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With Gov. Blagojevich, it’s not the amount of money he’s raising, but how much his campaign committee is spending on legal fees…
Winston & Strawn LLP… $163,770.57… 1/23/2007… Expenditure… Friends of Blagojevich… Legal Fees
There’s nothing big after that late January payment. He does have a habit of backdating his payments, though, so there’s no way to be sure if this is all he was billed.
Total spent on legal fees by Friends of Blagojevich since the committee was created in 2000: $1,217,393.26.
To put this into a bit of perspective, the next highest amount spent on legal fees during this latest six-month reporting period was $10,267.78 by Larry Dominick’s Cicero Voters Alliance, which is about 6 percent of what the governor’s campaign spent.
And a bit more perspective: The governor’s campaign has spent $919,745.31 since July 1, 2006 on legal bills. All campaign committees registered with the State Board of Elections in all of Illinois (the total of which is currently 3,585, but was probably higher last year) during that same time period spent $1,667,220.91 on legal fees.
The governor’s share, therefore, of all money spent on legal fees by all 3,500+ state and local Illinois campaign committees is 55.2 percent. Yet, the governor’s total campaign expenditures for everything during that same year was only 8.6 percent of the total spent by all campaign committees on everything - $17,185,530.95 spent by Friends of Blagojevich out of $199,896,778.68 spent by all committees. The governor’s legal fees represented 5.4 percent of all the money he expended from July 1 of ‘06 to June 30 of ‘07. The average for all campaign committee expenditures during that same period was 0.8 percent for legal fees.
From the Tribune…
Doug Scofield, a spokesman for Blagojevich’s campaign, declined to release details on the scope of the legal work by Winston & Strawn except to say, “We use them for all our campaign legal work.”
posted by Rich Miller
Saturday, Jul 21, 07 @ 10:32 am
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Anyone have the amount he spent on legal fees in 03-04? Would be interesting to see what the expenditure was subpeona period.
Comment by Ghost Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 9:37 am
It all smells badly…….. What is the media waiting for?
Comment by do the math Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 9:43 am
Darn those campaigns. If Blago could have only been appointed to office, all of this controvery and indictments could have been avoided.
Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 10:03 am
What a joke. Like the GOP should have done with Bush in 2004, the state Dems should have found someone good (or at least viable) to run against this guy last year. Blago is the root of the problems in this state, and we can no longer blame George Ryan for everything that ills our government. And while Illinois Covered may be a noble idea, Blago needs to wake up. If he has this much heat on him and must spend $163K on LEGAL fees, he needs to step back and re-examine himself and his goals.
Comment by Team Sleep Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 11:24 am
No wonder he has so many fundraisers and it’s not even election time yet. Wonder how those Hollywood liberals who give to him like having their money end up in Repub. hands?
Comment by Disgusted Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 11:41 am
Rich, I’ve got to disagree with your lead.
It’s also the fact that Friends of Blagojevich only raised $122,043 during the reporting period from individuals and PACs. Another $251K did come in from other sources, mainly interest.
For comparison purposes, the Governor raised $215K from individuals alone during the same reporting period of his first term.
Also for comparison purposes, fundraising from individuals and PACs by other Constitutional Officers for the same period:
Compt. Dan Hynes - $385K
SoS Jesse White - $197K
Treas. Alexi Giannoulias - $175K
AG Lisa Madigan $144K
LG Pat Quinn - $70K
The only statewide officer to raise less money than Rod was his Lt. Governor, Pat Quinn.
Leading me to conclude that the Governor’s antics and his legal troubles have created an extremely hostile fundraising environment.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 11:59 am
YDD, I wrote last week that the governor has pushed back his annual funder to October.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 12:01 pm
Blagojevich’s 2003 fundraiser was also in the second reporting period, so I don’t think the timing of the event explains the 44% drop in fundraising.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Jul 23, 07 @ 4:00 pm
… tick … tick … tick … 10 minutes to indictment time?
Comment by Snidely Whiplash Tuesday, Jul 24, 07 @ 7:43 am