$3.3M Reported in Chicago Runoffs; $25M Total

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

On the eve of the Chicago City Council runoff election, a new analysis of campaign finance reports shows that total contributions to incumbents and challengers passed the $25 million mark in this election cycle.

The 24 candidates in the runoff for 12 seats on the City Council have collected $9 million of the $25.2 million total contributed to all of the candidates for the 50 seats between Jan. 1, 2005 and April 15, 2007, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) and the Sunshine Project. Runoff candidates have raised at least $3.3 million since the February, 2007, elections.

The $1.8 million contributed by Illinois affiliiates of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) made the SEIU the highest single source of the total $25.2 million received by all City Council candidates in the past two years. The First C.D. Victory Fund, a political action committee funded by allies of Mayor Richard M. Daley, is a distant second on the list of top contributors. The First C.D. Victory Fund, founded just three months ago, has contributed $315,000 in this election cycle.

We'll be posting this to our website by the end of the day; in the meantime, here's the list of top donors to Aldermanic candidates since January 1 of this year.

$1,784,000 SEIU (IL Council PAC and Local 880)
$315,000 First CD Victory Fund
$275,000 UFCW (Local 881 and the Active Ballot Club)
$234,000 Chicago Federation of Labor
$208,000 Jesse Jackson Jr. for Congress
$205,000 Chicago Association of Realtors
$176,000 AFSCME Council 31
$156,000 Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce PAC
$89,000 Richard M Daley Campaign Committee
$82,000 IL Merchants PAC Team