A look at Elgin candidates’ campaign contributions
Four candidates in the race for seats on the Elgin City Council reported campaign contributions in late 2012 or 2013 as of Thursday, with two of them reporting loans to their own campaigns, according to state data.
State law requires local candidates to file disclosure reports with the Illinois State Board of Elections if they’ve raised more than $3,000, or if they’ve received donations of $1,000 or more from a single source. April 15 is the deadline to file for the quarter ending March 31.
In Elgin, incumbents Richard Dunne and Bob Gilliam, and newcomers Mitchell Esterino and Toby Shaw, reported getting contributions. Dunne and Shaw also reported loaning money to their own campaigns.
Dunne, Gilliam and Esterino are among 13 candidates running for four, 4-year seats. Also in the race are incumbent John Prigge, and challengers Tom Armstrong, Grace Richard, Jerri McCue, Andrew Cuming, Cody Holt, Terry Gavin, Stephen Knight, Rosemarie Kahn and Carol Rauschenberger.
Shaw is running for one, 2-year seat against Craig Dresang.
Dunne reported eight individual contributions totaling $2,350 in his quarterly report.
Dunne also reported a little more than $2,000 in non-itemized contributions in 2013, and $110 in the last quarter of 2012. Contributions of less than $150 don’t need to be itemized.
The individual contributors to Dunne’s campaign are the Associated Firefighters of Illinois PAC, the Elgin Association of Firefighters PAC, the Elgin Trades Council, the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board and the Plumbers & Pipefitters PAC Fund. Three businesses also made contributions: Porters Pub, Andres Medical Billing and Midwest Compost. All gave $500 or less.
In late 2012, Esterino reported $1,650 in contributions from eight individuals, mostly Elgin residents. He also reported $4,134 in non-itemized contributions.
Gilliam reported a $1,000 contribution from the Construction and General Laborers’ District Council of Chicago and Vicinity in January.
Shaw reported $120 in non-itemized contributions in late 2012. He also reported loaning his own campaign a total of $5,500 in 2013, plus $847 in December, when he also received $181 in in-kind contributions.
The February primary added to his expenses, Shaw pointed out. “I was wanting to win this time, so I know that I put a lot of grunt effort behind my door-to-door campaign, and I also wanted to do some mailings. Mailings are expensive,” he said.
Dunne loaned his own campaign about $4,000 in 2013. “I think it was probably more than what we anticipated, and maybe being not as professional as some candidates,” he said.
For example, Dunne said, he sent mailings via first-class mail instead of spending less money on bulk mail because the former is less likely to get thrown out.
Also, Dunne said his work schedule didn’t afford him the time to do some of the graphic work himself.