Capital Facts

Campaign spending has skyrocketed

Published by admin on Sun, 03/15/2026 - 3:39pm

Independent campaign expenditures have skyrocketed this year in state legislative races.
All of these numbers were current as of Friday, March 13 at 4:20 in the afternoon, when I finished writing this column. Independent expenditure committees are not allowed to coordinate their spending with candidates, ergo the “independent” label.
As with the federal level, they are also not limited in how much they can spend on any state or local races.
Total spending, including the race for the open state comptroller position, was at $5.5 million for the calendar year.

Campaigns are going beyond normal fibs

Published by admin on Sun, 03/08/2026 - 5:22pm

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you likely know that former U.S. President Bill Clinton seemed to say that he flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet with JB Pritzker and his spouse – after saying that it was likely that Epstein as well as his notorious co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell were passengers on every flight he took on that plane.

Mendoza: Opponent shouldn’t have taken money from the governor

Published by admin on Sat, 02/28/2026 - 12:43pm

Illinois comptroller candidate state Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago) reported receiving the maximum campaign contribution of $72,800 from Gov. JB Pritzker on Feb. 19. Since then, Pritzker has appeared in some Croke campaign ads.
The day before the Pritzker contribution was reported, I spoke with incumbent Comptroller Susana Mendoza about the governor’s support of Croke - who once worked in Pritzker’s administration and has been a legislative ally - and the near certainty at the time that Pritzker would be contributing to Croke’s campaign.

Teachers’ union says Illinois owes $6 billion more for education

Published by admin on Sat, 02/21/2026 - 3:27pm

As expected, we did not see a whole lot of spending increases in Gov. JB Pritzker’s state budget proposal last week.
Last year, Gov. JB Pritzker said his budget limited discretionary spending to less than a one percent increase. The plan unveiled last week limits discretionary spending to less than a half a point increase.

Federal cuts has Illinois considering new taxes

Published by admin on Sat, 02/14/2026 - 1:24pm

As I write this, Gov. JB Pritzker is preparing to give his annual budget address. It’s an unenviable task.
Earlier this month, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget released a report showing federal tax cuts caused a $587 million reduction in state revenues this fiscal year.
The governor announced last month that he was withholding $482 million in state spending to help mitigate federal attacks on the state budget.

IL budget under constant federal siege

Published by admin on Sun, 02/08/2026 - 1:50pm

Gov. JB Pritzker announced a plan last week to “manage Illinois pension commitments through a set of proposals designed to build on the state’s recent fiscal progress and further reduce long-term risk for taxpayers and retirees.”
The price tag, however, is already giving one legislative leader pause. And “fiscal progress” is not the reality when factoring in federal funds.

Democratic US Senate candidates debate

Published by admin on Sun, 02/01/2026 - 1:24pm

The top three Democratic U.S. Senate candidates faced off twice last week.
The first debate wasn’t televised, so the live audience was quite small. The second debate was televised, so the audience was bigger.
However, these debates don’t attract even a smidgeon of the audience of presidential debates, when half the country often tunes in.
The object here is to generate video clips for TV ads and social media promotion, and to manage conventional news coverage, which can then be used in ads. Like it or not, that’s where most people will be exposed to the debates.

Indiana may be first to decide on Bears stadium

Published by admin on Sun, 01/25/2026 - 12:04pm

Illinois House Democrats were told last week that a state capital projects plan designed to assist Arlington Height’s bid to lure the Chicago Bears away from their Indiana stadium gambit would cost up to $895 million.
None of the money would be used to directly build the new Bears stadium or the surrounding commercial district envisioned by the team’s ownership.

Illinois Supreme Court likes to patronage pick

Published by admin on Sat, 01/17/2026 - 10:49am

Remember the national uproar last November when U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia bowed out of his reelection race at the last minute and quietly passed petitions to put his chief of staff Patty Garcia on the ballot?
We saw a lesser, but still quite palpable mass grumbling when state Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines) did the same that month for his chief of staff Justin Cochran, who was subsequently appointed to the House by the district’s Democratic township committeepersons after Moylan resigned.

The SAFE-T Act questions keep coming

Published by admin on Sun, 01/11/2026 - 2:18pm

Gov. JB Pritzker set off a chain reaction last November when he told reporters he’d be open to changes in the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and replaced it with a new pre-trial release/retention system, among other things.
Pritzker was asked about the case of a woman, Bethany MaGee, who was horrifically set ablaze while riding on a Chicago commuter train.