I read with interest your piece about the contributions from Liquor licensees to Mayor Caldorone’s political campaign committee. This prompted me to look at Calderone’s filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections. I was curious to know how much money the mayor has to spend on signs, which seem to be popping up like dandelions.
Looking at the itemized individual contributions for the last half of 2010, I used excel and broke down the contributions by whether the address was in Forest Park or not. I also looked at whether the donor was a company or a person. This is the usual analysis that challengers run on incumbent campaign finances. For example, Barack Obama compared the sources of his contributions to McCain’s during the 2008 presidential race. Basically, Obama had lots of $25 contributions, while McCain had lots of $2500 contributions. In Federal elections typically PAC money is compared to individual money too.
Calderone’s contributions for the second half of 2010 are broken down in Google doc below, that can be accessed by visiting this address: http://tinyurl.com/ac-contrib-breakdown
In summary
1. Of the $26,000 collected in that time, roughly only $3,000 was from individuals in Forest Park.
2. Of the 63 contributions, only 13 were individuals with Forest Park addresses.
One way to phrase this is, assuming the $26,000 was the pot from which the signs were bought, 11 cents out of every dollar came from individual Forest Parkers. Of course the distinction between individuals and businesses is not exactly clear cut, based on state campaign laws.
Although I am probably supporting Tellalian, I haven’t sent him any money yet. I’m not officially part of his campaign, although I am on his mailing list.
I think this may be an interesting angle for the paper to cover. It would also be interesting to know if this is the pattern for incumbent mayors in Cook County for towns of similar size and demographics. You’d also have to ask the Tellalian campaign what their breakdown is; although, I suppose they don’t have to tell you, as their filings will eventually reveal where they stand. If you could gather the data on other villages, I could do some analysis for you.
Forest Park resident
