Prairie State Wire

SPRINGFIELD – "All for Justice" campaign committee spent more than $7 million for the benefit of Supreme Court candidates Elizabeth Rochford and Mary O’Brien without immediately reporting the expenses as election law requires.

Rochford and O’Brien, both Democrats, won the November election with the help of a television blitz that All for Justice purchased.

All for Justice not only failed to report those expenses as they occurred but also certified on quarterly reports that it spent the money for its own benefit.

State election law provides a $500 penalty for a first violation, $1,000 for a second, $2,000 for a third, and $3,000 for further violations.

Amendments and penalties don’t provide any remedy for Republican losers Michael Burke and Mark Curran, who lacked information they had a right to know.

Rochford and Curran competed in the Second District which consists of Chicago suburbs outside Cook County.

O’Brien and Burke competed in the Third District, which consists of Chicago suburbs and a small rural area to the south and west.

In the first half of last year Rochford and O’Brien operated regular candidate committees without independent support.

On June 30, Rochford had $112,943.49 available and O’Brien had $371,715.82.

On Aug. 15 Chicago lawyer Luke Casson organized All for Justice as an independent expenditure committee to “elect Supreme Court Justices who support justice.”

Casson currently represents Senate president Don Harmon in a challenge to a bail reform law at Kankakee County Circuit Court.

In its first 28 days All for Justice received no contributions.

On Sept. 12 it received $200,000 from the laborers’ union.

The state, county, and municipal federation contributed $225,000 on Sept. 14.

Fair Fight, an Illinois branch of a Georgia group, contributed $500,000 on Sept. 19.

The Illinois Education Association contributed $100,000 on Sept. 21.

Harmon’s campaign committee contributed $500,000 on Sept. 22.

Seven injury firms contributed $742,750 from Sept. 23 to 28.

Tom Keefe’s firm in Swansea and the Gori firm in Edwardsville each contributed $151,000.

Salvi, Schostok and Pritchard of Chicago contributed $136,750.

Corboy and Demetrio, Levin and Perconti, Cavanaugh Law Group, and Taxman Pollock, all in Chicago, each contributed $76,000.

Smaller contributions brought the total for 17 days to $2,774,750.

On Sept. 29 the service employee union contributed $450,000.

On that date All for Justice paid $1.5 million to Left Hook Communications of California for television advertising.

The payment exceeded the $100,000 minimum for immediate reporting on the election board’s Form B-1, but All for Justice didn’t report it.

It listed the expense on its quarterly report, not as an independent expenditure for the benefit of candidates but as an expenditure for its own benefit.

In 39 days from Oct. 1 through election day, All for Justice received $4,336,500.

It received $700,000 from carpenters, $500,000 from pipe trades, $450,000 from laborers, and $199,500 from electrical workers.

It received $200,000 from Illinois Senate Democratic Fund, a committee Harmon leads 

It received $100,000 each from service employees and the teacher federation.

Illinois Trial Lawyers Association contributed $202,500, the Korein Tillery firm of St. Louis contributed $176,000, John Simmons’s firm of Alton contributed $161,000, Cooney and Conway of Chicago contributed $142,000, and Maune Raichle of St. Louis contributed $100,000.

Romanucci Blandin of Chicago contributed $81,000 and the Meyers and Flowers firm and Wise Morrissey of Chicago each contributed $76,000.

Fair Fight contributed $100,000.

In those 39 days All for Justice paid $4,776,087.35 to Left Hook for television advertising.

It paid $796,786.65 to Wildfire Mail of Iowa.

It paid $206,300 to ALG Polling of Alabama.

It didn’t immediately file Form B-1 for any of its expenses.

In a quarterly report it filed on Jan. 17, it again declared zero independent expenditures and identified itself as beneficiary of its spending.

University of Illinois professor emeritus Kent Redfield, performing research as author of a chapter in a textbook, discovered the improper reporting and contacted the election board.

All for Justice amended its third and fourth quarter reports on Jan. 31, identifying Rochford and O’Brien as beneficiaries and splitting its expenses between them on a 50-50 basis.