Chicago Alderman Ed Burke (D-14th) was honored earlier this year by the Chicago City Club | Chicago City Club
Chicago Alderman Ed Burke (D-14th) was honored earlier this year by the Chicago City Club | Chicago City Club
Former Exelon Chairman and CEO John Rowe made $23.5 million for working three months in 2012.
Bobby Burleson owns Kincade's, one of Lincoln Park's most popular taverns.
Both are among the biggest individual financial backers of Ald. Edward Burke (D-14th), according to analysis of 20 years of Illinois State Board of Election records by Chicago City Wire.
Burke was indicted last week on extortion charges.
Rowe has given Burke $21,600; Burleson has given him $20,000.
Burke's 60 top individual donors, including lobbyists, liquor store owners, billionaires and workers compensation lawyers, have given the powerful south side alderman a collective $965,283 since 1999, the analysis shows. What it doesn't explain for many of them is precisely why.
Philip B. Rooney was CEO of Waste Management in the mid-1990's, taking over from fellow top Burke-backer Dean Buntrock. Both Rooney, 74, and Buntrock, 87, still live in Hinsdale. They have combined to give the 14th Ward alderman $50,000.
Real estate lawyer Ronald Galowich left the Pritzker Organization in 1991, where he managed the family's non-hotel holdings, then started a health care software company, Initiate Systems of Downers Grove. He sold it to IBM back in 2010. Galowich now lives in a Gold Coast mansion; he's given Burke $30,000.
Howard C. Pizer of Winnetka is a longtime partner and executive of Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox and United Center owner Jerry Reinsdorf. He's given Burke $25,500.
Other notable names on Burke's Top 60 list: Barrington Hills war hero turned billionaire Dick Duchossois, Private Bank Chairman Norman Bobins, real estate and casino magnate Neil Bluhm, Charles W. Bidwill, Jr of Northfield and the late Waste Management executive Peter Huizenga, formerly of Oak Brook.
Clout seekers
Other top Burke donors have, perhaps, more predictable motives.
Odell Hicks, Jr. is an accountant who lives in Jackson Highlands and runs Loop-based Odell Hicks & Company, a longtime city contractor. The firm was founded by Hicks' father, who once worked as accountant to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. He's given Burke $29,250, third-most of every donor.
Timothy J. Rand ($16,000) runs one of the largest concessions at Midway Airport.
Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pragmamiorre of Barrington has given Burke $10,000. Company executive vice president William A. Von Hoene has given him $27,200.
Von Hoene's wife, Nikki Zollar, is president and CEO of Triad, which provides janitorial services to the City of Chicago. Last year, Chicago Sun-Times reported the firm had received $106 million in city contracts since 2012.
Michael Pedicone is a Loop lawyer who formerly worked for Burke's Finance Committee and simultaneously ran a "security" firm connected to Burke and former Bridgeport Ald. Patrick Huels. Pedicone was paid $490,000 at Burke's direction in the 1990's, representing the city in workers compensation claims filed by city employees.
Attorney Roger J. Kiley was chief of staff to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and later a Cook County judge. He's now working for Mayer Brown, which records show has collected $5.8 million in City of Chicago payments since 2010, and serving as Bill Daley's campaign treasurer in his race for mayor.
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See Ald. Edward Burke's top 60 campaign donors since 1999
Ald. Ed Burke lives on Chicago's near Southwest Side. Yet his top donors live elsewhere in the city and even in the suburbs.
| Name | Hometown | Total Donated |
| Philip B. Rooney | Hinsdale | $33,500 |
| Ronald H. Galowich | Chicago | $30,000 |
| Odell Hicks | Chicago | $29,250 |
| Miles Berger | Chicago | $28,000 |
| William A. Von Hoene | Chicago | $27,200 |
| Michael A. Pedicone | Chicago | $27,000 |
| Roger J. Kiley | Chicago | $27,000 |
| Howard C. Pizer | Winnetka | $25,500 |
| Thomas J. Collins | La Grange | $24,300 |
| John B. Simon | Chicago | $23,300 |
| John P. Karfias | Morton Grove | $23,250 |
| Richard L. Duchossois | Barrington Hills | $23,100 |
| David M. Schulte | Chicago | $22,250 |
| Terry O'Brien | Glenview | $22,000 |
| John W. Rowe | Chicago | $21,600 |
| Bobby Burleson | Chicago | $20,000 |
| Peter M. Kelliher | Chicago | $18,300 |
| Norman R. Bobins | Chicago | $17,800 |
| Alexander Lerner | Glencoe | $17,500 |
| Ralph E. Meczyk | Northbrook | $17,500 |
| James J. McDonough | Chicago | $16,750 |
| Dean L. Buntrock | Hinsdale | $16,500 |
| Jeffrey J. Crosby | Palos Park | $16,500 |
| Irwin G. Jann | Chicago | $16,000 |
| Timothy J. Rand | Chicago | $16,000 |
| Robert J. Bobb | Chicago | $15,750 |
| Daniel J. Walsh | Chicago | $15,000 |
| Edward T. Joyce | Chicago | $15,000 |
| Thomas A. Demetrio | Lake Forest | $15,000 |
| Bernard Leviton | Chicago | $14,750 |
| Elizabeth A. Rochford | Chicago | $14,750 |
| Russ M. Strobel | Winnetka | $14,500 |
| Philip H. Corboy | Winnetka | $13,500 |
| Pamela B. Strobel | Winnetka | $13,250 |
| Peter B. Bensinger | Lake Forest | $13,250 |
| Herbert L. Stride | Lake Forest | $12,000 |
| Neil G. Bluhm | Chicago | $12,000 |
| Sam Banks | Chicago | $12,000 |
| Ricardo N. Fiore | Chicago | $11,750 |
| Frank L. Kuchuris | Chicago | $11,350 |
| Peter A. Sink | Oak Lawn | $11,333 |
| Peter H. Huizenga | Oak Brook | $11,000 |
| Charles W. Bidwill | Northfield | $10,500 |
| Dean M. Harrison | Chicago | $10,500 |
| Ernest Cochanis | Glencoe | $10,500 |
| Matthew M. Walsh | Burr Ridge | $10,500 |
| Michael N. Mayo | Chicago | $10,500 |
| Ralph B. Mendell | River Forest | $10,500 |
| Thomas M. Kennedy | Chicago | $10,250 |
| Michael A. Toolis | Chicago | $10,100 |
| Anne R. Pramaggiore | Barrington | $10,000 |
| George Mata | Chicago | $10,000 |
| Nancy Siedlecki | Burr Ridge | $10,000 |
| Patrick M. Salmon | Chicago | $10,000 |
| Edmund P. Burke | Downers Grove | $9,450 |
| Sean J. Conlon | Chicago | $9,250 |
| Laurel Blair | Chicago | $9,000 |
| Michael V. Casey | River Forest | $9,000 |
| Robert A. Wislow | Chicago | $9,500 |
| John E. Shaffer | River Forest | $9,450 |
Source: Illinois State Board of Elections
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