Chicago, that error-prone town

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

Look for new Chicago data on ICPR's website next week. We're going ahead with the release even though there are some notable errors and omissions in some candidate reports, some of which may require the filing of amended reports with the State Board. Among the oddities we've found:

The First C D Victory PAC reports transfers totaling $72,900 to "Citizens to Re-Elect Shirley Coleman." This is not now nor was there ever a committee by that name. The alleged committee shares an address with the 16th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, though, and that's also the only committee that says they support(-ed) Ald. Coleman. That committee, however, still hasn't filed disclosure reports for the first half of the year, so it's not yet clear that they did in fact receive the transfers from the First C D Victory PAC.

Citizens to Elect Willie B Cochran still shows that they cannot identify the occupation and employer of Sheila Cochran, who gave the committee $500 last year. Not only does Sheila Cochran share a last name and address with the candidate, she's also listed as the Treasurer of the committee. Surely someone can find out her occupation and employer.

Friends of Ald. Madeline Haithcock has dissolved, and they've left a mess behind them. They report $198K in non-itemized individual donations (ie, of less than $150), suggesting over 1,320 small donors. They also report $380K in non-itemized expenditures, meaning a minimum of 2,300 small vendors. While it's possible they had over 3,600 small donors and vendors, you'd think a candidate with that many total supporters would poll more than 3,224 votes in the run-off. They also show donations over $500 from 20 people, only three of whom are identified with an occupation and employer. Among those whose occupation and employer the PAC , the did not identify: David Herro, the Trib-profiled equity fund leader who fumed about Big Box; Richard Wendy, a land-use lawyer now with Freeborn & Peters who used to work for the city's Planning and Development Department; and Tim Rand, who co-owns concessions at Midway Airport (Tim's brother and business partner Everett is identified as being involved in "business" for "self."). The committee also reports a donation from "Ibrahim M. Shihodeh", probably meaning Ibrahim M. Shihadeh, a developer with Winthrop Properties. The committee dissolved in July, so we're not optimistic that the official record will be corrected, but we'll do what we can in the Sunshine Database.

New data will be posted soon.