Retired justice Eileen O’Neill Burke has opened the door for unlimited cash to flow into the Cook County State’s Attorney primary, making that race the latest county contest without contribution limits.
Candidates can also rake in as much cash as they want in the Circuit Court Clerk and the county’s Board of Review races. The busted contribution limits are thanks to the personal wealth of the candidates or in one case, their main benefactor.
Taken together, the Democratic candidates and PACs involved in those contests have already raised a combined $4.4 million since the start of 2023. With three weeks until Election Day, the number could rise substantially.
O’Neill Burke filed paperwork with the state Tuesday morning notifying the state board of elections that she and her husband, attorney John Burke, had contributed a combined $106,900 to her campaign. If a candidate or immediate family member gives a total of $100,000 or more to a campaign within a 12-month span, that lifts contribution caps, allowing unlimited dollars to flow to all candidates in the race.
The contribution caps are also removed for her Democratic primary opponent, Clayton Harris III, and the lone Republican in the race, Bob Fioretti.
O’Neill Burke has reported raising $1.05 million — loans from herself and husband included — since the start of her campaign. Harris has raised $618,000. If O’Neill Burke wins the primary, the limits would remain off for the general election contest against Fioretti and Libertarian candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski.
Contribution limits have similarly been removed in the race for Circuit Court Clerk since Democrat Mariyana Spyropoulos loaned her campaign $875,000 on Valentine’s Day. She loaned herself another $384,420 two days later.
That move allowed Spyropoulos’ opponent, incumbent Clerk Iris Martinez, to also amass unlimited funds, though she has considerable catching up to do: Spyropoulos has raised $1.4 million — her loans included — while Martinez has raised less than $300,000 between two of her campaign funds.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s recent spending spree to support Larecia Tucker, a Democratic candidate for the Board of Review, also ended the caps in that race on Feb. 22. The change was triggered because spending from an independent expenditure committee — better known as a PAC — exceeded $100,000.
The PAC Kaegi funded, Stop Tax Corruption Cook County, has so far spent nearly $200,000 on digital ads and mailers supporting Tucker and opposing incumbent commissioner Larry Rogers. It has raised $385,000.
Kaegi — a former asset manager — reported several stock assets worth more than $10,000 on his 2022 county statement of economic interest. Rogers — also a trial attorney at the firm Power Rogers — also reported income from half a dozen real estate properties as well as unnamed stocks.
Rogers has raised $525,000 since the start of last year. Tucker, meanwhile, has raised less than $100,000, though about $39,000 is from Kaegi or his family.
Rogers’ own self-funding likely would have lifted the caps — state records show he loaned himself $100,000 on Feb. 16 and another $150,000 on Feb. 22. He did not file paperwork declaring it, but would face no penalty from the state board of elections.
