Cody Hendricks was MIA but he’s raking in the union bucks

By: Diane Benjamin Both Cody Hendricks and Tom Crumpler were absent last night from the City Council meeting. Cody did post a campaign video of himself downtown talking about making it great. Since he wasn’t wearing a coat he didn’t film it yesterday. Below are Cody’s latest campaign contributions. If you look at all his […]

See where the money comes from

By: Diane Benjamin If you can’t decide who to vote for, see where their biggest contributions came from. That is who will be telling them how to vote and expecting a payback. Illinois Sunshine is the easier place to find out: https://illinoissunshine.org/ It also shows connections to other committees established by candidates. There is tons […]

This will prove why unions buy government representatives

Update: Hendricks announced his run for mayor today! 😉 By: Diane Benjamin Just hit Play below to hear the intro by City Manager Jeff Jurgens to the proposed Project Labor Agreement ordinance. He is followed by two alderman happy to see this brought to Council. The two are Tom Crumpler and Cody Hendricks. Jurgens stated […]

Buying Andy Byars

By: Diane Benjamin Andy Byars, Normal Town Council candidate, is a registered lobbyist for Recall Strategies Inc. That company is all in on Green Energy and lobbying local governments to build more. Below are the Recall Strategies lobbyists listed on the Secretary of State website: https://apps.ilsos.gov/lobbyistsearch/lobbyistsearch Now look at who is trying to BUY Andy […]

Ruffling Normal’s feathers 😁

By: Diane Benjamin Normal’s brand new budget: https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/19729/2022-23-Final-Budget PDF page 122: How much is on Line Item 19-90? Flip to PDF page 95: Temporary Detour: Hey Normal: It isn’t difficult to believe you would spend that kind of money for retirements when you bought 1.69 acres $450,000 to build a new fire station! You have […]

How politics works

By: Diane Benjamin See all first quarter campaign contribution to Chris Koos here, others might surprise you: https://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/D2Quarterly.aspx?id=Z24PjB%2frtA5MTMtkHT2GVw%3d%3d&T=637544171509537959 Connect Transit will likely be announcing the new General Manager soon. They are meeting in Executive Session tomorrow for “personnel issues”. https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/Meetings/AGENDA%20-%20SPECIAL%20Session%20%2004-22-2021.pdf

Where do campaign contributions go?

By:  Diane Benjamin I’m not going to check the Facebook or websites of every Democrat running for election, but I checked a few. If you contribute to any of the below why is ActBlue getting the money?  That’s the same organization contributions to Black Lives Matter go to.  We do know those contributions don’t end […]

Re-elect Tari?

By:  Diane Benjamin Several media outlets claim Tari Renner is trying to decide whether to run for a third term. From his 2017 run for office:    https://illinoissunshine.org/committees/32320/ Remember Tari’s campaign chairman in case he tries to slide Justin in to replace him.  Fazzini is running for County Auditor, a good reason not to vote […]

Know what these bills are for?

Bills and Payroll – City of Bloomington for 7-6 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=22163 All bills marked Bulk Disp are for hauling trash dropped off at the “convenience center”. Henson frequently hauls standard sized dumpsters numerous times a day. Every bill will show an $80 charge for trucking. 97 loads x $80 = $7760. The City could have hauled […]

Dan Brady, ISU, local Democrats, more SLBB and Pay-To-Play

By:  Diane Benjamin Dan Brady: It took until last night to connect with Dan Brady about HB 2040.  See this story:  https://blnnews.com/2019/05/06/illinois-gop-a-minority-on-purpose/ He told me he didn’t hear any opposition to the bill, one of the reasons he voted YES.  Evidently we aren’t a Representative Republic where the elected reflect the values of the people […]

Proof money can’t buy local elections

By:  Diane Benjamin JB might have bought the governorship, but it didn’t work in the McLean County Clerk’s race. The final contribution numbers to candidates are not yet available.  I can tell you what contributions are listed to date on the Board of Elections website. Nikita Richards received $20,720     Nikita Richards Here’s a few […]

4 of 5 contributions NOT local

By:  Diane Benjamin Campaign Contributions: Friends of Nikita Richards Why are 4 of the 5 contributions NOT from McLean County? Two are from Chicago and one from Rockford!

Bill Mitchell’s Funding

By:  Diane Benjamin Mitchell is my representative and one of the guys who defected from the Republican Party to raise your taxes.  I wonder if he knew that bill also raises gas taxes .05 a gallon?  I doubt it since nobody had time to read the bill.  More surprises may surface. Today I got a […]

Election on Issues or Attacks?

By:  Diane Benjamin The local press needs to decide if they are media or propaganda machines for Tari Renner. The people behind the Facebook page attacking Kevin Lower are Renner supporters.  This is a tweet from one of them proving the connection to Renner: Justin Boyd is Renner’s campaign chairman.  The vile people behind the […]

The price of “Let’s all agree”

By:  Diane Benjamin The following information was received by a reader under the Freedom of Information Act. Remember Lynn Montei?  She’s the facilitator who leads retreats.  The goal is getting the Council to all agree with David Hales.  Montei led last November’s retreat and the one this summer.  (maybe others)  I thought Alderman Hauman was […]

What’s up with this Tari?

By:  Diane Benjamin When Tari was running for office, he received campaign contributions totaling $1500 from Prairie PAC. Source:  http://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ItemizedContrib.aspx?FiledDocID=506335&ContributionType=Transfers+In&Archived=True&OrderBy=LastorOnlyName-AtoZ&ItemizedContribFrom=D2Quarterly.aspx So, who is Prairie PAC? Dick Durbin! Source:  http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2012&strID=C00347195 Guess who contributed to Prairie PAC? BRONNER, GILA HIGHLAND PARK, IL 60035 BRONNER GROUP, LLC/PRESIDENT & CEO 09/23/11 $500 http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?sort=A&cmte=C00347195&cycle=2012&Page=2 In February, Bloomington hired the Bronner […]

LaHood: More disturbing Cash

By:  Diane Benjamin Donations to Darin LaHood from Political Action Committees: Source:  http://fec.gov/fecviewer/CandCmteTransaction.do BILL PAC See who donates and receives contributions from this PAC here:  https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2014&strID=C00412288 The Founder of this PAC is a career politician and heads the Transportation Committee in the House.  Bill Shuster took over his dad’s seat after a scandal involving a […]

What do the Unions want?

By:  Diane Benjamin http://www.elections.il.gov/campaigndisclosure/ContributionsSearchByCandidates.aspx Amelia Buragas and Joni Painter filed campaign contributions, I don’t see where Diane Hauman, Jeremy Kelly, Lupe Diaz, or Alton Franklin have.  They may have not spent enough to require filing. Below is what was reported.