Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Strong press pop for CTU, but actual solution is highly doubtful

Posted in:

Illinois

* The CTU pushed for an elected Chicago school for years and years. And now they find themselves being outspent…

With the 2024 election in its final stretch, elected officials, candidates and others are speaking out about the massive spending that political action committees are pouring into races for the Chicago Board of Education. […]

Chicago Congresswoman Delia Ramirez joined others in condemning political action committees from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), former Schools Chief Paul Vallas and billionaire business people for getting involved.

“The very same people that did everything in their power to block an elected representative school board in Springfield are at it again,” Ramirez said. “This time, what they’re doing is they’re trying to buy the election.”

The CTU has two political action committees, although I still don’t know why they’re given this exemption to the one committee per entity law. Anyway, those two committee have contributed a bit over $2 million, mostly to school board candidates and other committees involved in those races. That link shows $2.7 million, but the union erroneously claimed a $700K in-kind contribution. It was a big typo.

INCS Action, essentially the political arm of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, has spent about $2.1 million, almost all on school board candidates.

Urban Center Action has spent another $723K on candidates, many of whom are also backed by INCS Action.

* WGN…

Spending on the 10 elected races this year has exceeded more than $4.7 million, according to a Chicago Sun-Times tracker, with the biggest donors including Chicago Teachers Union PACs and billionaires Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix; Helen Zell, the widow of late real estate developer Sam Zell; Jim Walton, the founder of Walmart; and businessman Craig Duchossois.

The Illinois law establishing the phased-in elected school board has no campaign contribution limits.

Um, campaign contribution limits are most definitely in state law. It’s just that the caps have been busted in all but two of the races. Tribune…

Illinois has a unique rule that funding caps can be lifted when campaign contributions — through self-contributions or independent expenditures — add up to more than $100,000 during an election cycle.

* I discussed this with subscribers on Monday, but here’s the Tribune…

Though no specific legislation language was proposed Monday morning, Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield, said any bill would likely be thrown out if it were to pass, citing a recent law imposing a $500,000 limit on out-of-state judicial campaign contributions that was challenged in federal court.

Just because someone is not from Illinois doesn’t mean they can’t exercise their First Amendment rights to give money, Redfield said. But the race for school board looks different than most nationwide, he said, with the entire school board resigning in early October and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s close alignment with CTU, which buoyed him to office.

The legislature passed a bill in 2021 that barred out-of-state contributions to judicial candidates and capped contributions to independent expenditure committees in the 2022 court races at $500,000. It was tossed by a judge and wasn’t appealed.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 1:03 pm

Comments

Will never happen and is totally unconstitutional but I wish it was a law that only registered voters could contribute to a political campaign

Comment by DuPage Saint Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 1:15 pm
with the apparent announcement of a City of Chicago property tax increase being announced tomorrow, will the voters see that CTU candidates will soon do the same if elected? what a mess.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 1:19 pm
Most definitely sounds like just a press pop but good points are raised about the general campaign finance reform.

Comment by Toby Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 1:20 pm
=“This time, what they’re doing is they’re trying to buy the election.”=

LOL, tell me what CTU did in the last two mayoral races? Asking for a friend.

Not the spending is an issue for CTU since they are not the money big dog. Very hypocritical.

Campaign finance reform is badly needed, but the USSC set the current heading with Citizens United cleared the way for the dark money and unlimited money. We know have a clearer understanding how some of the justices were bought and paid for by b big money donors which explains the outcome. Real reform (getting back to something more sensible) will not happen until CU is overturned and that won’t happen in my lifetime if ever.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 1:30 pm
I am surprised they did not try to play the public financing card like MBJ did for Ald. Martin’s ethics ordinance. This is even worse in how it is a transparent self-interested power grab.

Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 1:53 pm
Oh no, unexpected consequences! Change the rules, please. So the $2 million CTU has spent is good and wholesome and comes from a place of pure motivation, compared to a bit over $2 million spent by others, which is obviously bad. Got it.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:04 pm
JS Mill. question. what kind of contract do you think CTU will settle for?

Comment by Blue Dog Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:16 pm
Chicago Voters, for school board:

Step One, find out who the CTU candidate is
Step Two, vote for whomever is the strongest alternative

Its really very simple.

Comment by low level Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:17 pm
===will not happen until CU is overturned and that won’t happen in my lifetime if ever.===

I may not be the best messenger for this, but it costs nothing to maintain hope and one of the best parts about hope is it doesn’t have to be realistic and it doesn’t have to blind you to reality.

Comment by Candy Dogood Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:21 pm
” what kind of contract do you think CTU will settle for?”

I wasn’t asked, but I will say a contact that CPS can ill afford; it may also have something to do with reducing the number of selective enrollment schools.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:23 pm
==The CTU has two political action committees, although I still don’t know why they’re given this exemption to the one committee per entity law.==

And the second one was created specifically to get Brandon Johnson elected as county commissioner. Without it, there might not be a Mayor Johnson today.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:23 pm
So the CTU didn’t think that others would punch back? I thought a while ago that they were going to be a formidable force but I was off the mark. They seem to be a bungling troop that don’t think through a long-game and just think they are beyond criticism and beyond reproach. Like a dog chasing a truck, they caught the truck and don’t seem to know what to do.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:24 pm
It’s madness: we are spending millions to elect volunteers to spend billions

Comment by Two Left Feet Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:26 pm
@ low level

That’s exactly how I picked my candidate for this go-around.

