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Wirepoints’ deficit spending continued as assets were further depleted ahead of staff exodus
Friday, Sep 26, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * Earlier this month, Wirepoints announced that its president Ted Dabrowski would leave the organization to run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The website’s founder Mark Glennon said he, too, would stop writing for the website and said their research director was leaving to work on Dabrowski’s campaign. As I told you last year, the organization has been in some fiscal hot water. * And those problems have persisted in the group’s latest 2024 IRS filing…
Investment income has dropped from $12,600 in 2023 to $4,122 last year. Wirepoints has managed to reduce its deficit spending, but it persisted last year at $194K (down from $394K). “Net assets or fund balances” plunged to just $64K, down from $258K in the previous year. “Savings and temporary cash investments” were listed as $233K at the beginning of 2024, but that fell to a mere $232.00 by the end of the year. “Loans and other payables to any current or former officer, director, trustee, key employee, creator or founder, substantial contributor, or 35% controlled entity or family member of any of these persons” were not reduced by the end of last year from the $68,400 claimed at the start of the year. Dabrowski’s income was reduced to $85K last year, from $100K the year before. His average weekly work hours increased to a whopping 75 last year, from 40 the year before. Discuss.
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- Excitable Boy - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 12:15 pm:
- His average weekly work hours increased to a whopping 75 last year, from 40 the year before. -
To be fair, I believe anything can be considered “work” at a place like Wirepoints.
- Frida's Boss - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 12:24 pm:
Uh oh
- fs - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 12:47 pm:
And you want to be my latex salesman, I mean Governor
- LOL - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:00 pm:
This is the guy telling us he’s going to fix state finances. He’s record tells us a different story. Bruce Rauner already tried to bankrupt the state, don’t think we need to do that for round 2. Just let JB keep the course and make progress. He’s been the only one in decades to actually make progress on the state’s finances.
- Mark Glennon - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:12 pm:
Rich, you might try calling before you write crap like that. But I noticed the IL Dem Party wrote much the same, which you parrot, so II should not be surprised.
Look, we had an outsized year for fundraising in 2020 and a few years thereafter. Pursuant to the budgets that we showed contributors in those years, we spent down that money gradually over later years. That’s the reason there was positive net in earlier years and negative later. There thus has been no deficit overall. By the way, we spent far less than shown on those budgets. We raise money as needed to fit the scope of the work we are doing at the time, and have made no effort to do so lately. We will do so again if needed, and we promptly pay any bills as they come in.
And Ted Dabrowski sure as hell did not run Wirepoints into the ground, as is being said. On the contrary, It was when he joined the Wirepoints really took off. Our success is primarily attributable to him. We have delivered more bang for the buck than any news and commentary shop around. That success has included dozens and dozens of citations in major national media — not that your readers would know the because you blacklist us and any article that cites us. We’ve earned our success the right way by news and commentary from all perspectives, even yours and others who blacklist us. Most importantly, we base our commentary on facts and research. You and your commentators (the few you let through, that is) are truly despicable.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:20 pm:
This from the financial experts who opine on the state budget.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:22 pm:
Hold the phone…
Another arch conservative who preaches fiscal solvency while actually running their own patch into the ground?
Greg Bishop must be aswoon with the vapors.
- Benjamin - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:24 pm:
I’ll give Ted credit for taking a pay cut and working longer hours in the face of a cash crunch, though. It seems like a low bar to clear, but there are plenty of organizations where the boss would get a raise for having the keen idea to save money via layoffs.
- Save Ferris - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:32 pm:
If you can’t make money selling “news” to MAGA, run for office and fundraise off of the same client base.
- City Zen - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:37 pm:
Wirepoints needs to get in on that sweet state grant scene like Ralph Martire.
https://dceoapps.ildceo.net/granttracker/gt/ProgramMaps.aspx?GrantNumber=24206203&CompanyLocationId=18517
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:39 pm:
===But I noticed the IL Dem Party wrote much the same===
I didn’t. Seriously, where is that because I’ve been checking your filings for weeks to see if they were updated.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:40 pm:
===did not run Wirepoints into the ground, as is being said==
By whom?
