ICPR Website Improvements Help Follow Campaign Contributions

CHICAGO, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR) today launched a new feature on its website (http://ilcampaign.org) to help the public track campaign finance reports for candidates for U.S. Senator, Illinois Governor and Cook County Board President.

The section, updated daily, provides the most recent campaign finance records, listing top donors with profiles of most of the big sources of money.

ICPR recently updated and added several new features to its website.  Notably, the site now incorporates Statements of Economic Interest, helping voters better understand conflicts of interest that public officials may face.  The site includes campaign finance data filed with the State Board of Elections as of last night.

In addition to the statewide and Cook County presidency races, ICPR has been tracking top races around the state.  Here are observations on some of the top races around the state:

* Legislative incumbents Ken Dunkin (D-5th House), Annazette Collins (D-10th House), Deb Mell (D-40th House) and Dave Winters (R-68th House) all appear to trail challengers in fundraising.

* In the last week, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Comptroller Dan Hynes and Gov. Pat Quinn have raised $1.8 million.  Of the $1.2 million Quinn raised, his largest contributor has been Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, whose political committees have contributed $200,000.  Of the $626,000 Hynes has raised, the largest contributors have been teachers unions, who have combined for $225,000.

* The six Republican gubernatorial candidates have raised about as much as the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates.  About one-fifth of all of the money raised by Republican gubernatorial candidates came in contributions totaling almost $2.2 million from Mary McKenna, wife of candidate Andy McKenna (and all of that went to his campaign).

ICPR will update the website daily with new information through next Tuesday's primary.

SOURCE Illinois Campaign for Political Reform