Sugar Grove president candidate gets a $5,000 contribution
Want to know who is supporting your candidates in next week’s consolidated election?
You can check their election committees’ quarterly financial reports, which began rolling in to the Illinois State Board of Elections Monday morning. The reports are due April 15.
It’s also the time in which reports of expenditures and donations of more than $500 and donations have to be filed within two days of receipt.
The quarterly reports list contributions, loans, transfers in, transfers out and expenditures made between Jan. 1 and March 31.
In Sugar Grove, the Friends of Kevin Geary reported receiving $5,000 from Jerry and Betty Rich on Feb. 4. The contribution form on which it was reported does not specify if the contribution was money or an in-kind donation, and whether it was a gift or a loan.
The Riches own the Rich Harvest Farms golf club in Sugar Grove. Rich made his fortune in developing a program that merged disparate markets’ information onto one terminal screen, for stockbrokers’ ease in making comparisons.
According to the state website, it would appear to be the first time the Riches have made reportable itemized contributions to a village candidate. The Riches have supported Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, former state Sen. Chris Lauzen, state Reps. Tom Cross and Kay Hatcher, and state Sen. Jim Oberweis.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 701, Political Action Committee has donated $500 to Geary’s opponent, President Sean Michels.
The Local 701 PAC also donated $250 to North Aurora village board candidate Michael Lowery.
Others
Ÿ The Friends of Scott Jesseman committee, supporting the candidate for Sugar Grove Township supervisor, filed a statement of organization and a contributions form March 29 and a quarterly report and another contribution April 1. It started the campaign with $2,100 and received $3,000 from Prairie Fence and Landscape Co. and $2,000 from JAG Properties of Aurora. The quarterly report listed no expenditures. The address for JAG Properties is the same as Jesseman’s campaign treasurer, Jean Goehlen, and the Illinois secretary of state’s office lists Jesseman as president of Prairie Fence and Landscape.
In October 2012, Jesseman, then a trustee, questioned the spending of then-Supervisor Dan Nagel and filed a complaint with Sugar Grove police. Nagel resigned. Police concluded their investigation last month, and no criminal charges have been filed. Harry Davis, Tom Rowe and Curt Karas are also running for the post.
Davis, formerly a trustee, was appointed supervisor after Nagel left; Rowe, formerly the clerk, was then appointed trustee.
Ÿ Art Sauceda, Clare Ollayos and Rise Jones have teamed up in the Elgin Community College trustee race. They are supported by the committee Three for ECC, of which Sauceda is the chairman. It filed its Statement of Organization March 29, and it is starting out with $1,200.