- Pundent - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:44 pm:
Maybe they could adopt a photogenic orange cat or two to replenish those cash reserves. Might provide a bit of much needed zen as well.
- Save Ferris - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 1:53 pm:
“we base our commentary on facts and research.”
This is giving me a headache. Anyone got a Tylenol?
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:01 pm:
== in some fiscal hot water.==
Investments dropping from $233K to $232 in a single year is more like the pot boiling completely dry.
- Copy Desk has a question - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:01 pm:
Lotta words from Glennon.
Not much math.
- Homebody - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:25 pm:
Right wing organizations are all almost entirely funded by wealthy donors. They don’t represent anyone or anything but the interests of those individuals. If those faucets get turned off, any right wing organization will collapse pretty darn fast.
- Sue - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:27 pm:
Rich’s game seems to be painting every GOP candidate as equally incompetent and worthless. Bailey, Dabrowski, presumably the others. I get that it’s all a game, but it reminds me all too much of the Democrats’ game in 2016, of promoting Trump because it’s all in good fun and he’s the best candidate to be on the GOP ballot because he’s so unelectable it’ll just ensure Clinton wins.
Wirepoints isn’t a profit-making entity. They are doing research and trying to promote that research. What’s the “right” amount of money for them to take in? Presumably whatever it takes to keep the server running.
- Da big bad wolf - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:27 pm:
Dear Mark,
I didn’t see you dispute any of those numbers.
Maybe have a bake sale. Everyone love brownies.
- Demoralized - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:36 pm:
==Rich’s game seems to be painting every GOP candidate as equally incompetent and worthless==
Sue, don’t sell yourself short. You give us plenty of ammunition with your comments to believe that.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:41 pm:
==Rich’s game seems to be painting every GOP candidate as equally incompetent and worthless.==
Rich has complimented sane Republicans like Topinka and Edgar many times. But hey, Sue, if you think the pink slime people should be in charge of the state, you do you.
- Demoralized - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:48 pm:
==Rich’s game==
Also Sue, it’s not a “game.” You Republicans sure do like to play the victim a lot.
- Demoralized - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:50 pm:
==We have delivered more bang for the buck than any news and commentary shop around.==
If you consider your propaganda to be news. I don’t happen to believe you are a news organization. You’re a mouthpiece for conservative talking points.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 2:58 pm:
- You and your commentators (the few you let through, that is) are truly despicable. -
Coming from you, I take that as a compliment.
- Bob - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:06 pm:
==Rich’s game seems to be painting every GOP candidate as equally incompetent and worthless.==
His bias is well known. It would help, though, if Republicans didn’t just constantly play into it.
- Bob - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:07 pm:
==Most importantly, we base our commentary on facts and research.==
Summary of every Wirepoints faux journalism “article” of the past six years: “Pritzker bad, but we have no solutions.”
- Mark Glennon - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:07 pm:
Rich, the answer to your questions is the statement by the IL Dem Party you printed yesterday.
And how slimy of you to pick out only the Savings and Cash Investment line low balance from the Form 990 filing. The Cash line alone shows another $147K on hand.
As for you commenters, you couldn’t be more dishonest in claiming Wirepoints is just conservative propaganda. We have the fairest, most balanced curation of news and commentary going in IL, that includes all viewpoints, even Rich Miller’s articles. It’s the collection of news here that is rigged blatantly, just like this comment board.
- Leap Day William - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:11 pm:
== We raise money as needed to fit the scope of the work we are doing at the time, and have made no effort to do so lately. ==
That’s an interesting way to say “Uihlein shut the money spigot off” without saying “Uihlein shut the money spigot off.”
== Our success is primarily attributable to him. We have delivered more bang for the buck than any news and commentary shop around. That success has included dozens and dozens of citations in major national media ==
Is the success in the room with us right now? A quick google search shows a healthy chunk of Wirepoints citations are accompanied by variants of the phrase “offers flawed analysis of [topic]”, and the others are either are on Illinois Policy Institute “reports”, right-wing radio shows, people like Jim Dey at the News-Gazette who take your press releases, change a few words, and then put them to print.
