Chicago City Wire

CHICAGO – In a single day, March 17, mayoral candidate Paul Vallas received more than $1 million in contributions of $1,000 or more from 212 individuals and businesses.

On the same date his opponent in the April 4 runoff, Brandon Johnson, received $13,000 in contributions of $1,000 or more from nine individuals and businesses.

Johnson depends almost entirely on the teacher federation and the service employees union, but after the Feb. 28 primary they didn’t keep him even with Vallas.

From March 1 to 17, Vallas received more than $5 million in contributions of $1,000 or more from 622 individuals and businesses.  

Johnson received about $3.6 million from the teachers and the service employees, and $130,000 in contributions of $1,000 or more from 75 individuals and businesses.

The numbers don’t paint a complete picture because the campaigns won’t report contributions less than $1,000 until after the runoff.

Vallas has struck a balance between a small number of big contributions and a big number of small contributions.

He received:

- $500,000 from Craig Duchossois of Duchossois Capital Partners.

- $200,000 from James Perry and $100,000 each from John Canning, Timothy Sullivan, and Paul Finnegan, all of Madison Dearborn Partners.

- $250,000 from Donald Wilson of DRW Holdings and $100,000 from Kenneth Brody of DRW.

- $100,000 each from Matthew Simon and Gerald Beeson of Citadel.

- $100,000 each from John Calamos and John Koudounis of Calamos Investments.

- $200,000 from Rosalind Keiser.

- $100,000 each from Matthew Bayer of MJ Holdings, Andrew Bluhm of Delaware Street Capital, Brian Miller of Linden Capital, and Dean Buntrock of Waste Management.

These big contributions accounted for less than half of his total.

His other 606 contributions averaged about $4,500.

Many of them came from restaurants, hotels, shops, and businesses in construction, home improvement, real estate, and investments.

A random sample of small businesses found many hadn’t previously contributed to campaigns and many others contributed more than they ever had.

Vallas has received support in March not only from businesses but also from plaintiff lawyers who sue businesses.

Philip Corboy of Corboy and Demetrio contributed $3,000 to Vallas and partner Thomas Demetrio contributed $2,500.

Since Jan. 1, 2020, they and other employees of their firm have contributed $1,221,675 to Illinois campaigns.

Thomas Power of Power Rogers contributed $2,500.

He has contributed $23,550 to Illinois campaigns since Jan. 1, 2020, and other employees of the firm have contributed $337,929.

Mark McNabola, who had contributed $90,250 to Illinois campaigns since Jan. 1, 2020, gave Vallas $2,500.

Antonio Romanucci, who had contributed $353,550 to Illinois campaigns since Jan. 1, 2020, gave Vallas $2,000.

Romanucci defended Gov. Pritzker’s gun law in U.S. district court at East St. Louis earlier this month on behalf of Everytown for Gun Safety as friend of the court.

Johnson's take 

From March 1-17, Johnson received $1.2 million from Chicago Teachers Union, $568,500 from the American Federation of Teachers, and $500,000 from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

He received $1.1 million from the service employees union, which represents Chicago school employees other than teachers.

Chicago Teachers Union separately paid about $174,000 for workers, a canvass contractor, and social media.

Service employees paid about $76,000 for workers.