Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

*** UPDATE *** The MPC just called. According to their spokesperson, Bernard Lloyd was speaking for himself, not the council. Also, they’re a 501c3 organization, meaning they’re supposed to stay out of politics, so they say they had nothing to do with the campaign finance research. Lloyd told the council that he made it clear to the Sun-Times that he was speaking for himself.

—————————————————–

It’s no secret that the Metropolitan Planning Council is often a shill for Mayor Daley, but you would think that it wouldn’t be blasting organized labor considering that Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon sits on its board of directors.

Organized labor sent a “message of intimidation” to the City Council by pumping more than $1 million into just five aldermanic races — with some challengers receiving 100 percent of their campaign contributions from unions, a business group charged Tuesday.

Bernard Loyd, a board member for the Metropolitan Planning Council, reviewed the campaign finance reports of union-backed challengers in a few wards.

It showed that organized labor contributed $1.02 million to challengers in five wards and that the beneficiaries relied almost exclusively on union money.

Some of his numbers are wrong, by the way. But, whatever the case, way down at the bottom of the story, the picture becomes more clear…

Loyd is a businessman who lives in the 3rd Ward and supports Dorothy Tillman.

[sarcasm] And everyone knows what a fantastic alderman Tillman is. [/sarcasm]

I’ve called the MPC to see if this was an official statement. Everyone’s in a meeting, so no word yet. The CFL is not happy, to say the least.

8 Comments

- Levois - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 9:05 am:
I don’t know whether your remark about Ald. Tillman was a compliment or sarcasm.

- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 9:08 am:
LOL. I’ll update it to make it more clear.

- Hugh - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 9:25 am:
Among currently sitting aldermen, Tillman won The First Annual Morse Hell Hole - Forum 49 Aldermanic Sleepy Head Award, after a recent analysis if City Council opening roll calls.

http://morsehellhole.blogspot.com/2007/01/city-council-opening-roll-calls.html

- Hugh - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 9:42 am:
“There are a handful of union candidates who had little to no financial support from the community. They were essentially propped up by the unions in order to send a message of intimidation to the City Council,” Loyd said.

Funny Joe Moore didn’t make Loyd’s list of aldermanic candidates with little or no support from the community being propped up by the unions.

- Anonymous - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 10:54 am:
Tillman’s done. Stick a hatpin in her.

- Reality Check - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 11:14 am:
Hmm. So 5 candidates got a total of $1m from labor unions. Lloyd, how much did the other 120 or so candidates get from business leaders, businesses and their associations?

- 42nd Ward Resident - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 11:40 am:
OK wait…business groups should put money into the runoffs to show that spending money on elections is “not acceptable”?

If the Chamber of Commerce put over a million into the elections would that be “intimidation” too?

How sad is it when labor unions put money in and business groups just cry about it?

- the Other Anonymous - Wednesday, Mar 21, 07 @ 1:06 pm:
Like 42nd Ward Resident, I’m also confused about what exactly was unacceptable about labor taking a strong interest in the city council elections.

They donated money. They mailed to voters. They found volunteers to work the precincts.

They didn’t use public (tax) money. They didn’t threaten to withhold public services. They didn’t stuff the ballot box, or intimidate voters.

So what exactly is unacceptable about the unions trying to elect Alderman that might be independent of Mayor Daley?

Oh, nevermind. I think I just answered my own question.

Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.