== We’ve earned our success the right way by news and commentary from all perspectives ==
An outside analysis of your claims says otherwise: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/wirepoints-bias-and-credibility/
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:14 pm:
===statement by the IL Dem Party you printed yesterday==
As far as I know, the only statement from DPI that I posted on the blog yesterday was about Bailey. I searched my in-box for DPI press releases and there is nothing in there about you or Wirepoints that I can find.
So, either post a link here or delete your tweet.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:19 pm:
- We have the fairest, most balanced curation of news and commentary going in IL -
I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:20 pm:
===The Cash line alone shows another $147K on hand.===
Your total assets are down about $200K.
- Anon324 - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:33 pm:
==I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.==
It’s the equivalent of Bob’s Country Bunker. They got both kinds of commentary: MAGA and Democrats are Un-American commies.
- Demoralized - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:34 pm:
Mark
You’re such a victim and sure do get your feelings hurt easily. And, yes, you are a propaganda machine. There is nothing “balanced” about Wirepoints. For you to suggest otherwise is - how did you mouth breathe it - despicable.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:38 pm:
==We have the fairest, most balanced curation of news==
That’s what Fox News claims too and they had to pay a huge amount for false reporting.
- Warner Wolf - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:39 pm:
Let’s go to the videotape, Rich.
From the ChatGPT-inspired DPI Press release that run ran in this article: https://capitolfax.com/2025/09/25/bailey-launches-2026-campaign-for-governor-dpi-labels-him-%e2%80%98extreme-maga-republican%e2%80%99/
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Today, Donald Trump wannabe Darren Bailey made it official: he’s in. In response, the Democratic Party of Illinois issued the following statement:
“After being rejected by Illinoisans across the state for his extreme views, this supposedly new and improved Darren Bailey is back for another run for Governor. He may have deleted his most extreme Facebook posts and videos, but Illinois voters haven’t forgotten: Darren Bailey is an extreme MAGA Republican, a Donald Trump loyalist, and has no business anywhere near the Governor’s Office.”
Bailey’s destructive record speaks for itself: cozying up to fringe extremists, supporting abortion bans, cheering on Trump’s Tariffs that raise prices for Illinois families, and voting against increased funding for public schools and law enforcement.
And he’s not alone. In this race to the bottom, Bailey joins Ted Dabrowski, who managed to accelerate the collapse of a failing nonprofit, a county sheriff whose fundraising numbers would be impressive only in a countywide race, and a little-known conspiracy theorist.
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Ah, did you read that last paragraph, Rich? Do you read your own blog?
But the Democrats have not limited their hits to Dabrowski to just that release about Bailey. Here’s a Tweet released within an hour of his launch:
https://x.com/illinoisdems/status/1966539286427078943
“@illinoisdems
Ted Dabrowski spent years attacking Illinois and running a non-profit into the ground. Now he’s joining a historically weak GOP field for governor.”
No statement from DPI printed in the Sept. 12 CapFax.
It sounds like it’s Glennon in a TKO, especially when the non-profit isn’t designed to be profitable (hence “not-for-profit”) and sometimes gets a large donation it spends down over time.
Maybe, just maybe, the biggest apology should come from the guy who has called them “doom grifters” and “carnival barkers” now that it’s out that Wirepoints hasn’t made anyone rich — just more informed.
- Mark Glennon - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:40 pm:
And, by the way, Wirepoints income comes entirely from private sector, voluntary contributions. As opposed to taxpayer-funded government subscriptions.
- Mark Glennon - Friday, Sep 26, 25 @ 3:47 pm:
It’s no accident that Rich and people here don’t know what “deficit spending” means. When you spend money in one year that you collected earlier that’s not deficit spending. It’s no wonder that Illinois government is in the shape it is in with folks like you running things.