Comment by Alton Sinkhole Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:26 pm
It is an absolute disgrace that the mailers from the Chicago Teachers Union contain so many falsehoods. The positions on the Board of Education are supposed to be nonpartisan, but the CTU is condemning all of their opponents as being “Republicans” including some with long ties to the Democrats. One would expect better from educators, but the same tactics aided Brandon Johnson in the mayoral run-off.

Comment by Gravitas Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:26 pm
==So the CTU didn’t think that others would punch back?==

Right? I mean, anyone with half a brain could have told you when the legislation was passed that the school board races would roughly break down to between those backed by CTU and those backed by charter advocates.

I guess I shouldnt have expected CTU to be that intelligent. My bad.

Comment by low level Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:30 pm
I don’t have much interest in Chicago city government, but I continue to be surprized at the amount of anti-CTU speech on this site.

CTU is a group of citizens that are working to maximize political outcomes in their favor, like any other interest group.

I understand that many will disagree with their policies but the sense I get is that people think they shouldn’t stand up for themselves.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:31 pm
Bob Adams, of course, but as Rich’a post says, CTU is complaining that other groups are spending large amounts of money on the school board races while they… wait for it … spend large amounts of money on school board races. Its the double standard they have on this that is the issue.

Comment by low level Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:38 pm
CTU is actually amplifying the best argument against an elected school board for Chicago or any big city school system. The size of Chicago invites big money interest to intercede in school board races in a way they almost never do in 99 percent of school district elections. It’s happened in other big cities. And thanks to Citizens United, it is virtually impossible to stop that money from coming in.

CTU made this bed, they’ll have to sleep in it. Lumps and all.

Comment by Tony T. Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:40 pm
@Friendly Bob, I agree that CTU is an interest group working for their policies, which everyone has a right to do. My problem with CTU’s approach, which I think many people share, is the disingenous childishness of their approach. They want a massive salary increase “for the children.” They want to eliminate charter and selective enrollment schools “for the children.” No, the things you want are mostly for CTU. And potentially extremely fiscally irresponsible and even bad “for the children.”

And most recently, they cry (like toddlers) about others trying to get elected to the board when CTU (apparently) thought they would just waltz in and take over.

It’s an election, CTU. You might not win all the spots you want. Especially as your mayor continues to display such bias for CTU that it seems to be informing his growing managerial and financial incompetence.

I would likely support some property increase to better serve our schools. But not with CTU in charge of the money.

Comment by Leslie K Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:47 pm
=JS Mill. question. what kind of contract do you think CTU will settle for?=

Fair question. I have no inside info from anyone at CPS or CTU. I doubt they will settle for much less than the 10% they want. Fiscal responsibility or reality are definitely not something they care about.

Their grasp of fiscal accountability seems wildly out of whack since they bought the mayor’s office. “Someone else” needs to find the money now. Not the mayor and not them. That does not bode well for Chicago.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:53 pm
Friendly Bob, I think it has a lot to do with the “you’re with us or you are literally evil” rhetoric that CTU has been using since the Rahm Emanuel/Karen Lewis days.
It’s particularly insulting coming from the people running it right now, for a whole lot of different reasons.

Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 2:57 pm
Leslie K hit the nail on the head. My fiancée is heading out of town next week for a work retreat for her accounting firm, and won’t be able to vote on election day. So she asked me to get her a list of the CTU-backed candidates in our District (6), so that she could “be sure to research only the other candidates and not vote for one backed by the CTU.” Their utter disdain for anyone who doesn’t agree with them reeks of a certain politician who’s running for the presidency. And as others have noted on here, their “burn the boats” approach where they are going to get their 10% - even if the city burns around them - is painfully apparent. This isn’t for the children - it’s a money and power play by the CTU after they got their candidate onto the Fifth Floor.

Comment by Just a guy Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 3:59 pm
@Just a guy - Jessica Biggs is the best choice in that district IMO.

Comment by low level Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 4:14 pm
==the same tactics aided Brandon Johnson in the mayoral run-off.==

Vallas’s actions before and after the election pretty much prove that he is a Republican. He currently works for IPI. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/author/pvallas/

Comment by supplied_demand Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 4:17 pm
Chicago didn’t need an elected board, and all of this was obviously going to happen

Comment by Alton Sinkhole Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 5:00 pm
CTU is not going to get 10%. I think they are going to get raises similar to SEIU’s at CPS and what the police got. How many new positions/jobs they create will be where the money goes.

Comment by Chicago Blue Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 5:02 pm
@ low level -

Not all that simple.

I’m trying to find a candidate who a) is not endorsed by the CTU, and b) is not in the pocket of the charter school advocates.

It’s not easy.

Comment by JoanP Tuesday, Oct 29, 24 @ 7:31 pm