* Back in high school, I was once put in charge of publicity for the annual school musical. I worked part-time at the town’s only radio station, so that was easy to deal with (and probably why I was handed the task). I met with the town’s newspaper publisher/editor and explained what I was doing and what I’d like and he said, “Where’s my ad?”
What?
“My newspaper ad. You want me to run a story you have to buy an ad.”
This is Chicago, after all, so even a billionaire’s campaign had to contend with a shakedown of sorts. A steady flow of vendors came knocking at the campaign’s doors, sometimes with outrageous offers, said Quentin Fulks, who oversaw the Pritzker campaign budget.
In one case, Fulks said an owner of a local publication, which he would not name, asked that the Pritzker campaign pay $300,000 to bankroll the individual’s personal book project that had nothing to do with the campaign or Pritzker.
“We told them ‘no’ for the book and they got mad. The same person owns a newspaper publication and ran some pretty negative stuff against us when we didn’t agree to publish,” Fulks said. “You can make a lot of political enemies when people think you have an unlimited budget and you have to tell them ‘no.’ People take that really personally, they feel offended.”
