By:  Diane Benjamin

Comptroller Leslie Munger has a new website to promote transparency.  This one reveals campaign contributions.  The State Board of Elections has this information, but it’s NOT in a usable format.  This website is!  Data can be copied to a spreadsheet without doing any reformatting.  From there is can be sorted, grouped, and totaled.  This is the website:  http://www.openbook.illinoiscomptroller.gov/

I’ve had a problem with Dan Brady for YEARS.  More on that later, but can somebody can tell me anything (just ONE thing) he has accomplished for $85,903 a year?  Keep in mind, this is a part-time job.  Is Illinois better with Dan Brady representing you?  Again, WHY?

http://www.openthebooks.com/search/?F_incbcd=1807_25677&sort=F_fiscalyear&isChart=y&perpage=100#chart

 

 

Munger’s website has campaign contributions back to 2004.  Here is what Dan collected per year:

2004 $129,054

2005 $81,075

2006 $79,465

2007 $79,582

2008 $108,905

2009   $73,460

2010   $84,810

2011  $62,106

2012  $100,684

2013  $70,763

2014  $115,888

2015  $89,119

2016  $12,125

Total:  $1,087,036

I sorted all the contributions by Dollar amount – here are the TOP six contributions:

Who is IPACE?   Illinois Education Association  https://ieanea.org/legislative/ipace/about-ipace/

Five of the top 6 are IPACE and the status quo from the IEA.

The first sentence should read “Not all politicians care the same way about the needs of public education”.

This is where my problem with Dan Brady came from.  Back in 2010 State Senator James Meeks tried to pass a bill providing up to 30,000 Chicago public school students with vouchers so they could get out of their failing schools.  See this article:  http://www.progressillinois.com/posts/content/2010/05/06/unified-theme-school-voucher-debate-weve-failed

Dan Brady voted against the bill, it was defeated by 12 votes.  22 Republicans voted to keep Chicago kids in failing schools.  http://republicannewswatch.com/wp/?p=4465

Six years later the kids are still in failing schools.  Brady had a chance to free kids and failed.  I remember asking him why he voted no years ago.  I got some story about the Chicago Schools got to keep money they shouldn’t have.  Meanwhile, millions more dollars, massive tax hikes, and violence are killing Chicago.

Also on the list of Republicans who voted NO are two from this area: Chapin Rose and Bill Mitchell.  Both also received substantial money from IPACE.  I’ve contacted both for a comment, when and if I hear back I will update the story.

Think of any Dan Brady accomplishments yet?

waiting . . .

waiting . . .

See a complete list of campaign contributions to Dan Brady – Sorted by year:  Dan Brady campaign contributions

Time to clean house and get representatives who actually work to make Illinois better?  I’ve wondered why mothers aren’t camped out at failing schools in Chicago to demand change.  Maybe they know nobody cares, even downstate.

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