Thousands pouring into COD trustee race

Teachers union groups have already poured in more than $43,000 into the College of DuPage trustee race.

Meanwhile, the first donation to a recently reincarnated political action committee that also funds COD trustee campaigns came from the college's contracted accounting firm.

No one knows which of the 13 candidates vying for the four open seats will emerge victorious after the April 7 election, but it's clear thousands of dollars are going to be spent on the fight for these nonpaying jobs.

The union groups are channeling the money into the college faculty association's Friends for Education committee, which has endorsed challengers Kim Savage, Tom Wendorf and Nancy Svoboda for the three six-year seats as well as Sandy Kim in the race for a lone two-year term.

Those candidates say they're not going to be puppets of the faculty if elected.

"I think that's how we're going to be portrayed," Wendorf said. "But it's certainly not true. The faculty are an important stakeholder in the school."

But candidates not endorsed by the faculty group say it's going to be hard to ignore people who donated so much money.

"I think every politician accepts money, and if you're just getting $1,000 from someone that's not a big deal," said challenger Allison O'Donnell. "But $50,000, yeah, you're going to be swayed."

The faculty committee has already given $1,000 to the campaigns of Savage, Wendorf and Kim. They will likely spend the lion's share of the remaining funds on a countywide mailing on behalf of their slate, but Friends for Education Executive Director Tom Tipton wouldn't hedge his plans.

"There's lots of ways to spend money on a campaign," he said.

Current board chairman and candidate for one of the six-year spots, Mike McKinnon, said that electing the faculty's slate would be financially dangerous.

"It's like having the fox watching the henhouse," he said. "The last contract the faculty got from this board was a 2 percent increase, and they didn't like it, and they don't like what's been happening recently with the college with the change of presidencies and board policies and making the faculty more accountable."

Tipton said it's not just the faculty that is concerned about the state of the college.

"It's not just the faculty that's disenfranchised," he said. "Students are disenfranchised and the community at large is disenfranchised. We want a return to a spirit of collaboration."

Incumbent board member and two-year candidate Mark Nowak contends the faculty group wants to stack the board with friendly faces ahead of teacher contract negotiations that are coming up in the next year.

"The public will be best served by having me on the board representing them, not a small group hand-picked by the teachers," he said.

Tipton argues that his group's platform is available for anyone to view on the friendsforeducation502.org Web site and it does not include a call for a better contract. It seeks transparency, collaboration and ethics reforms.

"There are much larger issues at stake than a better contract," he said. "Besides, we are who we say we are."

That's a dig at the Citizens for C.O.D. political action committee that recently re-formed. It used to be led by McKinnon and most recently helped finance board member Dave Carlin's campaign. McKinnon is no longer the group's chairman, according to the state election board's Web site. But that's about the only information available about the organization. It's only donor, so far, is Crowe Horwath LLP - the college's accounting firm.

Savage said all of her endorsements and donors are available for the world to see and she doesn't mind spending money on this race since she blames her loss to Carlin two years ago on being outspent. She makes no apologies for where she receives some of her campaign funds.

"The faculty association is not looking for candidates to do their bidding; they want trustees that will respect them and students," she said.

Challenger Jeff Handel said a committee like Citizens for C.O.D. is more "dangerous" to the process because nobody knows anything about who they are and what they stand for.

"If you don't spell their name exactly right on the state's campaign disclosure site you won't be able to find them," he said. "I would have to know what the organization is about before I took their money and nobody knows that at this point."

Challengers Matthew Nelson and Michael Ledonne said they wouldn't accept campaign funds from Citizens for C.O.D. because of the money from the vendor.

"That just looks wrong," Ledonne said. "I wouldn't do that in the professional world, so I don't see why I'd need to do it in the political world."

Nowak said he wouldn't accept funding from that committee either, and McKinnon said he'd "have to think about that" because of the ties to the vendor. Attempts to reach current Citizens for C.O.D. Chairman William Timmins for comment about the committee were unsuccessful.

Three other six-year term candidates - Sharon Giorno, Lisa Wehr and Ivan Fernandez - have not responded to repeated requests for information about their campaigns.

The candidates who did talk about their campaigns believe most voters won't know what the candidates' stances on issues are. That's why ballot position, name recognition and publicity are so important.

And if there's a doubt whether spending big money on this race makes that big of a difference, there's no need to look any further than current board member Kathy Wessel, who spent nearly $45,000 to win in 2005. Most of it came from teacher union contributions.

"I got more votes than any other candidate for this seat has ever gotten," she said.