spending the next 3 years at ribbon cuttings. Never mind that the political posturing will cost the state hundreds of millions of tax dollars from DC in transportation
If Barack doesn’t end up on the National ticket, it could interfere with the Speaker’s plans. If Obama heads the ticket and loses, there’s no gain for Madigan. If Obama heads the ticket and wins, there still isn’t any gain for Madigan - it does get Barack out of Illinois, but leaves him in a position to have even greater influence in the state - which would not be to Madigan’s liking either.
In returning to the local races, here’s an interesting point, that the Jacobites had better guard against the public “catching on” to. Their “straw man” argument against Boland is that he doesn’t get along well with the machine politicians in Rock Island County. If Rumler was to win, there’s no doubt he could work with Boland, and the machine would be on the outside looking in . . .
That’s what’s really at stake . . . will the machine rule Rock Island County . . . or not . . .
You failed to mention Paul Rumler's use of Sam's Club for his fundraiser. You must have forgot you read that in there. I thought he was the real union guy.
Jacobs "handily" defeated Boland in 1986 by 10 points and at the time that too was considered a landslide.
I saw where the laborers local 309 has only given Boland $1,000 and Rumler $10,000. They don't seem to concerned with what happens to Boland. It really t's me off. I have supported Boland for years and for my union to not help Mike out when he needs it most is pathetic. Boland has been a great vote for the 309 and to not support him properly when the paper dised him like they did. I am hopping mad.
Paul Rumler is having calls made by the UAW or somebody like that today. I hung up on them as I am not intersted in voting for him. He could call me all day long and I wouldn't vote for him. He says whatever people want to hear. He told me one thing and a friend of mine the complete opposite. Pretty crafty for a kid.
Carl, you hung up on a robo-call? That's telling 'em.
I've gotten four calls from PACS telling me they support Jacobs, one call from an outfit supporting Boland, and exactly zero from the Rumler campaign.
Keep supporting Jacobs, our own stealth Republican, and voting against your own interests simply out of habit.
In this year dominated by the need for CHANGE, keep sticking with the same tired old establishment, machine.
God bless the party hack. Without you allowing yourself to be used for decades on end, none of these handful of guys would be able to keep total control of political office in the area and we might actually be able to bring some new ideas and new life to the scene.
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