Miller: Campaign donation caps making little difference

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Updated: February 25, 2012 8:06AM

Back when the reformers demanded that state campaign contributions be capped, they said it would limit the dollars flowing into Illinois political funds.

But contributions have only barely decreased from four years ago, according to a search of the Illinois Board of Elections’ database. That may have as much to do with the economy these days compared with what it was in 2007, when Illinois’ unemployment rate was half what it is now.

The search shows that about $55.6 million was contributed to campaigns during the last six months of 2011, while the amount was about $57.3 million during the same period in 2007.

House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) raised $2.6 million for the three campaign funds he controls during the past three months. Madigan now has a total of $4 million in cash, which puts him far ahead of anybody else. Four years ago (at the same point in our national and state election cycles), Madigan had $1.3 million in cash. There were no contribution caps four years ago.

And a whole bunch of money is avoiding those caps by being spread around to newly formed political action committees and to some local committees that have never before seen much, if any, activity.

For a somewhat extreme example of what appears to be happening in our capped environment, let’s take a look at contributions made during the latest quarter by Ken and Anne Griffin, a wealthy Chicago couple who gave heavily to House Republicans in 2010.

Before I go further, though, I want to make it very clear that nothing the Griffins did was illegal or even unethical. It all appears to be well within the law. I only point this out to show how silly it is to think that we can cap all the money coming into the system. Money always finds a way around caps.

Individuals now are capped at $5,000 when donating directly to a candidate, but they can give up to $10,000 to PACs and political parties and PACs can contribute $50,000 to candidates. You probably can see where this is going.

The Griffins made $305,000 in contributions between Dec. 29 and Jan. 6, with the vast majority confined to the last three days of 2011. A bunch of that cash went to small, downstate Republican Party county committees.

For instance, the Griffins each contributed the maximum $10,000 to the Stark County Republican Central Committee on Dec. 29. The tiny county party reported raising just $5,700 in cash over the past three years until the Griffins came along.

Republican parties in Christian, Jefferson, Douglas, Logan and Richland counties all were showered with similar Griffin beneficence. Such political party committees can contribute unlimited amounts to candidates in a primary election.

But it wasn’t just a bunch of out-of-the-way county parties that benefited from the Griffins. A group called Empowering Children PAC was formed Dec. 6 and got $20,000 from the couple this month. The two officers of the committee are Andy McKenna (former state GOP chairman and gubernatorial candidate) and John Tillman (who runs the Illinois Policy Institute).

Mary Beth Weiss, of Hinsdale, also contributed $10,000 to Empowering Children PAC and gave another $10,000 to Illinois Liberty PAC, which previously was chaired by Tillman but now is chaired by former GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft. The Griffins gave Illinois Liberty PAC their standard $10,000 each on Jan. 3.

The House Republican Leadership Committee was started Nov. 1 and raised $20,000 from, you guessed it, the Griffins. The fund is controlled by House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego). Another Cross-controlled group, Citizens to Change Illinois, took in $27,000 in the last quarter, with $20,000 coming from the Griffins.

Got all that? And there’s lots more, but my space is limited.

This stuff was a whole lot easier to track before Illinois was reformed. Nowadays, you need a rapidly updatable scorecard to keep track of all the moves.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.