Cook County Tidbits and Pieces

Cross-posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:

Tom Dart and Margaret Ann Carey each report in-kinds in the form of an O’Brien’s ad. For those of you not familiar with these ads, O’Brien’s is a restaurant in Chicago given to taking out full-page newspaper ads that feature people-about-town enjoying their food. Often, these ads feature candidates, and candidates have been uneven in their reporting of the ads. The new Electioneering Communications provisions in the Election Code would seem to suggest that these ads, when run close to elections, have to be reported, and both of these candidates have done so, putting the value of the spots at $4,725.


Will the real Timothy Rand please stand up? The Chicago resident has been described in disclosure reports as an owner of the Casino Queen, a Midway wholesaler, a bottled water proprietor, a sales manager at CompUSA, a self-employed liquor distributor, and a restauranteur. And his political giving has likewise been all over the map – most recently, $15K to Stroger, $25K to Topinka, $5K to Dan Burke and $5K to Paul Froehlich.


UNITE HERE, the union of needleworkers, textile trades and hotel and restaurant employees, has been writing checks: $10K each to Chicago Alderman William J.P. Banks and State Senator James Deleo; $5K each to State Rep. John Fritchey and Cook County Sheriff candidate Tom Dart; and $1K to MWRD candidate Debra Shore.


Cook County Powerhouse Joseph Berrios is writing checks -- $25K to Blago, $7.5K to the Cook County Democratic Party, $3K to Edward Acevedo and $1K to Michelle Chavez. Berrios, with four active committees and over $1M salted away, can well afford the transfers.