See update below

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By: Diane Benjamin

At the end of September Dan Brady was sitting on $438,947.66. https://www.illinoissunshine.org/committees/7645/

Jason Barickman was sitting on $835,282.52. https://www.illinoissunshine.org/committees/23150/

We won’t know the actual balances now until both file 4th Quarter reports.

Both will no longer hold elected office in January.

Many states require closing campaign accounts 60 days after losing an election or leaving office. Illinois isn’t one of them.

See this link from Reform For Illinois on how leftover campaign cash can be used: https://www.reformforillinois.org/blog/how-lawmakers-leaving-office-can-use-leftover-campaign-funds/

This was written 10/11/2017.

From the website:

Illinois politicians can leave their campaign accounts open indefinitely, which allows them to continue using these funds even without seeking a specific office.

Donating to a candidate’s campaign is a common way to get more involved in local politics. However, voters may be surprised to realize their money is not always used to help elect the candidate they originally contributed to. Under current Illinois campaign finance regulations, a political candidate’s campaign can donate, or “transfer out,” money to a different political candidate’s committee. Consequently, a political candidate is free to give their money to any other candidate, even one a contributor may not have supported. However, candidates are limited to an amount of $55,400 in transfers to another individual candidate per election cycle. This lies in stark contrast to the $5,600 that individual people are allowed to give to each candidate. 

When an elected official chooses to close his or her campaign committee, candidates may have leftover contributions in their campaign account. In Illinois, while a candidate can return remaining funds to their original contributors, they can also donate the funds to a charitable organization or another political organization. There is statutory language that states the charitable organization or political organization the candidate donates to must be consistent with the positions of the candidate, but this rule is not actively enforced.

One reason this limitation rarely comes into question is that elected officials typically either keep their committees open indefinitely, in case they wish to run in the future, or they transfer the remaining funds in their accounts before closing the committee. In the latter case, legislators frequently distribute remaining campaign funds.

It will be interesting to see what Brady and Barickman do with their money.

Bill Brady is still sitting on $534,380.77. https://www.illinoissunshine.org/committees/7537/

Brady has another fund called Fund for a Republican Future with $150,651.75. https://www.illinoissunshine.org/committees/24594/

The first committee did spend some money on the 2022 elections, the second one didn’t. Bill Brady resigned from the Senate in January of 2021.

Update:

As of 9/30/2022:

https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/adam-kinzinger/summary?cid=N00030667

Adam Kinzinger is retiring with $2,472,888

Kinzinger also has a PAC with $547,563  https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/adam-kinzinger/summary?cid=N00030667&cycle=2022&type=P

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