Via Instapundit: As Mayor Rahm Emanuel ramps up his campaign fundraising toward a possible third term, he continues to rely on donors who have received City Hall benefits, ranging from contracts and zoning approvals to appointments and personal endorsements from the mayor, the Chicago Tribune has found.
With the February 2019 mayoral election still a year and a half away, Emanuel has collected $3.1 million in high-dollar contributions. And more than $2.1 million of it — nearly 70 percent — has come from 83 donors who have benefited from actions at City Hall.
Among the contributors: law firms seeking approval for their clients' projects or lucrative bond business for themselves, developers needing City Hall permission to build here, an events promoter negotiating the financial details of a major music festival and restaurateurs wanting coveted space at Chicago's airports.
It's a fundraising pattern that emerged as Emanuel built the most prolific campaign fundraising operation in Chicago history. The mayor raised $24.4 million for a 2015 re-election bid that relied on expensive television ads in which he appealed to Chicagoans to give him "a second term, a second chance," as he would go on to call it in his victory speech.
In the midst of that campaign, the Tribune took an unprecedented look at the intersection of Emanuel's campaign fundraising and his public duties. The investigation found that nearly 60 percent of the mayor's roughly 100 most loyal contributors received City Hall benefits and showed that many of those top donors regularly met with Emanuel, a level of access provided to few in the city.
With the February 2019 mayoral election still a year and a half away, Emanuel has collected $3.1 million in high-dollar contributions. And more than $2.1 million of it — nearly 70 percent — has come from 83 donors who have benefited from actions at City Hall.
Among the contributors: law firms seeking approval for their clients' projects or lucrative bond business for themselves, developers needing City Hall permission to build here, an events promoter negotiating the financial details of a major music festival and restaurateurs wanting coveted space at Chicago's airports.
It's a fundraising pattern that emerged as Emanuel built the most prolific campaign fundraising operation in Chicago history. The mayor raised $24.4 million for a 2015 re-election bid that relied on expensive television ads in which he appealed to Chicagoans to give him "a second term, a second chance," as he would go on to call it in his victory speech.
In the midst of that campaign, the Tribune took an unprecedented look at the intersection of Emanuel's campaign fundraising and his public duties. The investigation found that nearly 60 percent of the mayor's roughly 100 most loyal contributors received City Hall benefits and showed that many of those top donors regularly met with Emanuel, a level of access provided to few in the city.
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